Attitude formation
and change
Chapter 8
Psychology for the VCE student, Units 1&2
Attitudes
• Attitudes can be viewed as ideas that we hold about
ourselves, others, objects and experiences.
• The term ‘attitude’ can be defined as an evaluation a person
makes about an object, person, group event or issue.
• This definition indicates that we can form attitudes towards
anything.
Tri-component Model of Attitudes
• The tri-component model of attitudes proposes that any
attitude has three related components:
• Affective
• Behavioural
• Cognitive
• They are sometimes referred to as the ABCs of attitudes.
Affective
• The affective component of an attitude refers to the
emotional reactions or feelings an individual has towards an
object, person, group, event or issue.
• It is based on a judgment that results in:
• A positive response – things you favour or like
• A negative response – things you hate or dislike
• A neutral response – things you have no interest in
• Write down a few attitudes that reflect the affective
component of this model. How many are
positve/negative/nuetral?
Behavioural
• The behavioural component of an attitude refers to the way in
which an attitude is expressed through our action.
• It is how we behave should an opportunity arise.
• E.g. Protesting for same-sex marriage rights
• E.g. Not studying for the psychology exam
• E.g. Turning the channel when the news is on TV
Cognitive
• The cognitive component of an attitude refers to the beliefs
we have about an object, person, group, event or issue. Our
beliefs are linked to what we know about the world.
• Some beliefs are based on fact:
• E.g. The belief that AIDS can be transmitted by heterosexuals as
well as homosexuals is true.
• Some beliefs are false:
• E.g. All psychologists do the same type of work.
• Some beliefs can be verified:
• E.g. We can verify the belief that AIDS can be transferred by
heterosexuals as well as homosexuals by seeing a doctor.
• Some beliefs can’t be verified:
• E.g. We cannot verify the belief that aliens exist.
Tri-component model cont...
• Although the affective, behavioural and cognitive components
are described separately, the tri-component model proposes
that all three components must be present before it can be
said an attitude exists.
• Most of the time, all three components are consistent:
• E.g.
• A – I like school
• B – I study hard
• C – I believe that getting good grades will help me get into the course
of interest to me
• Write your own attitude comprising of the three components of
attitude.
Figure 8.3: Tri-component model
Tri-component model cont...
• Sometimes, the three components are not always consistent
because a person’s behaviour does not always reflect the
affective and cognitive aspect of an attitude.
• E.g. A person may believe that dental hygiene is important and
agrees that dental visits are vital (cognitive), but refuses to go
to the dentist (behavioural) because the sound of a dental drill
makes them feel anxious (affective).
La Piere (1934)
• Aim – to find out if there was consistency between a person’s
attitudes towards others with a different racial backgrounds
and their behaviour towards them (treating them differently).
• Method - Over 2 years – travelled around USA with a Chinese
couple. They stayed in 66 hotels and dined in 184 restaurants.
Sent questionnaires to the manager of each establishment
asking if they would accept Chinese guests.
• Results – Refused service on one occasion and treatment was
good in 50% of the places. Responses to letters – received
50% back – only one replied that they would accept Chinese
visitors.
• Conclusion – attitudes (reply to questionnaire) did not reflect
behaviour (accepting of Chinese visitors as guests).
Attitudes and behaviour
• There are many factors that influence whether attitudes and
behaviour will be consistent:
• Strength of the attitude: The stronger the attitude, the more
likely it will be stable and consistent over time, be resistant to
change, and influence behaviour. Stronger attitudes are likely to
predict behaviour more so than weaker attitudes.
• Accessibility of the attitude: attitudes and behaviour are more
likely to be consistent when the attitude is accessible to the
person who holds the attitude. An accessible attitude is a strong
attitude that easily comes to mind.
Attitudes and behaviour
• Social context of the attitude: whether an attitude leads to
actual behaviour may be dependent on the social context or
specific situation in which a person finds themselves. In some
cases, the situation may dominate the affective and cognitive
components of an attitude someone holds.
• Perceived control over the behaviour: they are more likely to
match when people perceive that they have control over the
behaviour that may be triggered by their attitude. Perceived
control is the belief an individual has that they are free to
perform or not perform behaviour linked to an attitude and a
belief that they can actually perform that behaviour.
Factors influencing attitude
formation
• Classical conditioning: a simple form of learning which occurs
through repeated association of two different stimuli.
• Operant conditioning: a kind of learning which is based on the
assumption that we tend to repeat behaviour which has a
desirable consequence.
Factors influencing attitude
formation cont...
• Modelling: occurs when someone uses observation of
another person’s actions and their consequences to guide
their future thoughts, feelings or behaviour.
• Repeated exposure: by simply being exposed to an object,
person, group, event or issue repeatedly.
Attitudes towards people
• When we meet someone for the first time, we tend to judge
them on a number of characteristics such as how they look,
the way they dress, the way they speak, their mannerisms,
and how they greet us.
Stereotyping
• A stereotype is a collection of beliefs that we have about the
people who belong to a certain group, regardless of individual
differences among members of that group.
• Eg. A stereotype of a scientist: wears glasses, white, frizzy hair, big
nose, speaks funny and is clumsy.
• One problem with stereotyping is that stereotypes can be
inaccurate and are often based on incorrect or inadequate
information.
• Another problem with stereotyping is that it can lead to
stigmatisation. A stigma is a negative label associated with
disapproval or rejection by others who are not labelled in that
way.
• Eg: Drug addicts are often stigmatised as being ‘losers’ by people
who do not take drugs.
Prejudice
• Stereotyping can lead to prejudice, which can in turn result in
discrimination.
• Prejudice is often defined in psychology as holding a negative
attitude towards members of a group, based solely on their
membership of that group.
• Eg: Blondes, women, men, Chinese, Arabic, old people, Muslim.
• Old fashioned prejudice: a form of prejudice in which
members of the majority group openly reject minority group
members and their views towards the minority group are
obvious and recognisable to others.
• Modern prejudice: a form of prejudice which is more subtle,
hidden and expressed in ways more likely to be accepted
within the majority group.
Discrimination
• Positive or negative behaviour that is directed towards a social
group and its members. Discrimination against people can
take many forms.
• Eg: ignoring people, excluding people from places or positions,
putting people down, or in extreme cases – violence and
genocide.
• The basic difference between prejudice and discrimination is
that prejudice is an attitude and discrimination is a behaviour
arising from prejudice and are usually directed at members
who belong to a group.
• Eg: Racism, sexism, ageism
Factors contributing to the
development of prejudice
• Ingroups and outgroups:
• People tend to categorise themselves and others into groups
which can in turn influence their attitudes towards the group
members.
• Any group that you belong to or identify with is an ingroup. An
outgroup is any group you do not identify with.
• We tend to view those belonging to your ingroup positively and
those in the outgroup negatively.
• Elliot’s classroom activity.
Elliot’s classroom activity
• A class divided
Factors contribution to the
development of prejudice
• Intergroup conflict:
• Occurs when members of different groups compete to achieve or
control something that is wanted by the members of each group
(Eg – obtaining fresh water resources after a tsunami).
• Attributions:
• The process of trying to explain observed behaviour in terms of a
particular cause is called attribution.
• Fundamental attribution error: overestimating personal
characteristics and underestimating the influence of the situation
an individual is in to explain a behaviour.
• The just world hypothesis: the tendency for individuals to believe
that they live in a world where people generally get what they
deserve and deserve what they get.
Factors that may reduce prejudice
• Anti-discrimination laws have led to a significant reduction in
the number of observable expressions of prejudice in
Australian society. Eg. Women’s right to paid maternity leave.
• However, findings from research studies conducted by
psychologists indicate there is still a need for further methods
to help reduce prejudice and discrimination.
• Generally, no one particular method will effectively eliminate
prejudice and discrimination so a number of methods needs
to be used in combination.
Intergroup contact
• Prejudice can be reduced by increasing intergroup contact
between two groups who are prejudiced against each other.
However, it is only under certain conditions that this contact
will help reduce prejudice.
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•
•
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Sustained contact
Mutual interdepedence (Robber’s Cave Experiment)
Superordinate goals
Equality of status
Sustained contact
• Proposes that certain types of direct contact between
members of different groups can reduce prejudice.
• It is assumed that prolonged contact of a fairly direct nature
(one-on-one) leads to a re-evaluation of incorrect stereotypes
about the other group and its members thereby reducing
stereotyping and prejudice.
Mutual Interdependence
• If two rival groups who dislike and are prejudiced against each
other are placed in a contact situation in which they are
mutually dependent on each other – there is a greater
likelihood that the rivalry and negative stereotypes can be
broken down, thereby reducing the prejudiced attitudes the
groups hold about each other.
Robber’s Cave Experiment
• Conducted by Muzafer Sherif in 1956.
• 22 white, middle-class, Protestant boys aged 11 to 12 with no
record of school, psychological or behavioural problems.
• Informed consent was given by the parents.
• Information obtained via school records and observations of
the boys in the playground.
• Location: a summer camp in Robber’s cave.
• There were three phases to this experiment
Phase one
• Boys were randomly allocated to one of the two groups.
• Both groups arrived in separate buses and were kept apart at
the campsite so they were unaware of each other’s presence.
• Aim: to promote the development of cohesion within each
group; a sense of belonging and togetherness.
• Method: group cohesion was achieved by organising activities
that involved cooperation and required the group members be
highly dependent on each other. Eg – preparing meals.
• This phase lasted one week and prepared the next phase for
conflict.
Phase two
• Activities were organised for intergroup competition to test a
hypothesis that ‘when two groups have conflicting aims, their
members will become hostile to each other even though the
groups are composed of normal, well-adjusted individuals’.
• Groups were allowed to discover that they were sharing the
campsite.
• Researchers stirred up negative feelings by week long
competitions with prizes, better treatment to one of the
groups.
• Results observed some of the boys becoming aggressive and
started fist fights.
• As predicted by Sherif, the experiment transformed these boys
into two gangs of brawling trouble-makers.
Phase three
• Sherif wanted to see if he could improve relations between
the two groups by increasing contact through intergroup
cooperation in non-competitive situations.
• They shared meal times, and watched movies together –
however this failed as the boys still showed hostility towards
each other.
Phase three cont…
• The groups were then put to the test by setting up situations where
the groups were mutually dependent on one another:
• Damage to water supply – only way to repair this was if all the boys
worked together.
• All boys to pool their money to pay the rental fee of a movie they all
wanted to see.
• While the boys were on an outing, the truck that was to pick up their
food had stalled. In order to get the truck going again, all boys had to
pull it up over a steep hill.
• Hostile feelings and negative attitudes were gradually reduced
through these goal-focused cooperative activities.
• The boys made friendships across groups and began to get along
better.
• This experiment revealed how mutual interdependence can reduce
prejudice and conflict between groups. This was created by setting
super-ordinate goals.
Superordinate goals
• A goal that cannot be achieved by any one group alone and
overrides other existing goals which each group might have.
• Even though (in the Robber’s Cave experiment) the boys
mingled good-naturedly while fixing the water tank, they
ended up in a food fight later on. Although they all pooled
their money, they sat on opposite sides of the theatre. It
wasn’t until 6 days later when the boys become less hostile
towards each other.
Equality of status
• The status of a group refers to the importance of the group when
compared with another group, as perceived by members of the
group making the comparison.
• If one group is perceived as being more important than the other
group, then the more important group would have a higher status.
• Vice versa for the less important group, they would have a lower
status.
• Both groups are likely to treat each other differently if a high or low
status is perceived.
• If members of each group (through sustained contact, mutual
interdependence and super ordinate goals) place equal status on
each other, then prejudice and discrimination will be broken down.
Cognitive interventions
• Cognitive intervention involves changing the way in which
someone thinks about prejudice.
• If people can be encouraged to understand others based on
their individual characteristics rather than generalising some
of their characteristics to stereotype them, then prejudice
may be lessened.