A brief run-through of Attitude (rough notes only)

I. The Nature of Attitude

A. > Definition – no precise definition but most psychologists concur that it consist of an
enduring evaluation (whether positive of negative) of people, objects and ideas.
> Not only feelings but also thoughts and tendencies to behave in particular ways towards
the object of attitude.

B. Three Components? Antecedents? Areas?

i. Cognitive – thoughts, beliefs towards the attitude object
ii. Affective – feelings/emotions towards the attitude object
iii. Behavioral – response tendencies towards the attitude object
 generally, the 3 components are consistent with each other, but may not always be
consistent with each other.
 Question to consider: which of the three tends to exert a more powerful effect?

II. The Formation of Attitude

A. Encountering the Attitude Object
i. Direct, some of our attitudes develop from actual experiences
ii. Indirect, through association (Classical Conditioning)
B. Parents and Peer Groups, great influence through:
i. reinforcement or operant conditioning, immediate reward
ii. social learning, through observation/imitation
C. Media Influence, can create attitude through info usually those info that affect an individual;
or can reinforce those that already exist
D. ABC Model of Attitude (Chaiken and Eagly, 1993), formation of attitude through affective,
cognitive or behavioral processes

III. Attitude and Behavior

A. What attitudes and what behavior? Can attitude predict behavior? There is a difficulty in
predicting behavior from attitudes. Why?
 Level of specificity at which attitude and behavior are measured
 Situational influences; don’t have another choice, that is, doing the behavior even when
attitude towards it is negative
 Behavior is related to more that one attitude

* Theory of planned behavior (Martin Fishbein and Izek Ajzen, 1991; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975)
- the best predictor of a person’s planned and deliberate behaviors are the person’s attitudes
toward specific behaviors and his/her subjective norms (his/her perceived expectations of
significant others)
- when people have time to contemplate how they are going to behave, the best predictor of
their behavior is their intention

Attitude towards
behavior
Behavior Behavior intention (is it effective?
(sipaon nako ako (para makabalos ko kay Ganahan ba ko manipa?)
igsoon) gikawat niya akong piso)

Subjective social norms

(ganahan si lalabs kung
manipa ko?)

* See Strangor (2015) for the 1991 illustration of the theory

If attitude does not easily predict behavior,

A. Then how do attitude influence behavior? How are attitudes, which are primarily internal,
be translated to behavior which can be observed? Process of how attitude influence
behavior:
1. if it is in our working memory – can be remembered at the moment (accessible memory)
2. over-all strength – attitudes formed from direct experience are stronger than #1
 3. immediate events – like direct questioning, only when you’re asked of the attitude object
can you remember your attitude towards it; and/or sensory cues
4. behavior performance – something done which will have a direct implication to ones attitude

IV. Attitude Change, every attempt to change how we think, feel and behave hound us: from our parent,
family, friends, media, among others
A. Process of Attitude Change
i. The Stages of Attitude Change
1. Attention – not all messages we see are noticed; to cater to attitude change,
attention should be attained (get attention)
2. Comprehension – we may get the attention but do we understand? The message
may be too complex or ambiguous thus confusion may occur.
3. Acceptance – decision to accept communication depends on incentives that are
offered
ii. Elements of Persuasion, factors that determine whether we decide to change or not;
persuade – to cause someone to change his/her thinking and behavior
1. Source’s credibility, communicator may be more important than the message.
Components that can affect credibility:
a. Expertise, experts on a field are more credible
b. Trustworthiness, source is trustworthy if he talks against his interest; seen as
less bias
c. Physical Attractiveness, degree to which it can change attitude depends on the
media: with TV or print (visual media), it matters; with radio (audio) and written
words, doesn’t matter
d. Similarity, source’s ways which are relevant to the issue that recipient can relate
to.
2. Message, what is being communicated. 3 Factors that affect the message:
a. Content – are both sides of the argument presented? Should we scare people
(fear arousal)?
i. Magnitude of unpleasantness: relatively unpleasant message may cater to
attitude change than very unpleasant messages
ii. Probability that it would happen to you may cater to attitude change
iii. What people perceive dictates how unpleasant a message is
b. Organization – how organized is the message presented?
c. Medium – which media is used?
3. Context upon which persuading is done
4. Recipient

B. Theories of Attitude Change

Social Judgment Theory
o social judgment is an individual’s perception and judgment of a message
o considers attitude not as a single point but a range
o when the message is consistent with the thinking/feeling of the receiver, there is
latitude of acceptance; there is no attitude change
o when the message is in-between (being consistent AND discrepant), OR if
message is wrongly imparted (falling between the latitude of acceptance AND
rejection), there is latitude of non-commitment; there is attitude change
Balance Theory
o a balanced system is one in which you agree with a liked person or disagree with a
disliked person.
o Imbalance is uncomfortable and leads to pressures to change.
o People will change as few affective relations as they can and still produce a balance
system.
o Balanced pressures seen to be weaker when you dislike the other person than when
you like him/her. It appears that we simply do not care very much whether we agree
or disagree with someone we dislike; we just cut off the relationship and forget about
the whole thing.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
- Dissonance is created when some behavior we have engaged in is inconsistent with
our attitudes. This dissonance creates psychological tension, and people feel
pressured to reduce or remove it.
- Attitudes will change in order to maintain consistency with overt behavior. Two
principal sources of attitude-behavior inconsistency are
  the effects of making decision, and
 the effects of engaging in behavior that goes against one’s attitudes.

- Postdecision dissonance: dissonance is reduced by increasing the attractiveness of the chosen

alternatives and/or decreasing the attractiveness of the unchosen alternative. The tendency toward
reevaluation is particularly strong when the two alternatives are initially close in attractiveness.

- Attitude-discrepant (or counterattitudinal behavior): When an individual holds a belief and performs
an act inconsistent with it, dissonance is produced. Since the behavior had already been done,
dissonance reduction takes the form of attitude change.

- The main preconditions for the arousal of cognitive dissonance and subsequent attitude change
are:
1. minimum incentives – enough to cause the behavior but not enough to justify it;
2. perceived choice – the absence of choice does not create dissonance;
3. irrevocable commitment – that is, feeling irreversibly committed to the course of action;
otherwise, no dissonance is aroused if the person feels he/she can get out of the decision
if it works badly;
4. foreseeable consequences/responsibility for consequences – if there is no way for the
person to have foreseen the negative outcome or if the person feels no responsibility for
the outcome, there is no dissonance regardless of how disastrous the result is;
5. great effort – the more effort one takes in doing a behavioral act that has negative
consequences, the more dissonance should be aroused

C. When attitudes don’t change, conditions when attitudes don’t change:

I. Anticipatory attitude change:
- attitudes can change even before a person receives a persuasive message: this is referred
to as anticipatory attitude change.
A. Elasticity (Cialdini, et al, 1973):
 in response to various pressures, people moderate their position within a limited
range: however, when the outside pressure disappear, their attitudes snap back to
their original positions.
 Attitude change in the laboratory reflects this
B. Anticipatory change as a form of Impression Management:
 people moderate their original position in attempt to appear broad-minded to others.
 Concerns with appearing moderate and reasonable happen only when people have
no personal investment in an issue.

II. Resistance to persuasion:

* forewarning about an attempt to persuade may lead some to anticipatory attitude
change but some evidence suggests that in the long run, forewarning encourages
resistance to the attempt

A. Inoculation (McGuire, 1964)

1. Experiment:
 before hearing a persuasive message, subjects were presented with the following:
 first group: arguments which supported group’s initial beliefs
 second group: arguments that refuted the counterarguments that would be
used in the subsequent persuasion
 third group: arguments that refuted counterarguments that would not be
used in the actual communication.
 Findings:
 First group: pax who heard arguments that supported their initial position
showed the least resistance to persuasion
 Second group: pax who were exposed to weakened form of
counterarguments used in the attack showed the most resistance
 Conclusions: exposure to a weakened form of a message can be effective in
producing defenses

2. Exposure to counterarguments INOCULATES a person against the subsequent

attack

B.Forewarning (even without the supplying counterarguments)

 Petty and Cacioppo, 1977
 when people are warned of a forthcoming message and are given time to think about
the issue, they consider their own positions and alternative positions, and they
generate cognitive defenses against the impending assault