The Psychology of Attitudes essays

The Psychology of Attitudes essays Attitudes in a psychological context are defined as "the tendency to respond in a certain way toward certain issues, products, objects, or events" (Seamon attitudes impact on how people think. However, as Seamon psychologists studying attitudes are also particularly interested in how The first interest in attitudes occurred in the 1920s. At this point, the interest in psychology was largely confined to experimental techniques, where aspects of psychology were tested and measured. Thurstone used this approach to test people's attitude toward different ethnic groups, with people asked to rate various statements about the Chinese (Jones). This method was essential a survey, with the survey a rating tool for recognizing people's attitudes. While this method identified attitudes, it did nothing to try and explain how attitudes were This focus on how attitudes are formed came later. Zimbardo and Leippe described what they termed an attitude system. This system describes four components that make up an attitude. The first component is cognition, which refers to beliefs, thoughts, or ideas. The second component is affect, which refers to feelings and emotions. The third component is behavioral intentions, which refers to decisions to act in certain ways. The fourth component is the behavior, which refers to the actual actions taken. To explain how these components combine, it is useful to offer an example. Consider the case of a person who has an attitude about saving the rainforests. This attitude would be based on some kind of cognition. For example, the person might think that the rainforests are being destroyed and that future generations will suffer because of this. This attitude would also be likely to involve emotions, such as the person feeling sad about the destruction, or ang...