"Ed Sheeran's music is great!"
"I like my job."
"Government spending causes inflation."
Each of these statements represents an attitude, a predisposition to respond to a particular object in a generally favorable or unfavorable way (Ajzen, 1982). A person's attitudes influence the way in which he or she perceives and responds to the world (Allport, 1935,Thomas, 1918).
Attitudes influence attention : The person who likes Ed Sheeran's music is more likely to notice news related to his activities.
Attitudes influence behavior: The young man who opposes the reservation bill is more likely to participate in a demonstration against the reservation bill.
Because attitudes are an important influence on people, they occupy a central place in social psychology. Attitudes do not exist in isolation. The person who believes that government spending causes inflation has a whole set of beliefs about the role of government in the economy and this attitude about spending is related to those other beliefs. If attitudes influence behavior, the behavior of the people can be changed by changing their attitudes.
An attitude exists in a person's mind. It is a mental state. Attitudes refer to our evaluation of any aspect of the social world. These evaluation's can be favorable or unfavorable reactions to issues, ideas, persons social group objects or any other element of the social world.
The ABC Model suggests that an attitude has three components: affect, behavior and cognition (Rajecki, 1989). Consider the following statement "I am in favor of legalized abortion."This attitude has all the three components, i.e. affect or evaluative component, a behavioral predisposition and cognition or beliefs.
An attitude has an affect (or evaluative) component which encompasses our positive or negative emotions about an object, an event, a person or an issue." My physics class is really boring" indicates that the course arouses a mildly unpleasant emotion in the speaker. Stronger negative emotions include dislike or hatred. The evaluation may also be positive." I like classic music" or the food is terrific!" The affect or evaluative component has both a direction (either positive or negative) and an intensity ranging from very weak to very strong.
An attitude involves a predisposition to respond or a behavioral tendency toward the object."Its boring" implies a tendency to avoid the class."I like my job " suggests an intention to go to work. Persons having a specific attitude are inclined to behave in certain ways towards an object.
An attitude includes an object label rules for applying the label and a set of cognition or knowledge structure associated with that label. The person who doesn't like his physics class perceives it as involving certain content, taught by a particular person.
Cognitive, evaluative and behavioral components are distinct, although they have the same object, but they are related at the same time.
The degree of consistency between components is related to other characteristics of the attitude. Greater consistency between the cognitive and affective components is associated with greater attitude stability and resistance to persuasion. Greater consistency is also associated with a stronger relationship between attitudes and behavior.
We acquire attitudes through learning and we retain them for months or years as they serve important functions for us (Katz,1960). One way of measuring the functions of an attitude is to have people write essays about an attitude object and analyze the essays for themes or patterns. Each attitude serves at least one of the three functions.
• Heuristic or Instrumental function
We develop favorable attitudes towards objects that reward us and unfavorable attitudes towards objects that thwart or punish us. Once they are developed, attitudes provide a simple and efficient means of evaluating objects. When people learn that fast foods like pizzas, burgers and fries contain higher levels of fats, which Increase the blood cholesterol levels, people who are health conscious develop an unfavorable attitude towards the fast foods.
• Schematic or Knowledge function
Attitudes provide us with a meaningful environment and guide behavior. Since the world is too complex to understand people, objects, and events are grouped into categories or scheme and we developed simplified attitudes. that allow us to treat individuals as members of a category, Our attitudes about that category (object) provide us with meaning, with a basis for making inferences about the person. The belief of Americans that Indians are occupying pivotal positions in their country at the cost of their opportunities leads some of the Americans to be more cautious in their dealings with Indians. Reacting to every member of the group in the same way is more efficient, than trying to learn about each as an individual.
• Attitudes define the self and maintain self worth -Some attitudes express the individual's basic values and reinforce self-image. Many conservatives in our society have negative attitudes towards widow remarriages, inter caste marriages and equal rights for women. A person whose self-concept includes conservatism may adopt these attitudes because they express that self-image. The attitude "movement of planets and stars have an impact on human life" is widespread among the members of the Astrological community. Holding this. attitude is a prerequisite to acceptance by other group members and a symbol of loyalty to the group.
Some attitudes protect the person from recognizing certain thoughts or feelings that threaten his self-image or adjustment. For instance, a child may have feelings, which he cannot accept such as hostility towards his father. If he recognized this hostility he would feel guilty so instead of accepting that he hates his father, he may direct anger and hatred toward member of a minority group or authority figures such as police officers or teachers.
People do not enter the world holding well-defined attitudes toward any peculiar person or object but anyone who has seen an infant smile at her parents knows that at least certain attitudes develop quickly. The principles which govern how attitudes are acquired and developed in the children continue to operate throughout life.
"Women are conservative.".
"Asians are good at maths."
"Nuclear power plants are dangerous."
These attitudes may be formed through associations of stimuli and responses (classical conditioning), through reinforcement (instrumental conditioning),or by observing others ( observational learning)
We acquire attitudes and prejudice toward a particular group through classical 'conditioning, in which a neutral stimulus gradually acquires the ability to.elicit a response through repeated association with other stimuli that elicit that response. Children learn at an early age that "lazy" "dirty" "stupid" and many other characteristics are undesirable. If they hear their parents refer to members of a particular group as lazy or stupid children associate the group name with the negative reactions initially elicited by these terms. Several experiments have shown that classical conditioning can produce negative attitudes toward groups.
We acquire an attitude toward our classes and jobs through instrumental conditioning i.e., learning based on direct experience with the object. If we experience rewards related to some object, our attitude will be favorable. For instance if our work provides us with good pay, a sense of accomplishment and compliments from coworkers, our attitude toward job will be positive. On the other hand if we associate negative emotions or unpleasant outcomes with the job we will dislike it.
Most of our attitudes are based not on direct contact with the object. We have attitudes about many political figures and toward members of certain religious or caste groups, although we have never met the members of these groups. Attitudes of this type are learned through our interaction with parents as part of the socialization process. Research shows that child's attitudes toward male female relations (gender roles), divorce and politics are similar to those held by their parents (Dunham, 1986). This influence also involves instrumental learning -parents reward their children for adopting the similar attitudes.
Another process through which attitudes are formed is observational learning in which individuals acquire new forms of behavior or thought through observing others. For example children learn many things through observation including attitudes their parents may not want the children to acquire such as positive views of smoking. Both children and adults acquire attitudes even through exposure to the mass media especially television, magazines and films. The attitude that "Nuclear power plants are dangerous" may result from exposure to TV news and magazines.
Attitudes are also acquired through the mechanism of social comparison. It is a process through which we compare ourselves to others in order to determine whether our view of social reality is or is not correct. If our views agree with those of others to a great extent we conclude that our ideas and attitudes are accurate. Sometimes, the process of social comparison may contribute to the formation of new attitudes.
Genetic factors not only influence our height, eye color and other physical traits but there is growing evidence, which indicates that genetic factors also influence our attitudes. The evidence for the role of genetic factors in attitudes involves comparisons between identical and non identical twins. The attitudes of identical twins separated very early in life correlate more highly than those of unrelated persons or even those of non identical twins. This finding provides evidence for the view that attitudes are influenced by genetic factors, at least to some extent. The results also suggest that genetic factors play a stronger role in shaping some attitudes that -others i.e, some attitudes are more heritable than others. Attitudes involving gut level preferences (e.g.-a preference for certain kind of music) may be strongly influenced by genetic factors than attitudes that are more cognitive in nature (eg, attitudes about abstract principles or about situations and objects with which individuals had little direct experience). Attitudes that are highly heritable maybe more difficult to change than ones that are not and that highly heritable attitudes may exert stronger effects on behavior.
When attitudes influence, behavior, depend on moderators-which arc the factors that influence the extent to which attitudes affect behavior. Two important moderators are aspects of the situation and aspects of attitudes themselves.
In many contexts, situational constraints moderate the relationship between attitudes and behavior. They prevent attitudes from being expressed in overt behavior. For instance, when you are in a restaurant eating with a group of friends and when the food arrives you noticed that it is_not what you ordered or it is cold. But when you are asked, "how is the food"? You may answer "fine." In this situation, you did not express your true reactions and your behavior did not reflect your underlying attitudes. The reason for your reluctance to complain about food is simply because you have to wait until the mistake is corrected or you have to watch your friends eat while you have no food.
The attitudes and behavior is strongly determined by several aspects of attitudes.
It refers to the extent to which attitudes are focused on specific objects, eg, you may have a general attitude toward religion (e.g. you believe that it is important for every one to have religious convictions) and you may also have specific attitudes about various aspects of religion like, about the importance of attending or practicing religious rituals. Research findings indicate that the attitude behavior link is stronger when attitudes and behavior are measured at the same level of specificity.
The existing evidence suggests that attitudes affect behavior and this depends on factors like situational constrains and several aspects of attitudes themselves.
Attitudes are evaluations of aspects of the social world. Every attitude has three components-cognition, evaluation and a behavioral predisposition toward some objects. We learn attitudes through reinforcement, through repeated associations of stimuli and responses and by observing others. Attitudes are also formed on the basis of social comparison. Studies conducted with identical twins suggest that attitudes may also be influenced by genetic factors. Attitudes are useful they may serve instrumental as knowledge functions and they define and maintain self. Several factors serve as moderators of the link between attitudes and behavior, affecting the strength of this relationship. These moderators are situational constraints and several aspects of attitudes.
"I like my job."
"Government spending causes inflation."
Each of these statements represents an attitude, a predisposition to respond to a particular object in a generally favorable or unfavorable way (Ajzen, 1982). A person's attitudes influence the way in which he or she perceives and responds to the world (Allport, 1935,Thomas, 1918).
Attitudes influence attention : The person who likes Ed Sheeran's music is more likely to notice news related to his activities.
Attitudes influence behavior: The young man who opposes the reservation bill is more likely to participate in a demonstration against the reservation bill.
Because attitudes are an important influence on people, they occupy a central place in social psychology. Attitudes do not exist in isolation. The person who believes that government spending causes inflation has a whole set of beliefs about the role of government in the economy and this attitude about spending is related to those other beliefs. If attitudes influence behavior, the behavior of the people can be changed by changing their attitudes.
THE NATURE OF ATTITUDES
An attitude exists in a person's mind. It is a mental state. Attitudes refer to our evaluation of any aspect of the social world. These evaluation's can be favorable or unfavorable reactions to issues, ideas, persons social group objects or any other element of the social world.
THE COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDE
The ABC Model suggests that an attitude has three components: affect, behavior and cognition (Rajecki, 1989). Consider the following statement "I am in favor of legalized abortion."This attitude has all the three components, i.e. affect or evaluative component, a behavioral predisposition and cognition or beliefs.
AFFECT
An attitude has an affect (or evaluative) component which encompasses our positive or negative emotions about an object, an event, a person or an issue." My physics class is really boring" indicates that the course arouses a mildly unpleasant emotion in the speaker. Stronger negative emotions include dislike or hatred. The evaluation may also be positive." I like classic music" or the food is terrific!" The affect or evaluative component has both a direction (either positive or negative) and an intensity ranging from very weak to very strong.
BEHAVIOR
An attitude involves a predisposition to respond or a behavioral tendency toward the object."Its boring" implies a tendency to avoid the class."I like my job " suggests an intention to go to work. Persons having a specific attitude are inclined to behave in certain ways towards an object.
COGNITION
An attitude includes an object label rules for applying the label and a set of cognition or knowledge structure associated with that label. The person who doesn't like his physics class perceives it as involving certain content, taught by a particular person.
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE COMPONENTS:
Cognitive, evaluative and behavioral components are distinct, although they have the same object, but they are related at the same time.
The degree of consistency between components is related to other characteristics of the attitude. Greater consistency between the cognitive and affective components is associated with greater attitude stability and resistance to persuasion. Greater consistency is also associated with a stronger relationship between attitudes and behavior.
THE FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDES
We acquire attitudes through learning and we retain them for months or years as they serve important functions for us (Katz,1960). One way of measuring the functions of an attitude is to have people write essays about an attitude object and analyze the essays for themes or patterns. Each attitude serves at least one of the three functions.
• Heuristic or Instrumental function
We develop favorable attitudes towards objects that reward us and unfavorable attitudes towards objects that thwart or punish us. Once they are developed, attitudes provide a simple and efficient means of evaluating objects. When people learn that fast foods like pizzas, burgers and fries contain higher levels of fats, which Increase the blood cholesterol levels, people who are health conscious develop an unfavorable attitude towards the fast foods.
• Schematic or Knowledge function
Attitudes provide us with a meaningful environment and guide behavior. Since the world is too complex to understand people, objects, and events are grouped into categories or scheme and we developed simplified attitudes. that allow us to treat individuals as members of a category, Our attitudes about that category (object) provide us with meaning, with a basis for making inferences about the person. The belief of Americans that Indians are occupying pivotal positions in their country at the cost of their opportunities leads some of the Americans to be more cautious in their dealings with Indians. Reacting to every member of the group in the same way is more efficient, than trying to learn about each as an individual.
• Attitudes define the self and maintain self worth -Some attitudes express the individual's basic values and reinforce self-image. Many conservatives in our society have negative attitudes towards widow remarriages, inter caste marriages and equal rights for women. A person whose self-concept includes conservatism may adopt these attitudes because they express that self-image. The attitude "movement of planets and stars have an impact on human life" is widespread among the members of the Astrological community. Holding this. attitude is a prerequisite to acceptance by other group members and a symbol of loyalty to the group.
Some attitudes protect the person from recognizing certain thoughts or feelings that threaten his self-image or adjustment. For instance, a child may have feelings, which he cannot accept such as hostility towards his father. If he recognized this hostility he would feel guilty so instead of accepting that he hates his father, he may direct anger and hatred toward member of a minority group or authority figures such as police officers or teachers.
ATTITUDE FORMATION
People do not enter the world holding well-defined attitudes toward any peculiar person or object but anyone who has seen an infant smile at her parents knows that at least certain attitudes develop quickly. The principles which govern how attitudes are acquired and developed in the children continue to operate throughout life.
"Women are conservative.".
"Asians are good at maths."
"Nuclear power plants are dangerous."
These attitudes may be formed through associations of stimuli and responses (classical conditioning), through reinforcement (instrumental conditioning),or by observing others ( observational learning)
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING :
We acquire attitudes and prejudice toward a particular group through classical 'conditioning, in which a neutral stimulus gradually acquires the ability to.elicit a response through repeated association with other stimuli that elicit that response. Children learn at an early age that "lazy" "dirty" "stupid" and many other characteristics are undesirable. If they hear their parents refer to members of a particular group as lazy or stupid children associate the group name with the negative reactions initially elicited by these terms. Several experiments have shown that classical conditioning can produce negative attitudes toward groups.
INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING :
We acquire an attitude toward our classes and jobs through instrumental conditioning i.e., learning based on direct experience with the object. If we experience rewards related to some object, our attitude will be favorable. For instance if our work provides us with good pay, a sense of accomplishment and compliments from coworkers, our attitude toward job will be positive. On the other hand if we associate negative emotions or unpleasant outcomes with the job we will dislike it.
Most of our attitudes are based not on direct contact with the object. We have attitudes about many political figures and toward members of certain religious or caste groups, although we have never met the members of these groups. Attitudes of this type are learned through our interaction with parents as part of the socialization process. Research shows that child's attitudes toward male female relations (gender roles), divorce and politics are similar to those held by their parents (Dunham, 1986). This influence also involves instrumental learning -parents reward their children for adopting the similar attitudes.
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING :
Another process through which attitudes are formed is observational learning in which individuals acquire new forms of behavior or thought through observing others. For example children learn many things through observation including attitudes their parents may not want the children to acquire such as positive views of smoking. Both children and adults acquire attitudes even through exposure to the mass media especially television, magazines and films. The attitude that "Nuclear power plants are dangerous" may result from exposure to TV news and magazines.
SOCIAL COMPARISON :
Attitudes are also acquired through the mechanism of social comparison. It is a process through which we compare ourselves to others in order to determine whether our view of social reality is or is not correct. If our views agree with those of others to a great extent we conclude that our ideas and attitudes are accurate. Sometimes, the process of social comparison may contribute to the formation of new attitudes.
GENETIC FACTORS :
Genetic factors not only influence our height, eye color and other physical traits but there is growing evidence, which indicates that genetic factors also influence our attitudes. The evidence for the role of genetic factors in attitudes involves comparisons between identical and non identical twins. The attitudes of identical twins separated very early in life correlate more highly than those of unrelated persons or even those of non identical twins. This finding provides evidence for the view that attitudes are influenced by genetic factors, at least to some extent. The results also suggest that genetic factors play a stronger role in shaping some attitudes that -others i.e, some attitudes are more heritable than others. Attitudes involving gut level preferences (e.g.-a preference for certain kind of music) may be strongly influenced by genetic factors than attitudes that are more cognitive in nature (eg, attitudes about abstract principles or about situations and objects with which individuals had little direct experience). Attitudes that are highly heritable maybe more difficult to change than ones that are not and that highly heritable attitudes may exert stronger effects on behavior.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR
When attitudes influence, behavior, depend on moderators-which arc the factors that influence the extent to which attitudes affect behavior. Two important moderators are aspects of the situation and aspects of attitudes themselves.
ASPECTS OF THE SITUATION :
In many contexts, situational constraints moderate the relationship between attitudes and behavior. They prevent attitudes from being expressed in overt behavior. For instance, when you are in a restaurant eating with a group of friends and when the food arrives you noticed that it is_not what you ordered or it is cold. But when you are asked, "how is the food"? You may answer "fine." In this situation, you did not express your true reactions and your behavior did not reflect your underlying attitudes. The reason for your reluctance to complain about food is simply because you have to wait until the mistake is corrected or you have to watch your friends eat while you have no food.
ASPECTS OF ATTITUDES :
The attitudes and behavior is strongly determined by several aspects of attitudes.
ATTITUDE ORIGIN
Evidence indicates that attitudes formed on the basis of direct experience often exert stronger effects on behavior than ones formed indirectly, through hear say.ATTITUDE STRENGTH
The stronger the attitudes the greater their impact on behavior. The term strength refers to several components the extremity or intensity of an attitude (how strong is the emotions' reaction provided by the attitude object), its importance (the extent to which an individual cares deeply about and is personally affected by the attitude), know ledge (how much an individual knows about the attitude objects) an individual knows about the attitude object), and accessibility (how easily the attitude comes to mind in various situations).ATTITUDE SPECIFICITY
It refers to the extent to which attitudes are focused on specific objects, eg, you may have a general attitude toward religion (e.g. you believe that it is important for every one to have religious convictions) and you may also have specific attitudes about various aspects of religion like, about the importance of attending or practicing religious rituals. Research findings indicate that the attitude behavior link is stronger when attitudes and behavior are measured at the same level of specificity.
The existing evidence suggests that attitudes affect behavior and this depends on factors like situational constrains and several aspects of attitudes themselves.
SUMMARY
Attitudes are evaluations of aspects of the social world. Every attitude has three components-cognition, evaluation and a behavioral predisposition toward some objects. We learn attitudes through reinforcement, through repeated associations of stimuli and responses and by observing others. Attitudes are also formed on the basis of social comparison. Studies conducted with identical twins suggest that attitudes may also be influenced by genetic factors. Attitudes are useful they may serve instrumental as knowledge functions and they define and maintain self. Several factors serve as moderators of the link between attitudes and behavior, affecting the strength of this relationship. These moderators are situational constraints and several aspects of attitudes.