PSY220H1 Chapter : 7.pdf
Document Summary
Attitudes and attitude change: influencing thoughts and feelings. In chapter 7, the topics of attitudes and attitude change are examined. Attitudes are evaluations of people, objects, and ideas. Researchers have addressed the question of where attitudes come from. Even if there is a genetic component, our social experiences clearly play a major role in shaping our attitudes. Attitudes can be cognitively, affectively, or behaviorally based. A cognitively based attitude is based primarily on people"s beliefs about the properties of an attitude object. An affectively based attitude is based more on people"s feelings and values than on their beliefs about the nature of an attitude object. The function of attitudes based on values and feelings is not so much to paint an accurate picture of the world as to express and validate one"s basic value system. Affectively based attitudes can also result from a sensory reaction, aesthetic reaction, or they can be the result of conditioning.
