Chapter.7 : Attitudes and Attitude Change
7.1 : What are the different kinds of attitudes and on what are they
based ?
The Nature and Origin of Attitudes
- We form likes and dislikes of virtually everything. For most people at least something should cause
strong attitudes
o Attitudes : evaluations of people, objects, and ideas.
▪ They determine what we do.
Where Do Attitudes Come From ?
- One answer to where attitudes come from is they are linked to out genes.
o Some attitudes are a function of our genetic makeup relating.
o They are related to things such as temperament and personality.
- Our social experiences clearly play a major role in shaping our attitudes.
o Social Psychologists identified 3 attitude components :
▪ Cognitive Component : thoughts and beliefs that people form about attitude object.
▪ Affective Component : people’s emotional reactions toward the attitude object.
▪ Behavioral Component : how people act toward the attitude object.
- COGNITIVELY BASED ATTITUDES : Sometimes our attitudes are based on relevant facts.
o Cognitively Based Attitude : an attitude based on people’s beliefs about the properties of an
attitude object.
▪ It allows us to classify pros and cons of an object so we can determine whether we
want anything to do with it.
- AFFECTIVELY BASED ATTITUDES : an attitude based more on people’s feelings and values that on
their beliefs about an attitude object.
o People seem to take a decision with their hearts more than with their minds.
o They can stem from people’s values such as religious & moral beliefs.
o Its function is to express and validate one’s basic value system.
o Some affective based attitudes can be based from sensory reaction or from conditioning.
▪ Classical Conditioning : a stimulus that elicits an emotional response is repeatedly
paired with a neutral stimulus until the neutral stimulus takes on emotional
properties of first stimulus.
▪ Operant Conditioning : behaviors freely performed become more or less frequent
depending on whether they are followed by a reward or punishment.
• Attitudes can take positive or negative affect through either conditioning.
o Although affectively based attitude have many sources, we group them into one family
because they :
1. Don’t result from rational examination of issues.
2. Not governed by logic
3. Linked to people’s values.
, - BEHAVIORALY BASED ATTITUDES : an attitude based on observations of how one behaves
toward an object.
o According to self-perception theory, people don’t know how they feel until they see how they
behave.
o Attitude could be based more on observation of one’s behavior than on cognitions.
o People infer their attitudes from their behavior under certain conditions :
▪ Initial attitude is weak or ambiguous
▪ No other plausible explanations
Explicit versus Implicit Attitudes
- Once an attitude develops, it can exist at two levels.
o Explicit Attitudes : attitudes that we consciously endorse and can report.
▪ Rooted in recent experiences.
o Implicit Attitudes : attitudes that exist outside of conscious awareness.
▪ Rooted in childhood experiences.
• People can have explicit and implicit attitudes toward virtually anything.
• People can have different implicit and explicit attitudes towards the same
thing.
- A variety of techniques have been developed to measure implicit attitudes, one of the most popular of
which is the Implicit Association Test, or IAT.
7.1 : What are the different kinds of attitudes and on what are they
based ?
The Nature and Origin of Attitudes
- We form likes and dislikes of virtually everything. For most people at least something should cause
strong attitudes
o Attitudes : evaluations of people, objects, and ideas.
▪ They determine what we do.
Where Do Attitudes Come From ?
- One answer to where attitudes come from is they are linked to out genes.
o Some attitudes are a function of our genetic makeup relating.
o They are related to things such as temperament and personality.
- Our social experiences clearly play a major role in shaping our attitudes.
o Social Psychologists identified 3 attitude components :
▪ Cognitive Component : thoughts and beliefs that people form about attitude object.
▪ Affective Component : people’s emotional reactions toward the attitude object.
▪ Behavioral Component : how people act toward the attitude object.
- COGNITIVELY BASED ATTITUDES : Sometimes our attitudes are based on relevant facts.
o Cognitively Based Attitude : an attitude based on people’s beliefs about the properties of an
attitude object.
▪ It allows us to classify pros and cons of an object so we can determine whether we
want anything to do with it.
- AFFECTIVELY BASED ATTITUDES : an attitude based more on people’s feelings and values that on
their beliefs about an attitude object.
o People seem to take a decision with their hearts more than with their minds.
o They can stem from people’s values such as religious & moral beliefs.
o Its function is to express and validate one’s basic value system.
o Some affective based attitudes can be based from sensory reaction or from conditioning.
▪ Classical Conditioning : a stimulus that elicits an emotional response is repeatedly
paired with a neutral stimulus until the neutral stimulus takes on emotional
properties of first stimulus.
▪ Operant Conditioning : behaviors freely performed become more or less frequent
depending on whether they are followed by a reward or punishment.
• Attitudes can take positive or negative affect through either conditioning.
o Although affectively based attitude have many sources, we group them into one family
because they :
1. Don’t result from rational examination of issues.
2. Not governed by logic
3. Linked to people’s values.
, - BEHAVIORALY BASED ATTITUDES : an attitude based on observations of how one behaves
toward an object.
o According to self-perception theory, people don’t know how they feel until they see how they
behave.
o Attitude could be based more on observation of one’s behavior than on cognitions.
o People infer their attitudes from their behavior under certain conditions :
▪ Initial attitude is weak or ambiguous
▪ No other plausible explanations
Explicit versus Implicit Attitudes
- Once an attitude develops, it can exist at two levels.
o Explicit Attitudes : attitudes that we consciously endorse and can report.
▪ Rooted in recent experiences.
o Implicit Attitudes : attitudes that exist outside of conscious awareness.
▪ Rooted in childhood experiences.
• People can have explicit and implicit attitudes toward virtually anything.
• People can have different implicit and explicit attitudes towards the same
thing.
- A variety of techniques have been developed to measure implicit attitudes, one of the most popular of
which is the Implicit Association Test, or IAT.
