PSYC 1004: Introduction to Social Psychology

Lecture 3 Notes – Attitude and Attitude Measurement

Learning objectives
At the end of this lecture, you would be able to:
 Define attitude
 Identify and explain the different ways attitudes are formed
 Identify the three components of an attitude
 Identify and explain the functions of attitudes
 Explain when and why attitudes influence behaviour
 Describe how attitudes guide behaviour
 Explain how attitudes can be changed through persuasion
 Explain how attempts to change attitudes can be resisted
 Identify and describe ways to measure attitudes

Definitions of attitude
Attitudes
 Refer to people’s evaluation of almost any aspect of the social world
 are associations between an attitude object (an aspect of the social world) and evaluations of those objects.
 arepredispositions to respond in a positive or negative way to a particular object, event or issue (Penrod, 1986).

Attitude Formation
Classical Conditioning
 Based on association
 One stimulus becomes a signal for a second stimulus
 E.g., Pavlov’s dogs: bell eventually became a signal for food and produced salivating
 Attitudes may form in a similar fashion
 The initial conditioning behavior must occur several times
 Classical conditioning can occur unconsciously (i.e., without awareness) – subliminal conditioning
 E.g., during a TV commercial: photos of positive images flashed for a very brief period of time. Over time, the product
in the commercial becomes paired with positive feelings

Instrumental Learning
 Also called operant conditioning
o Rewards – a stimulus that increases the chances of the behaviour
o Punishment – decreases the chances of the behaviour occurring.
 Strengthening of responses that lead to
o positive outcomes
o avoidance of negative outcomes
 If a child is praised for holding a certain attitude, they will be more likely to continue holding this attitude. On the
other hand, punishment leads to rejecting attitudes.
o Positive reinforcement- adding a rewarding stimulus
o Negative reinforcement – removal of aversive stimulus
 Instrumental conditioning explains why
o Children may have attitudes about topics they do not fully understand (e.g., politics).
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o Children and adults hold similar attitudes up until teen years.

o Subsequently, teens begin to evaluate attitudes independent of parents’ reactions.

Observational Learning
 Learning by example. Observing the behaviour in reproducing what was observed.
 Attitudes may be transmitted unintentionally by parents
 Child may observe their parent smoking, which may lead to a positive attitude towards smoking.
 Child may overhear a certain attitude being conveyed by a parent that they were not meant to hear.
 Attitudes also learned from media.
 Individuals want to imitate the people around them, or people they look up to.
 Observational learning is evident in ‘trends’. E.g., attitudes towards clothes, etc

Social Comparison
 Festinger (1954). We compare ourselves to others in order to determine whether our view of social reality is correct
or incorrect
 If our attitudes match those of others, then we must be correct (desirable). Thus, we often change our attitudes to
conform with those of other people (e.g., friends)
 Occurs even if you had no previous experience with the topic.
 Research suggested that when eating with others we tend to mimic our companions’ eating behavior (Robinson,
Thomas, Aveyard & Higgs, 2014). Attitudes toward food and intake quantity are influenced by people we feel similar
to because we are most strongly guided by the seemingly shared norms they convey.

Cultural Factors: The Study of Values

 Cultural differences in attitudes are often examined by focusing on cultural values:
o principles of life that include moral beliefs and our standards of conduct
 Differ from attitudes in that they are broader, more abstract
 Like attitudes, values convey what is important in our lives
 There are 10 types of values (Schwartz, 1992)
1. Power 6. Universalism
2. Achievement 7. Benevolence
3. Hedonism 8. Tradition
4. Stimulation 9. Conformity
5. Self-direction 10. Security
 The stability of values
o There are typically no sex differences in values.
o The same values are found across cultures. e.g., Schwartz’s ten values
o People’s value preferences tend to remain constant over time.
 Values predict attitudes, which predict behaviour.
o Like attitudes, values can be culturally transmitted via social learning and shaped by social comparison at
home/school/by friends.
o E.g. – Western cultures value individualism more so than Eastern cultures.
o However, these changes are very gradual, and more traditional values are still most popular.

Genetic Factors: Are Attitudes Inherited?

 Thought occurs within the brain, and brain structure is genetically influenced. Studies have demonstrated that there
is in fact a small genetic component in attitudes.

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 Twin Studies: The attitudes of identical twins are more common than those of non-identical twins or unrelated
people. Also true for twins raised apart.
 Some attitudes are more heritable than others:
o attitudes involving relatively basic topics (e.g., music) are more heritable than those involving more
‘cognitive’ or abstract ideas (e.g., equality)
 Highly heritable attitudes are:
o more resistant to change
o more likely to influence behavior

Personality Factors
 Personality traits tend to have a strong genetic component
 How does personality relate to attitudes and values? Roccas et al. (2002):
 Personality traits correlated with some values
o Agreeableness correlates with Benevolence, Tradition
o Extraversion correlates Achievement, Stimulation
o Conscientiousness correlates with achievement, conformity
o Openness to experience correlates with self-direction, universalism.

Components and Functions of Attitudes?

An attitude is an interplay between the cognitions, the emotional evaluations, and the action tendencies which an individual
associate with objects, situations, events and persons.
Cognitive Component
 Refers to perceptions and beliefs about the qualities of an object or event.
 Refers to the beliefs and opinions through which the attitude is expressed (although these are not always
conscious).

Affective Component
 Refers to the feelings, sentiments and emotions associated with reality perception.
 Emotions such as fear, hate, love, anger and envy are among the variety of responses an individual can have to
person, object and events.

Behavioural Component
 Refers to the intentions and action tendencies associated with objects, situations and events.
 Relates to intentions or predispositions rather than only actual behaviour.

Attitudes serve four main functions:

1. The instrumental function- People hold and/or express attitudes because they think these will bring them rewards or
help them to avoid punishment.
2. The ego-defensive function- This is where the person protects himself from acknowledging the basic truths about
himself, or the harsh realities of the external world.
3. The value expressive function- The individual derives satisfaction from expressing attitudes appropriate to his
personal values and to his concept of himself.
4. The knowledge function- It is based upon the individual’s need to give adequate structure to his universe.
Also refers to the usefulness of attitudes in organizing and interpreting social information.

Other Attitude Functions

 Attitude formation is a basic cognitive process that can be viewed as almost automatic. People form attitudes toward
things that they have seen before, but do not necessarily remember seeing.

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 The attitudes aid in the interpretation of new stimuli and enable rapid responding to attitude-relevant information (in
ways that maintain them).
 Attitudes help to make sense of the social world quickly.
The Identity or Self-Expression Function
 attitudes can permit the expression of central values and beliefs and thereby communicate personal identity.
 This can include group membership and identity.
 People are more likely to adopt the attitude position of someone with whom they share an important identity.
The Self-Esteem Function
 holding particular attitudes can help maintain or enhance feelings of self-worth.
 Attitudes based on moral convictions are good predictors of behavior.
The Impression Motivation Function
 People can use attitudes to lead others to have a positive view of themselves. When motivated to do so, the attitudes
people express can shift in order to create the desired impression on others.
 Attitudes that serve an impression motivation function can lead people to formulate arguments that support their
views

Attitude – Behaviour Link

When and why do attitudes influence behaviour
The Role of Social Context
 Social context directly influences the extent to which attitudes determine behaviour.
 Attitudes differentially predict behavior depending on how public the action is and whether there are potential social
consequences.
 Attitudes we hold with greater certainty are more strongly linked to behaviour.
 People’s assumptions about the attitudes of others and what they think others will think of them can be better
predictors of behavior than their actual attitudes.
 Due to pluralistic ignorance, people can be wrong about what attitudes they think others hold.

The Role of Attitude Extremity

 An important factor in determining attitude intensity is vested interest.
 When people are affected by an object or issue (they have a strong vested interest), their attitudes will have a larger
impact on their behavior.
 And, personal relevance increases the development of arguments to support the attitude.

Attitude Certainty
 Important factors are attitude clarity and attitude correctness (feeling one’s attitude is the valid one to hold.)
 When a person learns that others share one’s attitudes, it acts as justification for that attitude and increases
certainty.
 The more often you are asked to report your attitude, the more it will facilitate clarity and thereby certainty,
 When both components of attitude certainty are high, it can increase resistance to a persuasive message.

The Role of Personal Experience

 Direct experience with an attitude object/issue results in a stronger link between the attitude and behavior.
 Attitudes formed by direct experience are more accessible.
 Accessible attitudes are more likely to determine behavior.

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Attitude Origin
 Attitudes that are formed on the basis of direct experience often exert stronger effects on behaviour than ones
formed indirectly.

Strength of Attitudes
 Strong attitudes are better predictors of behavior than are weak attitudes.
o Intensity - how strong is the emotional reaction provoked by the attitude object
o Importance - the extent to which the individual cares deeply about and is personally affected by the attitude
o Knowledge -how much the person knows about the attitude object
o Accessibility - how easily the attitude comes to mind in various situations.

Attitude Specificity
 The extent to which attitudes are focused on specific objects or situations rather than on general ones.
 Research findings indicate that the attitude-behaviour link is stronger when attitudes and behaviour are measure on
the same level of specificity.

When Attitudes do NOT influence behaviour

 There is evidence that behaviour cannot be so simply predicted by attitudes, which questions the usefulness of the
concept of attitudes.
 DeFleur and Westie (1958) asked white students to be photographed with black colleagues. 30% of the students
behaved differently from their previously expressed views (either they were prejudiced and agreed to be
photographed, or were not prejudiced and refused to be photographed).
 Factors that may account for the discrepancy between attitudes and behaviour include:
o Availability - At any time, your behaviour is a selection between possible courses of action, and one attitude
may take precedence over another.
o Relevance - Our image on a prejudiced group may be different from the reality.
o Situation - If our personal attitudes run contrary to prevalent social norms, we may be inclined to follow the
actions of the crowd.

How do attitudes guide behaviour?

Behaviours arrived through reasoned thought.
Theory of planned behaviour
 Also called the ‘Theory of Reasoned Action’
 The decision to engage in a particular Behavior is the result of a rational process in which behavioral options are
considered, consequences are evaluated, and a decision is reached to act or not to act.
 Individuals consider the implications of their actions before deciding to perform various behaviors.
 A rational process that is goal-oriented and follows a logical sequence
 We consider our behavioral options, evaluate the consequences/outcomes of each, and reach a decision as to how to
act or not to act
 This decision is reflected in our behavioral intentions (our intentions to act a certain way)

Attitude Behaviour Process Model

 Tries to explain instances when we don’t have time to consider these factors or we act impulsively?
 A more automatic process. The process is initiated when a situation activates an attitude – thus the attitude becomes
more accessible.

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Attitude Change
 Attitudes are resistant to change but they do change.
 Change occurs as a result of internal and external forces.
 Methods of attitude change are of interest commercially (advertisements) and in implementing new social policies
(reduction of prejudices)
 Attitudes can be changed through learning, persuasion and brain washing.
 Attitudes are organized and changed according to principles of consistency.
 Different attitudes perform different functions, their relative resistance to change may be related to the importance
of the function.
 Consider social influence (conformity, obedience and compliance) as means of attitude change.

Persuasion
This refers to efforts to change attitudes through the use of messages focused primarily on the characteristics of the
communicator and the audience.

The Yale Model of Persuasion

Factors in attitude change:
 Source (who)
o Credibility: source must appear trustworthy and qualified.
o Expertise: source must appear highly trained in the area.
o Similarity: people are more likely to respond to people who are similar to themselves.
o Attractiveness: the more attractive the source the more likely we are to identify with him or her.
o Intentions/motives: the source is more likely to be persuasive when his/her intentions are viewed as good.
o Status: Sources of higher status are perceived as more credible than those of a lower status.
o Race: we are more likely to identify with persons of a similar racial background.
o Religion: we are more likely to identify with persons that hold religious beliefs that are similar to us.
 Message (what)
o Speech style: fast speaking people are quite often seen as more confident in the subject.
o One sided may be more effective with people who are unfamiliar with an issue while Two sided may be more
persuasive with better educated people who are initially opposed to the communicator’s views.
o Communication discrepancy
o Rhetorical summary
o Explicit conclusions
o Appeals to fear: Fear appeals elicit a feeling of fright or danger in an audience by creating stark warnings,
publicizing fearful outcomes or detailing explicit results.
 Audience (To Whom)
o Intelligence
o Personality
o Gender: women are more likely to be persuaded than men.
o Initial attitude
o Persuadability
o Self-esteem: people with lower self-esteem are more likely to be persuaded than those with higher self-
esteem

Research Example
 Communicators and Audiences (findings from early research by Hovland, Janis, and Kelley, 1953). Communicators
who are perceived as credible experts, are attractive, speak rapidly, and appear confident are more persuasive.

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 Messages that do not appear to try to change attitudes are more persuasive.
 Distraction can make people more likely to be persuaded.
 A two-sided approach is more persuasive when the audience’s attitude is different from the communicator’s.
 Younger people (e.g., between the ages of 18 and 25) are more likely to be persuaded than are older people.

The Cognitive Process Underlying Persuasion

 Systematic Processing— involves careful consideration of message content and ideas (argument strength matters)
o Central Route (to persuasion) — attitude change resulting from systematic processing of information
presented in persuasive messages
 Heuristic Processing —involves the use of simple rules or mental shortcuts (argument strength does not matter)
o Peripheral Route (to persuasion) — attitude change in response to peripheral persuasion cues, e.g.,
expertise or status
 According to the elaboration likelihood model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) and the heuristic-systematic model
(Chaiken, et al., 1989), persuasion can occur in two ways, differing in the amount of cognitive effort or elaboration
they require.
o People can take the central route (use systematic processing).
o People can take the peripheral route (use heuristic processing).

Resisting Persuasion
Advance knowledge that one is about to become the target of an attempt at persuasion and increases resistance to the
persuasion that follows.
 Provides opportunity to develop counterarguments.
Psychological Reactance
 Negative reactions to threats to one’s personal freedom.
 Often increases resistance to persuasion and can even produce negative attitude change or that opposite to what was
intended.
 Is one reason why hard-sell persuasion attempts often fail

People have a tendency to direct attention away from information that challenges existing attitudes, which increases
resistance to persuasion
 In addition, people seek information consistent with their attitudes (selective exposure).
Actively defend attitudes
 Generate counterarguments to refute opposing position
Inoculation (McGuire, 1961)
 Exposure to arguments opposed to one’s attitudes, along with arguments that refute these counter attitudinal
positions, can strengthen people’s original attitudes.

Cognitive Dissonance –
 An (unpleasant) internal state which results when individuals notice inconsistency between two or more attitudes or
between their attitudes and their behavior
 Can result in attitude change
 People are motivated to reduce cognitive dissonance and use the following strategies to do so (Aronson, 1968;
Festinger, 1957):
o Change attitudes or behavior to be consistent with each other
o Acquire information that supports attitude or behavior
o Engage in trivialization of the inconsistency, concluding that the attitudes or behaviors are unimportant

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o Also, people use indirect ways to restore positive self-evaluations, which is more likely when the dissonance
involves important attitudes or self-beliefs (Steele, 1988) (e.g., they may use self-affirmation).
The Sleeper Effect
 This refers to the hidden impact a message of propaganda or mass communication can have.
 The effect refers to the observed fact that the attitude change produced by the message does not become evident
until a period of time has elapsed.
 The source of the message is not associated with the message.
The Boomerang Effect
 A shift in attitude which not only goes against what was intended but actually in the opposite direction.
 Most commonly used in attitude change studies in which a person’s attitude is not moved in the intended direction
but further away.
 It is the result of excessive and insensitive attempts to dissuade persons.
The Inoculation Effect
 This is based on a model of building resistance to persuasion.
 Here, people are exposed to arguments against their position, and are given counter-arguments that refute the
attack.
 Exposure to both sides of an issue can help strengthen one’s own attitude towards the subject of debate.
Social Judgement Theory
 This theory is concerned with the psychological processes underlying the expression of attitudes and the change of
attitudes through communication.
 Any attitude is an individual’s central attitude position toward an attitude object.
 Sherif proposed that we can categorize our positions into one of three zones:
o A Latitude of Acceptance: this includes the central position plus all other attitude positions that the
individual is willing to accept concerning the object.
o A Latitude of Rejection: this includes the most unacceptable positions about the attitude object, plus any
other positions the individual chooses to reject.
o A Latitude of Non-Commitment: includes any position the individual is uncertain or non-committal about.

Attitude Measurement
Attitudes can be measured:
• Directly: direct questioning and observation.
• Indirectly: project attitudes into the ambiguous situation.

Direct Measures
Likert Scale (1932)
 Typically a set of statements about a topic, representing both pro- and anti- views
 Respondents indicate their level of agreement with each statement on a 5 or 7 point scale
 Each response has a numerical value and the attitude is determined by summing these values
 Probably there most widely used attitude measures today

Thurstone Scale (1931)

 A list of statements is prepared and rated by judges in terms of how favourable or unfavourable they are with respect
to the chosen topic.
 Each statement is then assigned a mean value to reflect its status and a selection of statements chosen which
represent pro and anti-positions.

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 Subjects then indicate which statements they agree with and a score is calculated from the value assigned to their
selected statements.

Indirect Measures
Physiological Measures:
Galvanic Skin Response (GSR)
 This feedback instrument measures skin conductivity from the fingers and / or palms. The GSR is highly sensitive to
emotions in some people.

Pupillary Dilation
 Dilation thought to be a measure of respondents’ evaluation of an attitude object.

Electromyography (EMG)
 Attitudes can be detected via movements in facial muscles.
 Facial EMG are used to detect the direction of an individual’s attitude toward a target (whether positive or negative).
Attitudes can be detected via movements in different facial muscles.

Event Related Potentials (ERPs)

 Changes in electrical activity within the brain across time.
 Used to determine when brain activity occurs in response to attitude object.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

 Determines which parts of the brain are associated with attitudinal responses by monitoring changes in blood flow.

Behavioural Measures
 This involves the observation of people’s behaviour without their awareness.
 Reactivity occurs when people are aware that they are being observed. The implication of this is that people do not
answer truthfully.
 The non-reactive measure: we do not expect people to react if they do not know they are being observed.

Projective Measures
Rorschach Inkblot Test
 A projective test that involves presenting a person with an ambiguous picture.
 The stimulus requires interpretation from the person. Therefore, the person’s attitude is inferred from their
interpretation of the ambiguous picture.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

 Taps into a person’s unconscious mind to reveal the repressed aspects of their personality.
 Here a person is presented with an ambiguous picture which they have to interpret.

Required Reading
Social Psychology
Robert A. Baron * Nyla R. Branscombe
Chapter FIVE
Attitudes: Evaluating and Responding to the Social World