People form attitudes throughout their lives. Some of them are strong, and hard to change (for instance, I think that cockroaches are the most disgusting creatures on Earth, and nothing in the entire world could change it). Some of them are less so, and therefore are much easier to alter (for example, cats; I don't like them that much, but I don't NOT like them either. Thus my attitude could change easily if I encounter some particularly nice or particularly nasty cat).
But how and, more interestingly, why do we form attitudes? The question is not as simple as it may seem. Attitudes play numerous roles in our lives, including guiding our behaviour. In this post, I will discuss the formation and functions of attitudes.
But how and, more interestingly, why do we form attitudes? The question is not as simple as it may seem. Attitudes play numerous roles in our lives, including guiding our behaviour. In this post, I will discuss the formation and functions of attitudes.
Defining Attitude
Attitude is a subjective experience of an issue/object which involves beliefs about this issue/object based on their evaluation. Therefore, when people differ in their attitudes towards something, they could either:
- Differ in their belief (I think cockroaches are disgusting, but you might think they are cute!)
- Differ in their evaluation (We might both think cockroaches are disgusting, but for me it is strong enough reason to be horribly scared of them, while you might think 'they disgusting but they don't bite, so there is no reason to be scared!')
- Differ in both
- Differ in their belief (I think cockroaches are disgusting, but you might think they are cute!)
- Differ in their evaluation (We might both think cockroaches are disgusting, but for me it is strong enough reason to be horribly scared of them, while you might think 'they disgusting but they don't bite, so there is no reason to be scared!')
- Differ in both
Shaping an attitude
Attitudes can be shaped in five different ways (according to social psychologists):
1. Direct experience
Merely experiencing an object can determine whether you like it or not. For example, you might not have any particular opinion about a song you've just heard for the first time. However, after hearing it again and again you may grow on liking or hating it. Same with cockroaches! I haven't seen that many in my life; but we could argue that if I grew up somewhere where there are lots of them, I would be able to tolerate them much better.
2. Classical Conditioning
When two events co-occur, they come to be associated in our mind, therefore our attitude towards one of the events transfers to another event. Take the classical 'OUR song' example. It does not really matter whether you like the song itself or not, but as long as you had your important kiss/dance/encounter with this song on the background, it is likely to evoke similarly pleasurable (or negative, if you were unlucky) feelings.
3. Instrumental Conditioning
In Instrumental Conditioning, we perform a particular behaviour more or less frequent depending on the reward/punishment that they are followed with - and transfer the attitude towards the subject of our behaviour. So, for example, imagine a child who cares about a puppy and gets a parental approval for it; the child is likely to shape a positive attitude towards puppies and carry it in the future. Imagine however a child who got told off for pestering a homeless dog; in this case he may form a negative attitude towards dogs in general.
4. Observational Learning
This way of shaping an attitude often happens subconsciously, and in this case people might have a trouble to explain why exactly they have a particular attitude towards something. Observational learning is simply copying someone's attitude. It is frequently the case of seeing parents' attitudes towards issues/objects in childhood. So, for example, if a mother is afraid of dogs and just does not like them in general, a child might automatically form the same attitude.
5. Cognition
This is the most controlled way of shaping an attitude. We sometimes carefully consider the information about an object/issue and then come to a weighed decision. For example, I think that studying a language would give me opportunities to travel, increase my employability, in general challenge me and might be fun - so I will decide to have a positive attitude towards the whole idea of learning an
1. Direct experience
Merely experiencing an object can determine whether you like it or not. For example, you might not have any particular opinion about a song you've just heard for the first time. However, after hearing it again and again you may grow on liking or hating it. Same with cockroaches! I haven't seen that many in my life; but we could argue that if I grew up somewhere where there are lots of them, I would be able to tolerate them much better.
2. Classical Conditioning
When two events co-occur, they come to be associated in our mind, therefore our attitude towards one of the events transfers to another event. Take the classical 'OUR song' example. It does not really matter whether you like the song itself or not, but as long as you had your important kiss/dance/encounter with this song on the background, it is likely to evoke similarly pleasurable (or negative, if you were unlucky) feelings.
3. Instrumental Conditioning
In Instrumental Conditioning, we perform a particular behaviour more or less frequent depending on the reward/punishment that they are followed with - and transfer the attitude towards the subject of our behaviour. So, for example, imagine a child who cares about a puppy and gets a parental approval for it; the child is likely to shape a positive attitude towards puppies and carry it in the future. Imagine however a child who got told off for pestering a homeless dog; in this case he may form a negative attitude towards dogs in general.
4. Observational Learning
This way of shaping an attitude often happens subconsciously, and in this case people might have a trouble to explain why exactly they have a particular attitude towards something. Observational learning is simply copying someone's attitude. It is frequently the case of seeing parents' attitudes towards issues/objects in childhood. So, for example, if a mother is afraid of dogs and just does not like them in general, a child might automatically form the same attitude.
5. Cognition
This is the most controlled way of shaping an attitude. We sometimes carefully consider the information about an object/issue and then come to a weighed decision. For example, I think that studying a language would give me opportunities to travel, increase my employability, in general challenge me and might be fun - so I will decide to have a positive attitude towards the whole idea of learning an
Attitudes' functions
So, we now see how we form attitudes. But why do we need them? Well, according to the same social psychologists, they have numerous functions:
1. Knowledge function
Attitudes help us to accommodate new information quickly into our current understanding and react appropriately to a situation. In this sense, they colour the way we see and react to outside world. So, imagine a friend telling me she saw a cockroach in her kitchen last night. If I had no attitudes towards those creatures, my reaction would be something like 'Oh, I see'. However due to my strong attitude my reaction will be much more emotional. Thus, my reaction towards a specific event is informed by my attitude towards cockroaches in general.
2. Self-expression
Attitudes provide a strong form of self-expression. Say, if someone is keen to express their positive attitude towards cats, they are expressing themselves as animal lovers. This is an important part of how we see ourselves and how we want others to see us.
3. Self-esteem
Some of our attitudes make us feel better about ourselves. Imagine someone has a strongly negative attitude towards mess and dust. Having such an attitude makes this person feel better about him/herself, being all tidy and organised.
4. Instrumentality function
Some attitudes are useful, as they provide us with an immediate reaction towards something. It is not the case with my unreasonable fear of cockroaches, but take, for example, snakes. If you see a snake in the wood, you are likely to try and get away as soon as possible, without spending time on considering whether this particular snake is dangerous or not. This might save your life!
5. Impression motivation function
Very often people express their attitudes in order to create a certain impression. Say, a guy has a crash on a highly political, liberal girl; he is likely to point out just how strongly he feels about upcoming elections.
1. Knowledge function
Attitudes help us to accommodate new information quickly into our current understanding and react appropriately to a situation. In this sense, they colour the way we see and react to outside world. So, imagine a friend telling me she saw a cockroach in her kitchen last night. If I had no attitudes towards those creatures, my reaction would be something like 'Oh, I see'. However due to my strong attitude my reaction will be much more emotional. Thus, my reaction towards a specific event is informed by my attitude towards cockroaches in general.
2. Self-expression
Attitudes provide a strong form of self-expression. Say, if someone is keen to express their positive attitude towards cats, they are expressing themselves as animal lovers. This is an important part of how we see ourselves and how we want others to see us.
3. Self-esteem
Some of our attitudes make us feel better about ourselves. Imagine someone has a strongly negative attitude towards mess and dust. Having such an attitude makes this person feel better about him/herself, being all tidy and organised.
4. Instrumentality function
Some attitudes are useful, as they provide us with an immediate reaction towards something. It is not the case with my unreasonable fear of cockroaches, but take, for example, snakes. If you see a snake in the wood, you are likely to try and get away as soon as possible, without spending time on considering whether this particular snake is dangerous or not. This might save your life!
5. Impression motivation function
Very often people express their attitudes in order to create a certain impression. Say, a guy has a crash on a highly political, liberal girl; he is likely to point out just how strongly he feels about upcoming elections.
Cognitive Dissonance
Frequently we find that our attitudes and behaviours mismatch. Most of the people consider lying bad, however we could hardly find a single person who has never told a lie in his/her life. According to Heider's Balance theory and Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance theories, when we realise that our behaviour does not match our attitudes, we experience Cognitive Dissonance and look for ways to reduce it. There are several ways in which we can do it.
1. Directly changing attitude
When we find that our attitude does not match our behaviour, sometimes we simply adjust the attitude. One of the processes involved in this is called Effort Justification. For example, a student A got a free ticket to a film screening, while his friend (student B) paid for it. If the film turns out to be rubbish, the student B is likely to rate it more positively than the student A in order to justify spending money on this film. Thus, he adjusts his attitude towards the bad film to reduce a cognitive dissonance.
2. Directly changing behaviour
This should be quite straightforward too: to reduce a cognitive dissonance evoked by a behaviour/attitude mismatch, we may simply change our behaviour to comply with our attitude towards an issue. This could be demonstrated by inducing hypocrisy; when people are caught at it, they are likely to change their hypocritical behaviour. There is a study demonstrating it, check it out if you are interested: Stone et al., (1994). Inducing hypocrisy as a means of encouraging young adults to use condoms. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20 (1).
3. Directly selecting information which reduces dissonance
Something that is called a Selective Exposure is involved in this way of reducing the cognitive dissonance. We may choose to expose ourselves only to a particular kind of information about an issue - the kind that reduces the dissonance.
4. Indirectly reducing dissonance
I will explain this one by describing one of the studies conducted by Steele in 1988.
In this study, one group of students valued science highly and the other did not. They were then each asked to choose between two items of music which they had each previously rated as equally likable.
Once they had selected an item of music to keep, they were asked to don a white coat, and then they evaluated the music again. Students who did not evaluate science highly changed their evaluations to suit their choices. Steele concluded that they were seeking to reduce dissonance.
But the students who valued science highly did not change their evaluations. Steel concluded that, for them, wearing a white lab coat reaffirmed their positive identities as people who liked science. So they did not need to employ a direct dissonance reduction strategy.
(Steele, C.M. (1988). The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. In L. Berkowtiz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, (Vol 21))
All for now; in the next post, I will discuss in much more detail how our attitudes influence our behaviour.
1. Directly changing attitude
When we find that our attitude does not match our behaviour, sometimes we simply adjust the attitude. One of the processes involved in this is called Effort Justification. For example, a student A got a free ticket to a film screening, while his friend (student B) paid for it. If the film turns out to be rubbish, the student B is likely to rate it more positively than the student A in order to justify spending money on this film. Thus, he adjusts his attitude towards the bad film to reduce a cognitive dissonance.
2. Directly changing behaviour
This should be quite straightforward too: to reduce a cognitive dissonance evoked by a behaviour/attitude mismatch, we may simply change our behaviour to comply with our attitude towards an issue. This could be demonstrated by inducing hypocrisy; when people are caught at it, they are likely to change their hypocritical behaviour. There is a study demonstrating it, check it out if you are interested: Stone et al., (1994). Inducing hypocrisy as a means of encouraging young adults to use condoms. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20 (1).
3. Directly selecting information which reduces dissonance
Something that is called a Selective Exposure is involved in this way of reducing the cognitive dissonance. We may choose to expose ourselves only to a particular kind of information about an issue - the kind that reduces the dissonance.
4. Indirectly reducing dissonance
I will explain this one by describing one of the studies conducted by Steele in 1988.
In this study, one group of students valued science highly and the other did not. They were then each asked to choose between two items of music which they had each previously rated as equally likable.
Once they had selected an item of music to keep, they were asked to don a white coat, and then they evaluated the music again. Students who did not evaluate science highly changed their evaluations to suit their choices. Steele concluded that they were seeking to reduce dissonance.
But the students who valued science highly did not change their evaluations. Steel concluded that, for them, wearing a white lab coat reaffirmed their positive identities as people who liked science. So they did not need to employ a direct dissonance reduction strategy.
(Steele, C.M. (1988). The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. In L. Berkowtiz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, (Vol 21))
All for now; in the next post, I will discuss in much more detail how our attitudes influence our behaviour.