Understanding Attitudes

• Attitudes are beliefs and feelings related to a person or event, rooted in one's beliefs and feelings, and exhibited in intended behavior.

Structure and Functions of Attitudes

• The ABCs of Attitudes include the Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Components
• The cognitive component includes a person's thoughts and beliefs about the subject
• The affective component is how an object, person, issue, or event makes someone feel
• The behavioral component is how attitude influences behavior

Influences on Attitude Formation

• Attitudes are formed directly through experience involving observation or personal experience
• Social roles and norms can strongly influence attitudes where social roles are how people should behave
• Social norms involve society's rules for behaviors considered appropriate
• Attitudes can be learned in various ways like classical conditioning or operant conditioning
• Attitudes can be acquired by observing others and adopting the beliefs of someone who is greatly admired.

Why Attitudes are Important

• Attitudes influence social thought and can be predictive of behavior.
• Aspects of a situation includes situational constraints, time pressure, attitude strength and attitude specificity
• The Theory of Planned Behavior can predict an individual's intention to engage in a behavior at a specific time and place.
• The behavioral intentions are influenced by attitude, the likelihood of the behavior's outcome, and the subjective evaluation of risks and benefits.

Why Behavior Affects Attitudes

• Self-presentation theory assumes that attitudes are expressed to appear consistent for strategic reasons
• Cognitive dissonance theory assumes actions are justified to reduce discomfort and often adjust their thinking to reduce unpleasant arousal.
• Selective exposure shows the tendency to seek information and media that agree with one's views and to avoid dissonant information
• Insufficient Justification reduces dissonance by internally justifying one's behavior when outside justification is not enough.
• Self-perception theory suggests that when unsure of attitudes, they are inferred by looking at our behavior and the circumstances
• The overjustification effect is the result of bribing people to do what they already like doing, so they see their actions as externally controlled.