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ATTITUDES
What are Attitudes?
Long lasting patterns of feelings and beliefs about other people, ideas, or objects that based in people’s experiences and shape their future behaviour.
A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor. (Eagly& Chaiken, 1993)
A positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, event, activities, ideas, or just about anything in your environment. (Zimbardo et al., 1999
Why Study Attitudes?
Attitudes influence social cognition They can function as schemas for organizing and
interpreting information about social entities. Think about your attitudes toward "spending
money," professors, and eating out during the week.
I suggest to class: "Hey class, let's celebrate the end of semester by going out to dinner together at the Silver’s restaurant." What's your response?
How is response informed by each of these attitudes?
Attitudes may influence behavior People will behave in ways consistent with their
attitudes
Types of Attitudes
Cognitive Affective Behaviour
Cognitive
Head over heart Based primarily about people’s
beliefs about the rewards and punishments thy can provide or the pluses and minuses of an object
Affective
Heart over head Based more on people’s feelings and
values than on beliefs about the nature of the object
Come from a variety of sources: Religious beliefs Moral beliefs Sensory reactions (chocolate) Conditioning
Behavior
Based more on self-perception, How you feel about something is
based on performance or activity
How are Attitudes Formed? Attitudes are acquired through:
social learning social comparison genetic factors (not all agree on this)
What is Social Learning?
The theories covering social learning are: Classical Conditioning Operant or Instrumental Conditioning Observational Learning or Modeling
Classical Conditioning
From class this would be the lemonade experiment.
Many studies show that when initially neutral social stimuli are paired repeatedly with positive or negative stimuli, subjects will develop positive or negative attitudes toward the previously neutral stimulus.
Think of advertisements where products are tied closely to babies or cute animals.
Classical Conditioning
Operant or Instrumental Conditioning Persons are rewarded for expressing the
"correct" attitudes/punished for "incorrect.“
Ex: Think about response I would get from others if I were to express these attitudes publically: It's okay to smoke and drink. The Taliban should not be attacked by the
U.S. Tuition should be abolished at USU. Students should never have to take an exam.
Operant or Instrumental ConditioningThe rich should pay less in taxes.
It is OK to text and drive.
Learning or Modeling Persons form attitudes by observing
and then imitating models they like and admire.
Ex: Your mother states that "Only biodegradeable products should be used to do laundry." (Will you model that attitude?)
Social Comparison
Social comparison is our tendency to compare ourselves with others to judge whether our view of social reality is correct or not
When physical reality is vague we rely more and more on others to determine social reality
Social Comparison
Genetic Factors
Controlled twin studies in US and Sweden reveal that identical twins share more similar attitudes than fraternal twins
Genetic factors may influence general dispositions (e.g., tendency to have positive affect) and conditionability that may influence formation of more specific attitudes
Gender Attitudes
How men and women think about things is not always the same.
In the next two slides you will see the top 10 attributes that each sought in the other.
Women most sought in a man1. A record of achievement2. Leadership qualities3. Skills at his job4. Earning potential5. A sense of humor6. Intellectual ability7. Attentiveness8. Common sense9. Moral perception10.Good abstract reasoning
Men most sought in a woman1. Physical attractiveness2. Ability in bed3. Warmth and affection4. Social skills5. Homemaking ability6. Dress sense7. Sensitivity to other’s needs8. Good taste9. Moral perception10.Artistic creativity
Discussion
What are the attitudes of a successful student?
The Task
What are the necessary attitudes to be successful in life?
Create a top 5 list of these attitudes. Explain why each of these attitudes
is important in detail.