PSYC 2700H Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Demand Characteristics, Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning
19 Oct 2015
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Attitudes (according to the definition in the text) are : Attitudes do not exist in isolation but are linked to one another, Thus the activation of an attitude may also lead to the activation of other related or overlapping attitudes. Also it helps if the second stimulus is likely to evoke a strong reaction. eg. names, places, perfumes. Research seems a little weak - the text comments that many studies to support this view suffer from problems with demand characteristics (remember ekman"s studies with nonverbals) This study would not fall prey to the criticism of demand characteristics because so called emotion-inducing photos were presented to participants in such a fashion that they were unaware of their presence (less than 1/10 second) Could be used as a possible explanation of why attitudes are hard to change with rational argument. Children are rewarded for voicing views or exhibiting behaviours care-givers agree with. (this works at the cultural and societal level as well!)
