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Psychology 324 Stellenbosch University
Exam notes Stelliespsychnotes@gmail.com
Chapter 5
Attitudes
Structure and function of attitudes
A short history of attitudes
Attitude: An enduring organisation of beliefs, feelings and behavioural tendencies towards
socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols OR
A general feeling or evaluation about some person, object or issue.
There were three main phases in the history of attitude research:
1. A concentration on attitude measurements related to behaviour. (1920's and 1930's)
2. A focus on the dynamics of change in an individual's attitudes. (1950's and 1960's)
3. A focus on the cognitive and social structure and function of attitudes and attitude
systems. (1980's and 1990's)
Attitude structure
One of the most fundamental psychological questions that can be asked about attitudes is
whether they are a unitary construct or whether they have a number of different components.
There are three different views regarding how many components attitudes consist of:
o The one-component attitude model (preferred by Thurstone) defines attitudes as
“the affect for or against a psychological object”. This means your attitude is whether
you like or dislike the object you are faced with.
o The two-component attitude model (which originated in Allport's theory) includes
the above idea of positive or negative affect, but includes a new dimension – mental
readiness.
o The three-component attitude model (rooted in ancient philosophy) includes
thought, feeling and action – the trichotomy of human experience. It states that an
attitude consists of cognitive, affective and behavioural components. So each attitude
is made up of a cluster of feelings, likes, dislikes, behavioural intentions, thoughts
and ideas.
Attitude functions
Attitudes exist because they have different functions, such as knowledge, instrumentality (a
means to an end), ego defence (protecting your self-esteem) and value expressiveness
(allowing people to display the values that define them).
An attitude saves energy because we don't need to figure out from scratch how to relate to the
object in question.
Cognitive consistency
Cognitive-consistency theories are a group of attitude theories that stress that people try to
maintain internal consistency, order and agreement among their various cognitions.
These theories also emphasise cognitions, which are the knowledge, beliefs, thoughts and
ideas people have about themselves and their environment.
An example of a cognitive-consistency theory is the cognitive dissonance theory and the
balance theory.
Consistency theories state that people will change their thoughts to make sure that there is no
inconsistency or disharmony (dissonance) between their thoughts.
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,Psychology 324 Stellenbosch University
Exam notes Stelliespsychnotes@gmail.com
The Balance Theory was derived from Heider and Gestalt psychology (which explains that
psychological phenomena are made up of interacting forces).
o The Balance Theory states that people prefer attitudes that are consistent with each
other over those that are inconsistent.
o It focuses on the P-O-X unit of the individual's cognitive field.
o P represents a person, O another person and X and attitude, object or topic.
o The relationships between components can be positive or negative, so this takes into
account how the Person feels about the Other person, how the Person feels about X
and how the Other person feels about X.
o This triad is considered balanced if there is an odd number of positive relationships.
o There are 8 different combinations, of which 4 are balanced. So for example, if P
likes X, but doesn't like O and O doesn't like X, there is only 1 positive relationship in
the triad, so it is balanced.
o (Think of it this way – if you don't like someone, you don't mind if you like
something that they don't. But if you like someone and you like something they don't,
there's a bit more friction.)
o If the triad is imbalanced, the person may feel compelled to restore balance.
o All the possible combinations are seen on p.152 if you need further clarification.
Cognition and evaluation
The Sociocognitive model is an attitude theory that highlights an evaluative component.
An attitude is defined as “a person's evaluation of an object of thought”.
An attitude object (e.g. a shark) is represented in memory by:
o An objective label: This helps to make sense of the world and deal with the
environment. E.g. “A big sea creature with sharp teeth”.
o The rules for applying that label: e.g. “It eats other fish and sometimes people”
o An evaluative summary of that object: This serves as a heuristic, or a simple strategy
for appraising an object. E.g. “It is scary and should be avoided”.
o A knowledge structure supporting that evaluation: This serves as a schematic which
organises and guides memory for event and action. E.g. “It is a scientifically and
fictionally well-documented threat to humans”.
Decision making and attitudes
Information Processing is the evaluation of information.
In relations to attitudes, the means by which people acquire knowledge, form and change
attitudes.
According to the Information Integration Theory, we use cognitive algebra to construct
our attitudes from information we receive about attitude objects.
Cognitive algebra is when we work out the net value of something by weighing up the
positive and negative components of it.
Can attitudes predict behaviour
Studies have shown that less than 9% of the variability in a behaviour is accounted for by an
attitude, which doesn't mean much statistically.
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Exam notes Stelliespsychnotes@gmail.com
Beliefs, intentions and behaviour
There are various things that may prevent attitudes from turning into behaviours, such as the
extent to which the attitude is accessible, whether the attitude is expressed publicly or
privately, and whether the individual identifies strongly or weakly with a group that accepts
that attitude.
For example, someone may have the attitude that alcohol is a bad form of recreation, but may
indulge in alcohol anyway because their peers would not accept their attitude.
A better predictor of actions is the interaction between attitudes, beliefs and behavioural
intentions.
For this, we need to establish how strong and how valuable the person's beliefs are – some
beliefs will carry more weight than others towards the final act.
Belief strength has a probability estimate ranging from 0 to 1.
The value of belief is rated from -2 to +2. These two values are multiplied to give you the
resulting probability of the action.
Specific attitudes
o Also, the more specific the attitude you investigate, the better the chances of making
accurate predictions regarding behaviour.
o For example, investigating “The attitude of women towards using birth control pills
in the next two years” is a much better predictor than “The attitude of women towards
birth control.”
o Meta-analysis is a statistical procedure that combines data from different studies to
measure the overall reliability and strength of specific effects.
General attitudes
o Fishbein and Azjen argued that we can predict behaviour from more general attitudes,
but only if we use a multiple-act criterion (a general behavioural index based on an
average or combination of several specific behaviours).
o For example, participating in a recycling project depends on many factors, even the
weather.
o However, everyone who participates should be environment-conscious – a general
attitude.
Reasoned action
o The Theory of Reasoned Action is Fishbein and Ajzen's model of the links between
attitude and behaviour. A major feature is the proposition that the best way to predict
a behaviour, is to ask whether the person intends to do it.
o This model comprised three broad processes (belief, intention and action) and
includes the following components:
Subjective norm: This is a product of what the individual thinks others people
believe.
Attitude towards the behaviour: This is a product of the individual's beliefs
about the target behaviour, and how they evaluate these beliefs.
Behavioural intention: An internal declaration to act.
Behaviour: The action performed.
o Usually actions will be performed if the person's attitude is favourable and the social
norm is favourable.
o This model emphasises the rationality of human behaviour and their conscious
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Exam notes Stelliespsychnotes@gmail.com
control.
Planned behaviour: the role of volition
o The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TRA) is a modification of the Theory of
Reasoned Action (TRA), and states that predicting a behaviour from an attitude
measure is improved if people believe they have control over that behaviour.
o So, like the TRA, it acknowledges the influence of subjective norm and attitudes
towards behaviour on behavioural intention, but includes a third influence: the
individual's perceived behavioural control.
o Behavioural intention then translates into behaviour. Habit is also a predictor of future
behaviour as it can automatically move people to action.
o In health psychology, Protection Motivation Theory suggests that adopting a
healthy behaviour requires the cognitive balancing between the perceived threat of
one's illness (how likely the person thinks they might get it) and the person's capacity
to cope with the health regimen.
o So if someone is considering quitting smoking, there are two main cognitive
processes:
threat appraisal (the chances the person thinks they have of getting lung
cancer, for example) and
coping appraisal (how easy it will be and whether the person is capable of
adopting healthier habits).
Reflecting on the attitude-behaviour link
Attitudes correlate more strongly with future behaviours when:
o The attitudes are accessible
o The attitudes are stable over time
o People have had direct experience with the attitude object
o People frequently report their attitudes
Attitude-Behaviour link is stronger when relevant info is relevant to the actual behaviour, one
sided and supportive of the attitude object, rather than two-sided
Attitude strength and direct experience
Attitudes are represented or stored in our memory.
The easier an attitude is to access, the more often we refer to them.
Accessible attitudes are also more stable over time and resistant to change (this is not ideal).
So if you are asked about yoghurt, you might think “dairy product” or you might think “health
food”, depending on which attitude (or evaluation) is more accessible to you.
Using the most accessible attitude saves us time and energy.
Strong attitudes are also highly accessible, but indicate that we feel very strongly about
something. Strong associations allow automatic activation of an attitude.
Automatic activation is when attitudes that have a strong evaluative link to situational cues
(things that happen around us) are more likely to come automatically to mind from memory.
An attitude becomes stronger and more accessible by having direct experience with the object
and having an interest in it.
So, attitudes correlate more strongly with future behaviour when the attitudes are accessible,
stable over time, people have had direct experience with the attitude object and people
frequently report their attitudes.
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