Attitude accessibility concerns how quickly an attitude is activated from memory. Attitudes that are more accessible from memory are more predictive of behavior, influence what messages are attended to, and how those messages are processed, and are more stable across time. Unfortunately, little is known about how to change the accessibility of attitudes from memory
The functional approach to attitudes specifies that people hold attitudes because those attitudes serve a purpose. Functions address the psychological motivations why individuals hold their attitudes. Initial theorizing about attitude functions assumed that an attitude served a primary function. Shavitt (1990) demonstrated that although certain attitude objects (e.g., air conditioners) lend themselves to one primary
Attitude Formation Definition An attitude is a general and lasting positive or negative opinion or feeling about some person, object, or issue. Attitude formation occurs through either direct experience or the persuasion of others or the media. Attitudes have three foundations: affect or emotion, behavior, and cognitions. In addition, evidence suggests that attitudes may develop
Attitude Change Definition Attitudes are general evaluations of objects, ideas, and people one encounters throughout one’s life (e.g., “capital punishment is bad”). Attitudes are important because they can guide thought, behavior, and feelings. Attitude change occurs anytime an attitude is modified. Thus, change occurs when a person goes from being positive to negative, from slightly
Anticipatory Attitude Change Definition Anticipatory attitude change refers to shifting or changing one’s expressed opinion or attitude on a topic as a result of being informed that one will be exposed to a message or communication on the topic. Thus, prior to receiving any aspect of the message itself, people might adjust their opinions on
Attitude Strength Definition Some attitudes exert a powerful impact on thinking and on behavior, whereas others are largely inconsequential. Similarly, some attitudes are very firm, resistant to even the strongest challenges and persistent over long spans of time, but others are highly malleable, yielding to the slightest provocation and fluctuation over time. The term attitude
The research of attitudes is probably one of the most controversial, yet fascinating, areas of psychology. Although contemporary psychologists tend to define attitudes as evaluations of people, objects, and ideas, attitude theories and research have looked at attitudes in many different ways and from several varying perspectives. The study of attitudes was already popular in