• Introduction

An attitude is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor. Attitudes are enduring evaluations of people, objects, and ideas. They are significant because they can influence our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors towards the attitude object. Attitudes help us to navigate our social world by providing quick assessments of what is good or bad, helpful or harmful.

➥ Components of Attitudes (The ABC Model)

1. Affective Component (Feelings) This component involves the emotional reactions or feelings associated with the attitude object. It encompasses the positive or negative emotions, moods, and physiological responses evoked by the object. Examples: Fear of snakes.
2. Behavioral Component (Actions) This component refers to how we behave or are inclined to behave towards the attitude object. It includes our overt actions as well as our intentions or behavioral tendencies. Examples: Avoiding snakes due to fear.
3. Cognitive Component (Thoughts) This component consists of the beliefs, thoughts, and attributes we associate with the attitude object. It includes our knowledge, opinions, and stereotypes about the object. Examples: Belief that snakes are dangerous.

➥ Functions of Attitudes

1. Knowledge Function: Attitudes provide us with a framework for organizing and interpreting information about the world. They help us make sense of new situations and predict what to expect, thus simplifying our decision-making processes. Essentially, attitudes help us understand and structure our environment.
2. Utilitarian Function (Instrumental/Adjustive): Attitudes can help us gain rewards and avoid punishments. We tend to develop positive attitudes towards things that benefit us and negative attitudes towards things that are harmful or don’t provide any benefit. This function emphasizes the practical advantages of holding certain attitudes.
3. Ego-Defensive Function: Attitudes can serve to protect our self-esteem or justify actions that make us feel guilty. By holding certain attitudes, we can shield ourselves from unpleasant realities or internal conflicts. These attitudes help us maintain a positive self-image.
4. Value-Expressive Function: Attitudes can allow us to express our core values, beliefs, and self-concept. By publicly stating our attitudes, we communicate who we are and what we care about to others. These attitudes help us express our identity and connect with like-minded individuals.
5. Social-Adjustive Function: Attitudes can help us fit in with social groups and gain acceptance from others. We may adopt attitudes that are prevalent among our friends, family, or social groups to foster social harmony and belonging. These attitudes help us navigate social relationships and gain approval.

• Formation of Attitude

Attitudes form through socialization, experiences, and thinking patterns.

• Socialization: Influences from family, peers, and society shape beliefs.
• Life Experiences: Past encounters affect future opinions.
• Cognitive Processes: Information is interpreted in ways that support existing views.
• Changeability: Some attitudes are deeply rooted, while others evolve with new experiences and perspectives.

• Theories of Attitudes

Theories of attitudes explain how and why people form and maintain their viewpoints.

• Katz’s Theory (1960): Attitudes serve different functions—knowledge (understanding the world), instrumentality (goal achievement), ego defense (self-esteem protection), and value expressiveness (reflecting personal values).
• Fazio’s Perspective (1989): The key role of attitudes is object appraisal, helping individuals assess things as good or bad efficiently.
• Cognitive Consistency Theories (1950s-1960s): People strive for internal consistency in their beliefs, avoiding contradictions and reinforcing agreement among their thoughts.

➥ Balance Theory (Heider, 1958)

Balance theory focuses on how individuals strive for cognitive consistency in their relationships and attitudes towards other people and objects. It proposes that people prefer balanced states, where the relationships between themselves (P), another person (O), and an attitude object (X) are harmonious. These relationships can be positive (+) or negative (-).

A balanced state exists when the product of the signs of the three relationships is positive (+). An unbalanced state creates psychological discomfort, motivating the individual to restore balance by changing one or more of the relationships.

• Triads: The theory examines triads consisting of P-O, P-X, and O-X relationships. For example:
  • If you like a friend (P+O) and your friend likes a certain band (O+X), you will likely develop a positive attitude towards the band (P+X) to maintain balance.
  • If you like a friend (P+O) but your friend dislikes something you like (O-X), this creates imbalance, and you might try to change your friend’s attitude, change your own attitude, or decide the issue isn’t that important.

➥ Cognition and Evaluation

This area likely explores how our thoughts (cognitions) influence our evaluations (attitudes). The mention of the “socio-cognitive model” suggests a perspective that integrates social and cognitive processes in understanding attitude formation and change.

• Socio-Cognitive Model: This model probably emphasizes that attitudes are not formed in isolation but are influenced by social context, information processing, and individual cognitions. It likely highlights how we process information about the attitude object, integrate it with existing beliefs and values, and form an overall evaluation. This might involve aspects like:
  • Information Processing: How we attend to, interpret, and remember information related to the attitude object.
  • Heuristics and Biases: Mental shortcuts and systematic errors in thinking that can influence attitude formation and change.
  • Social Comparison: Comparing our attitudes with those of others, especially within our reference groups.

➥ Beliefs, Intentions, and Behavior

Beliefs and intentions together shape behavior, with stronger core beliefs influencing actions more than general ones.

• Specific and General Attitudes: This distinction is crucial.
  • Specific Attitudes: Attitudes towards a particular behavior or object in a specific context. These attitudes are generally better predictors of specific behaviors. For example, your attitude towards recycling paper at home is a specific attitude that is likely to predict whether you actually recycle paper at home.
  • General Attitudes: Broader attitudes towards a category of objects or behaviors. These attitudes are less effective at predicting specific behaviors. For instance, a general positive attitude towards environmentalism might not strongly predict whether you will choose to walk instead of drive on a particular day.

• Reasoned Action (Theory of Reasoned Action – TRA) (Fishbein & Ajzen, early 1970s)
  • Attitude toward the behavior: As mentioned earlier, this is your positive or negative evaluation of performing the specific behavior. It is based on your beliefs about the consequences of the behavior and your evaluation of those consequences.
  • Subjective norms: These are your perceptions of what important others (e.g., family, friends, colleagues) think you should do and your motivation to comply with their views.

➥ Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991)

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), developed by Icek Ajzen (1991), expands on the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to predict deliberate behavior. It emphasizes how attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control influence behavioral intentions.

Key Elements:

• Behavioral Intention: A person’s readiness to act; stronger intentions lead to higher chances of action.
• Determinants of Intention:
  • Attitude toward behavior: Positive or negative evaluation based on expected outcomes.
  • Subjective norms: Social pressure from important individuals or groups.
  • Perceived behavioral control: Belief in one’s ability to perform the behavior.
• Volition & Control: Unlike TRA, TPB acknowledges that some behaviors are influenced by external constraints.
• Direct Influence: High perceived control can directly shape behavior, even without strong intention.

It’s important to note that these theories provide different perspectives on how attitudes are formed, how they function, and how they relate to behavior. Social psychology often uses these frameworks to understand and predict social behavior in various contexts.

➥ Behavioral Approaches to Attitude Formation

These approaches emphasize how learning processes shape our attitudes.

• Effects of Direct Experience: Attitudes formed through direct personal experiences are often stronger and more predictive of future behavior. Direct experience makes the attitude more accessible and easier to recall. For example, a positive experience with a product can lead to a positive attitude towards the brand.
• Classical Conditioning: This involves learning through association. A neutral stimulus, when repeatedly paired with a stimulus that naturally evokes a response, can come to elicit that same response. In attitude formation, if you repeatedly associate a product with positive imagery (e.g., happy people on a beach in an ad), you might develop a positive attitude towards it.
• Instrumental Conditioning: This type of learning involves rewards and punishments. Behaviors or attitudes that are rewarded are strengthened, while those that are punished are weakened. For instance, if a child is praised for expressing a certain opinion, they are likely to strengthen that attitude.
• Observational Learning: We learn by watching others. This is also called modeling. We are more likely to adopt attitudes from people we admire or who are similar to us. Children often learn attitudes from their parents by observing their behaviors and reactions.
• Cognitive Development: Cognitive approaches focus on how our thoughts and beliefs influence our attitudes. Consistency theories suggest we seek alignment between our attitudes and behaviors to avoid discomfort. The socio-cognitive model highlights how social context and information processing affect attitude formation.
• Source of Learning: Attitudes are acquired rather than inherited. Direct experience and social learning are key influences. Learning can come from parents, peers, and the media.

• Concepts Related to Attitudes

➥ Values

Values are enduring beliefs about what is important and desirable, shaping attitudes and behavior.

• Allport-Vernon-Lindzey (AVL) Model (1931): Categorized six major values—Theoretical, Economic, Aesthetic, Social, Political, and Religious.
• Rokeach’s Theory (1973): Divided values into terminal values (life goals) and instrumental values (behavioral principles).
• Feather’s Extension (1991 & 1994): Suggested attitudes emerge from values and personal experiences.

➥ Ideology

Ideology is a structured set of beliefs that influence attitudes and understanding of social, political, and economic issues.

• Pluralistic Ideology: Accepts diversity, promotes tolerance, and emphasizes social welfare.
• Monistic Ideology: Enforces a singular worldview, prioritizes competition, and discourages alternative viewpoints.

Ideologies shape attitudes by influencing how individuals perceive, interpret, and engage with information.

• Social Representations

This concept, developed by Serge Moscovici, refers to the collectively shared beliefs, ideas, and values that are prevalent within a society or social group. Social representations help individuals make sense of the world and communicate with each other. They are often formed through social interaction and communication

• Measurement of Attitudes

There are various measures through which attitudes can be measured. Some of them
are as follows:

➥ Attitude Scales (Explicit Measures)

• Directly assess consciously held attitudes through self-report.
• Likert Scale: Respondents indicate agreement/disagreement with statements on a scale. Scores are summed or averaged.
• Semantic Differential Scale: Respondents rate an object on bipolar adjective scales. Attitude is inferred from the pattern of ratings.
• Thurstone Scale: (Less common due to complex development) Judges rate statements for favorability; respondents endorse statements they agree with, and their attitude is the average scale value of those items.

➥ Physiological Measures (Indirect Measures of Intensity)

• Record bodily responses associated with emotional reactions to attitude objects. Primarily indicate intensity, not direction.
• Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) / Electrodermal Activity (EDA): Measures skin conductivity changes indicating arousal.
• Heart Rate and Blood Pressure: Changes can reflect emotional responses.
• Facial Electromyography (EMG): Measures facial muscle activity (e.g., smiling, frowning).
• Brain Imaging (fMRI, EEG): Examines brain activity related to attitudes.
• Limitations: Lack specific directionality (positive/negative) and can be influenced by factors other than attitudes.

➥ Measures of Overt Behavior (Indirect Inference)

• Infer attitudes by observing observable actions towards the attitude object.
• Direct Observation: Observing interactions with the object.
• Behavioral Intentions: Assessing stated intentions to act.
• Accumulated Behaviors: Examining patterns of behavior over time.
• Nonverbal Behavior: Interpreting body language and tone.
• Limitations: Behavior can be influenced by situational factors and social norms, not solely by underlying attitudes.

➥ Measuring Covert Attitudes (Implicit Measures)

• Assess attitudes that individuals may be unwilling or unable to consciously report. Bypass conscious control.
• Evaluative Priming: Measures how an attitude object (prime) influences the processing of an evaluative stimulus (target). Faster responses to congruent valence suggest implicit attitude.
• Lexical Decision Task: Measures speed of classifying letter strings as words after exposure to an attitude object.

➥ Implicit Association Test (IAT) (Implicit Measure)

)

• Assesses the strength of automatic associations between concepts and evaluations by measuring response latencies in categorization tasks.
• Participants categorize words/images into four categories (attitude object and evaluative dimension) using two response keys.
• Faster responses when congruent categories share a key (e.g., “old” and “bad”) indicate a stronger implicit association.
• Difference in response times between congruent and incongruent pairings yields an implicit attitude score.
• Widely used to study implicit biases and attitudes.

★ Important names and dates

:

• Leon Festinger: Developed the Cognitive Dissonance Theory (1957).
• Fritz Heider: Developed Balance Theory (1958).
• Daryl Bem: Proposed Self-Perception Theory (1972).
• Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen: Developed the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (early 1970s).
• Icek Ajzen: Extended the TRA to develop the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (1991).
• Richard Petty and John Cacioppo: Developed the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) (1986).
• Serge Moscovici: Developed the concept of Social Representations (mid-20th century, with significant work in the 1960s and 1970s).
• Gordon Allport: Known for his work on the concept of values and personality.
• Milton Rokeach: Another prominent figure in the study of values, who developed the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) in the 1970s.
• Shalom Schwartz: Developed Schwartz’s Theory of Basic Human Values (1992).