Psychology 2070A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Implicit-Association Test, University Of Western Ontario, Order Of The Solar Temple
20 Nov 2016
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Chapter 6 – Attitudes and Attitudes Change
A. The Nature and Origin of Attitudes
• Attitude: An evaluation of a person, object, or idea.
o Evaluative; contains positive, negative, or mixed reaction toward someone or something.
o Made up of 3 components
▪ Affective Components: emotional reactions toward the attitude object
▪ Cognitive Components: Thoughts and beliefs about the attitude object
▪ Behavioural Components: Actions or observable behavior toward the attitude object
a. Where Do Attitudes Come from?
• Affectively Based Attitude: An attitude based primarily on people’s emotions and feelings about the
attitude object. Don’t care about the pros and cons
o Have 3 Things in common:
▪ Do not result from a rational examination of the issues.
▪ Are not governed by logic
▪ Often linked to people’s values
• Where does affectively based attitude comes from?
o People’s values, such as their religious and moral beliefs
o Experiment – Olson and Maio @ UWO @ 1995
▪ Varied the message on posters soliciting donations for cancer research.
• Value-Expressive Condition: help others live
• Non-Value Condition: Protect your future
▪ Findings:
• For value-expressive condition, there was a +ve correlation between altruistic values and
having favourable attitudes toward donating to cancer research.
i. Cognitively Based Attitudes
• Cognitively Based Attitudes: An attitude based primarily on a person’s beliefs about the
properties of an attitude object. (Categorize the Pros and Cons)
ii. Behaviourally Based Attitudes
• Behaviourally Based Attitude: An attitude based primarily on observations of how one behaves
toward an attitude object.
o Related to self-perception theory.
iii. Comparing Affective, Cognitive, and Behavioural Bases of Attitudes
• Not all attitudes are created in the same way.
• Geoffrey Haddock, Mark Zanna, and Victoria Esses @ U of Waterloo
o Determine which attitudes are most likely to be based on.
o When attitudes are negatively toward particular groups → Cognitively based
When attitudes are toward homosexual and Pakistanis → symbolic beliefs
When attitudes are toward other social groups and social issues→ Affective based
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b. Explicit vs. Implicit Attitudes.
• Explicit Attitudes: Attitudes that we consciously endorse and can easily report
• Implicit Attitudes: Attitudes that are involuntary, uncontrollable, and at times unconscious.
o (ow to test people’s implicit attitudes?
▪ Implicit Association Test (IAT) - People categorize words or pictures on a computer
o Experiment – Bertram Gawronski and Etienne LeBel @ 2008
▪ Explicit and implicit attitudes tend to be positively correlated when people are asked to
reflect on their feelings about an attitude object, but not necessarily in this way when asked
to focus on cognitions about the attitude object. (Explain why)
o Rudman, Phelan, Heppen @ 2007
▪ Implicit attitudes are rooted more in people’s childhood experiences whereas explicit
attitudes are rooted more in their recent experiences
B. When Attitudes Predict Behaviour
• People’s attitudes are poor predictors of their behaviours.
o Experiment – Richard LaPiere @ 1934
▪ Description:
• Following a Chinese couple onto a sightseeing trip across U.S. at the time prejudice
against Asians was common.
• Only 1 out of 251 restaurants refuse to serve the Chinese couple.
• Mailed other 250 restaurants of whether they would serve an Asian, and all of them
refuse.
▪ Findings: People’s attitudes are not a good predictors of their behaviours
▪ Problems:
• Had no way of knowing whether the proprietors who answered his letter were the same
people who had served them
• People’s attitudes could have changed in the months that passed between times.
• Only at certain times, people’s attitudes can predict their behaviours → Theory of Planned Behaviour
a. The Theory of Planned Behaviour
• Theory of Planned Behaviour: A theory that the best predictors of a person’s planned, deliberate
behaviours is their intention.
o The intentions are determined by:
▪ The person’s attitudes toward specific behaviours
▪ Subjective norms
▪ Perceived behavioural control.
i. Specific Attitudes (Stronger predictor in Individualistic cultures)
• The more specific the question was about a certain action, the better this attitude predicted
their actual behavior → Example – The use of birth control pill example in the textbook.
ii. Subjective Norms (Stronger predictor in Collectivist cultures)
• Their beliefs about how the people they care about will view the behavior in question.
iii. Perceived Behavioural Control
• The ease with which people believe they can perform the behavior.
o The higher the level of difficulty, the less likely they will have the intention to perform.
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Document Summary
Cognitively based attitudes: cognitively based attitudes: an attitude based primarily on a person"s beliefs about the properties of an attitude object. (categorize the pros and cons) Behaviourally based attitudes: behaviourally based attitude: an attitude based primarily on observations of how one behaves toward an attitude object, related to self-perception theory. When attitudes are toward homosexual and pakistanis symbolic beliefs. When attitudes are toward other social groups and social issues affective based. Implicit attitudes: attitudes that are involuntary, uncontrollable, and at times unconscious: explicit vs. Implicit attitudes: explicit attitudes: attitudes that we consciously endorse and can easily report, (ow to test people"s implicit attitudes, experiment bertram gawronski and etienne lebel @ 2008. Specific attitudes: the more specific the question was about a certain action, the better this attitude predicted (stronger predictor in individualistic cultures) Example the use of birth control pill example in the textbook. their actual behavior .
