Social Psychology Lecture 8

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Social Psychology Lecture 8

• Theory of attitudes and behaviour
• Jane Clarbour
• Room PS/B007 email jc129

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Objectives

• Show an understanding of how cultural differences
  in social norms effect social influence on
  attitudes
• Specify the relationship between
• Beliefs and attitudes
• Attitudes and behavioural intentions
• Behavioural intentions and behaviour
• Demonstrate an understanding of the differences
  between
• The Theory of Reasoned Action
• The Theory of Planned behaviour

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Collectivist vs. Individualist cultures

• Collectivist
• Identity based on social system and given by
  group
• Socialised to be emotionally dependent on
  organisations/ institutions
• Consistency between group goals and personal
  goals
• Social behaviour thought to be more determined by
  social norms and roles than by personal attitudes

• Individualist
• Identity based in the individual
• Socialised to be emotionally independent
• Personal and group goals are inconsistent
• Social behaviour thought to be more determined by
  attitudes than social roles or norms

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Influence of individualism-collectivism on
attitude formation

• Values hierarchy designed to provide
  information relating to importance of either
  individualist or collectivist values for
  self-concept
• If individualist values are more central they
  will have greater influence in shaping attitudes
  and behaviour (Franzoi, 2000).

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Attitudes as explanation for social behaviour

• Attitudes have three main functions
• They help define social groups
• Help to establish personal identity
• Mediate thinking and behaviour
• i.e Mandela is famous for his attitude towards
  apartheid. Explanation for social motivation
• But what is meant by attitude?

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Diversity of attitude definitions

• Definitions of attitude are ambiguous and may
  include reference to
• Attribution of dispositions
• Behavioural intentions
• Evaluations

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Attitudes as learned predisposition

• Fishbein Ajzen (1975)
• A learned predisposition to respond in a
  consistently favourable or unfavourable manner
  with respect to a given object
• Predisposition
• Associationist
• implication of attitude development through
  repeated experience of behavioural consequence

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Attitudes as expressed evaluations

• Eagly Chaiken (1993)
• Attitude is a psychological tendency that is
  expressed by evaluating a particular entity with
  some degree of favour or disfavour
• More cognitive than Fishbein Ajzen
• More emphasis on evaluation (favour/disfavour)
• Less emphasis on how gained (ie learned)
• More social

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Attitudes and behaviour

• LaPiere (1934) racial prejudice
• Attitudes to Chinese
• Will you accept members of the Chinese race as
  guests in your establishment?
• Inconsistency between attitude and behaviour
• Concluded attitudes should be studied from
  behaviour in actual social settings

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Review of attitude-behaviour relationship
(Wicker, 1969)

• No attitude-behaviour relationship (mean .15)
• Psychometric inadequacies
• (1 item measure)
• Principle of aggregation
• LaPieres poor prediction of behaviour used a
  general measure of attitude to try to predict a
  specific action rather than a general action.

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Diversity of measurement(Ajzen, 1988)
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Ambiguity of definition

• Attitudes are learned
• Attitudes predispose action
• Actions are consistently favourable or
  unfavourable towards the object

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Three types of consistency

• Stimulus-response consistency
• Response-response consistency
• Evaluative consistency

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Theory of reasoned action (Fishbein Azjen,
1975)

• Problems arise from lack of clarity of which
  aspects are most important in definition of
  attitude and how should be measured
• Must distinguish between
• Attitude
• Beliefs
• Behaviour

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Theory of reasoned action (Fishbein Azjen,
1975)

• Attitude
• Main feature is its evaluative (or affective)
  nature
• Measurement should be bipolar in relation to
  affect
• Beliefs
• The information a person has about an object
• Measurement should be dimensional in relation to
  subjective strength of belief
• Behaviour
• The observable acts that are studied in their own
  right
• Measurement of behaviour should not be taken to
  infer attitude

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Relationships between these distinctions

• Stage 1. Beliefs
• Links an object to some attribute
• E.g. China is a totalitarian state
• Object
  attribute
• 
  
• Small dogs are snappy
• (see OHP Figure1)

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Conceptual structure

• Beliefs as foundations for attitudes
• Knowledge about object
• Determines attitudes, intentions behaviour
• Used for
• Making judgements
• Forming evaluations
• Decision making

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Stage 1 3 main sources of beliefs

• Primary sources
• Direct observation
• Inference
• e.g. person with negative attitude towards
  communist China and who positively values freedom
  of religion may infer that China has no religious
  freedom, even though no direct information on
  this point
• Information from a secondary source
• e.g. peers, newspapers, parents, books

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Stage 2 Attitudes

• Attitude to object is based on salient beliefs
• (a) That the object has certain attributes
• (b) How the person evaluates the particular
  attributes
• Evaluation of specific belief to object
• (not beliefs in general)
• So, its the evaluation of the belief? attitude
  formation

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Stage 3 Intentions

• Attitude to an object is related to persons
  intention to perform a variety of behaviours with
  respect to the object
• Intention relates to belief in respect of
  evaluation of behavioural consequences rather
  than attributes of object
• Not just one behaviour, but whole set
• So, might expect consistency
• Based upon subjective norms

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Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein Azjen,
1975)
Behavioural beliefs
Attitude towards the behaviour
Outcome evaluations
Relative importance of attitudinal and normative
factors
Intention
Behaviour
Normative beliefs
 
Subjective norm
Motivations to comply
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Theory of Reasoned Action Prediction of goal
directed behaviour (from Azjen Maddson, 1986)
Attitude towards a behaviour
Intention
Behaviour
Subjective norms
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Intention-behaviour relationship

• Intentions and behaviours must be measured at
  same level of specificity
• Behaviour, target, situation, time
• The closer the correspondence of these factors
  the greater the correlation between intention and
  behaviour

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Subjective norms

• A persons beliefs that key people would or would
  not behave that way
• A persons motivation to comply with what these
  people think
• So includes process of conformity as mediator
  against attitude and behaviour

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Stage 4 Behaviour

• Each intention is viewed as related to the
  corresponding behaviour
• Assumption that most social behaviour is
  volitional
• A person should perform the behaviour that they
  intend to perform
• Note, no direct link between attitude and
  behaviour
• Model assumes that to predict behaviour, need
  access to intention, not attitude.

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Criticisms of Fishbein Ajzens model (Bentler
Speckart, 1979)

• Structural equational modelling techniques
  demonstrated that both attitude and past
  behaviour contribute strongly to future behaviour
  (when measured 2 weeks later)
• Behavioural intent mediates predictive capacity
  of subjective norms on future behaviour
• Conclusion that factors other than intentions
  also are predictive of behavioural intent
• Limits value of Fishbein Ajzens model
• suggests incomplete

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SummaryTheory of Reasoned Action

• Attitudes do not predict single behaviours
• Attitudes are related to multiple behaviours
  (behavioural patterns)
• Questionnaires with a multiplicity of behavioural
  statements are likely to predict attitudes
• Intentions are the better predictors of single
  behaviours
• Need to understand psychological process relating
  to beliefs and attitudes in order to understand
  intention-behaviour relationship

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Recap

• Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein Ajzen,1975)
• People rationally think about or evaluate the
  consequences of their behaviour prior to acting
• Cognition is the primary process of attitude
  development
• Behaviour is intended to achieve particular
  outcomes
• By discovering intentions in a particular
  situation it becomes possible to predict
  behaviour
• Attitudes influence behaviour by their influence
  on intentions

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Limitations of the Theory of Reasoned Action

• Assumes rational evaluation of consequence
• People also act
• on their emotion without any thought of
  consequence
• irrationally
• according to own morals rather than social norm
• Based on individualist assumptions
• Ignores individual differences in the need to
  evaluate

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Theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen Madden, 1986)

• Theory of Reasoned Action developed in relation
  to volitional behaviour
• Not all behaviour is volitional
• Deeply ingrained habits
• Lack of resources
• External obstacles
• Introduction of additional factor of
• PERCIEVED CONTROL to the earlier Theory of
  Reasoned Action

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Theory of planned behaviour (2) Perceived control

• Additional set of beliefs relating to control
• Presence or absence of resources and
  opportunities
• As not all behaviour is under voluntary control
• Greater perception of control with
• increased perception of resources or
  opportunities
• Fewer obstacles or impediments

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Theory of planned behaviour (Azjen Madden,
1986)
Attitude to behaviour
Subjective norm
Behavioural intention
Behaviour
Perceived behavioural control
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Perceived behavioural control (Ajzen Madden,
1986)

• Theory of reasoned action assumes control over
  behaviour
• Factors other than intention may mediate control
• Internal factors
• Perception of skills, abilities, knowledge and
  planning
• External factors
• Perception of time, opportunity, other people

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Theory of Planned Behaviour Prerequisites for
behavioural intention behaviour relationship

• The measure of intention must match the
  specificity of the behaviour
• i.e. to be able to predict attendance of Social
  lectures must measure intention to attend Social
  lectures, rather than just lectures more
  generally
• Time
• The measure of intention should be as close as
  possible to measure of behaviour to avoid change
  of intention
• Volitional control
• The behaviour should be perceived to be
  performable and not reliant upon external
  variables

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Conclusions

• Attitudes do not predict single behaviours
• Attitudes are related to multiple behaviours
  (behavioural patterns)
• Attitudes influence behaviour through influencing
  intention
• Intention is the better predictor of behaviour
• In order to understand intentions and behaviours,
  need to know about beliefs and attitudes
• This is essential in relation to attitude change

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What next

• Lecture 9 Attitude change Advertising and Fear
  Appeals
• Essential reading
• Rogers (1983) Cognitive and physiological process
  in fear appeals and attitude change
• Stroebe Jonas (2001) Health Psychology A
  Social-Psychological Perspective
• Franzoi (2000) Chapter 6 Persuasion