Attitudes

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Self-Report Methods

Back 1

Easiest way to assess a person's attitude about something is to ask.

These measures are direct and straight forward, but attitudes are sometimes too complex to be measured by a single question.

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Self-Report Methods Responses

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Responses to attitude questions can be influenced by their wording, the order and context in which they are asked, and other extraneous factors.

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Self-Report Methods Responses

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Respondents > 65 more likely to agree to response alternative presented to them last in a list (recency effect) due to natural declines in processing speed and working memory capacity. Difficulty keeping all the information in mind so agree with the last option they hear.

Front 4

Attitude Scales

Back 4

A multiple item questionnaire designed to measure a person's attitude toward some object to make up for single measure shortcomings.

Likert Scale being the most popular
(Strongly agree, agree, disagree, strong disagree)

Wanting to make a good impression on others, people are generally reluctant to admit their failures, vices, weaknesses, unpopular opinions, and prejudices.

Front 5

Bogus Pipeline

Back 5

It is a fake lie-detector device that is sometimes used to get respondents to give truthful answers to sensitive questions.

They tend to answer attitude questions more honestly, and with less concern over looking good to the questioners, when they think that deception would be detected by bogus pipeline.

WANTING to appear accepted of others.

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Covert Measures

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Approach to the self-report problem. Collection of indirect, covert measures of attitudes that cannot be controlled.

Use of observable behavior such as facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language.

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Covert Measures

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People monitor their overt behavior just as they monitor self-reports.

Measures of arousal reveal the intensity of one's attitude toward an object but not whether that attitude is positive or negative.

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Social Neuroscience Perspective

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Electrical activity in the brain may also assist in the measure of attitudes.

EEG uses brain wave interpretation to demonstrate inconsistency in brain activity when compared to those triggered by exposure to stimuli that are novel of consistence.

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Implicit Association Test (IAT)

Back 9

Measures the speed with which people associate pairs of concepts based on implicit attitudes (such as prejudice tat one is not aware of having).

People are quicker to respond when liked faces are paired with positive words and disliked faces are paired with negative words.

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IAT

Back 10

People's implicit attitudes are generally less predictive of behavior than their explicit attitudes.

IAT measures are better when it comes to socially sensitive topics such as race, where people often distort their self-reports.

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Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP)

Back 11

A technique similar to the IAT that focuses on cognition and specific relations rather than general associations.
Rather than choosing between only two categories, (good/bad), respondents using the IRAP must also decide between relational terms (decide whether you think the relationship between that pair of words is true not).

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Formation of Attitudes (Biological)

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On some issues, the attitudes of identical twins, and that raised apart are a similar to each other as those who are raised in the same home.

People may be predisposed to hold certain attitudes.

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Formation of Attitudes

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Our most cherished attitudes often form as a result of our exposure to attitude objects: our history of rewards and punishments, the attitudes that our parents, friends, and enemies express, the social and cultural context in which we live, and other types of experiences.

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Formation of Attitudes (Learning)

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Clearly attitudes are formed through basic processes of learning.

People can form strong positive and negative attitudes toward neutral objects that somehow are linked to emotionally charged stimuli.

Front 15

Attitude and Behaivor

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Self-report methods did not correspond with behavior (study may be flawed)

However, LaPiere's study was the first of many to reveal a lack of correspondence between attitudes and behavior.

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Attitudes in Context

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One important factor is the level of correspondence, or similarity, between attitude measures and behavior.

Attitudes correlate with behavior only when attitude measures closely match the behavior in question.

The more specific the initial attitude question was, the better it predicted of behavior.

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Theory of Planned Behavior

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Attitudes toward a specific behavior combine with subjective norms and perceived control to influence a person's actions.

Our attitudes influence our behavior through a process of deliberate decision making- and their impact is limited in 4 respects.

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Theory of Planned Behavior

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1. Behavior is influenced less by general attitudes than by attitudes towards a specific behavior.

2. Behavior is influenced not only attitudes but also by subjective norms (beliefs about what others think we should do).

3. Attitudes give rise to behavior only when we perceive the behavior to be within our control

4. Although attitudes contribute to an intention to behave in a particular manner, people often do not or cannot follow through on their intentions.

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Strength of Attitude

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Attitudes people held more passionately were those that concerned issues that

1. directly affected their own outcomes and self-interests

2. related to deeply held philosophical, political, and religious values

3. were of concern to their close friends, family, and social ingrorups *

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Attitude Strength and Behavior

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1.People tend to behave in was that are consistent with their attitudes when they are well informed.

2.The strength of an attitude is indicated not only by the amount of information on which it is based but also by how that information was acquired.

3. An attitude can be strengthened, by an attack from a persuasive message.

4. Strong attitudes are highly accessible to awareness, which means they are quickly and easily brought to mind.

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Central Route to Persuasion

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The process by which a person thinks carefully about a communication and is influenced by the strength of its arguments.

Participants are attentive, active, critical and thoughtful ad their reaction depends on the strength of its contents.

Greater impact when they are easily learned, memorable, and when they stimulate a favorable elaboration.

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Peripheral Route to Persuasion

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The process by which a person does not think carefully about a communication and is influenced instead by superficial cues.

Audiences are not always thoughtful and they take the shortcut . They respond with little effort on the basis of superficial, peripheral cues.

If a communicator has a good reputation, speaks fluently, or writes well, we tend to assume that his or her message must be correct.

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Route Selection

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The process that is engaged depends on whether the recipients of a persuasive message have the ability and the motivation to take the central route or whether they rely on peripheral cues instead.

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Route Selection

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Persuasive communication as the outcome of three sources.

1. a source (who)

2. a message (says what and in what context)

3. an audience (to whom)

Each of these factors influences a recipient's approach to a persuasive communication.

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The Source (Credibility)

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Generally more persuasive.

Do be successful they must have 2 distinct characteristics

1. competence or expertise (ability - knowledge, smart, well-spoken, impressive credentials)

2. trustworthiness (must be seen as willing to report what they know truthfully without compromise).

Beware of those who have something to gain from successful persuasion.

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The Source (Likeability)

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Two factors that spark attraction are:

1. similarity (opinion, common bonds)

2. physical attractiveness

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Positive Emotions

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Positive feelings activate the peripheral route to persuasion, facilitating change and allowing superficial cues to take on added importance.

This state is cognitively distracting, causing the mind to wander and impairing our ability to think critically about the argument.

Front 28

Subliminal Advertising

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The presentation of commercial messages outside of conscious awareness.

Although people perceive subliminal cues, the cues will not persuade them to take action unless they are already motivated to do so.

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Audience

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The impact of a message is influenced by two additional factors:

1. recipient's personality

2. his/her expectations

Front 30

Need for Cognition

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Individuals differ in the extent to which they enjoy and participate in thoughtful cognitive activities. People who are high rather than low in their need for cognition like to work on hard problems, search for clues, make fine distinctions, and analyze situations.

While a strong argument can persuade people high in need for cognition, those who score lower are more likely persuaded by cues found along the peripheral route.

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Self-Monitoring

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High self-monitors regulate their behavior from one situation to another of of concern for their self-presentation. Low self monitors are less image conscious and behave according to their own beliefs and preferences.

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High Self-Monitors

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May be particularly responsive to messages that promise desirable social images.

Are willing to pay more for products after reading imagery ads.

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Incoluation Hypthosis

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Exposure to weak versions of a persuasive argument increases later resistance to that argument.

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Psychological Reactance

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People react against threats to their freedom by asserting themselves and perceiving the threatened freedom as more attractive.

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Cognitive Dissonance Theory

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People are strongly motivated by a desire for cognitive consistency - a state of mind in which one's beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, are all compatible with each other.

Holding inconsistent cognitions arouses psychological tension that people become motivated to reduce.

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4 Steps for Arousal and Reduction of CDT

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1. The attitude discrepant behavior must produce unwanted negative consequences

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4 Steps for Arousal and Reduction of CDT

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2. A feeling of personal responsibility for the unpleasant outcomes of behavior. This consists of two factors: freedom of choice and they must believe that the potential negative consequences of their actions were foreseeable at the time.

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4 Steps for Arousal and Reduction of CDT

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3. Physiological arousal (cognitive dissonance is a state of discomfort and tension that people seek to reduce - much like hunger, thirst, and other basic drives).

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4 Steps for Arousal and Reduction of CDT

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4. The person must also make an attribution for that arousal to his or her own behavior.

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Reduce Dissonance

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1. Change your attitude (I don't really need to be on a diet)

2. Change your perception of the behavior (I hardly ate any ice cream)

3. Add consonant cognitions (Chocolate ice cream is very nutritious)

4. Minimize the importance of the conflict (I don't care if I'm overweight, life is short)

5. Reduce perceived choice (I had no choice, the ice cream was being served for this occasion)

Front 41

Self-Perception Theory

Back 41

We infer how we feel by observing ourselves and the circumstances of our own behavior.

It is a cool, calm, and relational process in which people interpret ambiguous feelings by observing their own behavior.

Slightly disrcepant behavior produces change through self-perception.

Front 42

Impression-Management Theory

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What matters is not a motive to be consistent but a motive to appear consistent.

We calibrate our attitudes and behaviors only publicly just to present ourselves to others in a particular way.

Concern is on self-presentation.

Front 43

Self-Esteem Theories

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Acts that arouse dissonance do so because they threaten the self-concept making the person feel guilty, dishonest, or hypocritical and motivating a change in attitude for future behavior.

Change their attitudes to repair damage to the self.

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Self-Esteem Theories ( Steele) 2 Steps

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1. Engaging in attitude discrepant behavior, exerting wasted effort, or making a difficult decision sets in motion a process of self-affirmation that serves to revalidate the integrity of the self-concept.

2. This revalidation can be achieved in many ways.

If the active ingredient in dissonance situations is a threat to the self, then people who have an opportunity to affirm the self in other ways will not suffer from the effects of dissonance.