Attitudes are said to be a central concept in social psychology and their measurement is even more intriguing for the researchers. Throughout the years many psychologists and sociologists have had major disputes concerning the exact definition of attitudes (Fleming 1967; Rokeach 1969; Fishbein & Ajzen 1975). The concept itself has been so ambiguous that it is difficult to perceive how the definitions are conceptually similar or different from one another. Along with the conflicts about the exact science definition, the investigators have developed many different kinds of measurement which can be used nowadays as well (Thurstone 1928; Likert 1932; Guttman 1944; Osgood 1957).
This essay has the purpose to summarise and explain the concept of
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Back then the concept was more physical than psychological. People used the word to describe the posture of figure, while nowadays this is only a secondary meaning. Studying attitudes has been an interest for psychologists since the early 1918 when Thomas and Znaniecki first made a study on attitudes by using Polish immigrants as a subject (Thomas & Znaniecki 1918). It is considered to be the first scientific research on this broad topic and the first to propose that the study of attitudes is a central task of social psychology. The process of becoming social psychology’s most important concept continues with Chein in 1948 when he writes that defining attitude is not a definition of a word, but a definition of a whole area in psychology (Chein 1948). According to him an attitude is independent of how it is learned. On the other hand, Asch (1952) and Allport (1950) suggest that attitudes are either formed by past experiences or learned. In his ‘Handbook of Social Psychology’ Allport also suggest that this concept has both physical and mental role. He is giving as an evidence the root of the word ‘attitude’ – form the Latin ‘aptus’ it means ‘fitness’ or ‘adaptedness’, but again deriving from the same Latin root the word ‘aptitude’ means ‘mental preparation for action’ (Allport 1954). Later on Fleming would argue that Darwin took the first step to attitude measurement by using the concept to
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.
Social scientists believe that gender differences are not caused by biological differences; rather, they are a product of socialization, prejudice, discrimination, and other forms of social control (Bem, 1993). Which of the following two faiths were used in this chapter as examples of gender regulation?
In social psychology, social influence is a process where someone’s beliefs, thoughts and behaviour change by being exposed to beliefs, thoughts and opinions of others. It manifests in several forms, such as obedience, compliance and conformity. All these types of social influence have been studied by numerous researchers who investigated the reasons why people conform to social norms and obey to authorities, such as Milgram’s classic studies on obedience. His experiments support the popular idea of ‘banality of evil’ –Hannah Arendt (1963)’s famous phrase referring to the capability to accomplish dreadful things out of banal reasons–, revealing that people conform submissively and thoughtlessly to the orders that authorities deliver, no
Attitude - Attitude toward a behavior is referred as an individual’s positive and negative evaluation of a relevant behavior and is composed of an individual’s salient beliefs regarding the perceived consequences of performing behavior (Ajzen, 1991, p.207).
This essay aims to explore and describe some of the key studies within Social Psychology and show why social psychology is still important within the science of psychology today. Social psychology was once described by Allport (as cited in Lindzey & Aronson, 1985, p.5) as, “the scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others”. One of the first psychologists to study social psychology was Kurt Lewin. Lewin is considered the “father of social psychology” by many as he took a stand against the dominant behaviourist approach during the 1920’s through his belief that interaction between the individual and their environment is key to affecting behaviour, rather than environment alone. His revolutionary ideas matured into the study of group dynamics, which is widely used by many organisations today (Collin, 2012).
The principles and theories of Social Psychology are important and useful in assessing behaviors in situations. These social psychological principles and their applications can be seen in fictional films which can also be attributed to everyday life. One such film that holds certain social psychological perspectives is Will Gluck’s 2010 production of Easy A. A film about high school student Olive Penderghast and how a sudden change in popularity and financial status, after an unintentional rumor about how she supposedly lost her virginity to a college guy spread through the entire her school. The film draws on the behavioral connections of pronounced hussy Olive Penderghast and her English class’s assigned reading of The Scarlet Letter.
This essay is assessing how attiutides are changed. Attitudes are beliefs that a person holds about certain subjects that have often had an impact on them. The essay will discuss the different methods that are using by outside stimuli to attempt to change a persons pre-exisiting attitudes. As well as this it will look at the different cognitive processes that a necessary for a person to change their attitude and how strongly the attitude is held will determine how the brain process the attempts to change them. The strength of the attitude is also one of the factors for determining whether or not the attitude can be changed. There can also be conflict between the attitudes that are held and the behaviour that is shown which can have
An attitude are the long lasting beliefs, feelings, and behavioral responses towards social objects such as other people or issues (Attitudes and Behavior, n.d.). Attitudes can either be positive or negative.
“Attitudes are positive or negative evaluations, feeling, and tendencies that individuals harbor toward objects or concepts” (Wild). As the book mentions, attitudes are similar to values, these are formed according to a culture background and varies from country to country.
Attitudea relatively constant feeling, predisposition, or a set of beliefs that is directed toward an object, a person, or a situation.
Attitudes are thoughts that you have accepted as true and that lead you to think, feel, or act positively or negatively toward a person, idea or event. They represent an emotional readiness to behave in a particular manner. (Reece) Positive and negative attitudes affect how you work and how you influence other people around you. These attitudes can absolutely be changed though because we are not born with those attitudes. We form them as time passes, depending on the situations that we have been through. For instance, if you had a job where your supervisor was racist toward you, you would begin to form a negative attitude about supervisors thinking that all of them are going to be racist. Instead, you can change your attitude by thinking that not everyone acts the same way. A positive attitude can make a difference between an amazing life and a nonsense one. Therefore, a lot of people should try to change their attitude to a positive one.
This essay will examine the strength of the link between attitudes and behaviour and show that attitudes do not always predict behaviour as there are a number of variables that need to be put in place before the evaluation of a person behaving according to their attitudes can be assessed. These variables will be discussed in some detail. The three component model will be discussed and also attitude formation will be touched upon, before the link between behaviour and attitude can be examined a general understanding of how and why attitudes are formed needs to be addressed.
Attitudes carry a huge weight in social psychology. In the past, the theory of attitudes was considered the most dominant study in social psychology (Allport, 1935). Throughout time, the term attitude has accumulated many definitions, a renowned definition being “a relatively enduring organisation of beliefs, feelings and behavioural tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols” (Hogg and Vaughan, 2014, p. 150). The focus on attitudes is so significant because the question of whether attitudes can predict behaviour has arisen time after time. If attitudes do predict behaviour, we can discover why people act in certain ways and, therefore, attempt to change negative behaviours. Over time, work has been carried out to determine to what extent attitudes predict behaviour.
Before trying to answer the question if attitudes predict behaviour, it is necessary to understand what does attitudes mean. This essay will first explain the definition of attitudes and behaviour. Thereafter will explain why an attitudes does not predict behaviour and then argue that occasionally an attitude can
Social psychologists know that people’s attitudes define whether they have a successful, bright, happy future. Most people can agree that this is the case, but people must ask themselves why and what really makes up a person’s attitude. In past years, attitude was recognized as one of the most important psychological experiences of human beings. Over time, the significance of attitudes has increased specifically in understanding how people come to be who they are. This paper will discuss the structure of attitudes through the ABC Model which explains three different components (affect, behavior and cognition) and how these components play a role in people’s lives.