PSY220H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Chocolate Cake, Terror Management Theory, Perceived Control
Document Summary
Attitudes: formation and function: effects of attitudes. A cognitive representation that summarizes an indiv"s evaluation of a particular attitude obj. Can be defined in slightly different ways but this is the fundamental definition. Fundamental because if we know someone"s attitude, we can predict behaviour. Attitude object: anything that someone can hold an attitude toward - anything that can be conceptualized (abstract or tangible) Two key dimensions --> independent of each other, combines to create the attitude. Ambivalent attitudes --> these are not the same as a neutral attitude. You feel both positivity and negativity to the particular attitude object. Chocolate cake can be ambivalent --> it tastes good (pos) but is unhealthy (neg) Can occur bc our attitudes are made up of both affective (emotional) components and from cognitive information. Not a lot of research on this as there is on attitude change, etc, but many mechanisms. Classical conditioning (mere exposure), operant conditioning, observational learning, etc.
