Attitude : Social Psychology

ATTITUDE

Social Psychology

      : ATTITUDE :

The study of attitudes has been core topic in social psychology since 80 years and above. Attitudes are involved in practically every other area of the discipline, including social perception, interpersonal attraction, prejudice and discrimination, conformity, compliance, and so on. The chief reason why the concept of attitude is so central to psychology because the aim of psychology is to study behaviour, and attitudes are supposed to influence behaviour.

Allport (1935) defined attitude as, "a mental and neural state of readiness, organised through experience, and exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual's response to all objects and situations with which it is related."

Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) defined attitude as, "a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner with respect to a given object."

Eagly and Chaiken (1993) proposed a definition of attitude, "Attitude is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour."

Psychologists use specialized terms to describe certain classes of attitudes. For example, an attitude towards the self is called 'self-esteem', negative attitudes towards specific groups are called 'prejudice', attitude towards individuals are called 'interpersonal attraction', and attitude towards own job is called 'job satisfaction.'

However, we can simply define attitude in our own words, "Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person (including oneself), place, thing, or event."

There are two psychological constructs closely associated with attitudes: values and beliefs.

☆ Attitudes and Values :

Values constitute an important aspect of self-concept and serve as guiding principles for an individual. Rokeach (1973) defined value as "an ensuring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence."

Human values are strongly prescriptive in nature and form the core around which other less enduring beliefs are organised. As such they are important in a range of other processes, like attitudes. It is contended that the formation of specific attitudes is predicted upon more general values. Values indirectly influence behaviour through their influence on attitudes.

Although values can shape attitudes, it does not mean that values shape all attitudes. For example, your attitude towards love marriage versus arranged marriage is probably shaped by your values, but your preference for one brand of toothpaste over another is less likely to be influenced by important life goals. Some attitudes are formed through the influence of long-standing values internalized early in life. These are called 'symbolic attitudes', because the attitude object is a symbol of something else. In contrast, there are some attitudes that are based on utility, a direct benefits and costs of the attitude object. These are called 'instrumental attitudes', because they are instrumental to meet those needs. Interestingly the same attitude object could serve a symbolic or an instrumental need. For example, your decision to eat only vegetarian food could be based on utility or taste-instrumentally based attitude versus considerations of animal rights and right to live-symbolically based values.

☆ Attitudes and Beliefs :

Beliefs are cognitions about the probability that an object or event is associated with a given attitude. Some theories regard belief as one component of an attitude. However, there are differences between attitude and belief. attitudes can be considered as the sum of beliefs. a person can have many beliefs about a positive or negative phenomenon. This person will have an attitude towards that phenomenon based on the overall evaluation of his/her beliefs.

● Formation of Attitudes ●

Since our birth, we are exposed directly or indirectly to a variety of stimuli, which lead to our acquiring particular attitudes towards the attitudinal object. A number of theories have been used to identify what lead to formation and maintenance of attitudes.

1. Classical Conditioning : 

The process of classical conditioning was first described by Pavlov. In his experiments on dogs, he found that after repeating pairings of an unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food) with a conditioned stimulus (e.g. bell), the latter acquires the capacity to evoke the same response (e.g. salivation) only in the conditioned stimulus.

It has been suggested that in the same way that a bell can evoke a physiological response, classical conditioning can produce a positive/negative attitude towards a previously neutral object. Classical conditioning could play a role in establishing some of the emotional components of attitudes and prejudice. Further, through classical conditioning, people may come to have powerful attitudinal reactions to social objects even in the absence of first-hand experience.

2. Instrumental Conditioning :

We can see that following reward, a child's attitude is likely to be strengthened; whereas punishment would probably lead to weakening of the attitude. This is the process of instrumental conditioning, a basic form of learning studied by Thorndike (1911) and Skinner (1938). According to them, behaviours that are followed by positive outcomes tend to be strengthened, while those that are followed by negative outcomes are suppressed. The degree of which attitudes are verbally or nonverbally reinforced by others will affect the acquiring and maintenance of attitudes.

3.Observational Learning :

In both classical and instrumental conditioning approaches to attitude formation, the person has direct contact or experience with the attitudinal object. However, it is also true that people may acquire attitudes simply by observing the rewards and punishments that others get for their espousal of those attitudes. The phenomenon by which a person acquires new forms of behaviour or thought simply by observing others is called observational learning. For example, you might develop a negative attitude towards the college canteen if you saw your friend throwing up after having a meal there. Although your friend's newly formed dislike is due to instrumental conditioning, but your negative attitude is a result of observational learning.

4. Genetic Factors :

Some research indicates that our attitudes, at least a tendency to develop certain views about various topics or issues, are inherited. For instance, Arvey et al. (1989) studied the level of job satisfaction of 34 sets of identical twins separated from each other at an early age, and found that approximately 30% of job satisfaction appears to be explained by genetic factors.

●Functions of Attitudes●

The functional utility of attitude was pointed out by Allport(1935) in his classical discussion of attitudes. According to him, attitude is social psychology's most indispensable concept. He stated, "Without guiding attitudes the individual is confused an bluffed. Attitudes determine for each individual what he will see and hear, what he will think and what he will do."

According to Katz (1960), attitudes are determined by the functions they serve for us. People hold given attitudes because these attitudes help them achieve their basic goals. Katz distinguishes four types of psychological functions that attitudes meet. These functions are :-

☆ Utilitarian (instrumental) Function :

We develop certain attitudes towards objects that aid or reward us. We want to maximize rewards and minimize penalties. Katz says we develop positive attitudes towards those objects that are associated with rewards and develop negative attitudes towards those that are associated with punishment. We are more likely to change our attitudes if doing so allows us to fulfil our goals or avoid undesirable consequences.

☆ Knowledge Function :

We all have a need to attain some degree of meaningful, stable, clear, and organised view of the world. Attitudes satisfy this knowledge function by providing a frame of reference for organizing our world so that it makes sense. Using such a cognitive perspective, attitude serve as schemas that help us in organizing and interpreting social information.

☆ Ego-Defensive Function :

Some attitudes serve to protect us from acknowledging basic truths about ourselves or the harsh realities of life. These can help a person cope with emotional conflicts and protect self esteem.

☆ Value-Expressive Function :

Value expressive attitudes show who we are, and what we stand for. Hence they serve to demonstrate one's self-image to others and to express our basic values. This function comes from a humanistic perspective. It seems logical to assume that only important and strongly self-related attitudes should serve the value expressive function.

Other than the four basic functions served by attitudes suggested by Katz, Shavitt (1989) added another social identity function of attitudes.

☆ Social Identity Function :

This refers to the informativeness of attitudes for person impressions, or how much attitudes appear to convey about the people who hold them. Shavitt and Nelson (2000) suggested that products tend to engage a utilitarian function to the extent that they are seen as expressing identity and values, or the product is widely seen as symbolizing membership in a particular group.

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