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Attitude and Behaviour
An attitude is "a relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavioural tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols"
Attitude is a feeling, belief, or opinion of approval or disapproval towards something. Behaviour is an action or reaction that occurs in response to an event or internal stimuli (i.e., thought).
The Function of Attitudes
Attitudes can serve functions for the individual. Daniel Katz (1960) outlines four functional areas:
- Knowledge. Attitudes provide meaning (knowledge) for life. The knowledge function refers to our need for a world which is consistent and relatively stable. This allows us to predict what is likely to happen, and so gives us a sense of control. Attitudes can help us organize and structure our experience. Knowing a person’s attitude helps us predict their behaviour. - Self / Ego-expressive. 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: think bumper sticker, cap, or T-shirt slogan. Therefore, our attitudes are part of our identity, and help us to be aware through the expression of our feelings, beliefs and values. - 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. Again, expression can be nonverbal. Attitudes then are to do with being a part 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.
- The ego-defensive function refers to holding attitudes that protect our self-esteem or that justify actions that make us feel guilty. For example, one way children might defend themselves against the feelings of humiliation they have experienced
The basic idea behind the functional approach is that attitudes help a person to mediate between their own inner needs (expression, defense) and the outside world (adaptive and knowledge).
Behaviour vs Attitude
Attitude and behaviour are closely related in some sense though they are two different concepts. One of the most important differences between behaviour and attitude is that attitude is internal whereas behaviour is external in sense. In other words it can be said that behaviour can very well be seen by others as it is external whereas attitude is shelled within the mind of the individual and hence cannot be seen by others immediately. Experts say that that attitude is what you think whereas behaviour is what you do. In other words it can be
said that attitude has to do with the mind whereas behaviour has a lot to do with actions. Attitude is thought-oriented whereas behaviour is action-oriented. Hence attitude has all the power to shape the behaviour of a person. It is indeed true that a person with the right attitude would be endowed with the right behaviour too. Attitude is all about the opinion somebody has about something in life. Behaviour is about how one responds to the impulsions and the pulls of the environment.
It is indeed possible to judge one’s attitude through one’s behaviour though attitude is not visible externally. One can say that one’s friend has a good attitude towards life. It is evident from the person’s behaviour. Hence attitude and behaviour are related in some sense though they are two different concepts. The response of an individual or a system to the environmental pulls is what is called behaviour. Attitude is also a kind of response in the sense that it is a response from within to the deep consciousness. There is no external implication of the internal feeling in the concept of attitude. The feeling is kept well within the individual. On the other hand the feeling is poured out in behaviour. It is for sure that behaviour and attitude are the two dimensions of an individual.
Changing attitudes to change behaviour
Attitude and behaviour are woven into the fabric of daily life. Research has shown that individuals register an immediate and automatic reaction of "good" or "bad" towards everything they encounter in less than a second, even before they are aware of having formed an attitude. Advertising, political campaigns, and other persuasive media messages are all built on the premise that behaviour follows attitude, and attitude can be influenced with the right message delivered in the right way.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviours. This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviours to reduce the discomfort and restore balance etc.
According to cognitive dissonance theory, there is a tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their cognitions (i.e., beliefs, opinions). When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviours (dissonance), something must change to eliminate the dissonance. In the case of a discrepancy between attitudes and behaviour, it is most likely that the attitude will change to accommodate the behaviour.
Two factors affect the strength of the dissonance: the number of dissonant beliefs, and the importance attached to each belief. There are three ways to eliminate dissonance: (1) reduce the importance of the dissonant beliefs, (2) add more consonant beliefs that outweigh the dissonant beliefs, or (3) change the dissonant beliefs so that they are no longer inconsistent.
Dissonance occurs most often in situations where an individual must choose between two incompatible beliefs or actions. The greatest dissonance is created when the two alternatives are equally attractive. Furthermore, attitude change is more likely in the direction of less incentive since this results in lower dissonance. In this respect, dissonance theory is
This research can be divided into three main areas:
1. Forced Compliance Behaviour
When someone is forced to do (publicly) something they (privately) really don't want to do, dissonance is created between their cognition (I didn't want to do this) and their behaviour (I did it). Forced compliance occurs when an individual performs an action that is inconsistent with his or her beliefs. The behaviour can't be changed, since it was already in the past, so dissonance will need to be reduced by re-evaluating their attitude to what they have done.
2. Decision Making
Life is filled with decisions, and decisions (as a general rule) arouse dissonance.
For example, suppose you had to decide whether to accept a job in an absolutely beautiful area of the country, or turn down the job so you could be near your friends and family. Either way, you would experience dissonance. If you took the job you would miss your loved ones; if you turned the job down, you would pine for the beautiful streams, mountains, and valleys.
Both alternatives have their good points and bad points. The rub is that making a decision cuts off the possibility that you can enjoy the advantages of the unchosen alternative, yet it assures you that you must accept the disadvantages of the chosen alternative.
People have several ways to reduce dissonance that is aroused by making a decision. One thing they can do is to change the behaviour. As noted earlier, this is often very difficult, so people frequently employ a variety of mental exercises. A common way to reduce dissonance is to increase the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and to decrease the attractiveness of the rejected alternative. This is referred to as "spreading apart the alternatives."
3. Effort
It also seems to be the case that we value most highly those goals or items which have required considerable effort to achieve.
This is probably because dissonance would be caused if we spent a great effort to achieve something and then evaluated it negatively. We could, of course, spend years of effort into achieving something which turns out to be a load of rubbish and then, in order to avoid the dissonance that produces, try to convince ourselves that we didn't really spend years of effort, or that the effort was really quite enjoyable, or that it wasn't really a lot of effort.
In fact, though, it seems we find it easier to persuade ourselves that what we have achieved is worthwhile and that's what most of us do, evaluating highly something whose achievement has cost us dear - whether other people think it's much cop or not! This method of reducing dissonance is known as 'effort justification'. If we put effort into a task which we have chosen to carry out, and the task turns out badly, we experience dissonance. To reduce this dissonance, we are motivated to try to think that the task turned out well.
Self-Perception Theory
Daryl Bem (1965, 1972) proposed the self-perception theory as an alternative to the cognitive dissonance theory in explaining how attitudes are shaped. The radical element of Bem’s
theory is the hypothesis that behavior causes attitudes, as opposed to the more conventional notion that attitudes shape behavior.
The self-perception theory is, therefore, a process of inferring attitudes based on observing one’s own behavior. The theory asserts that a person functions as an observer of his/her own behavior, and then makes attributions to either an external (situational) or internal (dispositional) source.
An empirical demonstration of the self-perception process was conducted by Chaiken and Baldwin (1981). These researchers separated the subjects into two groups. Group 1 held strong and consistent attitudes on pro-environmental issues, and Group 2 held weak and unpredictable views on the same issues.
Researchers asked the subjects to respond to a questionnaire and endorse either pro- environment or anti-environment behavioral statements. They were able to induce subjects to respond in particular ways by using the terms “frequently” or “occasionally” in their questions. For example, when the term “occasionally” was used – as in the question, “Do you occasionally do?” – The subjects were more likely to answer “yes” and perceive themselves as pro-environmentalists. When the term “frequently” was used – as in the question “Do you frequently do?” – The respondents were more likely to answer “no” and feel that their attitudes were anti-environment.
Results of the Chaiken and Baldwin demonstration (1981) showed that those subjects who had been induced into reporting pro-environmental behaviors later rated themselves as more pro-environmental than those who had been induced into reporting anti-environmental behaviors. But this finding only held true for those in Group 2 – that is, those whose initial attitudes were weak and inconsistent. Those in Group 1 whose attitudes had initially been strong did not show any significant shift in attitude.
Based on the findings of several such studies, one may conclude that Bem’s self-perception theory provides an explanation for how some people may infer their attitudes from their behavior. Those whose attitudes are vague or unformed are much more likely to infer their attitudes by observing their own behavior (Olson & Roese, 1995; Wilson & Hodges, 1992). Those who possess well-defined attitudes on a particular topic, however, are much less vulnerable to outside influences.
There are two differences between cognitive dissonance theory and self-perception theory. First unlike cognitive dissonance theory, self-perception theory does not assume that any motivational state (e.g., dissonance reduction) is necessary for change in self-knowledge. In fact self-perception theory only requires people’s willingness to infer their own attitudes and beliefs by considering the environmental and dispositional causes for their own actions for changes in self-knowledge to occur. Second self-perception theory claims that people can use their own behavior to infer self-knowledge when the internal cues of prior beliefs are ambiguous or weak, whereas cognitive dissonance theory assumes that people adjust self- knowledge only when the internal cues of prior beliefs are clear and conflict with their freely chosen behavior. Taken together these two differences have led psychologists to suggest that both self-perception theory and cognitive dissonance theory can explain the adjustment of self-knowledge under different conditions. Self-perception theory explains the creation of new self-knowledge following behavior that does not conflict with clear initial self-
