Ch 4 attitude and behavior

Chapter 4: Attitude and Behavior

1⃣ Attitudes & Behavior

• Definition of Attitude

  • A positive or negative evaluation of objects, people, or issues.

Components of Attitude (ABC Model):

• Affective (Feeling)

  • Emotions toward an object/person (e.g., fear of spiders).

• Behavioral (Action)

  • How we act toward the object (e.g., avoiding spiders).

• Cognitive (Belief)

  • Thoughts about the object (e.g., "spiders are dangerous").

Attitude & Cognitive Schemas

• Attitudes influence information interpretation (e.g., different views on marriage affecting interpretations of teen pregnancy).

Measuring Attitude

• Methods:

  • Interviews, Surveys, and Questionnaires.

  • Scales:

    • Likert Scale

    • Semantic Differential Scale.

How Attitudes Form

• Social Learning:

  • Influences from parents, peers, and media.

• Classical Conditioning:

  • Associating experiences with feelings.

• Instrumental Conditioning:

  • Influences from reward and punishment.

• Social Comparison:

  • Adopting attitudes from admired individuals.

• Biological Factors:

  • Similar attitudes in twins raised apart.

2⃣ When Attitudes Predict Behavior

• Richard LaPiere’s Study (1934):

  • Discrepancy between attitudes and actions (businesses' claims vs. practices regarding Chinese customers).

• Moral Hypocrisy (Batson, 2002):

  • Displaying moral behavior while avoiding its costs (e.g., students against cheating who still cheat).

Conditions When Attitudes Predict Behavior (Myers, 2007):

1. Minimal Social Influences

• Less external pressure results in behavior consistent with attitudes.

2. Minimal Other Influences

• Fewer distractions enhance predictive power of attitudes.

3. Specific Attitudes

• Specific attitudes toward behavior lead to better prediction (e.g., exercise attitudes predicting workouts).

4. Strong & Accessible Attitudes

• Important personal attitudes significantly influence behavior.

Other Factors influence attitude

• Situation:

  • More likely to act when external barriers are low.

• Attitude Strength:

  • Stronger attitudes result in stronger behavioral influence.

• Personality (Self-Monitoring):

  • Low self-monitors are more consistent with attitudes than high self-monitors.

Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen)

• Behavior is influenced by:

  • Attitude Toward Behavior:

    • E.g., "I like psychology."

  • Subjective Norms:

    • Influence of others (e.g., "My role models study psychology.").

  • Perceived Control:

    • Belief in ability (e.g., "I can succeed in psychology.").

3⃣ When Behavior Affects Attitudes

• Role-Playing Effect (Zimbardo’s Prison Study, 1971):

  • Acting in roles changes self-perception and attitudes.

• Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon:

  • Agreeing to a small request increases likelihood of agreeing to a larger one.

• Evil & Moral Acts:

  • Justification of unethical behavior.

• Political & Racial Acts:

  • Beliefs formed based on defense of positions.

4⃣ Why Behavior Affects Attitudes

• Self-Presentation Theory (Impression Management):

  • Individuals seek consistency, aligning behavior with attitudes.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger, 1957):

• Dissonance:

  • Occurs when attitudes and behavior conflict, causing discomfort.

• Reducing Dissonance:

  1. Change Attitude

     • Align with behavior.

  2. Change Behavior

     • Align with attitude.

  3. Justify Behavior

     • Rationalize actions (e.g., saying an experiment was interesting due to low payment).

Self-Perception Theory (Bem, 1972):

• Inference of attitudes based on behavior (e.g., "I run often, so I must like running.").

🔥 Summary of Key Takeaways

1. Attitudes do not always predict behavior unless social and external influences are minimal.

2. Behaviors can shape attitudes through role-playing, commitment, and justification.

Page 3 Summary

3. Cognitive dissonance occurs when actions contradict attitudes, leading to attitude change.

4. Self-perception theory explains how we form attitudes based on observing our own actions.