SUBJECT- Psychology

CLASS- XII
TEACHER- Bhagyasree Roy
Subtitle
ATTITUDES
 TOPICS TO BE COVERED

1) Definition and meaning

of Attitude
2) Components of
1) Definition of
Attitude Prejudice,
3) Features Of Attitude Discrimination
4) Attitude and
Behaviour 2) Causes of
5) Characteristics of Prejudice
Attitude
6) Process of Attitude
3) Ways to reduce
Formation Prejudice
7) Factors Influencing 4) Strategies for
Attitude Formation
8) How Attitude Changes: handling
i) Persuasion Prejudice
ii) Cognitive Dissonance
 What Is Attitude?
Attitude is a state of mind, set of views
or thoughts regarding some topic
(called the ‘attitude object’) which
have an evaluative feature
( Positive, negative )
It is an expression of a favorable or
unfavorable evaluation of a person,
place, thing or event. These are
fundamental determinants of our
perceptions of, and actions toward all
aspects of our social environment.
For eg: According to Watson eating junk food
is unhealthy.
 Components Of Attitude
Attitude
Behavioural
Affective Cognitive
( act or
(emotion ( thought
behavioural
component) component)
component)
 The A of Affective B of
behavioural and C of
Cognitive together is called
ABC Component of
Attitude
For eg- I am scared of spider
( Affective Component)
I will avoid spider
and scream whenever I see
one
( Behavioural Component)
I believe spiders
are dangerous
( Cognitive Component)
 Features Of Attitude

VALENCE (Positivity/Negativity)

EXTREMENESS

SIMPLICITY or COMPLEXITY

CENTRALITY
 How Far Attitude Determines Behaviour?
There is a consistency between attitude and behaviour when:
i. attitude is strong and occupies a central position in the
attitude system
ii. the person is aware of his/her attitude
iii. there is little or no external pressure to behave in a
particular way.
iv. the person’s behaviour is not being watched or evaluated
v. the person thinks that the behaviour would have a
positive consequences and so engage in that behaviour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7okBIVEgYKc
 Characteristics Of Attitude

Attitudes are learned and not innate

Attitudes are more or less lasting

Attitudes involves individuals as well as groups

Attitude implies a subject object relationship

Attitudes have motivation-affective properties

 Process Of Attitude Formation
Learning attitude by Association

Learning attitude by being rewarded or punished

Learning attitude through modelling

Learning attitude through exposure to information

Learning attitude through group or cultural norms

 Factors Influencing Attitude Formation

1) Family and School Environment

2) Reference Groups
3) Personal Experiences
4) Media Related Influences
How Attitude Changes?
 1) PERSUASION
What is Persuasion?
The process through which one or more persons attempt to alter the
attitude of one or more others.
Ways of processing persuasive messages

Systematic Processing

Heuristic Processing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6oyCeYQWPE
 2) COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
LEON FESTINGER published this theory in 1957. The theory emphasises
on the cognitive component and individuals who assumed to strive for
harmony or satisfaction (consonance) among the cognitive elements.
If an individual finds that two cognitive elements are dissonant then one
of them will change in the direction of consonance.
There are 2 major ways to reduce dissonance:
i. to change one of the cognitive element
ii. add a new cognitive element

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT8eIAMLbo4
Smoking is I don’t
injurious Consonant smoke
to health

Dissonant
I am a
smoker
 Stop
Smoking

Not to
believe Consonance
any such
links

Switch to
filter
cigarettes
PREJUDICE
 WATCH THE FILM BEFORE CHECKING THE NXT SLIDES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCZn3Y30zKI
 WHAT IS PREJUDICE?
Prejudice is derived from the Latin
word “ prejudium” meaning “pre-
judgement”
It is the negative attitude towards
the members of some social group,
organisation, people etc based on
their membership in the group.
For eg- Racial prejudice, Religious
Prejudice
 CAUSES OF PREJUDICE
SOCIAL LEARNING

REALISTIC COMPITITION

SOCIAL CATEGORIZATION

STEREOTYPES
 WAYS TO RESIST PREJUDICE
1) Breaking the cycle of
prejudice
2) Content Hypothesis
3) Re-categorization
4) Highlighting individual
identity rather than
group identity
 STRATEGIES FOR HANDLING PREJUDICE

Minimising opportunities
for learning prejudice

Changing such
attitudes
De-emphasising a narrow
social identity based on
in-group
LET US WATCH THIS VIDEO AND THEN END THIS CHAPTER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xyD4p4gHD8