Psychology Chapter on Attitudes

Attitudes

• Attitudes consist of three components: cognitive (thoughts and beliefs), affective (emotions and feelings), and behavioral (actions and observable behaviours).
• An attitude is an evaluation of people, objects, and ideas.
• Attitudes are demonstrated through behaviors like petting a puppy, which reflects the affect (adorableness) and cognition (belief of friendliness).

Types of Attitudes

• Explicit Attitudes: These are attitudes we are aware of and consciously endorse. We have control over them and can share them with others. They are susceptible to social desirability bias (lying to please others).
• Implicit Attitudes: These are attitudes that are less accessible to our conscious awareness. We have less control over these attitudes and they are less susceptible to social desirability bias. Implicit attitudes are unconscious and automatic. They are measured through reaction time and response.

Implicit Attitudes Test (IAT)

• Measures the speed at which people respond, indicating implicit attitudes outside of awareness.
• Criticisms of the IAT include: validity concerns (measuring accurately what it intends), and reliability concerns (inconsistency/lack of repeated results across measurements). It may measure cultural associations or the first thought that comes to mind rather than true attitude.

Implicit and Explicit Attitudes

• Research (Gawronski, 2019) shows a low correlation between implicit and explicit attitudes. This is partially due to influence by motivation and opportunity, and the different content of implicit versus explicit attitudes.
• Participants can partly predict their scores; suggesting that we do have an awareness of our own implicit attitudes, despite implicit attitudes being less accessible consciously..

Schemas

• Schemas are mental representations of everyday experiences/things.
• They act as mental blueprints.
• They influence our beliefs and expectations.
• They can simplify information processing (cognitive load) and decision-making (schemas save time).
• They enable us to understand information based on what we already know.
• Example: recognizing a familiar scenario in a fast-food restaurant.

Heuristics

• Heuristics are mental shortcuts to aid decision making and judgments.
• Representative heuristic: judgments based on similarity to categories (ignoring base-rate statistics).
• Availability heuristic: assessing the likelihood of an event based on how easily it comes to mind. This can lead to inaccurate conclusions/misconceptions about the frequency of events, based on the ease of remembering them.
• Example: believing school shootings are more common in the USA than China based on ease of recalling news reports.

Schwarz et al. (1991) Heuristics Study

• German female students were asked to recall examples (6 or 12) of words.
• Easier recollection of examples leads to stronger belief in their validity; less recollection leads to a decreased belief in their validity.
• The study highlights the influence of ease of recall in judging the truthfulness of ideas/events/information.

Illusory Correlations

• Misunderstanding of associations between variables. Believing two things are linked even when they aren't.
• Example: attributing strange acts to full moons.

Cognitive Miser

• A way to process information by relying on heuristics and schemas to conserve cognitive resources.
• This is reluctant to engage in effortful, time-consuming thinking; using simplified mental shortcuts.

Naïve Scientist

• We look for clear and reasonable explanations of events, analyzing everything, gathering evidence, and using cognitive resources before making decisions.
• This approach uses effortful thinking to arrive at wise, well-considered decisions.

Motivational Tactician Framework

• Explains how individuals decide whether to use cognitive miser or naïve scientist thinking approaches based on factors like urgency or importance of decision. Time available and personal resources influence the decision-making process.

Attribution Theory

• Examines why things happen. We seek to understand why specific events occurred.
• This theory differentiates between internal dispositional attributions (blame on individual characteristics/traits) and external situational attributions (blame on external factors).
• Example: If you achieve a perfect score on a test, you might attribute that success to working hard. (internal) or to an easy test. (external).

Attribution Biases

• Actor-Observer Bias: The tendency to make external attributions for our own behaviors and internal attributions for others’ behaviors. Example: blaming traffic for lateness (external), while assuming someone's lateness is due to carelessness or lack of planning (internal).
• Self-Serving Bias: The tendency to attribute successes to internal factors and failures to external factors. Example: taking credit when succeeding but blaming others or circumstances when failing.

Mezuilis et al. (2004) Study

• High self-serving bias is observed in older and younger generations compared to middle-aged individuals. Also, Children and older people tend to use internal attributions for good performances and external for poor performances, unlike middle-aged individuals.

Attributions and Self-Serving Bias Study 2

• Examined gold medal winners' accounts.
• Western cultures tend to attribute their success to internal factors.
• Non-Western cultures tend to attribute their success to external or situational factors.

Origin of Attitudes

• Attitudes stem from various sources including peers, operant conditioning, cognitive appraisal, societal/cultural influences, and direct experiences.

Genes/Attitudes

• Eaves & Hatemi (2008) indicated that genetics can play a role in forming attitudes towards specific issues such as abortion, gay rights, etc.

Attitudes and Social Learning Theory

• Bandura's theory: Attitudes are learned and acquired from observing and imitating others from early childhood.

Attitudes and Classical Conditioning

• Attitudes can change through classical conditioning, where positive or negative stimuli are paired with a neutral stimulus to evoke an emotional response associated with the original stimulus (e.g., positive stimuli can change explicit attitudes).

Attitudes and Operant Conditioning

• Attitudes or behaviours that are reinforced are more likely to occur.
• Attitudes or behaviours that are punished are less likely to occur.

Attitudes and Mere Exposure/Experiences

• Increased exposure to a stimulus, particularly if it's not accompanied by a negative experience, often leads to a more positive attitude, potentially without conscious awareness. Exposure can reduce/eliminate fear/dislike.
• Example: the more a person is exposed to a city, building or culture, the more they tend to like it/it.

Self-Perception Theory

• We infer our attitudes and feelings based on observing our own behaviors in certain situations. 
• If we are unsure of our feelings about something, we look at our past actions as clues.
• Example: If you consistently support a particular cause, then you develop a positive attitude toward it.

Cognitive Dissonance

• Psychological discomfort caused by inconsistent thoughts, values, or beliefs.
• People strive to reduce this discomfort by altering their behaviour or thoughts to align them.
• Example: choosing a less desirable option that is less in conflict with one’s values might result in a more positive attitude (e.g., buying a product that doesn't perfectly align with one's values, and justifying the purchase by changing one's attitude toward it/the product).

Aronson & Mills (1959)

• College students engaged in "boring discussion groups"
• Their behaviour (participating in the discussion) led to a change in their attitudes or beliefs, attempting to justify that choice, in this case, the "boring" discussion.