Attitudes

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1. Attitudes Lesson 06 Part I

2. Evaluating And Responding To The Social World People are not neutral observers of the world. They evaluate whatever they encounter. They form attitudes Social psychologists use: the term attitudes to refer to ----people’s evaluation of any aspect of their social world. People can have: favorable or unfavorable reaction to ---issues , objects, ideas, events, specific behavior (e.g. cheating in exam) or entire social groups (i.e. ethnic; religious; racial groups). Some attitudes are stable and resistant to change---While--- others may be unstable and show variability according to situation .

3. Definition Of Attitudes An attitude is a negative or positive evaluation of an object. It has an aspect of liking or disliking, favoring or not favoring an object. E.g . a vegetarian has a negative attitude toward beef consumption. Attitude influences human behaviour towards an object. For instance a vegetarian would avoid eating beef. Attitudes are evaluative judgments: either favorable (positive) or unfavorable (negative) ---towards ---- people, objects, events, ideas or issues. How do you feel about the current president of the United States? What do you think about classical music? These questions will reveal your attitude towards these things, or, your attitude about the president or classical music.

4. Explicit and Implicit Attitudes Explicit attitudes are conscious beliefs that can guide decisions and behavior. A person’s conscious positive or negative views toward: people , objects, or concepts. That is, the person is aware of the feelings he or she holds in a certain setting. “ Speak your mind” Example: His grandfather is unapologetically racist; the man makes no attempt to hide his negative views toward members of various ethnic minorities Implicit attitudes are involuntary, uncontrollable, unconscious beliefs that can still influence decisions and behavior Those we are unwilling or unable to report  “Know your mind” People can have explicit and implicit attitudes toward virtually anything. For example: Students can believe explicitly that they hate math but have a more positive attitude at an implicit level(means when results are announced, they obtain Grade A)

5. Components Of Attitude Psychologists such as Rosenber, Eagley, and Hovland have given a three components model of attitude. According to this model, an attitude has following three components : A cognitive component An affective component; and A behavioral component

6. 1. Cognitive Component ( Cognitively Based Attitudes) Cognitive component is the set of information, ideas, facts, and knowledge about an object. Cognitively based attitudes are based on a person’s beliefs about the properties of the attitude object (that is, classifying pros and cons of the object). Their function is informational or utilitarian. For example : Attitude regarding vacuum cleaner, your belief about the merits of vacuum cleaner. How well they (vacuum cleaner) clean up dirt and how much they cost.

7. 2. Affective component (Affective Based Attitudes) This component consist of feelings and emotions towards an object. It can be emotions of liking or disliking, favoring or disfavoring, positive or negative evaluation toward the object. For example: Sometimes we simply like a car regardless of how many miles it covers to the gallons it gets. Similarly , in elections, we vote for the candidates based on our feelings towards that person as very few people know of his policies and vote because of that.

8. 3. Behavioral Component (Behaviorally Based Attitudes) It Is the tendency to behave toward the object. An attitude based on observations of how one behaves toward an attitude object. ( Behaviorally based attitudes stems from people’s observations of how they behave towards an object). Behaviorally based attitudes are based on self-perception of one’s own behavior when the initial attitude is weak or ambiguous . Self-perception Theory According to Daryl Bem’s (1972) self-perception theory: under certain circumstances, people don’t know how they feel until they see how they behave. We can form our attitudes based on our observations of our own behavior For example, you asked your friend how much she likes to exercise. If she replies, “Well, I guess I like it because I regularly go for exercise or jogging or gym to work out.” We would conclude she has behaviorally based attitude. Her attitude is based more on an observation of her behavior than on cognition or affect.

9. Anything we know about an object or the facts we have about an object is the cognitive component. On the basis of our knowledge about an object, we have emotions of liking or disliking towards the object, --these emotions are the affective component. On the basis of our information and emotions toward the object, we act toward the object in a specific way—it is the behavioral component. Example 1 An orange is rich in vitamins. It is good for skin Its has a good taste (Cognitive Component). I like oranges (Affective Component) I eat an orange daily (Behavioral Component) Example 2 Saver bulbs consume less electricity than ordinary bulbs. It has a brighter light. It is more durable (Cognitive component) I like saver bulbs because saver bulbs are good (Affective component) I buy and use saver bulbs in my home (behavioral component)

10. Attitude Formation The process of attitude formation has following two explanations: Determinants of attitude formation Theoretical perspective

11. Determinants of Attitudes Formation Attitude formation is of particular interest to social psychologist because attitudes often direct behavior. Determinants of Attitude formation are given below. Community Attitudes People around us have attitudes (+ or -) towards things. We interact with these community members and their attitudes also influence us to form an attitude towards those things. Cultural Factors Our cultural norms, values, beliefs, traditions, and preferences also form our attitudes towards a thing (Attitude object). People form positive attitude towards culturally and socially approved practices. Similarly people form negative attitude towards socially and culturally disapproved and discouraged practices. Our cultural norms and values are reflected in our attitudes. For instance: dress and food choices are good examples. Experience Attitudes form directly as a result of experience. They may emerge due to direct personal experience, or they may result from observation. We form a positive attitude toward things if we had good experience with it. We form negative attitude toward things, if we had bad experience with it.

12. Socialization It’s a life long process of learning through which an individual learns from his/her parents, other family members, teachers, peers, friends, mass media and anything in the surrounding. We learn about the attitude and opinions of other people regarding different things, which also shapes our attitudes toward these things. Needs satisfaction and personal interest If a thing o r an idea fulfills our needs satisfactorily, we form a positive attitude towards it. For instance : a student has a positive attitude toward the use of internet for his studies because it serves his academic needs. Certain things which don't fulfill our need, we form a negative attitude towards it. An individual’s personal interest and gains may also influence his attitude towards a thing. For instance : some shopkeepers may deliberately hoard( store secretly) consumables (e.g. sugar; flour)to create its shortage in the market in order to raise its’ prices. Those shopkeepers have positive attitude towards hoarding consumables because it increases their profit. At the same time, the people, who have to pay higher prices for buying those consumables have a negative attitude toward the same practice (hoarding).

13. Mass Communication---Print & electronic Media Everyday the sources of mass communication bombard us with information which has an impact on our attitude formation towards the thing. Media informs us about good or bad about things, which influence our opinions regarding things. For Instance: Our positive or negative attitude towards a politician is mostly the outcome of media. Similarly, advertisements are also used to influence our attitudes positively towards the product to enhance its sale. Personality traits Every individual has different personality traits like aggressiveness, jovialness(fun loving), introvertial or extrovertial traits, intelligence level, perceptual traits and so on. These characteristics influence the way an individual perceives a thing or an idea. For instance : An extrovert will have a positive attitude towards social gatherings, parties, out door activities and ceremonies. On the other hand, an introvert will have negative attitude towards social gatherings.

14. Theoretical Perspective The learning theory explains the formation of attitudes as follows. The learning theory is a product of the works of many psychologists. This theory explains how an individual learns through social interactions with others ------i.e.----- Many of our attitudes/views are acquired in situations in which we interact with others or observe the behavior of others. Social Learning Theory. The process through which we acquire new information, forms of behavior or attitudes from other people is called social learning. According to the social learning theory, attitudes are formed as a result of the following three modes of learning. Classical conditioning Instrumental conditioning Imitation or observation

15. Classical Learning-- Learning based on association Classical conditioning  is a form of learning that deals with acquiring new information or behavior via the process of association. Classical conditioning is a learning in which one stimulus becomes a signal for the presentation of another stimulus . After repeated pairings of stimuli 1 and 2 Example 1: When you were a child you experienced feelings of warmth and love when you visited you grandmother. Suppose that she also cooked very well and you loved her dishes. Eventually, her cooking, her taste of dishes alone will trigger the emotions you experienced during your visits through the process of classical conditioning, that is, learning by associating her love with her tasteful dishes.

16. Classical conditioning—learning by associating (Cont’d) It is learning by association. Attitudes are learnt by associating good or bad characteristics to an object. Associating good or bad attributes to an object may be based on personal experience of the individual or his knowledge about the pros and cons of the object. An individual forms a negative attitude toward a thing, to which he associates negative characteristics e.g . an individual may associate bad characteristics to junk food. Such that it contains high amount of sugar and fats, it causes obesity and health complications. This individual will have a negative attitude toward junk food consumption. On the other hand, another person, associates good characteristics to junk food, Such as it has good taste, it has high energy and so on. Such an individual will form positive attitude towards junk food consumption.

17. Example 2: Initially, young children may have little or no emotional reaction to the visible characteristics (for e.g., skin color, style of dressing, accent) of member of different social groups. If , however, he/she sees his/her mother/father or others showing a sign of negative reactions in their presence, gradually negative reactions towards them will be acquired (learned by the children two) as their parents are showing such reactions as a result of the process of classical conditioning. Example 3: You are driving down a dark and curvy road when you narrowly miss a collision with a large truck that has edged over into your lane. You experience a rapid pulse, sweating palms, and your stomach begins to shake. After this near miss, you continue driving down the road. A few days later, as you approach the same curve, you begin to experience the same reactions (your heart beats faster, your palms begin to sweat) but there are no other vehicles around. What happened to you in this scenario?

18. Example 4: If a child is bullied in school, he or she may start associating school with fear and torture. In the same way, students may also start to develop a dislike for particular subjects if they are punished by their teachers. If parents don’t work hard to change their child’s point of view, the student may continue to dislike the particular subject throughout their academic career. Example 5: We all have that one song that reminds us of the past or simply puts us in a good mood. As humans, we often associate objects with feelings. For instance, one may associate a song with all the wonderful times they spent with their spouse or good friends. At times, these associations are so strong that we are reminded of past experiences and memories.

19. Example 6: Imagine that you took a trip with some friends.  You  traveled down a winding road in the mountains.  You got  car sick while traveling on this road.  While riding in the  car, you ate an apple.  Now, you have nausea when you  see an apple.  You do not eat apples anymore .

20. Operant Conditioning or Instrumental Learning It is called learning through reinforcement---punishments and rewards. The Process of rewards or punishments tied to our attitudes and behaviour is called “operant conditioning” or “instrumental learning”. Positive or negative attitude toward an object is formed on the basis of consequences (outcomes) of coming across the object. Anything that gives you positive consequence, you would develop positive attitude towards it. For example: a student studying devotedly gets high marks, wins a prize and is appreciated by others for his high marks. He develops a positive attitude towards hard work (study) Similarly any negative consequence of an action leads the formation of a negative attitude towards it.

21. Learning in which responses (that is attitude) that lead to positive outcomes or which avoid negative outcomes are strengthened. Attitudes that are followed by positive outcomes tend to be strengthened and are likely to be repeated while attitudes that are followed by negative outcomes are weakened so their likelihood of being expressed again is reduced. For example : a four-year girl goes to playground and begins to play with an African-American girl. Her father expressed strong disapproval telling her we don’t play with that kind of child. It won’t take long before the child associates interacting with African-American with disapproval thereby adopting her father’s racist attitudes.

22. Example 1: If when you were younger you tried smoking at school, and the chief consequence was that you got in with the crowd you always wanted to hang out with, you would have been positively reinforced (i.e., rewarded) and would be likely to repeat the behavior. If, however, the main consequence was that you were caught, caned, suspended from school and your parents became involved you would most certainly have been punished, and you would consequently be much less likely to smoke now. Example 2: Class presentations are one of the mandatory class activities held in most schools. Consider a scenario where a student elaborately explains his presentation. If the student is applauded and complimented, he/she is more likely to be encouraged for similar presentations in the future. On the other hand, if the student is laughed at or criticized, future presentations are likely to be nothing but a formality. Here, the reactions of the class and the teacher are the  positive  and  negative  reinforcers. Being cheered is the positive reinforce, while being hooted is the negative reinforce

23. Example 3: An employee getting criticized in front of the whole office by his boss and having certain privileges taken away as a consequence to his bad behavior at work will motivate him to stay in line and be more sincere. Example 4: Parents rewarding a child’s excellent grades with candy or some other prize. Example 5: A schoolteacher awards points to those students who are the most calm and well-behaved. Students eventually realize that when they voluntarily become quieter and better behaved, that they earn more points

24. Observational Learning-- Learning by exposure to others It is the learning in which: individuals acquire new forms of behavior (for example, attitudes) as a result of observing others. Attitudes are formed by------ imitating or observing others. We observe the preference, choices, and attitude of other people towards different things which also shape our own attitude towards those things. We imitate others in developing a specific attitude towards a thing. Similarly, we come to know of certain information and facts regarding thing----- which influences our attitude towards those things. For example : media exposure can influence our attitude formation. We have learned about many dancing styles from watching “ Nach Baliye ”, from TV dancing programs or many forms of musical styles from Indian Idol. Just imagine how much observational learning most of us do as we watch TV .

25. Examples A child watches his mother folding the laundry. He later picks up some clothing and imitates folding the clothes. B oy watches another boy on the playground get in trouble for hitting another child. He learns from observing this interaction that he should not hit others. A newer employee is always punctual after seeing a colleague get fired for being late . If a young girl hears her mother criticize all elected officials as crooks, she may repeat that opinion in class the next day. Whether she continues to repeat that opinion depends on the responses of her classmates, teacher, and parents. That is, observations determine the responses we learn, but reinforcement determines the responses we express.

26. Why do people adopt attitudes that, they hear-- others express or imitate (copy) the behaviors they observe in others? One answer involves the mechanism of social comparison, that is, our tendency to compare ourselves with others--- to determine whether our views of social reality is correct or not, that is, to the extent that our views agree with those of other people . We tend to conclude that our ideas and attitudes are accurate if others hold the same view, these views must be right. People often adjust their attitudes so as to hold views closer to those of others who they value and identify with- their “reference group”. For example: women form more positive attitude towards the product when they thought other women liked it. Men form more positive attitude towards the product when they thought other men liked it.

27. Example: Let us understand attitude formation through social comparison with the help of a study conducted by Maio , Esses , and Bell (1994). They presented Canadian visitors to a large science centre with information about a fictitious group that had applied for migration to Canada. Two different sets of visitors were given contrasting information about the migrant groups. One group was told that the migrant group had been assigned high ratings on personality traits (friendliness, industriousness, honesty and intelligence) and values (education, equality, family, freedom, law and order) by the people in England and the other group was given the information that the migrant group was given low rating in terms of these personality traits and values. As a result of this, the visitors who were given positive information about the migrant group expressed more favorable attitude towards the migrants than those who were given negative information about the migrants. Social comparison theory forms another basis for the development of attitude. According to this theory, we compare ourselves to others in order to determine whether our view of social reality is or is not correct. Thus, due to our desire to hold ‘right’ views, our attitude is shaped by the social information that we seek from people we admire or respect