behaviours and attitudes

attitudes

exists in our mind and is about something, an “object”, person, place, idea/beleif 

⤷ can be explicit or implicit 

⤷ can know v well what behaviour is about/ignorant (implicit bias that influence how you interact/behave until you are called out on it) 

Eg. “frank believes in women’s right to chose,” “democracy is essential for global peace,” “i have no doubt the earth is flat, just take a look at the horizon

components of attitudes

cognitions, evolutions, behavioural disposition

cognitions

• Cognitions: “beliefs about thing/phenomene” 

  • Eg. downtown hamilton - cognitive attitude = “dt hamilton = dangerous,” fueled from first hand experience, stories, news etc 

evaluations

• Evaluations: meaning that is associated with cognition 

  • Eg. downtown hamilton, evaluation = “im scared,” “thats cool!” “im intrigued”

behavioural disposition

• Behavioural disposition: action as a result of cognition and evaluation 

  • Eg. downtown hamilton, behavior = “im going to check it out,” “im gonna avoid that area”

component of distinct

affect-based attitudes, cognition-based attit

affect-based attitudes

• Affect-based attitudes: 

  • Difficult to change w rational thought, grounded in emotional response 

  • Eg. if bob has a fear of clowns, no matter what people say “i brigns joy! You laugh!” ⇒ bob will not get over the fear no matter what anyone tries to do to convince then otherwise

cognition-based attitudes

• Cognition-based attitudes 

  • Evaluation of an object, person, issue based on their beliefs, facts, and rational analysis (not emotions) – Well reasoned and throughout 

  • Eg. considering a car purchase based on its safety rating 

where are attitudes learnt (sources)

via socializations — thru instrumental and classical conditioning + observational learning

instrumental (operant) conditioning vs classical conditioning

• Instrumental (operant) conditioning: using punishment/reinforcement to encourage/discourage behavior, ū thru direct experience with object (learn about it)

• Classical conditioning: learning a new behaviour by association (form US, UR, CS, CR)

types of instrumental conditioning

4 types of instrumental conditioning 

• Reward training: Positive reinforcer – eg. “do a thing = congrat!,” “kid cleans their room so they get an allowance”

• Negative reinforcer – “dont do a thing = slap on butt = bad,” “parent stops nagging their kid when they finally do their chores”

• Positive punisher – eg. “parent yells at kid who doesn’t clean their room”

• Negative punisher – eg. “parent takes away kid’s phone bc thye didn’t do their choirs”

observational learning

• Observational learning: watching other peoples behavior, consequences, and emotional expressions, allowing others to adopt beliefs, social norms, biases 

  • Adopted what other people do – occurs when people are not really “concious” of their own decisions (ū younger), when you grow up = learn more about this topic and develop your own ideas/behaviour

  • Eg. religious from family, social media influecne 

cognitive consistency

• Consistent w our cognitions 

• We want them consistent (bc we dont like to be uncomfortable) 

  • Work w cognition to maintain that consistency  – wanting to maintain current beliefs, attitudes (always believing youre correct)

cognitive dissonance

 a state where one or more attitudes are inconsistent w our cognitions 

• Dissonance after the act/decision

  • Eg. if ur a vegan, and you eat a burger = dissonance comes after, causing you to feel guilt and reflect – cause you to justify your decision (for better your health, craving etc), or change attitude = “maybe im not a vegan anymore”

  • Eg. Smoking even tho you know its bad, procrastination even tho i know an exam is tomorrow (justify by saying you deserve a break or already did so much work) 

• Dissonance when act is counter-attitudinal 

  • Depends on how dedicated you are to your attitude 

describe leon festinger’s doomsday cult idea + which term does this describe

describes cognitive dissonance

• They studied a doomsday cult (believed the world was gonna end) 

• Wanted to know what would happen if the world was NOT going to end ⇒ 

• Rather than saying they were wrong – they pivoted and realigned their cognition to say “we tried hard enough to prevent doomsday from happening”

• Being uncomfortable is a motivation to feel better

describes lapiere (1934) study on the relationship between attitudes predicting behaviours

• Lapiere (1934) 

• Study on discrimination against chinese people in america during anti-chinese people era

  • Studied 3 chinese americans and went to 66 hotels and restaurants/email 

    • Most places offered good service and 1/66 locations rejected the chinese peoples 

    • Afterwards, survey went out to the businesses and asked if they would discriminate against chinese people – 92% said “yes”

      • doesnt align w irl experience when chinese ppl were in the building (did not get discriminated against 

  • Attitude does not ALWAYS predict behaviour and will not be acted on (when these businesses are asked if they would discriminate against chinese people, they would ū say yes, but irl ⇒ they wouldnt discriminate against )

affective-cognitive consistency vs situational constraints

^^ both describe the relationship between attitudes and behaviours

• Affective-cognitive consistency: relationship between cognitive and affective (evaluative) components and behaviours

  • ⤷ significant consistency between the 2 is a strong predictor of behavior 

• Situational constraints: behaviour determined by the situation and whether the people will respond negatively or positively 

  • Weaker = less likely to act on action/attitude 

  • Situation will create barrier, preventing people from acting on behaviour 

  • Observed in lapieres study (on chinese people) 

Eg. i want to go to the gym, but i dont want want to go alone and none of my friends will go with me so ∴ i will not go 

factors to that lead to “planned behaviour’ and wanting to carry out their attitudes

• a) attitude – “i want to be healthy”

• b) perceived social norms  — “your neighbors are healthy"

• c) perceived feelings of control – “i can do this! ”

  • Difficult in the context of quitting something 

• ⇒ lead to behaviour intention ⇒ guide behaviour → “i AM going to do this.. And i WILL” 

  • Will ū see strong intention, but often times people will see barriers of overcoming the social norms and feeling of control 

⇒ if a, b, c… if one of these factors are NOT aligned = will less likely for people to act on their attitudes and follow out thru these behaviorus