4: Attitude and Behavior

Attitudes

A learned tendency to view and judge things in a certain way. This can include an evaluation of people, issues, objects, policies, or events.

Affective Component

How the object, person, issue, or event makes you feel

Behavioral Component

How you respond to someone or something that elicits a set of feelings and beliefs. This can be a verbal or a physical response.

Cognitive Component

Your perception, ideas, and beliefs about the subject matter.

Attitude strength

Strong attitudes are those that are firmly held and that highly influence behavior.

Attitude accessibility

The accessibility of an attitude refers to the ease with which it comes to mind. In general, highly accessible attitudes tend to be stronger.

Attitude ambivalence

Ambivalence of an attitude refers to the ratio of positive and negative evaluations that make up that attitude.

Daniel Katz

He proposed the FUNTIONAL THEORY OF ATTITUDES.

Functional Theory of Attitudes

People hold specific attitudes because these attitudes serve vital psychological functions and help satisfy underlying personal needs

Utilitarian (Instrumental)

You develop favorable attitudes toward things that bring rewards or help avoid punishments.

Knowledge

Attitudes formed to help organize and make sense of a complex, unpredictable world.

Ego-Defensive

Attitudes that protect a person's self-esteem or shield them from harsh realities.

Value-Expressive

Attitudes that allow individuals to express their core values, self-concept, and central identity.

Self-presentation theory

Assumes that people, especially those who self-monitor their behavior hoping to create good impressions, will adapt their attitude reports to appear consistent with their actions.

Dissonance theory

Explains this attitude change by assuming that we feel tension after acting contrary to our attitudes or making difficult decisions. To reduce that arousal, we internally justify our behavior.

Self-perception theory

Assumes that when our attitudes are weak, we simply observe our behavior and its circumstances, then infer our attitudes.

Classical Conditioning

a type of learning that happens unconsciously

Operant conditioning

Consider how rewards and punishments can influence our attitudes.

Self-monitoring

Differences in how people vary their behavior across social situations

High self-monitors

Oriented to situational cues and tune their behavior to the social situation

Low self-monitors

tend to behave in ways that are consistent with their values and tend not to mold their behavior to the social situation.