Psychology 2720A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Eurovision Song Contest, Cognitive Dissonance, Equa
Document Summary
Attitude: evaluation of a person, object, or idea. Hold attitudes towards everything - so we have hundreds if not thousands of attitudes. An attitude is made up of three components: Affective component: consisting of emotional reactions towards the attitude object. The function of such attitudes is not so much to paint an accurate picture of the world as to express and validate one"s basic value system. They do not result from a rational examination of the issues. They are not governed by logic - persuasive arguments about the issues seldom change an affectively based attitude. They are often linked by people"s values, so that trying to change them challenges those values. Cognitive component: consisting of thoughts and beliefs about the attitude object. Function is to classify the pluses and minuses of an object so we can quickly tell whether it is worth our while to have anything to do with it.