Attitudes and Attitude Changes

Introduction

Attitudes , which are also a part of human personality resulting from the continuous interaction of the individual with the social environment , will be analyzed further in this unit as they, too, make him/her a very unique person and thus different from any other individual.

Meaning and Nature of Attitudes

Most psychologists define attitude as a tendency to react positively or negatively toward an object. There are three concepts involved in this definition: Object of the attitude which may be a policy, a group, an event or an abstract entity such as religion or democracy

Tendency of positiveness or negativeness in relation to the object , varying degree from extremely favorable to extremely unfavorable , neutral or ambivalent

Tendency to react in a certain way a readiness or disposition to have certain positive or negative reactions aroused in relation to the object.

Three categories of covert response compose the aroused attitude: Affective reactions (emotions) Cognitions ( thoughts, perceptual reactions, judgments) Action tendencies (motivations to do particular things

Attitudes are defined as a mental predisposition to act that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor. Individuals generally have attitudes that focus on objects , people or institutions . Attitudes are compromised of four components:

A. Cognitions. Cognitions are our beliefs, theories, expectancies, cause and effect beliefs and perception relative to the focal object. B. Affect . the affect component refers to our feeling with respect to the focal object such as fear, liking or anger

C. Behavioral Intentions. Behavioral intentions are our goals, aspirations and our expected responses to the attitude object.
D. Evaluation. Evaluations are often considered the central component of attitudes. Evaluations consist of the imputation of some degree of goodness or badness to an attitude object.

Attitudes are generally thought of as beliefs or cognitions about reality or some aspects of reality. Values may be categorized as something that is more ethical in nature. It is a quality or object that is desirable as a means or as end in itself.

We have learned in our unit on perception that our attitudes influence what we perceive . Attitudes determine what we notice , and what our responses would be. 1. Our attitudes are determinants of our behavior 2. Our attitudes influence our social perceptions and vice-versa 3. Our behavior can be predicted form our attitudes 4. Attitudes can have a strong and lasting impact on individuals 5. Attitudes help us walk with the world around us.

Importance of Attitudes

Attitudes are generally learned through three basic ways :

Classical conditioning Ex: observing another person hurt in a traffic accident serves to make us more careful

Instrumental conditioning Occurs when desired behavior is reinforced and /or some undesired behavior is punished.

Imitation Can learned by mere observation.

Forming our Attitudes

Morgan describe the main agents that influence the formation of attitudes at different periods of development:
1. Attitude Influences form Birth to Puberty 2. Attitudes Influences from Twelve to Thirty ( the critical period In attitude formation)

Major Influences in Attitude formation

During adolescence, when boys and girls spend less time in their home and with their parents, more time with friends and classmates, peers ( people of the same general age and educational level with whom one associates) become more powerful influences since they are readily accepted as authorities, people that are liked and easy to talk to.

Attitudes are shaped during the period of adolescence (12-21) and crystallized during young adulthood (21-30) taking any of the following :

1. Commitment. The attitudes of the adolescents vary quite a bit and are not yet strongly held. These commitments tend to freeze attitudes they hold so that these do not change much afterwards. 2. Conservative drift. College students are slightly more conservative twenty years after their graduation from college.

1. Specific Experiences. We must learn to discriminate between those circumstances in which favorable or unfavorable events happen with dependable frequency and those conditions under which they do not.
2. Communication from others. 3. Models. Identification with the model and respect for his judgment tend toward acceptance of the models way of perceiving and feeling about certain situations.

4. Institutional Factors.

Sources of Attitudes

Promoting interpersonal attraction or attitudes toward other people is of utmost importance for many people most of the time. Generally, it matters much to us that we like the people we meet and that they like us,too. 1. Proximity. Show that a very good predictor of whether two people are friends is how far apart they live. This implies that people are attracted to one another if they see each other most often.

Development of Interpersonal Attraction

2. Familiarity. Also revealed that just as proximity or nearness creates liking, familiarity or sheer exposure increases it.

3. Similarity. People who are initially similar in any aspects generally like each other and end up as better friends than those dissimilar in various ways.

4. Physical Attractiveness. What is beautiful is good and what good is beautiful.

Hildegard , et.al , term the tendency for relationships to move from liking to greater intimacy as love pr the process of social penetration. This is markedly characterized by reciprocal self-disclosure.

 Formation

and change of attitude are very much interwoven. People always embrace, modify and renounce attitudes to fit their everchanging needs and interests. Three theories explain attitude change:

Attitude Changes

Reinforcement Theory- maintains that attitudes may change through the use of reinforcement. The Balance Theory of Attitude Change. According to this theory , people try to maintain consistency , congruity, or balance in their attitudes toward some things.
The Cognitive Dissonance theory . This theory involves a kind of cognitive conflict or the occurrence of the contradictory beliefs or ideas.

Two Contraindicatory cognitions: 1. I smoke 2. Smoking leads to cancer

DISSONANCE

Modifying one or both cognitions ( I really dont smoke too much)

Changing percieved importance of one cognition ( The evidence is weak that smoking causes cancer

Additional cognitions ( I exercise so much that it doesnt matter that I smoke. )

Denying that cognitions are related (There is no evidence linking smoking and cancer)

Group pressure can act to change our attitudes or to maintain them. Greater group pressure can be put as we manifest a great desire to belong to the group. If the group wants us a members, it will exert greater influence to have us agree with its norms. The less information we have about the group situation, the more we can be greatly swayed by the group pressure. Unanimous group agreement is difficult to resist.

Finally, discrepancies between our own attitudes and the groups norms may be resolved by rejecting the group norms because of outside pressure though privately disagreeing with them, superficial conformity with the group norms without any deep changes in our own attitudes, and exercising flexibility and discrimination in reacting to the group norms- accepting and rejecting others. However, not all attitude changes can be attributed to group factors.

Source of Communication ( Who say it)

Nature of Communication (what is said and how it is said)

Characteristics of audience (Who hears it)

3 parts in the act of communication

Trandis said, In analyzing the attitude change process, we must consider the effect of who says what, how to whom, with what effect Attitude will be changed based on how a person sees the communication and the communicator.

Prejudice is a fixed attitude toward a person or group. It is an irrational judgment based in the emotion rather than on facts. The word prejudice is commonly used to indicate negative judgment suggesting hostility toward another person, group or object. In its more destructive form, prejudice is debilitating in that is used as a vehicle for the expression of hatred of individuals towards one group simply because they belong to another group.

Meaning and Nature of Prejudice

Group Prejudice is marked by unfavorable attitudes held by the members of a group toward another group and its members.

Sartain describes how prejudices exist in the context of four intergroup relations which are outline below: 1. Competition. When goals are scarce , individuals or groups rival or compete with each other to obtain them through any means. 2. Conflict. The agreed upon rules are violated by the rival groups or individuals as they try to obtain their goals.

Intergroup Relations and Prejudices

3. Segregation and Discrimination. The dominant group impose a boundary line between the two groups and allocates power, privilege and burdens in its own favor.
4. Cooperation. Here the individuals or groups either work for a common goal or they mutually facilitate each others goal attainment.