Psychology and Society Week 3
Attitudes and Behaviour:
- If we have free will we expect our behaviours to be in line with our attitudes
- Attitude: positive or negative evaluation that people hold in regard to an object,
ideas, outcome to ideas
- Can be cognitive or affective
- Cognitive: how we think
- Affective/Emotional: relating to how we feel about a particular object
- Can act contradictory to attitudes
- Can’t say attitudes predict behaviour
LaPiere (1934):
- Attitudes towards Chinese people were negative in America in the 1930s
- LaPiere went travelling with a Chinese student and wife
- How would hotel staff and in restaurants respond to Chinese guest?
- Allowed Chinese student and wife book a room or order a meal
- Only 1 out of 129 hotels and restaurant refused service- 128 allowed
- He contacted some hotels and restaurants 6 months later- asked are they willing to
take in Chinese guests
- 118/128 (92%) said no
- 7 (5%) undecided
- 1 (0.8%) said yes
- Suggest discrepancy between actual behaviour and attitudes towards serving
Chinese guest
- Limitations: retrospective: behaviour studied first the attitude studied later
Wicker (1969):
Prospective design: hypothesized predictors of an outcome are measured or manipulated
beforehand, only then the hypothesized outcome is measured later on
- Known for sure manipulation caused the measured outcome
- Helps stablish direction of causal relationship
• Review of empirical, prospective attitude-behavior studies
• ‘…little evidence to support the existence of stable, underlying attitudes within the
individual which influence both his verbal expressions and his actions’ (p75)
The compatibility principle: Ajzen & Fishbein (1977)
- Methodological problem
- General attitude vs attitude toward doing something right now
- Attitude must be matched with four elements: TACT
• TARGET at which action is directed
• ACTION itself
• CONTEXT in which action is performed
• TIME at which action is performed
- When measuring behaviour whichever elements of TACT is featured should also
feature in behaviour measure- compatible measures
- Attitudes with context a better predictor of behaviour
, Psychology and Society Week 3
For me, going running in the park on Friday at 6pm after work would be:
- Behaviour must be measured at same level of specificity as attitude
- Behaviour must involve TACT too
- Don’t always need all components
- Analysis of attitude-behaviour relations:
- Where there were low (TACT) compatibility between attitudes and behaviour
measures
- There were no relationship between attitudes and behaviour
- Partial compatibility
- Mixed-some studies suggest relationship some that don’t
- High compatibility
- Strong positive relationship
- Attitudes can predict behaviour
Sielgel et al (2014): Illustrates importance of compatibility
- Measured positive general attitudes toward organ donations
- Measured specific attitudes toward registering as an organ donor
- Measured how many people actually registered
- Relationship between attitudes and behaviour greater for specific attitude measure
- As it more compatible with behaviour measure
Attitudes and Behaviour:
- If we have free will we expect our behaviours to be in line with our attitudes
- Attitude: positive or negative evaluation that people hold in regard to an object,
ideas, outcome to ideas
- Can be cognitive or affective
- Cognitive: how we think
- Affective/Emotional: relating to how we feel about a particular object
- Can act contradictory to attitudes
- Can’t say attitudes predict behaviour
LaPiere (1934):
- Attitudes towards Chinese people were negative in America in the 1930s
- LaPiere went travelling with a Chinese student and wife
- How would hotel staff and in restaurants respond to Chinese guest?
- Allowed Chinese student and wife book a room or order a meal
- Only 1 out of 129 hotels and restaurant refused service- 128 allowed
- He contacted some hotels and restaurants 6 months later- asked are they willing to
take in Chinese guests
- 118/128 (92%) said no
- 7 (5%) undecided
- 1 (0.8%) said yes
- Suggest discrepancy between actual behaviour and attitudes towards serving
Chinese guest
- Limitations: retrospective: behaviour studied first the attitude studied later
Wicker (1969):
Prospective design: hypothesized predictors of an outcome are measured or manipulated
beforehand, only then the hypothesized outcome is measured later on
- Known for sure manipulation caused the measured outcome
- Helps stablish direction of causal relationship
• Review of empirical, prospective attitude-behavior studies
• ‘…little evidence to support the existence of stable, underlying attitudes within the
individual which influence both his verbal expressions and his actions’ (p75)
The compatibility principle: Ajzen & Fishbein (1977)
- Methodological problem
- General attitude vs attitude toward doing something right now
- Attitude must be matched with four elements: TACT
• TARGET at which action is directed
• ACTION itself
• CONTEXT in which action is performed
• TIME at which action is performed
- When measuring behaviour whichever elements of TACT is featured should also
feature in behaviour measure- compatible measures
- Attitudes with context a better predictor of behaviour
, Psychology and Society Week 3
For me, going running in the park on Friday at 6pm after work would be:
- Behaviour must be measured at same level of specificity as attitude
- Behaviour must involve TACT too
- Don’t always need all components
- Analysis of attitude-behaviour relations:
- Where there were low (TACT) compatibility between attitudes and behaviour
measures
- There were no relationship between attitudes and behaviour
- Partial compatibility
- Mixed-some studies suggest relationship some that don’t
- High compatibility
- Strong positive relationship
- Attitudes can predict behaviour
Sielgel et al (2014): Illustrates importance of compatibility
- Measured positive general attitudes toward organ donations
- Measured specific attitudes toward registering as an organ donor
- Measured how many people actually registered
- Relationship between attitudes and behaviour greater for specific attitude measure
- As it more compatible with behaviour measure
