PSYB10H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Cognitive Dissonance, Fritz Heider, Likert Scale
Document Summary
Research shows that attitudes are often surprisingly poor predictors of behaviour, but it also specifies that the circumstances in which they predict behaviour rather well. Attitude: an evaluation of an object along a positive or negative fashion that includes the three elements of affect, cognition, and behaviour. Nearly all objects trigger some degree of positive or negative emotion, which constitutes the affective component of attitudes. Attitudes also involve cognitions(thoughts that typically reinforce a person"s feelings) which include knowledge and beliefs about the object as well as associated memories and images. The affective evaluation of good versus bad is connected to a behavioural tendency to approach versus avoid. More specifically, researchers typically ask their participants to rate an attitude object on a likert scale. Likert scale: a numerical scale used to assess people"s attitudes; it includes a set of possible answers with labeled anchors on each extreme. (eg. 1 = never 7 = always)
