Preview

Social Psychology: Attitude Formation and Attitude Change

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
5224 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Social Psychology: Attitude Formation and Attitude Change
The term Attitude as well as the concepts "attitude formation" and "attitude change" constitute an important part of the field of social psychology. Attitudes are an evaluation of a particular person, belief, event, place, or thing. They are positive or negative views of an "attitude object." People may also have ambivalent feelings toward a certain target, which means that they can simultaneously possess positive and negative attitudes toward the same object.
Affect, cognition, and action are the three aspects of an attitude. Learning, including classical and operant conditioning, as well as reduction or resolution of cognitive dissonance lead to the formation of attitudes. The main external source for attitude change is persuasion.
Attitudes may be regarded as predisposition, and are not always directly connect to behavior. However, the generation of stereotypes and opinions regarding people is often linked to antagonistic or discriminatory behavior. As people come into contact with others in the workplace, as well as in their personal lives, understanding how to develop appropriate attitudes that support harmonious relationships is of great importance. The term Attitude as well as the concepts "attitude formation" and "attitude change" constitute an important part of the field of social psychology. Attitudes are an evaluation of a particular person, belief, event, place, or thing. They are positive or negative views of an "attitude object." People may also have ambivalent feelings toward a certain target, which means that they can simultaneously possess positive and negative attitudes toward the same object.
Affect, cognition, and action are the three aspects of an attitude. Learning, including classical and operant conditioning, as well as reduction or resolution of cognitive dissonance lead to the formation of attitudes. The main external source for attitude change is persuasion.
Attitudes may be regarded as predisposition, and are not always directly

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Attitudes are the positive or negative evaluation we make of something. As we grow, learn and experience things as individuals we form attitudes. These attitudes can be about…

    • 2856 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    attitude --- an accumulation of information. Change occurs because of new info or change of value (a predisposition to behave in a positive or negative way toward an object)…

    • 2210 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    attitude measure: determines how a person is predisposed to think about or behave toward an object even institution type of behavior or person…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Comm 4331

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages

    7. Attitude: tendencies or predispositions, represent favorable or unfavorable evaluation of things, stronger attitudes tend to be better predictor and less likely to change - attitudes change more often than attitudes and beliefs. How you feel about something; they help to predict, explain, and modify behavior.…

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    An Attitude is something that shows ones degree of disliking or liking an item generally through body movement or tone and the way you go about doing something.…

    • 1138 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    ii. Behavior: in addition to attitude change, significant persuasion also results in changes of behavior.…

    • 1905 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Gordon Allport 's view that an attitude is the most distinctive and indispensable concept in social psychology has been cited countless times (1935: cited in Hogg and Vaughan 2005). He defined it as a state of readiness, organized through experience, which influences an individuals ' responses to a situation or object to which it is related.…

    • 2741 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    assessment 3 NEBOSH

    • 1069 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Attitude is the way or tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain idea, object, person, or situation. Attitude influences an individual's choice of action, and responses to challenges, incentives, and rewards. An example is how a politician courts votes.…

    • 1069 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    An attitude can be defined as a “predisposition to act in a certain way towards some aspect of one’s environment, including other people” Mednick et al, (1975). Many theories have been put forward to predict attitude change, Argyle (1994). However, attitudes are extremely difficult to define and can’t be directly seen or measured, so behaviour is inferred from what people say or do. An attitude is the subjective evaluation of objects, people, events, ideas, activities and feelings. This evaluation is normally of a positive or negative nature and is based normally on experiences which you have conflicting feelings towards. Attitudes have a past, present and future, to which behaviour develops in a sequence. Many believe there are three components…

    • 3084 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Elaboration Likelihood Model

    • 2902 Words
    • 12 Pages

    1. Identify and explain the two mental routes to attitude change. Are these routes mutually exclusive? What separates the twin poles on the cognitive continuum?…

    • 2902 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    “An attitude is a mental and neutral state of readiness through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related” ( Rollinson, 2005).An attitude reflects the attitude holder’s experiences, feelings and evaluations of those aspects of their life.…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Socialization Paper

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Attitude is the way one feels about someone or something in particular. It can affect emotions, behavior, actions, and thoughts. The various factors that contribute to attitude include culture, situations, experience, and peer pressure. Culture deals with ones beliefs and values. Growing up in a specific culture could alter ones attitude towards something or someone with different views. Situations and experience contribute to attitude in that when someone goes through something good or bad, it could ultimately change their attitude towards it. Peer pressure is one that deals with the influence of those around you.…

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why do people act in different ways? Some are kind, some are mean. Some do good, while other mean only harm. Some of them are aggressors, while others are peace holders. Some of them are positively prejudiced rather than others who almost always have a negative outlook of life and its diversities. Some of them feel a sense of sympathy towards an object or a subject, while others dislike it. Exploring and understanding behaviour and all of its features has been a life-long ambition for many scholars and professors over the centuries. But their major concern was to establish what particularly the essence of the component preceding behaviour is, whether there is something that lies beneath the way we respond to a particular situation or stimulus.…

    • 1115 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Attitude: defines what a person likes or dislikes. When you choose a topic, it is important to find out your audience's attitudes toward the subject. If you are doing a speech on rap, does your audience like rap.…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Attitudes represent the cluster of beliefs, assessed feelings, and behavioral intentions toward a person, object or event (called an attitude object). Attitudes are judgments, whereas emotions are experiences.…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays