Attitude is a psychological tendency that is expressed through the evaluation of a specific entity or object, with a certain degree of favorability or unfavorability (Eagly and Chaiken). Attitude is an internal state of the person, therefore, it is not a manifest and observable response. It is conceived as something that mediates between aspects of the external environment (stimuli) and people’s reactions (manifest evaluative responses).
Although it is true that the concept of attitude can be approached from multiple points of view, in this Psychology-Online article, we will focus on the definition of attitude according to social psychology.
Definition of attitude
defined attitude as a state of mental disposition, organized that exerts a direct influence on a person’s behavior on a daily basis. We understand, therefore, that it is a characteristic that can vary depending on the context and that, furthermore, cannot be observed directly.
In order to assess the qualities of attitudes we must take into account two main axes:
- Valencia or address: Positive or negative character attributed to the attitudinal object.
- Intensity: Gradation of that valence.
It may be the case that the attitude is neutral. Attitude is usually represented as a continuum, the “attitudinal continuum”which takes into account the aspects of valence and intensity.
The attitude has 3 main implications:
- The attitude always points “towards something.” According to Eagly and Chaiken, anything that can become an object of thought is also susceptible to becoming an object of attitude.
- Because it is an internal state, it acts as a mediator between the person’s responses and their exposure to stimuli in the social environment.
- Attitude is a latent variable: psychological processes (categorization process) and physiological processes underlie it. According to Eagly and Chaiken, attitude is not that categorization process, but rather its result. Once the categorization process is completed, what remains is an internal evaluative state, that is, the attitude.
Relationship between attitude and behavior
The relationship between attitude and behavior is defined by these three points:
- Attitude is related to behavior. Attitude: Psychological state that guides action towards an object through its evaluation.
There are articles that have questioned this connection between attitude and behavior:
- LaPiere, in “Attitudes Versus Actions.” Kraus points out the serious mistakes committed in the performance of their work, which completely invalidate their conclusions. However, he is still cited today.
- More recently: Wicker: The correlations between attitude and behavior do not exceed the value 0.30.
As a consequence of LaPiere and Wicker, a reaction from Social Psychology occurred in the 70s, in order to demonstrate that there is a connection between attitude and behavior.
- Two major research developments: The “MODE model”. The theory of reasoned and planned action.
Years later, Kraus reviewed the relationship between attitude and behavior, developing the idea of meta-analysis of studies that investigate the attitude/behavior relationship, as long as they met 3 conditions:
- The correlation is established between an attitude and future behavior.
- The measurement of attitude is done before that of behavior.
- The attitude and behavior that are related correspond to the same subjects at the two different moments in time.
Results: Contrary to what Wicker claimed (correlations between attitude and behavior never exceed r = 0.30):
- Both the mean and median correlations of the 88 studies reviewed were greater than ar = 0.30.
- 52% of them are above that value.
- 25% are equal to or greater than ar = 0.50.
- The correlations between attitude and behavior are higher when the principle of compatibility is respected in the measurement.
Model of the three components of attitude
Also known as the three-dimensional model of attitude, it defines that this psychology construct is made up of three interdependent components:
- Emotional component: This pillar includes the reactions of a sentimental tone that are directed to the object about which we will have an attitude.
- Behavioral component: This component is the reflection of behaviors oriented toward a specific attitude. Let’s take an example: if a person does not eat meat or fish, his behavior will probably be aimed at avoiding restaurants where there is no vegetarian alternative.
- Cognitive component: It constitutes the thoughts and reasoning that feed back a specific attitude. Following the example of a vegetarian person, the cognitive component will refer to the arguments that the person has in favor of not eating meat or fish.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.