1. Ch 4 - Behavior and Attitudes Part 1: Feb 7

2. Attitudes Favorable/unfavorable evaluation of an object. 3 dimensions of attitudes: –Affective (feelings) –Behavior (actions) –Cognition (thoughts) How do attitudes develop?

3. 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?

4. 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?

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. 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?

9. 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?

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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’

13. How did the experimenters set up anonymity for the prisoners? How did the experimenters make the guards anonymous? Stanford Prison Experiment

14. How were prisoners’ behaviors influenced? How were guards’ behaviors influenced? External sources during the experiment? What were some results? Stanford Prison Experiment

15. 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