PSYC1004 - Introduction to Social Psychology

Lecture 3– Attitude and Attitude Measurement

Definitions of Attitude
 Attitudes are associations between an attitude object (an aspect of the social world) and
evaluations of those objects.
 An attitude is a predisposition to respond in a positive or negative way to a particular
object, event or issue (Penrod, 1986).

How Are Attitudes Formed?

Classical Conditioning Based on association
 One stimulus becomes a signal for a second stimulus
 E.g., Pavlov’s dogs: bell eventually became a signal for food and produced salivating
 Attitudes may form in a similar fashion
 Initially, the bell is paired with food to produce salivating.
 Eventually, the food is no longer required to produce salivating.
 Similarly, a certain person may be paired with a negative reaction by a parent, leading to
the child becoming upset.
 Eventually, the negative reaction is no longer required to make the child upset.

Instrumental Learning
 Also called operant conditioning
 Rewards and punishments
 Strengthening of responses that lead to:
 positive outcomes
 avoidance of negative outcomes
 If a child is praised for holding a certain attitude, they will be more likely to continue
holding this attitude.
 On the other hand, punishment leads to rejecting attitudes.
 Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.
  Explains why:
 Children may have attitudes about topics they do not fully understand (e.g.,
politics).
 Children and adults hold similar attitudes up until teen years.
 Subsequently, teens begin to evaluate attitudes independent of parents’ reactions.

Observational Learning
 Learning by example
 Attitudes may be transmitted unintentionally by parents
 Child may observe their parent smoking, which may lead to a positive attitude towards
smoking
 Child may overhear a certain attitude being conveyed by a parent that they were not
meant to hear
 Attitudes also learned from media.
 Individuals want to imitate the people around them, or people they look up to.
 Observational learning is evident in ‘trends’.
 E.g., attitudes towards clothes, etc.

Social comparison
 Festinger (1954) We compare ourselves to others in order to determine whether our view
of social reality is correct or incorrect. If our attitudes match those of others, then we
must be correct (desirable). Thus, we often change our attitudes to conform to those of
other people (e.g., friends). Occurs even if you had no previous experience with the topic

Cultural factors: The study of Values

 Cultural differences in attitudes are often examined by focusing on cultural values:
 principles of life that include moral beliefs and our standards of conduct
 Differ from attitudes in that they are broader, more abstract
 Like attitudes, values convey what is important in our lives
Values
 The stability of values
 There are typically no sex differences in values.
 The same values are found across cultures.
 e.g., Schwartz’s ten values
 People’s value preferences tend to remain constant over time.
 Values, behavior and culture
 Values predict attitudes, which predict behaviour.
 Like attitudes, values can be culturally transmitted via social learning and shaped by
social comparison at home/school/by friends.
 E.g. – Western cultures value individualism more so than Eastern cultures.

Genetic Factors: Are Attitudes Inherited?

 We typically think of physical characteristics such as height, eye color, etc. as inherited.
 However, thought occurs within the brain, and brain structure is genetically influenced.
 Studies have demonstrated that there is in fact a small genetic component in attitudes.

Personality factors
 Personality traits tend to have a strong genetic component

Components of an Attitude

 The cognitive component of an attitude refers to perceptions and beliefs about the qualities of
an object or event. Refers to the beliefs and opinions through which the attitude is expressed
(although these are not always conscious).

 The affective component refers to emotions such as fear, hate, love, anger and envy are
among the variety of responses an individual can have to person, object and events.

 The behavioural component refers to the intentions and action tendencies associated with
objects, situations and events. This aspect of attitude relates to intentions or predispositions
rather than only actual behaviour.
Attitude Functions
 Instrumental function - People hold and/or express attitudes because they think these will
bring them rewards or help them to avoid punishment.
 Ego-defensive function - This is where the person protects himself from acknowledging
the basic truths about himself, or the harsh realities of the external world.
 Value expressive function - The individual derives satisfaction from expressing attitudes
appropriate to his personal values and to his concept of himself.
 Knowledge function - It is based upon the individual’s need to give adequate structure to
his universe. Also refers to the usefulness of attitudes in organizing and interpreting
social information.

The Attitude-Behavior Link

 There are many examples of situations that constrain our behaviour:
 Situational constraints that affect attitude expression
 People’s assumptions about the attitudes of others and what they think others will think
of them can be better predictors of behavior than their actual attitudes.
 And, due to pluralistic ignorance, people can be wrong about what attitudes they think
others hold.
 An important factor in determining attitude intensity is vested interest.
 When people are affected by an object or issue (they have a strong vested interest), their
attitudes will have a larger impact on their behavior.
 And, personal relevance increases the development of arguments to support the attitude.
 Attitudes that are formed on the basis of direct experience often exert stronger effects on
behaviour than ones formed indirectly.
 The stronger attitudes are, the greater their impact on behaviour. Attitude strength
involves several factors:
1. Intensity - how strong is the emotional reaction provoked by the attitude object
2. Importance -the extent to which the individual cares deeply about and is personally
affected by the attitude
3. Knowledge -how much the person knows about the attitude object
4. Accessibility – how easily the attitude comes to mind in various situations.
  The extent to which attitudes are focused on specific objects or situations rather than on
general ones.
 Research findings indicate that the attitude-behaviour link is stronger when attitudes and
behaviour are measure on the same level of specificity.
 There is evidence that behaviour cannot be so simply predicted by attitudes, which
questions the usefulness of the concept of attitudes.
 DeFleur and Westie (1958) asked white students to be photographed with black
colleagues. Thirty percent of the students behaved differently from their previously
expressed views (either they were prejudiced and agreed to be photographed, or were not
prejudiced and refused to be photographed).
 Factors that may account for the discrepancy between attitude and behaviour include :
1. Availability: At any time, your behaviour is a selection between possible courses
of action, and one attitude may take precedence over another.
2. Relevance: Our image on a prejudiced group may be different from the reality.
3. Situation: If our personal attitudes run contrary to prevalent social norms, we
may be inclined to follow the actions of the crowd

How Do Attitudes Guide Behavior?

 Theory of Planned behaviour Also called the ‘Theory of Reasoned Action’
1. The decision to engage in a particular behavior is the result of a rational process
in which behavioral options are considered, consequences are evaluated, and a
decision is reached to act or not to act.
 Individuals consider the implications of their actions before deciding to perform various
behaviors
 A rational process that is goal-oriented and follows a logical sequence
 We consider our behavioral options, evaluate the consequences/outcomes of each, and
reach a decision as to how to act or not to act
 This decision is reflected in our behavioral intentions (our intentions to act a certain way)
Attitude change
 Attitudes are resistant to change but they do change.
 Change occurs as a result of internal and external forces.
 Methods of attitude change are of interest commercially
(advertisements) and in implementing new social policies
(reduction of prejudices)
 Attitudes can be changed through learning, persuasion and
brain washing.
 Attitudes are organized and changed according to principles of consistency.
 Different attitudes perform different functions, their
relative resistance to change may be related to the
importance of the function.
 Consider social influence (conformity, obedience and
compliance) as means of attitude change.
 This refers to efforts to change attitudes through the use of
messages focused primarily on the characteristics of the
communicator and the audience.
Source (Who)
 Credibility: source must appear trustworthy and qualified.
 Expertise: source must appear highly trained in the area.
 Similarity: people are more likely to respond to people who are similar to themselves.
 Attractiveness: the more attractive the source the more likely we are to identify with him
or her.
 Attitude change:
Source (Who)
 Intentions/motives: the source is more likely to be persuasive when his/her intentions
are viewed as good.
 Status: Sources of higher status are perceived as more credible than those of a lower
status.
 Race: we are more likely to identify with persons of a similar racial background.
  Religion: we are more likely to identify with persons that hold religious beliefs that are
similar to us.
Message (What)
 Speech style: fast speaking people are quite often seen as more confident in the subject.
 One sided may be more effective with people who are unfamiliar with an issue while
Two sided may be more persuasive with better educated people who are initially opposed
to the communicator’s views.
 Communication discrepancy
 Rhetorical summary
 Explicit conclusions
 Appeals to fear: Fear appeals elicit a feeling of fright or danger in an audience by
creating stark warnings, publicizing fearful outcomes or detailing explicit results.
Target (To Whom)
 Intelligence
 Personality
 Gender: women are more likely to be persuaded than men.
 Initial attitude
 Persuadablity
 Self-esteem: people with lower self-esteem are more likely to be persuaded than those
with higher self-esteem
 Communicators and Audiences (findings from early research by Hovland, Janis,
and Kelley, 1953)
 Communicators who are perceived as credible experts, are attractive,
speak rapidly, and appear confident are more persuasive.
 Messages that do not appear to try to change attitudes are more persuasive.
 Distraction can make people more likely to be persuaded.
 A two-sided approach is more persuasive when the audience’s attitude is
different from the communicator’s.
 Younger people (e.g., between the ages of 18 and 25) are more likely to be
persuaded than are older people.
Systematic versus heuristic processing
 Systematic Processing— involves careful consideration of message
content and ideas (argument strength matters)
 Central Route (to persuasion) — attitude change
resulting from systematic processing of information
presented in persuasive messages
 Heuristic Processing —involves the use of simple rules or mental
shortcuts (argument strength does not matter)
 Peripheral Route (to persuasion) — attitude change in
response to peripheral persuasion cues, e.g., expertise or
status
o According to the elaboration likelihood model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) and
the heuristic-systematic model (Chaiken, et al., 1989), persuasion can occur in
two ways, differing in the amount of cognitive effort or elaboration they
require.
o People can take the central route (use systematic processing).
o People can take the peripheral route (use heuristic processing).

Forewarning Advance knowledge that one is about to become the target of an attempt at
persuasion and increases resistance to the persuasion that follows. Provides opportunity to
develop counterarguments

Psychological Reactance Negative reactions to threats to one’s personal freedom. Often

increases resistance to persuasion and can even produce negative attitude change or that opposite
to what was intended. Is one reason why hard-sell persuasion attempts often fail
Selective Avoidance People have a tendency to direct attention away from information that
challenges existing attitudes, which increases resistance to persuasion
Selective Exposure - people seek information consistent with their attitudes
Actively defend attitudes - Generate counterarguments to refute opposing position
Inoculation (McGuire, 1961) Exposure to arguments opposed to one’s attitudes, along with
arguments that refute these counter attitudinal positions, can strengthen people’s original
attitudes.
Cognitive Dissonance An (unpleasant) internal state which results when individuals notice
inconsistency between two or more attitudes or between their attitudes and their behavior
  People are motivated to reduce cognitive dissonance and use the following
strategies to do so (Aronson, 1968; Festinger, 1957):
 Change attitudes or behavior to be consistent with each other
 Acquire information that supports attitude or behavior
 Engage in trivialization of the inconsistency, concluding that the attitudes
or behaviors are unimportant
 Also, people use indirect ways to restore positive self-evaluations, which
is more likely when the dissonance involves important attitudes or self-
beliefs (Steele, 1988) (e.g., they may use self-affirmation).

Sleeper Effect - This refers to the hidden impact a message of propaganda or mass
communication can have. The effect refers to the observed fact that the attitude change produced
by the message does not become evident until a period of time has elapsed. The source of the
message is not associated with the message.

Boomerang effect - A shift in attitude which not only goes against what was intended but
actually in the opposite direction. Most commonly used in attitude change studies in which a
person’s attitude is not moved in the intended direction but further away. It is the result of
excessive and insensitive attempts to dissuade persons.

Attitude and Measurement

 Attitude can be measured directly and indirectly.
• Directly: direct questioning and observation.
• Indirectly: project attitudes into the ambiguous situation.
Likert Scale This is probably the most widely used attitude scale, typically a set of about 30
statements are prepared about a topic, representing both pro and anti views. The subject rates
each statement on a 5- or 7- scale.

Thurstone scale - Subjects then indicate which statements they agree with and a score is
calculated from the value assigned to their selected statements.
Galvanic Skin response - This feedback instrument measures skin conductivity from the fingers
and / or palms. The GSR is highly sensitive to emotions in some people.
Facial EMG are used to detect the direction of an individual’s attitude toward a target (whether
positive or negative). Attitudes can be detected via movements in different facial muscles.

Rorschach Inkblot Test A projective test that involves presenting a person with an ambiguous
picture. The stimulus requires interpretation from the person. Therefore, the person’s attitude is
inferred from their interpretation of the ambiguous picture.

Thematic Apperception Test (or TAT) Taps into a person’s unconscious mind to reveal the
repressed aspects of their personality. Here a person is presented with an ambiguous picture
which they have to interpret.