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 INTRODUCTION
Attitude refers to a favourable and
unfavourable evaluative reaction
towards something or someone
which often rooted in one’s belief
and exhibited in one’s feeling and
intended behaviour (Myers)
An attitude is "a relatively enduring
organization of beliefs, feelings,
and behavioural tendencies
towards socially significant
objects, groups, events or
symbols" (Hogg, & Vaughan
2005)
COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDE

Affection

Behavioural tendency

Cognition
Jamil believes that smoking is unhealthy,
feels disgusted when people smoke
around him, and avoids being in
situations where people smoke.

Identify the three components

TYPES OF ATTITUDE

EXPLIC IMPLICI
- Explicit
IT T
attitudes are
conscious beliefs Unconscious
that can guide associations
decisions and between
behaviour
objects and
- Controllable evaluative
response
WHY ATTITUDE IS IMPORTANT?

Predict people’s action

Know how to change our attitude based

on environment and experience

Know how to change people’s attitude

FORMATIONS OF ATTITUDE
Attitude is formed through SOCIAL LEARNING - a process
through which we acquire new information, forms of behaviour
or attitudes from other people.
Most of our attitude will be based from out observation towards
some situation
Three types of formation of attitude;
1) Classical conditioning
2) Instrumental conditioning
3) Observational learning
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Learning by association
One stimulus becomes a signal
for the presentation of another
stimulus
IVAN PAVLOV’S CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Classical conditioning is discovered by
Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov
classical conditioning is a learning process
that occurs through associations
between an environmental stimulus and
a naturally occurring stimulus.
Classical conditioning involves placing a
neutral signal before a naturally
occurring reflex. In Pavlov's classic
experiment with dogs, the neutral signal
was the sound of a tone and the
naturally occurring reflex was salivating
in response to food. By associating the
neutral stimulus with the environmental
stimulus (presenting of food), the sound
of the tone alone could produce the
salivation response.
The dogs were demonstrating
classical conditioning.
Classical Conditioning of a Fear Response
One of the most famous examples of classical conditioning was
John B. Watson's experiment in which a fear response was
conditioned in a boy known as Little Albert. The child initially
showed no fear of a white rat, but after the rat was paired
repeatedly with loud, scary sounds, the child would cry when
the rat was present. The child's fear also generalized to other
fuzzy white objects.
This experiment illustrates how phobias can form through classical
conditioning. In many cases, a single pairing of a neutral
stimulus (a dog, for example) and a frightening experience
(being bitten by the dog) can lead to a lasting phobia (being
afraid of dogs).
INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING
A learning process first described by B. F. Skinner.
Reinforcement or punishment are used to either increase or decrease the
probability that a behaviour will occur again in the future.
For example, if a student is rewarded with praise every time she raises her
hand in class, she becomes more likely to raise her hand again in the
future.
If she is also scolded when she speaks out of turn, she becomes less likely to
interrupt the class. In these examples, the teacher is using
reinforcement to strengthen the hand-raising behaviour and
punishment to weaken the talking out of turn behaviour.
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
People and animals don’t learn only by conditioning; they also
learn by observing others.
Observational learning is the process of learning to respond in a
particular way by watching others, who are called models.
Observational learning is also called “vicarious conditioning”
because it involves learning by watching others acquire
responses through classical or operant conditioning.
BANDURA BOBO DOLL EXPERIMENT
The person best known for research on observational learning is
psychologist Albert Bandura, who did some landmark
experiments showing that children who watched adults behaving
aggressively were more likely to behave aggressively themselves.
His most famous experiment was the Bobo doll study. Bandura let
a group of kindergarteners watch a film of an adult violently
attacking an inflatable plastic toy shaped like Bobo the Clown by
hitting it, sitting on it, hammering it, and so forth. He then let the
children into a room with Bobo dolls. The children precisely
imitated the adult’s behaviour, gleefully attacking Bobo. Their
behaviour was a type of observational learning.
FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDE

Self/ego
Utilitarian Knowledge
defensive

Value Self
Self esteem
expressive expression

Impression
motivation
UTILITARIAN/ADAPTIVE
If a person holds and/or expresses socially acceptable
attitudes, other people will reward them with
approval and social acceptance.
For example, when people flatter their bosses or
instructors (and believe it) or keep silent if they think
an attitude is unpopular.
Attitudes then, are to do with being apart of a social
group and the adaptive functions helps us fit in with a
social group. People seek out others who share their
attitudes, and develop similar attitudes to those they
like.
 KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge serves the function of
attitude because it makes
certain things or situations
more understandable.
Knowledge allows us to predict
the characteristics of a person
based on the group she/he
belongs to. It also helps us to
predict their behaviour. For
example, knowing that a person
is religious we can predict they
will practise the religion.
SELF/ EGO DEFENSIVE
The ego-defensive function refers to holding attitudes that protect
our self-esteem or that justify actions that make us feel guilty.
People whose pride have suffered following a defeat in sport might
similarly adopt a defensive attitude: “I’m not bothered, I’m sick
of rugby anyway…”. This function has psychiatric overtones.
Positive attitudes towards ourselves, for example, have a
protective function (i.e. an ego-defensive role) in helping us
reserve our self-image.
VALUE EXPRESSIVE

Value-expressive attitudes show who we

are, and what we stand for.

Example: Physical appearance, the way

we talk to others, etc.
IDENTITY/SELF EXPRESSION FUNCTION

The attitudes we express (1) help communicate

who we are and (2) may make us feel good
because we have asserted our identity. Self-
expression of attitudes can be non-verbal too
such as car sticker, cap, or T-shirt slogan.
Therefore, our attitudes are part of our identify,
and help us to be aware through the
expression of our feelings, beliefs and values.
SELF ESTEEM FUNCTION
Holding particular attitude can help to
enhance feeling of self-worth.
Many people get a boost out of believing
that the attitudes they hold are the
right one
 IMPRESSION MOTIVATION

People can use

attitudes to lead
others to have a
positive view of
themselves
PERSUASION
WHAT IS PERSUASION?

According to Perloff (2003), persuasion can be

defined as "...a symbolic process in which
communicators try to convince other people
to change their attitudes or behaviours
regarding an issue through the transmission
of a message in an atmosphere of free choice.“
It is a process by which a person’s attitudes or
behaviour are, without duress, influenced by
communications from other people.
Persuasive message can be processed by
two ways:
1. Systematic processing
2. Heuristic processing
SYSTEMATIC PROCESSING
The attitude change resulted from systematic
processing of information presented in persuasive
message which requires effort and it absorbs much
of our information processing capacity.
Example : sales consultant convinces customer if he
explains in good way about the product.
HEURISTIC PROCESSING
Involves the use of simple rules of thumb or mental
shortcuts
the attitude change that occurs in response to peripheral
persuasion cues which often based on information
concerning the expertise or status of persuaders.
Example: a doctor can easily persuade his patient to
take medicine suggested by him.
ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION

Credible Clear
Age
communicator

message

audience
Trustworthy Good
feelings Thoughtfulness
Attractive
Fear appeal
Primacy &
recency effect
 RESISTING PERSUASION
Selective
reactance forewarning avoidance
• Negative • Advance • Tendency to
reaction to knowledge of direct
threats to persuasion – attention
one’s increase away from
freedom resistance information
• Choose the that
opposite challenges
the existing
attitudes
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Cognitive dissonance? – a tension that arises when one
is simultaneously aware of two inconsistence
cognitions.
The irrational denial of facts contradictory to our
opinion.
Frequently occurs in situations that involved induced or
forced compliance.
People tend to seek consistency in their beliefs and
perceptions. When there is a discrepancy between
beliefs or behaviors, something must change in order
to eliminate or reduce the dissonance.
EXAMPLES OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

1: Knowing that smoking is harmful (First cognition)

while liking to smoke (second cognition). The
Cognitive dissonance theory's conditions were met
because those cognitions are dissonant
2: Believing that lying is bad (First cognition) and
being forced to lie (second cognition)
3: Liking a friend (first cognition) while knowing that
he hates your brother (second cognition)
HYPOCRISY
Publicly show some attitudes and then
acting in a way that is INCONSISTENT
with these attitudes