Psychology 2070A/B Final: Textbook notes for final exam

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2070A/B
• Professor: Richard Sorrentino

Document Summary

Attitude: an individuals evaluation of a target along a good-bad duration. The target can be an object, an issue, a person, a group, a behaviour, or any other identifiable aspect of then environment (a colour, an emotion) By evaluation, theorists mean that an attitude is a bad-good judgment; it represents the individuals overall assessment of whether a particular target is positive or negative. Attitudes always have a target they are directed at something, ranging from broad ideologies or values, to controversial issues, to people, to groups, to objects, to behaviours; there are an infinite amount of targets. Social pychs have been interested mainly in attitudes that are directed at important targets such as controversial issues, ethnic groups, and consequential behaviours. Attitudes comes from three sources: affect, cognition, and past behaviour. Targets that arouse negative feelings and emotions are more likely to generate unfavourable attitude.