PSY220H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Caffeine, Safe Sex, Optimism
Document Summary
Social psychologists have a much more specific meaning for the term attitude. Attitude: an individual s evaluation of a target (can be an object, an issue, a person, a group, a behaviour, or any other identifiable aspect of the environment (e. g. a colour, an emotion)) By calling it an evaluation, theorists mean that an attitude is a good-bad judgement: it represents the individual s overall assessment of whether a particular target is positive or negative. Researchers must infer attitudes from individuals observable responses as attitudes cannot be seen directly. Although it is true that people can have an attitude toward almost anything, social psychologists have been interested mainly in attitudes that are directed at important targets, such as controversial issues, ethnic groups, and consequential behaviours. Attitudes can come from sources: emotional reactions, cognitive information, and past behaviour. Two-way relation between attitudes and behaviour: past behaviours influence current attitudes, and current attitudes influence future behaviour.
