Attitudes: Formation, Stability, and Change 1

Question 1

What is an attitude in social psychology?

Answer 1

An attitude is a psychological tendency expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor. It consists of three components:

1.Cognitive (beliefs or thoughts about the object),

2.Affective (emotions or feelings), and

3.Behavioral (how the attitude influences actions).

Question 2

What is the ABC model of attitudes?

Answer 2

The ABC model stands for:

Affective: emotional reactions (e.g., fear of spiders),

Behavioral: intentions or past behaviors (e.g., avoiding spiders),

Cognitive: beliefs (e.g., spiders are dangerous).
This model shows that attitudes are not just beliefs but involve emotions and behaviors too.

Question 3

How are attitudes formed?

Answer 3

Attitudes are formed through:

Classical Conditioning (pairing stimuli — like a brand with a positive celebrity),

Operant Conditioning (rewards/punishments influencing beliefs),

Social Learning/Modeling (observing others — Bandura),

**Mere Exposure Effect **(Zajonc – repeated exposure increases liking),

Cognitive Approaches (conscious evaluation of pros/cons).

Question 4

What is the difference between explicit and implicit attitudes?

Answer 4

Explicit attitudes are conscious, controllable, and expressed deliberately.

Implicit attitudes are automatic, unconscious, and measured indirectly (e.g., IAT – Implicit Association Test).
A person may explicitly support equality but still hold implicit racial bias.