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Social Psychology
Ch04 - Attitudes & Behaviours
Intro
• Attitudes are more than just passing preferences
– They are very resistant to change
– They strongly influence our social thought
• A favourable or unfavourable evaluative reaction towards something or someone
– Exhibited in one‟s beliefs, feelings or intended behaviour
Advertisments & Attitudes
• What types of ads work best?
– Why?
• How do these advertisements hope to change or alter your attitudes?
– Logical considerations
– Fear, hopes, desires
Where do attitudes come from?
• Cognitively Based Attitudes
– When a person‟s evaluations are based on beliefs about the properties of an object
• Affectively Based Attitudes
– Based on emotions and values
– Sometimes, we just like something or someone
– Sensory Reactions
– Operant Conditioning
– Common Features
Attitudes predicting behaviour
• Many studies have shown that attitudes are poor predictors of behaviour
• Attitudes (and behaviours) don‟t exist in a vacuum
• Can‟t directly measure an attitude
Aspects of the situation
• Factors that prevent us from expressing an attitude
– Situational constraints
– Preferred situations
• Fishbein & Ajzen(1980)
– Predictors of voluntary behaviour
– Attitudes toward behaviour
– Subjective norms
• Your attitude might not guide your behaviour
• The relationship between an attitude and a behaviour is not entirely one way
Aspects of attitudes
• Katz – functions of attitudes
• Behaviour and attitude link
– Some attitudes are malleable, others are NOT
• Attitude origins
• Attitude Strength
– Intensity
– Knowledge
– Importance
• Attitude specificity
Behaviour determine attitude
• Behaviour has incredible impact on attitude
• Rituals
– Chicken and egg
– Natural rituals – personal
– Societal rituals
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– Societal rituals
• Indoctrination rituals
B to A – Role playing
• Groups have well defined roles
– Expectations of behaviour
• Most of us belong to more than one group
– Therefore, many different expectations of behaviour depending on situation
• Potential costs
– Identity loss
– Inconsistent actions
Role Playing con’t
• Zimbardo et al. (1973) www.prisonexp.org
– Potential cost of role playing
– 2 week observation on role playing behaviour
– Everyone knew it was an experiment
– Compelling roles
– Ethics
Role Playing con’t
• Cost of acting inconsistently
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• Role expectations are problematic when they are arbitrary and unfair
– Gender or Ethnic background
– Changes in Society
– Perpetuation of statistics
Foot in the door phenomenon
• Small request followed by larger request
– Salesman
– Teaching example
• Triggers an informational social influence
• Hard to resist
• Can be extremely long lived
Door in the face technique
• Somewhat opposite to foot in door technique
• Large request followed by smaller request
• Cialdini – volunteers to help teens
• Reciprocity principle
• Effect is fairly short lived
Good acts and attitudes
• Attitudes are hard to change
– Slow steady progress
• Governments enacting laws to change attitudes
– Smoking bans
– Computers (societal pressure not government)
– Social movements
Attitude Survey
Behaviour Survey
• Please indicate whether or not you have performed each of the following actions:
• Yes No 1. I take time to engage in regular physical exercise at least three times a week.
• Yes No 2. I regularly eat at least five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables each day.
• Yes No 3. I voted in the last election for which I was eligible.
• Yes No 4. Within the last year, I have personally done something to address the problem
of homelessness (e.g., made a charitable contribution, talked with a homeless person,
wrote my Member of Parliament regarding the problem of homelessness).
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wrote my Member of Parliament regarding the problem of homelessness).
Why do actions affect attitudes?
• Cognitive Dissonance theory
– Internal justification for actions
• Self Presentation Theory
– Expression of attitudes to indicate consistence
• Self Perception Theory
– Our actions are self revealing
Cognitive Dissonance
• Tension arises when a person is aware of 2 inconsistent cognitions
• We strive to maintain consonance
– Dissonance is unpleasant
– We must therefore justify our actions
• Dissonance reduction
– Insufficient justification effect
– Behaviour change - Attitude change
• Dissonance reduction paradigms
– Threat for eliminating pro-attitudinal behaviour
– Threat during initiation leads to attitude change
Self presentation theory
• Impression management
• Self Monitoring
– High and low self monitoring
– Neither is necessary “good” or „bad”
– Friendship patterns
• Activity vs. affective based orientation
– Response to advertising appeals
Self Perception Theory
• Although this theory might seem kind of flaky at first
– “I knew it all along”
• Smiling makes people happier
• Frowning makes people sadder/angrier
• This not only effects you but the people around you
– Hospice training – smiles all around
– Not just for the patients, but for the other staff
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