PSY220H1 Lecture Notes - Bobo Doll Experiment, Roy Baumeister, Cognitive Miser
Document Summary
Attitudes are basically about how we feel about things (people, objects, ideas, etc). Attitudes are evaluative because they require an assessment of some target. This is not the same as a belief. These two words are not interchangeable; belief is information about something that we expect to be true or factual and is something that will guide our behaviour. Attitudes, on the other hand, are our feelings towards outward targets. There are also private attitudes (these are not expressed and we are not aware of them). Attitudes are thus dual in nature; there are implicit and explicit attitudes. Implicit attitudes are automatic, unconscious, something we are unaware of, and may have trouble expressing. Explicit attitudes are controlled, conscious, something we are aware of, and something we can clearly articulate. This is basically the controlled versus automatic system, but the attitude version. The evaluative component of attitudes allows for quick decisions and decision making.
