Ch 4 - Behavior and Attitudes

Part 1: Feb 7

Attitudes

• Favorable/unfavorable evaluation of an object.

• 3 dimensions of attitudes:– Affective (feelings)– Behavior (actions)– Cognition (thoughts)

• How do attitudes develop?

Attitude Formation

• Most social psych believe attitudes are learned

• 1) Social learning – via interactions w/others– Classical conditioning – learning based on

association (example?)– Observational learning – modeling

• 2) Genetic factors may play a small role– Evidence of this from twin studies– How might this depend on the attitude?

Attitude - Behavior Link

• Early history - assumed attitudes determined our behaviors – Example?

• LaPiere’s study (1934) was first to question the attitude-behavior link– What were the study’s results?

• In 60’s, Festinger suggested behavior may determine attitudes, rather than att beh– What does this imply?

1970’s attitude research

• ‘Crisis of Confidence’ in attitude research– What was the crisis?

• Better experimental control in 70’s:

• Jones’ “Bogus Pipeline”…– How did this experimental procedure work?

– What were the results of these studies?

The 70’s continued...

• Fishbein & Ajzen - principle of aggregation

• Attitude measures more effective if average over many behaviors. – Better track record than predicting a single

behavior.– Example?

Level of Specificity (cont).

• They also emphasized matching the level of measurement.

• Specific attitude --> specific behavior• Bad example of specificity match?

• Good example of specificity match?

• In Fishbein & Ajzen’s model what is the best predictor of a behavior?

Automaticity

• Sometimes behavior becomes automatic and we don’t think about our attitudes.

• Can improve attitude - behavior link by forcing us to think about attitudes before acting.

• Experiment with self-awareness (mirrors)– What were the results?

Direct Experience

• Direct experience with behavior strengthens an attitude.

• Crano’s (82) study - 1978 ballot to change drinking age in Mich from 18 to 21.– What did he measure?

– What did he find?

Main Principles for when Attitudes Behavior

1. When external influences are minimal (reduce social influences or constraints)

2. When attitude is specific & used to predict specific behavior (level of specificity)

3. When we’re made to be self-conscious of attitudes (automaticity)

4. When we’re directly affected by an event

Role Playing

• More evidence that behaviors partly determine attitudes.

• Role - a set of norms that define how we should act when in a certain position.

• The Stanford Prison Experiment - a famous social psych experiment. – 1971, Dr. Phil Zimbardo.– www.prisonexp.org

Stanford Prison Experiment

• Aims - study “prison life” - 2 wk study.

• Simulated prison environment in basement of Psych Dept at Stanford.

• Recruited “normal” male students from ad in paper. No idea what was to happen.

• Random assignment to ‘guard’ or ‘prisoner’

• How did the experimenters set up anonymity for the prisoners?

• How did the experimenters make the guards anonymous?

Stanford Prison Experiment

• How were prisoners’ behaviors influenced?

• How were guards’ behaviors influenced?

• External sources during the experiment?

• What were some results?

Stanford Prison Experiment

• How did the experiment end?

• Ethics of this experiment?– What is Zimbardo’s view of this?

– What does it teach us about the power of roles?

Stanford Prison Experiment