PSYC 2014 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Twin, Operant Conditioning, Elaboration Likelihood Model
Exam 1 Lecture 5: Attitudes and Attitude Change Social Psychology
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• Attitudes- evaluation of a person, object, or idea. Can be positive, negative, or ambivalent. We are not neutral
observers of our world
o Where do attitudes come from?
▪ Genetic- genetic twins share more attitudes than fraternal twins; indirect function of our genes
(temperament, personality)
▪ Social Experiences- not all attitudes are created equally. Though all attitudes have affective,
cognitive, and behavioral components, any given attitude can be based more on one type of
experience than another
o ABCs: Tripartite Model- 3 attitude components: Affective + Cognitive + Behavioral Attitude
▪ 1) Affective- a positive or negative feeling about the attitude object (emotional reaction)
▪ 2) Cognitive- cognitive representation of one’s evaluation of the attitude object (thoughts and
beliefs)
▪ 3) Behavioral- how one acts toward the object (behavioral reaction)
▪ Example- Attitude towards running
• Affective running calms/energizes me
• Behavioral I try to run everyday
• Cognitive running can lead to positive health outcomes
• Cognitively-based Attitudes- based primarily on people’s beliefs about the properties of an attitude object.
Sometimes our attitudes are based only on the relevant facts
o Example – car how many miles/gallon? Does it have side air bags?
• Affectively based Attitudes- based more on people’s feeling and values than on their beliefs about the nature
of an attitude object. Sometimes we simply like a car, regardless of how many miles to the gallon it gets
o We can even feel great about something or someone in spite of having negative beliefs
o Don’t come from examining facts; so, where do they come from?
▪ Values – religious, moral, etc.
▪ Sensory reaction – liking the tastes of something
▪ Aesthetic reaction – admiring lines and color of a car
▪ Conditioning
o Affect- the most immediate reaction to an object.
o Classical Conditioning- a stimulus that elicits an emotional response is paired with a neutral stimulus.
The neutral stimulus takes on the emotional properties of the first stimulus
o Operant Conditioning- freely chosen behaviors increase or decrease when followed by reinforcement
or punishment
• Behavior-Based Attitudes- based on observations of how one behaves toward an attitude object
o Self-perception theory- people infer their attitudes from behavior only. Occurs when initial attitude is
weak/ambiguous or when no other plausible explanation for behavior
▪ More on this in cognitive dissonance
• Explicit vs Implicit Attitudes
o Explicit Attitudes- ones we consciously endorse
▪ Robert is white, middle-class college student who believes that all races are equal
• Conscious evaluation of other races
• Governs how he chooses to act- consistent with his explicit attitude; he signed a
petition in favor of affirmative action
o Implicit Attitudes- involuntary and often unconscious evaluation
▪ Implicit Association Test (IAT)
▪ Robert has grown up in a culture in which there are many negative stereotypes
• Negative ideas have affected him in ways of which he is not fully aware
• If, when Robert is around black people, some negative feelings are triggered
automatically and unintentionally
o A
B Inconsistency- evidence that attitudes are not good predictors of behavior
▪ LaPiere (1934) examined anti-Chinese attitudes and discrimination; found that there were
several reasons behind this type of behavior
• Different people responded to survey and served them
• People’s attitudes could have changed in the months between observation and survey
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