19 Social Attitudes and Behaviour

Social attitudes and behaviour

Level IDr. M. Mathai

Introduction Attitudes and behaviour are an important

aspect of health care particularly primary health care where Health professionals try to change peoples behaviour- from unhealthy to healthy

Assessing for (Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) or Knowledge, Attitude and Behaviour (KAB) is an important excercise in Community health as it generates baseline data in communities where there is a desire to initiate change

Introduction II Attitude is defined as a predisposition to

classify objects and events and to react to them with some degree of evaluative consistency

Attitudes can also be said to be Beliefs and feelings about others or about events and the inclination to act

Attitudes influence how we perceive and interpret events

Introduction II Do attitudes determine behaviour ? Is what we are inside related to who we

are outside (what we do) ? Do our private beliefs and feelings

determine our public behaviour?

How often are we hypocrites- does a students attitude towards cheating a predictor of likelyhood to cheat in exams?

Does changing attitude change behaviour?

Attitude and external influences Our expressed attitude does not always

predict behaviour because both our attitudes and our behaviour are subject to other external influences

Attitude- We sometimes say what we think others want to hear

Behaviour- we sometimes do what others expect us to do

A good reason for secret ballot

Strengthening the predictability of behaviour from attitude The effects of attitude on behaviour becomes

more reliable when one considers behaviour over a long period of time

Minimising on external influences will increase prediction of behaviour from attitude

Attitude predicts behaviour when the attitude is more pertinent to behaviour- eg. A belief that running is a good way to increase fittness has better predictability for jogging as opposed to general concept of ‚healthy living‘

Attitude potency Attitude predicts behaviour when it is potent-

present in the concious- thought out Some behaviour is based on scripts- common

daily behaviour- how are you?,- fine; how was school?-Ok

In the abscence of a script behaviour is less automatic has to be thought out.

Self conciousness and self awareness is being in tune with your attitudes- people with little self awareness are more likely to be influenced by mobs

„To thine own self be true“- Shakespeare

Passive or active attitudes Attitudes acquired through experience are

more potent and more predictive of behaviour- people who have been directly involved in a crisis are more likely to sign pettitions to change things as opposed to those who know about the crisis theoretically

Racial/Ethnic diversity

Unconcious attitudes Ethnic prejudice is one of the areas

strongly governed by unconciously held attitudes.

Unconcious attitudes can also influence spontaneuos behaviour- walking thru‘ a dark alley

Does behaviour influence attitude We stand up for what we believe but do

we also believe in what we stand up for? The power of self persuasion- inventing a

reason for our behaviour Acting into a role- the career you choose

will affect not only what you do on the job but also your attitudes – internalised roles

Power of the word We believe what we say and the more we

say it the more we believe it ‚Saying is believing‘

A foot in the door phenomenon- Small changes make way for bigger changes-

immunising in small doses When people commit themselves voluntarily to

social action they tend to believe in what they are doing

This phenomenon is used actively to get people involved

1. Time and participation2. Sales and marketing 3. Petitions and fundraising4. Dating

Influence of Immoral behaviour, acts of aggression and attitude People tend not only to hurt those they

believe are bad but alo to believe and say they hate people they hurt, to justify acts of agression.

Nazi regime atrocities- were often explained by the perpetrators as being because they hated jews even when they had never had prior contact

The more one commits attrocities the easier it gets.

Giving a drerogatory name to your victim makes it easier

The victims are seen as having traits that justify the action taken against them

Evil acts are not only a reflection of the self they shape the self

Influence of Moral acts on attitude Moral action when chosen affects moral

thinking Doing something good out of choice,

having thought about, it has a longer lasting impact on the way you behave than being threatened to do a good thing.

Actions feed attitudes Should one wait for attitudes to change

or??- Through preaching and teaching or force behaviour through legislation- Example legislation against Female genital mutilation

Does positive behaviour towards someone foster liking that person?

Actions feed attitudes: Social movements Political socialisation and building

patriotism through action- raising flag, singing a national anthem, party symbols

Psychic equilibrium is achieved by believing what you are saying

Brain washing- thought control- „Brave new world“

Believing what you are saying- brain washing “Alpha children wear grey. They work much

harder than we do, because they are frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad I’m a beta, because I don’t work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They are wear green and Delta children wear Khaki. Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta children and Epsilons are still worse. They are too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides, they wear Black, which is such a beastly colour. I am so glad I’m a Beta.”- Aldous Huxley. Brave New World (1931)

Action to attitudes theories Social psychologists explain the effect of

actions on attitude using 3 main theories Self presentation theories- assumes

that we express attitudes that make us appear consistent

Cognitive disonance theory assumes that to reduce discomfort we justify our actions to ourselves

Self perception theory assumes that our actions are self revealing- we look at our actions/ behaviour and explain our feelings and beliefs on this basis the same way we do for other people

Conclusion If you want to change yourself don‘t wait

for insight and inspiration or the right moment, start acting the way you want to be. At first it may seem to you like pretending but pretend long enough and you will be who you are pretending to be.

References David G. Myers- Social psychology- 4th

edition, McGraw- Hill Inc 1983 Lester M. Sdorow- Psychology- 2nd edition,

Brown and Benchmark 1993