PSYC 104 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Culture Of Asia, Ice Cream, Physical Attractiveness
PSYC104 Chapter 6 Reading Notes: Attitudes
- The study of attitudes (206)
oAttitudes: positive and negative reactions to various persons, objects, and ideas
Can vary in strength along both positive and negative dimensions
Evaluations of people usually automatic and immediate. People differ in the extent
to which they react to things (207)
People who have high need for evaluation tend to view daily experiences in
judgmental terms, and are more opinionated in social, moral, and political issues
People form attitudes to quickly determine if something is good or bad, and if we
should trust or avoid it. However, causes us to become closed-minded, biased, and
resistant to change
oHow attitudes are measured: Thurstone
Self-report measures: ask the person directly what their attitude is
Can conduct polls
Direct and straightforward (208)
Problems with self-report measures
osome attitudes too complex to be measured by a single question
oresponses influenced by question wording, order, and context
attitude scales: multiple-item questionnaire designed to measure a person’s attitude
toward some object
Likert Scale: respondents presented with list of statements about an attitude
object and asked to indicate on multiple-point scale how strongly they agree or
disagree with each statement. Total attitude score added up
Must assume people are honest; some people are reluctant to admit failures,
vices, weaknesses, unpopular opinions, prejudices, etc.
To get people to answer honestly, use bogus pipeline: phony mechanical device
that records true feelings physiologically. People scared to lie if using this
Covert measures: collect indirect, covert measures of attitudes that cannot be
controlled
Ex: observe facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language
However, people monitor their overt behaviors (209)
Tried measuring physiological arousal (perspiration, heart rate, pupil dilation),
but only shows intensity of attitudes, not direction (positive vs. negative)
Instead, used facial electromyography (EMG) to determine attitudes based on
face muscle patterns. Can tell the difference between positive and negative
Can also use electroencephalograph (EEG) to measure electrical activity in the
brain. Found that brain-wave patterns shifted when disliked picture shown after
string of liked pictures or vice versa
Can use fMRI to measure electrical activity; found increase in amygdala activity
when exposed to positive and negative attitudes (210)
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Implicit association test (IAT): used to measure implicit attitudes that we aren’t
consciously aware of
Measures unconscious attitudes based on speed at which people respond to
pairings of concepts, like black or white with good or bad
In general, people quicker to respond when liked faces are paired with positive
words and disliked faces are paired with negative words
implicit attitudes less predictive of behavior than explicit attitudes (211)
Implicit attitudes better measure socially sensitive topics
oHow attitudes are formed (212)
Are attitudes inherited?
Tesser hypothesized that attitudes rooted in genetic makeup
Found that identical twins had more similar attitudes than fraternal twins, and
twins raised apart were as similar as those raise in same home
Individuals disposed to hold certain attitudes due to physical, sensory, and
cognitive skills, temperament, and personality traits
Are attitudes learned? (213)
People can form positive or negative attitudes toward neutral objects that are
linked to emotionally charged stimuli
Classic conditioning can develop attitude learning
Evaluative conditioning: implicit and explicit attitudes toward neutral objects can
form by their association with positive and negative stimuli, even though
unconscious associations
oThe link between attitudes and behavior
Attitudes and behaviors don’t always go hand in hand (214)
However, some attitudes significantly and substantially predict future behavior
Attitudes in context
Attitudes correlate with behavior only when the attitude measures closely match
the behavior in question
The more specific the attitude question, the better it predicted behavior
Theory of reasoned action: attitudes are one determinant of social behavior, but
there are other determinants as well
Theory of planned behavior: attitudes toward a specific behavior combine with
subjective norms and perceived control to influence a person’s actions
oSubjective norms: what others think we should do (215)
oThese factors influence a person’s intentions, but other factors contribute to
people’s intentions turning into behavior
Strength of the attitude
Strength of attitude depends on how much it influences behavior
Attitudes people held most passionately were those that directly affected their
own self-interests, related to deeply held philosophical, political, and religious
values, and were of concern to their close friends, family, and social in-groups
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Surrounding yourself with like-minded people causes stronger attitudes more
resistant to change
Tend to behave in ways that are consistent with attitudes if well informed
Strength of attitude based on how information was acquired: more stable and
more predictive of behavior if information based on direct personal experience
rather than indirect, secondhand information (216)
Attitudes can be strengthened by an attack against it from persuasive message.
Become more confident in position if resist changing attitude in response to
persuasive argument (however, must resist in compelling way to have stronger
attitude; if you barely resist, you feel less confident about attitude)
Strong attitudes are highly accessible to awareness; easily recalled. This can
trigger behavior quickly or lead to careful response
- Persuasion by Communication (217)
oPersuasion: process of changing attitudes
o2 routes to persuasion
central route to persuasion: when people think critically about the contents of a
message and are influenced by the strength and quality of the arguments
for persuasive message to have influence, recipients must learn its contents, go
through elaboration (think about and scrutinize arguments), and by motivated to
accept it (218)
messages have greater impact if they’re more easily learned, memorable,
stimulate favorable elaboration, and are overall strong (219)
though rational, central route doesn’t guarantee that people will be unbiased
peripheral route to persuasion: when people don’t think critically about contents of
a message but focus instead on other cues
base choice on if the communicator has a good reputation, speaks fluently,
writes well, etc.
also influenced by things not relevant to attitudes, like body movement (220)
route selection
depends on source, message, and audience (221)
if source speaks clearly, if message is important, if there’s an involved audience
that cares enough to absorb the information, more willing to take central route
if source speaks too quickly, if message too trivial or complex, or if audience is
distracted, pressed for time, or uninterested, peripheral route is taken
othe source of persuasion
credibility: highly credible sources are more believable than low-credibility sources
credible sources are competent and trustworthy (222)
competence: speaker’s ability (knowledgeable, well spoken, credentials)
trustworthy: willing to report what they know truthfully and without
compromise
wary of people who have something to gain from successful persuasion
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Document Summary
The study of attitudes (206: attitudes: positive and negative reactions to various persons, objects, and ideas. Can vary in strength along both positive and negative dimensions. People differ in the extent to which they react to things (207) People who have high need for evaluation tend to view daily experiences in judgmental terms, and are more opinionated in social, moral, and political issues. People form attitudes to quickly determine if something is good or bad, and if we should trust or avoid it. However, causes us to become closed-minded, biased, and resistant to change: how attitudes are measured: thurstone. Self-report measures: ask the person directly what their attitude is. Problems with self-report measures: some attitudes too complex to be measured by a single question, responses influenced by question wording, order, and context attitude scales: multiple-item questionnaire designed to measure a person"s attitude toward some object.
