Chapter 5: Attitudes
Attitude = a general feeling or evaluation (positive or negative) about some person, object
or issue; OR a relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings and behavioral tendencies
towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols.
→ derived from Latin aptus, means ‘fit and ready for action’
According to Allport, attitude = a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through
experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all
objects and situations with which it is related.
3 main phases of attitude research separated by periods of waning interest:
1. A concentration on attitude measurement and how these measurements relate to
people’s behavior (1920s and 1930s).
2. A focus on the dynamics of change in a person’s attitudes (1950s and 1960s).
3. An analysis of the cognitive and social structure of attitudes and on the function of
attitudes and attitude systems (1980s and 1990s).
Attitudes are basic to and pervasive in human life, without it people would have difficulty in
construing and reacting to events, in trying to make decisions and in making sense of their
relationships with other people in everyday life.
One-component attitude models
→ define an attitude as ‘the affect for or against a psychological object’ and ‘the degree of
positive or negative affect associated with some psychological object’.
Two-component attitude models
→ an attitude consists of a mental readiness to act and to decide what is good or bad & also
guides evaluative (judgemental) responses.
Three-component attitude model
→ an attitude consists of cognitive, affective and behavioral components. This threefold
division has an ancient heritage, stressing thought, feeling and action as basic to human
experience.
Attitudes are
● relatively permanent, they persist across time and situations; a momentary
feeling is not an attitude
● limited to socially significant events or objects
● generalisable and capable of abstraction
Katz proposed that there are various kinds of attitude, each serving a different function:
● knowledge
● instrumentality (means to an end or goal)
● ego-defense (protecting one’s self-esteem)
● value-expressiveness (allowing people to display values that uniquely identify and
define them)
24
, The main function of any kind of attitude is object appraisal.
Cognitive consistency theories = a group of attitude theories stressing that people try to
maintain internal consistency, order and agreement among their various cognitions.
→ emphasis on cognition (= the knowledge, beliefs, thoughts and ideas that people
have about themselves and their environment; mental processes through which knowledge
is acquired, including perception, memory and thinking)
Balance theory = according to Heider, people prefer attitudes that are consistent with each
other over those that are inconsistent. A person (P) tries to maintain consistency in attitudes
to, and relationships with, other people (O) and elements of the environment (X).
A triad is balanced if there is an odd number of positive relationships; e.g. if P likes
O, O likes X and P dislikes X → relationship is unbalanced.
Attitude-behavior consistency can vary according to:
● how accessible an attitude is
● whether an attitude is expressed publicly or privately
● how strongly someone identifies with a group for which the attitude is normative
Better prediction of behavior depends on an account of the interaction between attitudes,
beliefs and behavioral intentions and the connections of all of these with subsequent actions.
Multiple-act criterion = term for a general behavioral index based on an average or
combination of several specific behaviors.
→ general attitudes predict multiple behaviors (acts) much better than they predict a specific
single behavior, because single behaviors are usually affected by many factors.
Theory of reasoned action = Fishbein and Ajzen’s theory of the relationship between
attitudes and behavior. A specific attitude that has normative support predicts an intention to
act, which then predicts actual behavior.
→ summarizes 3 processes of beliefs, intention and action, and it includes the following
components:
● Subjective norm, a product of what the person thinks others believe
● Attitude towards the behavior, a product of the person's beliefs about the target
behavior and how these beliefs are evaluated
● Behavioral intention, an internal declaration to act
● Behavior, the action performed
If you know someone’s very specific behavioral intentions, then you are effectively almost
there in terms of predicting what they’ll in fact do (behavior).
Perceived behavioral control is a person’s belief, based on their own past experience and
present obstacles, that it is easy or difficult to perform a behavior.
Theory of planned behavior = modification by Ajzen of the theory of reasoned action. It
suggests that predicting a behavior from an attitude measure is improved if people believe
they have control over that behavior.
25
Attitude = a general feeling or evaluation (positive or negative) about some person, object
or issue; OR a relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings and behavioral tendencies
towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols.
→ derived from Latin aptus, means ‘fit and ready for action’
According to Allport, attitude = a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through
experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all
objects and situations with which it is related.
3 main phases of attitude research separated by periods of waning interest:
1. A concentration on attitude measurement and how these measurements relate to
people’s behavior (1920s and 1930s).
2. A focus on the dynamics of change in a person’s attitudes (1950s and 1960s).
3. An analysis of the cognitive and social structure of attitudes and on the function of
attitudes and attitude systems (1980s and 1990s).
Attitudes are basic to and pervasive in human life, without it people would have difficulty in
construing and reacting to events, in trying to make decisions and in making sense of their
relationships with other people in everyday life.
One-component attitude models
→ define an attitude as ‘the affect for or against a psychological object’ and ‘the degree of
positive or negative affect associated with some psychological object’.
Two-component attitude models
→ an attitude consists of a mental readiness to act and to decide what is good or bad & also
guides evaluative (judgemental) responses.
Three-component attitude model
→ an attitude consists of cognitive, affective and behavioral components. This threefold
division has an ancient heritage, stressing thought, feeling and action as basic to human
experience.
Attitudes are
● relatively permanent, they persist across time and situations; a momentary
feeling is not an attitude
● limited to socially significant events or objects
● generalisable and capable of abstraction
Katz proposed that there are various kinds of attitude, each serving a different function:
● knowledge
● instrumentality (means to an end or goal)
● ego-defense (protecting one’s self-esteem)
● value-expressiveness (allowing people to display values that uniquely identify and
define them)
24
, The main function of any kind of attitude is object appraisal.
Cognitive consistency theories = a group of attitude theories stressing that people try to
maintain internal consistency, order and agreement among their various cognitions.
→ emphasis on cognition (= the knowledge, beliefs, thoughts and ideas that people
have about themselves and their environment; mental processes through which knowledge
is acquired, including perception, memory and thinking)
Balance theory = according to Heider, people prefer attitudes that are consistent with each
other over those that are inconsistent. A person (P) tries to maintain consistency in attitudes
to, and relationships with, other people (O) and elements of the environment (X).
A triad is balanced if there is an odd number of positive relationships; e.g. if P likes
O, O likes X and P dislikes X → relationship is unbalanced.
Attitude-behavior consistency can vary according to:
● how accessible an attitude is
● whether an attitude is expressed publicly or privately
● how strongly someone identifies with a group for which the attitude is normative
Better prediction of behavior depends on an account of the interaction between attitudes,
beliefs and behavioral intentions and the connections of all of these with subsequent actions.
Multiple-act criterion = term for a general behavioral index based on an average or
combination of several specific behaviors.
→ general attitudes predict multiple behaviors (acts) much better than they predict a specific
single behavior, because single behaviors are usually affected by many factors.
Theory of reasoned action = Fishbein and Ajzen’s theory of the relationship between
attitudes and behavior. A specific attitude that has normative support predicts an intention to
act, which then predicts actual behavior.
→ summarizes 3 processes of beliefs, intention and action, and it includes the following
components:
● Subjective norm, a product of what the person thinks others believe
● Attitude towards the behavior, a product of the person's beliefs about the target
behavior and how these beliefs are evaluated
● Behavioral intention, an internal declaration to act
● Behavior, the action performed
If you know someone’s very specific behavioral intentions, then you are effectively almost
there in terms of predicting what they’ll in fact do (behavior).
Perceived behavioral control is a person’s belief, based on their own past experience and
present obstacles, that it is easy or difficult to perform a behavior.
Theory of planned behavior = modification by Ajzen of the theory of reasoned action. It
suggests that predicting a behavior from an attitude measure is improved if people believe
they have control over that behavior.
25
