This document discusses attitudes and their formation. It defines attitudes as evaluations of objects that can be positive or negative. Attitudes have three components - cognitive, affective, and behavioral. The cognitive component involves beliefs and knowledge about an object, the affective component involves feelings toward the object, and the behavioral component involves tendencies to behave in certain ways toward the object. Attitudes are formed through various determinants like community influences, cultural factors, experiences, socialization, needs, media, and personality traits. The theoretical perspective of attitude formation is explained through social learning theory and concepts like classical and instrumental conditioning.

1. Attitudes
Lesson 06
Part I

2. Evaluating And Responding To The Social World
• People are not neutral observers of the world.
• They evaluate whatever they encounter.
• They form attitudes
• Social psychologists use:
– the term attitudes to refer to ----people’s evaluation of any
aspect of their social world.
• People can have:
– favorable or unfavorable reaction
– to ---issues, objects, ideas, events, specific behavior (e.g.
cheating in exam) or entire social groups (i.e. ethnic; religious;
racial groups).
• Some attitudes are stable and resistant to change---While---
• others may be unstable and show variability according to
situation.

3. Definition Of Attitudes
• An attitude is a negative or positive evaluation of an object.
• It has an aspect of liking or disliking, favoring or not favoring an object.
– E.g. a vegetarian has a negative attitude toward beef consumption.
– Attitude influences human behaviour towards an object.
– For instance a vegetarian would avoid eating beef.
• Attitudes are evaluative judgments:
– either favorable (positive)
– or unfavorable (negative) ---towards ----
• people, objects, events, ideas or issues.
 How do you feel about the current president of the United States?
 What do you think about classical music?
 These questions will reveal your attitude towards these things, or,
your attitude about the president or classical music.

4. Explicit and Implicit Attitudes
• Explicit attitudes are conscious
beliefs that can guide decisions
and behavior.
• A person’s conscious positive or
negative views toward:
– people, objects, or concepts.
• That is, the person is aware of the
feelings he or she holds in a
certain setting.
• “Speak your mind”
Example:
• His grandfather is
unapologetically racist; the man
makes no attempt to hide his
negative views toward members
of various ethnic minorities
• Implicit attitudes are involuntary,
uncontrollable, unconscious
beliefs that can still influence
decisions and behavior
• Those we are unwilling or unable
to report
• “Know your mind”
• People can have explicit and
implicit attitudes toward virtually
anything.
• For example:
• Students can believe explicitly that
they hate math but have a more
positive attitude at an implicit
level(means when results are
announced, they obtain Grade A)

5. Components Of Attitude
• Psychologists such as Rosenber, Eagley, and Hovland have given a
three components model of attitude. According to this model, an
attitude has following three components:
1. A cognitive component
2. An affective component; and
3. A behavioral component

6. 1. Cognitive Component (Cognitively Based Attitudes)
• Cognitive component is the set of information, ideas, facts, and
knowledge about an object.
• Cognitively based attitudes are based on a person’s beliefs about
the properties of the attitude object (that is, classifying pros and
cons of the object).
• Their function is informational or utilitarian.
For example:
• Attitude regarding vacuum cleaner, your belief about the merits
of vacuum cleaner. How well they (vacuum cleaner) clean up dirt
and how much they cost.

7. 2. Affective component (Affective Based Attitudes)
• This component consist of feelings and emotions towards an
object.
• It can be emotions of liking or disliking, favoring or disfavoring,
positive or negative evaluation toward the object.
For example:
• Sometimes we simply like a car regardless of how many miles it
covers to the gallons it gets.
• Similarly, in elections, we vote for the candidates based on our
feelings towards that person as very few people know of his
policies and vote because of that.

8. 3. Behavioral Component (Behaviorally Based Attitudes)
• It Is the tendency to behave toward the object.
• An attitude based on observations of how one behaves toward an attitude
object. (Behaviorally based attitudes stems from people’s observations of
how they behave towards an object).
• Behaviorally based attitudes are based on self-perception of one’s own
behavior when the initial attitude is weak or ambiguous.
Self-perception Theory
• According to Daryl Bem’s (1972) self-perception theory:
– under certain circumstances, people don’t know how they feel until
they see how they behave.
• We can form our attitudes based on our observations of our own behavior
• For example, you asked your friend how much she likes to exercise. If she
replies, “Well, I guess I like it because I regularly go for exercise or jogging or
gym to work out.”
• We would conclude she has behaviorally based attitude. Her attitude is
based more on an observation of her behavior than on cognition or affect.

9. – Anything we know about an object or the facts we have about an object is
the cognitive component.
– On the basis of our knowledge about an object, we have emotions of liking
or disliking towards the object, --these emotions are the affective
component.
– On the basis of our information and emotions toward the object, we act
toward the object in a specific way—it is the behavioral component.
Example 1
• An orange is rich in vitamins. It is good for skin Its has a good taste (Cognitive
Component).
• I like oranges (Affective Component)
• I eat an orange daily (Behavioral Component)
Example 2
• Saver bulbs consume less electricity than ordinary bulbs. It has a brighter
light. It is more durable (Cognitive component)
• I like saver bulbs because saver bulbs are good (Affective component)
• I buy and use saver bulbs in my home (behavioral component)

11. Attitude Formation
• The process of attitude formation has
following two explanations:
1. Determinants of attitude formation
2. Theoretical perspective

12. Determinants of Attitudes Formation
• Attitude formation is of particular interest to social psychologist because
attitudes often direct behavior. Determinants of Attitude formation are given
below.
 Community Attitudes
– People around us have attitudes (+ or -) towards things. We interact with
these community members and their attitudes also influence us to form an
attitude towards those things.
 Cultural Factors
– Our cultural norms, values, beliefs, traditions, and preferences also form
our attitudes towards a thing (Attitude object). People form positive
attitude towards culturally and socially approved practices. Similarly people
form negative attitude towards socially and culturally disapproved and
discouraged practices. Our cultural norms and values are reflected in our
attitudes.
– For instance: dress and food choices are good examples.
 Experience
– Attitudes form directly as a result of experience. They may emerge due to
direct personal experience, or they may result from observation. We form a
positive attitude toward things if we had good experience with it. We form
negative attitude toward things, if we had bad experience with it.

13.  Socialization
– It’s a life long process of learning through which an individual learns
from his/her parents, other family members, teachers, peers, friends,
mass media and anything in the surrounding. We learn about the
attitude and opinions of other people regarding different things, which
also shapes our attitudes toward these things.
 Needs satisfaction and personal interest
– If a thing or an idea fulfills our needs satisfactorily, we form a positive
attitude towards it.
– For instance: a student has a positive attitude toward the use of
internet for his studies because it serves his academic needs. Certain
things which don't fulfill our need, we form a negative attitude towards
it.
– An individual’s personal interest and gains may also influence his
attitude towards a thing.
– For instance: some shopkeepers may deliberately hoard( store secretly)
consumables (e.g. sugar; flour)to create its shortage in the market in
order to raise its’ prices. Those shopkeepers have positive attitude
towards hoarding consumables because it increases their profit. At the
same time, the people, who have to pay higher prices for buying those
consumables have a negative attitude toward the same practice
(hoarding).

14.  Mass Communication---Print & electronic Media
– Everyday the sources of mass communication bombard us with
information which has an impact on our attitude formation towards the
thing. Media informs us about good or bad about things, which
influence our opinions regarding things.
– For Instance: Our positive or negative attitude towards a politician is
mostly the outcome of media. Similarly, advertisements are also used to
influence our attitudes positively towards the product to enhance its
sale.
 Personality traits
– Every individual has different personality traits like aggressiveness,
jovialness(fun loving), introvertial or extrovertial traits, intelligence
level, perceptual traits and so on. These characteristics influence the
way an individual perceives a thing or an idea.
– For instance: An extrovert will have a positive attitude towards social
gatherings, parties, out door activities and ceremonies. On the other
hand, an introvert will have negative attitude towards social gatherings.

15. Theoretical Perspective
• The learning theory explains the formation of attitudes as follows.
• The learning theory is a product of the works of many psychologists.
• This theory explains how an individual learns through social interactions
with others ------i.e.----- Many of our attitudes/views are acquired in
situations in which we interact with others or observe the behavior of
others.
 Social Learning Theory.
• The process through which we acquire new information, forms of behavior
or attitudes from other people is called social learning.
• According to the social learning theory, attitudes are formed as a result of
the following three modes of learning.
1. Classical conditioning
2. Instrumental conditioning
3. Imitation or observation

16. Classical Learning--Learning based on association
• Classical conditioning is a form of learning that deals with acquiring
new information or behavior via the process of association.
• Classical conditioning is a learning in which one stimulus becomes a
signal for the presentation of another stimulus.
• After repeated pairings of stimuli 1 and 2
Example 1:
• When you were a child you experienced feelings of warmth and love
when you visited you grandmother. Suppose that she also cooked very
well and you loved her dishes. Eventually, her cooking, her taste of
dishes alone will trigger the emotions you experienced during your
visits through the process of classical conditioning, that is, learning by
associating her love with her tasteful dishes.

17. Classical conditioning—learning by associating (Cont’d)
• It is learning by association.
• Attitudes are learnt by associating good or bad characteristics to
an object. Associating good or bad attributes to an object may be
based on personal experience of the individual or his knowledge
about the pros and cons of the object.
• An individual forms a negative attitude toward a thing, to which
he associates negative characteristics
• e.g. an individual may associate bad characteristics to junk food.
Such that it contains high amount of sugar and fats, it causes
obesity and health complications. This individual will have a
negative attitude toward junk food consumption.
• On the other hand, another person, associates good
characteristics to junk food, Such as it has good taste, it has high
energy and so on. Such an individual will form positive attitude
towards junk food consumption.

18. Example 2:
• Initially, young children may have little or no emotional reaction to the
visible characteristics (for e.g., skin color, style of dressing, accent) of
member of different social groups.
• If, however, he/she sees his/her mother/father or others showing a sign
of negative reactions in their presence, gradually negative reactions
towards them will be acquired (learned by the children two) as their
parents are showing such reactions as a result of the process of classical
conditioning.
Example 3:
• You are driving down a dark and curvy road when you narrowly miss a
collision with a large truck that has edged over into your lane. You
experience a rapid pulse, sweating palms, and your stomach begins to
shake. After this near miss, you continue driving down the road. A few
days later, as you approach the same curve, you begin to experience the
same reactions (your heart beats faster, your palms begin to sweat) but
there are no other vehicles around. What happened to you in this
scenario?

19. Example 4:
• If a child is bullied in school, he or she may start associating
school with fear and torture. In the same way, students may also
start to develop a dislike for particular subjects if they are
punished by their teachers. If parents don’t work hard to change
their child’s point of view, the student may continue to dislike the
particular subject throughout their academic career.
Example 5:
• We all have that one song that reminds us of the past or simply
puts us in a good mood. As humans, we often associate objects
with feelings. For instance, one may associate a song with all the
wonderful times they spent with their spouse or good friends. At
times, these associations are so strong that we are reminded of
past experiences and memories.

20. Example 6:
• Imagine that you took a trip with some friends. You traveled
down a winding road in the mountains. You got car sick while
traveling on this road. While riding in the
car, you ate an apple. Now, you have nausea when you see an
apple. You do not eat apples anymore.

21. Operant Conditioning or Instrumental Learning
• It is called learning through reinforcement---punishments and
rewards.
• The Process of rewards or punishments tied to our attitudes and
behaviour is called “operant conditioning” or “instrumental
learning”.
• Positive or negative attitude toward an object is formed on the
basis of consequences (outcomes) of coming across the object.
• Anything that gives you positive consequence, you would develop
positive attitude towards it.
For example:
• a student studying devotedly gets high marks, wins a prize and is
appreciated by others for his high marks. He develops a positive
attitude towards hard work (study)
• Similarly any negative consequence of an action leads the
formation of a negative attitude towards it.

22. • Learning in which responses (that is attitude) that lead to positive
outcomes or which avoid negative outcomes are strengthened.
• Attitudes that are followed by positive outcomes tend to be
strengthened and are likely to be repeated while attitudes that are
followed by negative outcomes are weakened so their likelihood
of being expressed again is reduced.
For example:
• a four-year girl goes to playground and begins to play with an
African-American girl. Her father expressed strong disapproval
telling her we don’t play with that kind of child. It won’t take long
before the child associates interacting with African-American with
disapproval thereby adopting her father’s racist attitudes.

23. Example 1:
• If when you were younger you tried smoking at school, and the chief
consequence was that you got in with the crowd you always wanted to
hang out with, you would have been positively reinforced (i.e.,
rewarded) and would be likely to repeat the behavior.
• If, however, the main consequence was that you were caught, caned,
suspended from school and your parents became involved you would
most certainly have been punished, and you would consequently be
much less likely to smoke now.
Example 2:
• Class presentations are one of the mandatory class activities held in
most schools. Consider a scenario where a student elaborately explains
his presentation. If the student is applauded and complimented, he/she
is more likely to be encouraged for similar presentations in the future.
On the other hand, if the student is laughed at or criticized, future
presentations are likely to be nothing but a formality.
• Here, the reactions of the class and the teacher are
the positive and negative reinforcers. Being cheered is the positive
reinforce, while being hooted is the negative reinforce

24. Example 3:
An employee getting criticized in front of the whole office by his boss and
having certain privileges taken away as a consequence to his bad behavior
at work will motivate him to stay in line and be more sincere.
Example 4:
Parents rewarding a child’s excellent grades with candy or some other prize.
Example 5:
A schoolteacher awards points to those students who are the most calm
and well-behaved. Students eventually realize that when they voluntarily
become quieter and better behaved, that they earn more points

26. Observational Learning--Learning by exposure to others
• It is the learning in which:
– individuals acquire new forms of behavior (for example, attitudes) as
a result of observing others.
• Attitudes are formed by------ imitating or observing others.
• We observe the preference, choices, and attitude of other people
towards different things which also shape our own attitude towards
those things.
• We imitate others in developing a specific attitude towards a thing.
Similarly, we come to know of certain information and facts regarding
thing----- which influences our attitude towards those things.
For example:
 media exposure can influence our attitude formation. We have
learned about many dancing styles from watching “Nach Baliye”, from
TV dancing programs
 or many forms of musical styles from Indian Idol. Just imagine how
much observational learning most of us do as we watch TV.

27. Examples
• A child watches his mother folding the laundry. He later picks up
some clothing and imitates folding the clothes.
• Boy watches another boy on the playground get in trouble for
hitting another child. He learns from observing this interaction
that he should not hit others.
• A newer employee is always punctual after seeing a colleague get
fired for being late.
• If a young girl hears her mother criticize all elected officials as
crooks, she may repeat that opinion in class the next day. Whether
she continues to repeat that opinion depends on the responses of
her classmates, teacher, and parents. That is, observations
determine the responses we learn, but reinforcement determines
the responses we express.

28. • Why do people adopt attitudes that, they hear-- others express or
imitate (copy) the behaviors they observe in others?
• One answer involves the mechanism of social comparison, that is,
– our tendency to compare ourselves with others--- to determine
whether our views of social reality is correct or not, that is, to the
extent that our views agree with those of other people.
• We tend to conclude that our ideas and attitudes are accurate if others
hold the same view, these views must be right.
• People often adjust their attitudes so as to hold views closer to those of
others who they value and identify with- their “reference group”.
For example:
• women form more positive attitude towards the product when they
thought other women liked it.
• Men form more positive attitude towards the product when they
thought other men liked it.

29. Example:
• Let us understand attitude formation through social comparison with the help
of a study conducted by Maio, Esses, and Bell (1994). They presented Canadian
visitors to a large science centre with information about a fictitious group that
had applied for migration to Canada.
• Two different sets of visitors were given contrasting information about the
migrant groups.
• One group was told that the migrant group had been assigned high ratings on
personality traits (friendliness, industriousness, honesty and intelligence) and
values (education, equality, family, freedom, law and order) by the people in
England and the other group was given the information that the migrant group
was given low rating in terms of these personality traits and values.
• As a result of this, the visitors who were given positive information about the
migrant group expressed more favorable attitude towards the migrants than
those who were given negative information about the migrants.
• Social comparison theory forms another basis for the development of attitude. According
to this theory, we compare ourselves to others in order to determine whether our view of
social reality is or is not correct. Thus, due to our desire to hold ‘right’ views, our attitude
is shaped by the social information that we seek from people we admire or respect