PSYC 2310 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Negativity Bias, Observational Learning, Collectivism
30 Sep 2015
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Attitudes: positive and negative evaluations of people, objects, events and ideas. Attitudes include three distinct components: affect, cognition, and a behavioral tendency. We tend to assume that attitudes lead to behavior. Changing our behavior can actually precede and then lead to a change in our attitude. One of the most studied topics in social psychology. Gordon allport descried attitude as probably the most distinctive and indispensable concept in contemporary american social psychology . Researcher regard attitude as an abstract construct that cannot be viewed but can be inferred from people"s behavior and their self-report. Attitudes are formed quickly and are, to some extent, malleable. Researchers asked participants to write a description of a particular person, some were told to describe a young woman while other were told to describe an elderly woman. After writing the descriptions, they rated their attitudes.
