Download Social Cognition - How do we think about the social world

Attitudes
Why are attitudes important?
Attitudes influence 3 major aspects of our lives:
Social thought – the way we think about social information
Social feelings – many of our likes and dislikes
Social behavior – e.g., protesting, voting, interpersonal relations
Attitudes are pervasive: We hold attitudes about virtually all topics
Functional Approach – Katz (1960)
 Utilitarian – Helps the person to achieve rewards and gain approval from others
 Knowledge – Helps the person to structure the world so that it makes sense
 Ego defense – Helps the person create or maintain a positive sense of oneself
 Value-expressive – Helps the person express important aspects of the self-concept
Early Definition
An ATTITUDE is a learned evaluative response, directed at specific objects, which is relatively
enduring and influences behavior in a generally motivating way. (Allport, 1935)
Current Definition
Social psychologists define an attitude as an enduring evaluation, positive or negative, of people,
objects, or ideas. (Eagly and Chaiken, 1998)
3 Components of Attitudes
 Affective
 Cognitive
 Behavioral
Affectively based attitudes are based more on people’s feelings and values than on their beliefs.
Their function may be value-expressive.
Affectively based attitudes may result from either classical conditioning or operant conditioning.
Cognitively based attitudes are based primarily on a person’s beliefs about the properties of the
attitude object.
Their function is knowledge or utilitarian.
Behaviorally based attitudes are based on observations of how one behaves toward an attitude
object
Their function is knowledge or utilitarian.
Dual Attitudes
 Explicit attitudes are attitudes that we consciously endorse and can easily report.
 Implicit attitudes are attitudes that are involuntary, uncontrollable, and at times
unconscious.
How do we measure attitudes?
Attitudes are hypothetical constructs, abstract concepts that cannot directly be observed
We Infer attitude usually by one of several methods
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Overt behavior (Head Movements, Eye Contact, The lost letter technique)
Self-reports (Attitude scales)
Covert or implicit methods (IAT)
Self-report Methods
Interviews
One-items rating scales
Attitude scales
L.L. Thurstone (1928) published an article in the American Journal of Sociology entitled
“Attitudes can be measured”
He developed the first scaling method (Thurstone’s Method of Equal-Appearing Intervals)
Method of Summated Ratings or Likert Scaling
Rene Likert (1932) developed the most commonly used method
It is based on responding to several statements about an issue or object using several “levels of
agreement”
ex. Strongly agree to Strongly disagree
Semantic Differential Scale
Osgood’s Semantic Differential: an attitude scale which includes various subscales that measure
the connotative meaning of the attitude object.
These subscales are bipolar and respondents are asked to check along the line between the two
bipolar opposites: (e.g. good ___ ___ ___ ___ ___bad).
3 elements of meaning to all concepts: evaluation (good/bad), potency (strong/weak) and activity
(active/passive).
Problems with Self-report Measures
S-R assume that (1) people know what their attitudes are and (2) they will report them honestly
The first assumption is often doubtful
Social desirability responding affects honest
Ambivalence
Covert Measures of Attitudes- An approach to measuring attitudes in which the measurement
technique is disguised in some way
Physiological measures (Facial Electromyography)
Bogus Pipeline
Implicit measures (IAT)
Attitude Formation
How do we develop our attitudes?
Socialization is the gradual acquisition of language, attitudes, and other socially approved values
through reinforcement, observation and other learning processes
Attitude Formation Theories
 Genetic influence
 Mere Exposure - Zajonc
 Classical Conditioning – Pavlov
 Operant Conditioning – Thorndike, Skinner
 Social learning or observation – Bandura
 Self-Perception theory - Bem