PSYCH253 Lecture : Chapter 4- Behaviour and Attitudes Textbook Notes From Social Psychology -Myers, Spencer, Jordan -4th ed.

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH253
• Professor: Emiko Yoshida

Document Summary

Attitude: a favourable or unfavourable evaluative reaction toward something or someone, exhibited in one"s beliefs, feelings, or intended behaviour. Festinger concluded the evidence did not show that changing attitudes changes behaviour: he believed that the attitude-behaviour relation works the other way around with the behaviour as the horse and our attitudes as the cart. In follow-up experiments of moral hypocrisy, participants were given coins they could flip privately if they wished: even if they chose to flip, 90% assigned themselves to the appealing task. The developing picture of what controls behaviour emphasized external social influences such as others" behaviour and expectations, and played down internal factors such as attitudes and personality. Our behaviour and our expressed attitudes differ because both are subject to other influences. It wires people to a fake lie detector which participants are told is real and researchers show them how well it displays their (previously) obtained attitudes and then ask them new questions.