Attitude

How does classical conditioning influence attitudes?

The attitude object is associated with unconditional stimulus (e.g., image, pain, physiological stress, odors and sounds)

What does Perloff (2003) state about attitudes?

"An attitude is a learned, global evaluation of an object (person, place, or issue) that influences thought and action."

Attitude

*Attitude refers to people's evaluation of virtually any aspect of their social world. People can give favorable or unfavorable reactions to issues, ideas, objects, specific behavior or entire social groups.* attitude refers to a set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviors toward a particular object, person, thing, or event.

How does imitation/modeling influence attitudes?

*Imitation* - mere copy of another's behavior without acquisition of the relationship between behavior and consequences - e.g., young children mimic/parrot their parents' attitudes. *Modeling* (Social Learning Theory) - behaviors / attitudes are acquired through observation and reproduced because of the contingencies - relationship with the consequence (Bandura, 1969).

What are the 3 components and characteristics of the 'tri-component model'?

1) *Cognitive* - beliefs about what is or is not true with respect to the AO. - Internalised mental representations, beliefs and thoughts 2) *Affective* - feelings / emotions toward the AO. - Emotional reactions 3) *Behavioral* - tendencies to do certain things with respect to the AO. - Tendency to respond in a particular way toward the attitude object

Dual attitudes

1) Explicit attitudes 2) Implicit attitudes

Write 2 characteristics of herritabe attitudes?

1) Harder to change 2) More quickly activated

List 5 ways that attitudes are learnt from others?

1) Imitation or modeling 2) Information (perception, rumour, reading) 3) Mere exposure 4) Classical conditioning 5) Operant conditioning

What is Petty and Cacioppo's view (1981) on attitudes?

Attitude is a general and enduring positive or negative feeling about some person, object, or issue.

What did Gordon Allport (1935) state about attitudes?

Attitude is a mental or neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive influence upon the individual's response to all objects and situations with which it is related.

What did Eagley and Chaiken (1992) state about attitudes?

Attitude is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor [...] summary evaluations of attitude objects.

How does direct experience influence attitudes?

Attitudes acquired by direct experience are: a) held with greater confidence b) more specific c) more easily recalled d) more resistant to change e) more consistent with behavior

What did Judd, Ryan and Parke (1991) state about attitudes?

Attitudes can be viewed as evaluations of various objects that are stored in memory.

Attitudes influence ______, knowing something about them can help us to ______ people's ______ actions in a wide range of contexts.

Attitudes influence *behavior* , knowing something about them can help us to *predict* people's *overt* actions in a wide range of contexts.

What did Petty (1995) state about attitudes?

Attitudes refer to very general evaluations that people hold of themselves, other people, objects, and issues.

What is 'herritable attitudes'?

Attitudes that can be inherited from blood relatives and ancestors

How does mere exposure influence attitudes?

Direct repeated experience often results in preference (i.e., compared to objects less often encountered). The more familiar the object/task, the more we generally like it (Bornstein, 1989; Zajonc, 1968).

How does operant conditioning influence attitudes?

Reinforcement or punishment of attitudes (sometimes it is only the verbal response that is reinforced or punished).

What does Arvey, et al., 1989 study indicate and what does it suggest?

Research indicated that twins have similar attitudes - i.e., suggesting a genetic basis for the formation of attitudes

What is the result of phylogeny in the aspect of attitudes?

Universality of certain attitudes

Can attitudes influence our thoughts?

Yes, even if they are not always reflected in our overt behaviour.

characteristics of attitudes

a) hypothetical construct b) Not directly observable c) Inferred from observable responses

implicit attitudes

attitudes that influence a person's feelings and behavior at an unconscious level and that cannot be controlled.

explicit attitudes

attitudes that we consciously endorse and can easily report