Concept of Attitudes
In literature there are several definitions of attitude. According to Legendre (LaFortune & Saint-Pierre, 2001, pp. 30-31) an attitude "is a state of spirit, an inner disposition acquired in relation to himself or to the whole element of the surrounding environment that incites a way of being or acting, favorable or unfavorable ". For Morissette and Gingras (1999) an attitude is "an inner disposition of the person that translates into moderate emotional reactions that are assimilated and then tested whenever the person is placed before an object; These emotional reactions lead her to approach the object (to be favorable) or to depart (be unfavorable)”.
At the beginning of the studies on attitudes by psychology, Allport
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The most widely used models for the study of attitude are the Model Classical Tripartite Attitude (CAB Model), the Classical One-Dimensional Model of Attitude and the Model Attitude-coated Tripartite according to Neto (1998). Attitude is composed of cognition, affection and behavior, these elements being the most diversified order.
Since attitude is a set of multidimensional variables, and taking into account the traditional approach made by Rosenberg and Hovland (1960), which proposes to analyze the three components separately, so that they can be operationalized. These variable are constituted by the affective component of an attitude refers to the subjective feelings and the physiological responses that accompany an attitude. The cognitive component refers to the beliefs and opinions through which the attitude is expressed, even though they are not always aware. The behavioral component concerns the mental and physical process that prepares the individual to act in a certain way. " (Neto, 1998).
Studies by Brewer & Crano (1994) and Olson & Zanna (1993), draw the following rationale for the three components. The affective component of attitudes refers to the way a particular stimulus triggers affective reactions, regardless of the information has on it, and some symbolic attitudes concerning ideological contents. However, most attitudes are cognitive information dependent on the conjugation of existing beliefs, that is, on how the individual associates objects
What is different about attitude measurement compared to other phenomena we might study? What does this require us to do differently in defining variables compared to the measurement of other phenomena? Is there any characteristic of the survey method that makes this problem easier to overcome?
Attitudes can also arise due to observational learning, wherein people internalize the attitudes of others; passing them on from one individual to the other. Attitudes can be held implicitly and do not innately imply behavior. Often individual’s will have consideration of a ground or opinion but not act on it when the chance rises. Many factors influence whether or not attitudes will come to impact behavior.
Psychologists in both the cognitive and discursive field believe that attitudes are central to our understanding of human behaviour yet they differ in their definition of the concept. The cognitive approach builds upon a very operational understanding of attitudes, defining them as an “inner cognitive states” whereby a person may generate favourable or unfavourable thoughts and/or feelings towards a person, idea
2. Attitude is a way of thinking or feeling about a particular thing, that is impacted by one’s behavior. Knowledge is information gained through education showing understanding of the topic. Information can add onto people’s knowledge of a particular subject that results in a change of attitude about it. It is important for writers to learn about the difference due to gauge the audience away from their biases through certain attitudes on topics in order to acquire knowledge. The reader will keep having a certain opinion on the topic (showed by their attitude)if they're not educated.
It is made up of three components, affective, behavioural and cognitive. The affective component is referring to a person’s feelings and emotions towards something, the behavioural is mentioning the corresponding behaviour and finally the cognitive aspect is the beliefs and knowledge about the attitude (Spencer et al., 2007).
Attitudea relatively constant feeling, predisposition, or a set of beliefs that is directed toward an object, a person, or a situation.
Myers (2010) explains how attitudes and behaviors differ from one another. Attitudes are defined as a reaction toward someone or something based on beliefs and behaviors are defined as the actions taken based on certain beliefs; however, those actions taken may not be a predicator of attitudes (Myers, 2010). People are strongly influenced by the world around them, and the behaviors they exhibit are based on those social influences. For example, according to purpleslinky.com (2011), the top reasons
Attitudes are the way someone communicates, behaves and interprets the message from others. This is when they will apply different generalities to specifically comprehend various groups (such as: stereotyping). These factors help them to analyze and interpret the meanings of numerous cultures / subcultures. In most cases, this can often lead to clashes with many people not fitting into these categories and using them to generalize about specific segments of society. (Deresky, 2011) (Sepehri, 2011)
The factors that contribute to one’s attitude, Affects- emotions, Behaviors-actions, Cognitions- thoughts, the ABC’s of attitude (Carter & Seifert, 2016, Chapter 16). When our emotions, actions and thoughts are not working together it can be difficult. Finding out more about our behavior will help us learn more about our attitude. The self-perception theory says that we are not fully aware of our attitudes. Most of the time with infer our attitudes based on our behavior. It is the opposite in fact, our behavior affects our attitude. We can change our behavior and the result will be a change in attitude.
Maio, G., & Haddock, G. (2014). How do Attitudes Influence Behavior . In G. Maio, & G. Haddock, The Psychology of Attitudes and Attitude Change (pp. 82-92). Los Angeles: Sage
This analytical paper is created in hopes of generating a deeper understanding of attitudes and social psychology and their importance to the social world for all individuals. This should be accomplished through evaluating and addressing how attitudes develop through the social learning theory and behaviorism; how attitudes change by implementing persuasion, cognitive dissonance, and emotion. Additionally, analyzing what approaches and programs are effective and ineffective in a couple of case studies such as source credibility and mere exposure; and then further analyzing persuasion and attitude change by viewing two persuasive articles and applying and analyzing the approaches on fear appeals, source credibility, and attractiveness by responding to the following questions:
Much research supports this measurement tool, including the psychological research behind attitudes. In psychology, an attitude is defined as “a relatively enduring organisation of beliefs, feelings and behavioural tendencies toward socially significant objects groups, events or symbols” (Hogg & Vaughan 2005, p. 150) and is “.. a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour” (Eagly, & Chaiken, 1993, p. 1). In my measurement tool, the stem statements that I have included are designed to be targeted towards the three components of an attitude. I have based this on the tri-component model of attitude (Rosenberg & Hovland, 1960). According to this model, there are three components: the affective component, which involves a person’s feelings about the attitude object, behavioural, which is the way our attitude influences how we act or behave and cognitive, which involves a person’s belief about the attitude object. Together, these are known as the ABCs of attitudes. There is a study that explores whether or not the cognitive and affective components of attitudes do not always match with behaviour by LaPiere (1934). Travelling around America, LaPiere was with a Chinese couple and expected to meet discrimination as a result of the negative feelings towards Chinese at the time. In the 1930s, prejudice against Asians was highly common and there were no laws involving racial discrimination. LaPiere and the
Attitudes are a primary factor which individuals are most likely to change on a day-to-day
There are three types of components for work-related attitudes; cognitive, affective, and behavioral. The cognitive part is the opinion or belief segment of a position. The behavioral component is an intention to behave in a certain way toward someone or something. The affective component is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude and the reaction; one has towards an object (Ananyboss Follow, 2014). These three elements, practical, behavioral, and cognitive, are known as the ABC Model of Attitudes. Although every attitude has these three components, any one of these approaches can be based on one segment rather than another one.
The relationship between attitudes and behaviour is one of the most popular topics in social psychology. We form attitudes from mainly our own personal experiences including influences from other people. Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) agreed with the idea about how direct experience, form our attitudes i.e. if you had a horrible time at the hospital getting a needle. Then you may develop a negative attitude to all hospitals. Alhough the definition of attitudes can not be confirmed yet, this essay uses the description in Hogg's and Vaughan's book (1995) that attitudes are “a general feeling or evaluation about persons, object or issue as well as a relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings and behavioural tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, evens or symbols”. This definition indicates that there is a close relationship between attitudes and behaviour.