PSYC 215 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Implicit-Association Test, University Of Western Ontario, Casual Sex
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Published on 3 Feb 2018
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CHAPTER 6 – ATTITUDES AND ATTITUDE CHANGE: INFLUENCING THOUGHTS, FEELINGS AND
BEHAVIOUR
Introduction: Attitudes and Attitude Change
- Solar Temple cult in Que mainly wealthy professionals
o Convinced empty bank accounts, suicide by fire could be reborn
o 53 died
- people can be swayed by appeals to their fears, hopes, desires
- once people change their attitudes, powerful process self-justification sets in become
even more committed to decisions
The Nature and Origin of Attitudes
- ATTITUDE = an evaluation of a person, object, idea
o Evaluative in that consist of positive or negative reaction toward someone/thing
o Sometimes people experience ambivalence/mixed feelings
▪ “oe hae aialet attitudes toads Caada’s Natie ad Asia
immigrants
o People are not neutral observers of world but constant evaluators of what they
see
- Made up of 3 components:
1. Affective component emotional reactions towards attitude object
2. Cognitive component thoughts and beliefs about attitude object
3. Behavioural component actions or observable behaviour toward attitude object
Where do attitudes come from?
- AFFECTIVELY BA“ED ATTITUDE = attitude ased piail o people’s eotios ad
feelings about attitude object
o Politics, sex, religion people seem vote more with hearts than minds
o Oe soue of hee oe fo is people’s alues
▪ Attitudes about abortion, death penalty, premarital sex often based on
value system more than examining facts
▪ Study at UWO, Maio, Olson varied message on posters soliciting
donations for cancer research
• Value-epessie oditio …ad help othes lie
• Non-alue oditio …ad potet ou futue
• Value condition, positive correlation between altruistic values and
having favourable attutudes toward donating cancer research
• Non-value condition, no relation between altruistic values and
attitudes towards donating money
o Can also result from sensory reaction like liking taste chocolate or aesthetic
reaction like liking a painting
o All affectively based attitudes have 3 things in common:
▪ Do’t esult fo atioal ea of issue
▪ Not governed by logic
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▪ Ofte liked to people’s values, so trying to change them challenges
those values
- COGNITIVELY BA“ED ATTITUDE“ = attitde ased piali o peso’s eliefs aout
peroprties of an attitude object
o Purpose to classify pluses and minuses of an object so can quickly tell whether
worth our while
- BEHAVIOURLLY BASED ATTITUDES = attitude based primarily on observations of how
one behaves toward attitude object
o Darly Bem self-perception theory ude etai iustaes people do’t
know how feel until see how they behave
Explicit versus implicit attitudes
- EXPLICIT = attitudes we consciously endorse and can easily report
- IMPLICIT = attitudes involuntarily, uncontrollable and at times unconscious
- Sam might express all races equal and sign petition in favour policies at uni = explicit but
ight hae egatie feeligs toads Naties a’t eplai h ats eous = ipliit
- Variety techniques to measure implicit
o 1 of most pop = Implicit Association Test (IAT) – people categorize words or pics
on computer
- research on implicit still in infancy
- Study UWO by Gawronski, LeBel found that implicit and explicit attitudes tend be
positively correlated when people asked reflect on feelinsg about attitude object (how
feel Coke vs. Pepsi) but not necessarily related when asked focus on cognitions about
attitude object (list reasons why Coke over Pepsi)
- Rudman, Phelan, Heppen found evidence implicit attitudes rooted more in people’s
childhood experiences, explicit more in recent experiences
When Do Attitudes Predict Behaviour?
- Study Richard LaPiere embarked on sightseeing trip across US with young Chinese
couple
o Because prejudice against Asians common among Americans at time, he was
apprehensive about how Chinese friends would we trated
o Each place entered, LaPiere worried friends could confront anti-Asian prejudice
and would be refused service but of 251 establishments only 1 refused!
o So relation between attitudes and behaviour not so simple
The Theory of Planed Behaviour
- THEORY = theo that est peditos of a peso’s plaed, delieate ehaious ae
peso’s attitudes toad speifi ehaious, sujetie os, peeied ehaioual
control
- Specific attitudes = people’s speifi attitude toad ehaiou, ot geeal
o Study – asked sample married women about attitudes toward BC pills, ranging
from general to specifc 2 years later, women asked used BC pills since last
interview oe’s geeal attitude toad pill did’t pedit use of BC at all
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but more specific question was about using pill, better attitude predicted actual
behaviour
▪ Explains why LaPiere found such inconsistency betwwen attitdues and
behaviour, as question to propriertors was very general
- Subjectie os = people’s eliefs aout ho othes ill ie
o Their beliefs about how the people they care about will view the behaviour in
question to predict behaviour, can be important to know beliefs as to know
attitudes
- Perceived behavioural control = ease with which people believe can perform behaviour
o If think difficult to perform, will not form strong intention to do
- Considerable research supports idea that asking people about dterminants of their
intentions, the 3 components of theory, increases ability to predict behaviour
o Most focused in behaviours related health and fitness – smoke-free among Que
high school students and PEI students, staying away from injection drugs in
Montreal, promote exercise among women and men in Alberta and Victoris,
participation exercise for elderly at UWO, intentions engage in physical activity
vs. watch TV among uni at Victor
o Mummerly, Wankel used to predict whtehre cycle intensive training completed
by 116 competitive swimmers throughout Canada
▪ Swimmers who had positive attitudes toward training cycle, believed
import people in life wanted them to complete it, beleiive capable doing
so more likely report intended to complete and most likely actually
complete
o Theory ahs been applied other areas like predicting engage in pro-enviro
behaviours
o UWO used predict behavioural intentions toward people with mental illness
▪ Specific attitudes, subjective norms found predict
- Culture may play role in importance placed in dterminants of behaviour intentionals
o Study Hosking predicted that personal attitudes stronger predictor of
behavioural intentions in indidvidualistic cultures, whereas social norms stronger
in collectivist
▪ Tested large samples smokers in 2 Southeast Asian countries, 4 Western
▪ Personal attitudes toward smoking predicted intentions to quit more
strongly in Western countries than Southeast Asian
▪ Contrary to prediction, influence social norms did not vary vary
significantly, still influenced in individualistic
Theory of planned behaviour: implications for safer sex
- Aea hee people’s attutudes ofte iosistet ith ehaiou positive attitudes
toward using condoms, expressing intentions to use but then failing actually use them
- Study patrons bars in Southern Ontario, nearly 100% agreed with various statements
but only 56% of people at bar who engaged in casual sex had used condom in most
recent sexual encounter
o Only 29% who had engaged in casual sex in past year always used condom
- But according to this theory, attitudes are not the only predictor of behaviour
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