Attitudes
Functional attitude theories hold the central notion that people have attitudes for different reasons. By understanding the different reasons that one has for an attitude and targeting these reasons can be the basis for being able to change an attitude. The basic attitude functions are:
The knowledge function of an attitude refers to the need for people to assign structure, meaning, or order to their surroundings. For instance, in studies of cognitive dissonance people need to assign order to a chaotic situation (incompatible behavior and attitude) and therefore bolster a particular attitude to do so. Advertisers have used this as strategic tactic for years when they target people who have chronic pain, depression, or some other particular condition that results in perceived disorder in their lives. Morals, ethics, and the need to find structure in ambiguous situations serve this function in much the same way. Such attitudes provide a sense of consistency and order in the lives of people.
2. Attitudes can also fulfill a utilitarian function that allows one to maximize rewards and minimize punishments obtained from objects in the natural world. These attitudes function to summarize outcomes that are inherently associated with things and to guide one's behavior in the direction of one's interests. For instance, a person's attitude towards pizza could serve a utilitarian function because it tastes good (reward) but for another person it could be avoided because it is fattening (punishment). So attitudes function in terms of maximizing perceived benefits and minimizing perceived costs. Empirically many of the operant conditioning studies served to reinforce this function.
3. Attitudes could also serve social adjustive functions in that having...
Attitude Change and Persuasion Persuasion is a process through which an individual or groups of individuals purposely changes in behavior or the way they act, way of thinking or any other aspect of another through the employing of intellect as well as feelings. This is a very important process because through persuasion people are affected and they also affect others. In most cases persuasion focuses mainly on attitude as the main
Attitude Change and Persuasion: The total fertility rate in Singapore has declined to a record low of 1.22 in 2009 and 1.16 in 2010 from 1.28 in 2008. The problem of the low fertility rate is common across the three major ethnic groups in the country. Some of the reasons attributed to this problem include the postponement of marriage and lack of marriages at all by the country's citizens. In addition
Attitude Change & Persuasion Examine the functions of attitudes and use appropriate examples to support the discussion. Mark Snyder and Kenneth G. DeBono reference "functional theories" about attitudes; they explain that the functional aspect of attitudes allows people to "…execute plans and achieve goals" (Snyder, et al., 1989). Interestingly, the functional theory often serves "…very different functions for different people" because albeit two people may have very "similar attitudes," the persuasive conditions
Attitude and Persuasion Briefly discuss persuasion as an effortless cognitive process. In cognitive psychology, change is the focus of all mental health officials in addressing the various issues that are impacting someone. To achieve this objective they are looking at: what the person thinks and is telling themselves mentally. Once this takes place, the patient will then begin to discuss how these issues are affecting them and the way that they are
Attitude Change and Persuasion Attitiude Change And Persuasion Attitudes May Affect Judgments About the Accuracy of Factual Statements We as humans utilize heuristics as mental shortcuts or rules of thumb when we lack time for full-processing, are being overloaded by information, when we deem issues unimportant, or when we have little solid information to use in decision making. In viewing attitude heuristics, we tend to determine what is true in our own minds
Psychology Attitude Change and Persuasion What is evolutionary psychology? How does it explain mate selection? Evolutionary psychology (EP) is an advance that looks at psychological traits such as memory, perception and language for a contemporary evolutionary perspective in regards to social and natural sciences. It attempts to categorize which human psychological traits are alterations that have evolved (Confer, Easton, Fleischman, Goetz, Lewis, Perilloux & Buss, 2010). In other words, which functional products of
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