ATTITUDESHow do you measure an attitude?The three components ofattitud - PDF document

ATTITUDESHow do you measure an attitude?The three components ofattitudeHow do attitudes inßuence behaviour?Forming and changing attitudesATTRIBUTIONSEarly theories ofattributionThe effects ofbiasCultural differencesCategorization and stereotypingHow do schemas work?Recent research into social processingThe power ofstereotypesSUMMARYFURTHER READING Attitudes, Attributions and17 PSY_C17.qxd 1/2/05 3:47 pm Page 360 Learning Objectivesschemas help us to categorize, evaluate and process social information quickly and efÞciently;the processing of social information can occur anywhere along a continuum ranging from category-based urge customers to buy goods or services; politiciansAttitudes indirectlyinteraction. This is attitude change is afundamental area of social INTRODUCTION attitude objectthe thing (e.g. idea,person, behaviour) that is accorded afavourable or unfavourable attitude attribution an individualÕs beliefabout causality PSY_C17.qxd 1/2/05 3:47 pm Page 361 Attitudes 1.beliefs, feelings and behaviour towards an object can2.attitudes towards an object can inßuence beliefs, feelings Using the scales below, please indicate your attitude towards immigrants. Immigrants are:Extremelybad–3Extremelyharmful–3Extremelydislikeable–3Extremelynegative–3Verybad–2Slightlybad–1Bad or Good?Neither0Harmful or Benecial?Neither0Dislikeable or Likeable?Neither0Negative or Positive?Neither0Slightlyharmful–1Slightlydislikeable–1Slightlynegative–1Attitude = Mean rating = (2+3+0+1) / 4 = 1.50Veryharmful–2Verydislikeable–2Verynegative–2Slightlygood+1Slightlybeneficial+1Slightlylikeable+1Slightlypositive+1Verygood+2Extremelygood+3Extremelybeneficial+3Extremelylikeable+3Extremelypositive+3Verybeneficial+2Verylikeable+2 Verypositive+2 Sample semanticÐdifferential scale. Beliefs Attitude Beliefs Feelings Feelings Behaviour Behaviour Figure 17.2The three-component model of attitudes. Effects ofbeliefsEffects offeelings PSY_C17.qxd 1/2/05 3:47 pm Page 363 366366 Attitudes, Attributions and Social Cognition The effects of behaviour on attitudesThe research issue Before this experiment was conducted, most researchers were primarily interested in the effects of attitudes on behaviour.In contrast, Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) set out to show that our behaviour can occasionally be awkwardly inconsistentwith our true attitude and, to resolve this uncomfortable inconsistency, we may change our attitude to match the behaviour. Design and procedure The experiment consisted of three stages. In the Þrst stage, the experimenter attempted to make participants dislike aseries of boring tasks. Participants were falsely told that they were taking part in a study of Ômeasures of performanceÕ.They were asked to put 12 spools on a tray, empty the tray, and reÞll it. Participants repeated this task for half an hour,using one hand, while the experimenter pretended to record their performance.Next, participants were asked to use one hand to turn 48 square pegs on a board (a quarter turn one way, then the otherway) for half an hour, while the experimenter continued to monitor their performance. Presumably, participants came to hatethese dull tasks.In the second stage, the experimenter asked the participants to tell a new participant that the tasks were interesting andenjoyable. The experimenter justiÞed this request by stating that he was comparing the performance of participants whohad been told nothing about the task with the performance of participants who had been given speciÞc, positive expecta-tions. The experimenter indicated that his colleague usually gave speciÞc (positive) information to participants, but that thiscolleague had not arrived yet.The experimenter then asked whether the participant could temporarily Þll in and be Ôon callÕ for future elements of thestudy. Virtually all of the participants agreed to this request. The participants then attempted to persuade the next par-ticipant (who was actually a confederate of the experimenter) that the tasks were interesting, fun, enjoyable, intriguing andexciting.In the third stage, participants were asked to meet an interviewer to answer questions about the previous tasks (e.g.turning the pegs). One of the questions was about the extent to which participants enjoyed the tasks.Festinger and Carlsmith expected that participantsÕ intervening behaviour would cause them to like the tasks to a greaterextent only when they believed they had been given little external incentive for engaging in the behaviour. If the behaviourwas performed with little reward, participants should feel a need to justify the behaviour to themselves. To do this, they shouldchange their attitude to support the behaviour. In other words, participants should come to believe that they actually likedthe tasks that they had undertaken during the intervening period.To test this reasoning, the experiment included a crucial manipulation: participants were offered either $20 (a lot of moneyin the 1950s!) or $1 to describe the dull tasks favourably to the other ÔparticipantÕ. Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J.M., 1959, ÔCognitive con- Control$1 $20 Figure 17.5The effects of reward on participantsÕ enjoyment of the dulltasks in Festinger and CarlsmithÕs (1959) experiment. PSY_C17.qxd 1/2/05 3:47 pm Page 366 368368 Attitudes, Attributions and Social Cognition 1.encounter the message (presentation stage);2.attend to it (attention stage);3.understand it (comprehension stage);4.change their attitude (yielding stage);5.remember their new attitude at a later time (retention stage);6.the new attitude must inßuence their behaviour (behaviourMotivation and abilityORMINGANDCHANGINGATTITUDESIncentive for change1.pay attention to the message,2.comprehend the message, and3.accept the messageÕs conclusions. FunctionDeÞnition Object appraisal/Summarize the positive and negative utilitarianattributes of objects in our environment.Social adjustmentHelp identify with people whom we like andEgo-defence/Protect the self from internal conßict.Value expressionExpress self-concept and personal values. Source: Selected functions from Katz (1960); Smith, Bruner and White (1956). attitude function the psychologicalneeds that an attitude fulÞls PresentationRecipient exposed to the message Recipient performs the behaviour advocated by Attention Comprehension Yielding Retention Behaviour Figure 17.8McGuireÕs (1969) information-processing approach to persuasion. PSY_C17.qxd 1/2/05 3:47 pm Page 368 Attributions 1.consistency Ð does the person respond in the same way to2.distinctiveness Ð do they behave in the same way to other3.consensus Ð do observers of the same stimuli respond in a1.If John always laughs at this comedian, then his behaviour2.If John is easily amused by comedians, then his behaviour3.If practically no one else in the audience laughed at theHEEFFECTSOFBIASThe fundamental attribution error Pioneer Susan Fiske(1952Ð ) has been at the forefront of researchin the Þeld of social cognition since the late 1970s. She has contributed important research on a number of topics,including the development of schemas, schema-triggeredaffect, categorical processing, stereotypes, prejudice anddiscrimination, and is co-author with Shelley Taylor of two editions of the leading source book in this Þeld, SocialCognition. Beginning with the premise that people readilycategorize other people (especially based on race, genderand age), FiskeÕs research addresses how stereotyping, pre-judice and discrimination are encouraged or discouragedby social relationships, such as cooperation, competitionand power. Pioneer inthe Þeld. In making attributions, Kelley regarded indi- PSY_C17.qxd 1/2/05 3:47 pm Page 371 374374 Attitudes, Attributions and Social Cognition ULTURALDIFFERENCES Figure 17.12In a study by Hunter et al., both Catholic and Protestant studentsattributed their own groupÕs violence to external causes and theopposing groupÕs violence to internal causes. Proportion of references togeneral dispositions 0.7 0.6 AdultsIndian Hindus1511Age 8 Americans Figure 17.13Cultural and developmental patterns of dispositional attribution.Source: Based on Miller (1984). PSY_C17.qxd 1/2/05 3:47 pm Page 374 Social Cognition OCIALSCHEMAS SOCIAL COGNITION Person schemasSelfschemasRole schemas cognitive misersomeone who mini-mizes effort and energy when process-ing information, making Ôtop of theheadÕ judgements, evaluations andinferences, with little thought or con-sidered deliberation person schemasa conÞguration of per-sonality traits used to categorize peopleand to make inferences about theirbehaviour Ð also referred to as personprototypes self schemascognitive representationsof the self that organize and process allinformation that is related to the self role schemasknowledge structures ofthe behavioural norms and expectedcharacteristics of speciÞc role positionsin society based on peopleÕs age, gen-der, race, occupation, etc. event schemas cognitive structuresthat describe behavioural and eventsequences in everyday activities such aseating at a restaurant, attending a lec-ture or shopping at a supermarket PSY_C17.qxd 1/2/05 3:47 pm Page 375 378378 Attitudes, Attributions and Social Cognition Schemas are uniÞed, stable structures that resist changethestereotype are relegatedto ÔexceptionalÕ sub-categoriesorsubtypes that accommod-the overall stereotype largely intact (Weber & Crocker, 1983).Schemas facilitate memorySchemas are energy-saving devicesSchemas are evaluative and affective Figure 17.16Through schemas that serve to evaluate social stimuli, we automatically become suspicious of the prototypic used-carsalesman. subtyping modelpredicts that dis-conÞrming instances of a stereotype arerelegated to subcategories or subtypes,which accommodate exceptions to thestereotype but by and large leave theoverall stereotype intact PSY_C17.qxd 1/2/05 3:47 pm Page 378 Social Cognition ECENTRESEARCHINTOSOCIALPROCESSINGThe continuum model ofprocessingneedfor Automatic vs. controlled processingthat most people, through book-keeping modelsuggests thatstereotypes and schemas are constantlyÞne-tuned with each new piece of information conversion modelpredicts dramaticand sudden change in schema andstereotypes in the face of salient contradictions Category-based processingFast Slow Figure 17.17Continuum model of processing. Source: Based on Fiske andNeuberg (1990). data-based processing informationprocessing that is slow, deliberate, andrequires conscious effort and attention,used where the need for accuracy ishigh category-based processing informa-tion processing that is fast, non-strategic,efÞcient, can be automatic and beyondconscious awareness, and is more likelyto occur when the data are unambigu-ous and relatively unimportant automatic processing the processingof information that is beyond consciousawareness and extremely fast Ð inexperimental studies, within 240 ms ofstimulus presentation controlled processing the processingof information that is deliberate, con-scious, and strategic; in experimentalstudies, this occurs after 2000 ms of thepresentation of a stimulus motivated tactician someone whodeploys ßexible information-processingstrategies that are consistent with theirmotivations, goals and situationalrequirements PSY_C17.qxd 1/2/05 3:47 pm Page 379 Summary 381 Summary 1.Why are attitudes important constructs in social2.If you were interested in predicting whether peopleÕs attitudes towards low-fat foods predict their con-3.Imagine that you are designing a new ad cam4.Why are attributions important constructs in social psychology?5.It could be suggested that the Ôfundamental attribution errorÕ is not really an error, because it helps6.Given the effects of culture on the occurrence of the fundamental attribution error, how wouldyou setup an intervention to make people lesslikely to commit this ÔerrorÕ?7.Why are schemas important constructs in social REVISION QUESTIONS PSY_C17.qxd 1/2/05 3:47 pm Page 381 PSY_C17.qxd 1/2/05 3:47 pm Page 383