Theories of Attitude Formation: Theory and Examples

Theories of Attitude Formation investigate how people establish their opinions, convictions, and inclinations about different things and people. These theories describe how individual experiences, societal influences, and informational inputs develop attitudes. They include a wide spectrum of psychological, social, and cognitive frameworks. Important theories include the social learning theory, which emphasizes the importance of observation and imitation, the cognitive dissonance theory, which concentrates on the alignment of attitudes and behaviors, and the learning theory, which stresses conditioning and reinforcement. Gaining knowledge of these ideas can help one better understand social interaction dynamics, human behavior, and decision-making processes.

Theories of Attitude Formation provide frameworks for understanding how people build their attitudes toward different things, people, and occasions. These theories emphasize how psychological processes, social factors, and cognitive systems interact. The learning theory is a well-known theory that contends that conditioning, reinforcement, and repeated exposure to particular stimuli are how attitudes are developed. According to the hypothesis of cognitive dissonance, people adopt attitudes that correspond with their actions, which lessens the pain that comes with holding contradictory beliefs.

The social learning theory places a strong emphasis on the role that imitation and observation play in how people develop their views via imitating the actions and viewpoints of others, particularly powerful people. Furthermore, according to the functional theory of attitudes, attitudes have certain functions including organizing information, facilitating self-expression, and fostering social acceptability. When taken as a whole, these theories offer a thorough knowledge of the many variables and mechanisms that influence how attitudes are created, retained, and altered over time.

Key Takeaways:

• Theories of Attitude Formation explain how psychological processes, social factors, and cognitive systems interact.
• Learning theory suggests attitudes are developed through conditioning, reinforcement, and repeated exposure.
• Cognitive dissonance theory proposes that people adopt attitudes aligned with their actions to reduce discomfort.
• Social learning theory emphasizes imitation and observation in attitude development, especially from influential figures.
• Functional theory of attitudes highlights attitudes’ functions in organizing information, self-expression, and social acceptability.

Psychological frameworks known as Cognitive Consistency theories highlight how people want their ideas, attitudes, and behaviors to all be in harmony with one another. The key premise is that people try to keep their beliefs and behaviors consistent in order to prevent cognitive dissonance or psychological discomfort. People are compelled to modify their attitudes or behaviors in order to bring about balance when discrepancies arise.

Example of a Cognitive Consistency Theories

Festinger’s notion of cognitive dissonance is a well-known example. Let’s say a health-conscious person finds out that smoking is bad but yet chooses to smoke. Their smoking habit and health-conscious mentality are at odds with one other as a result. They may choose to change their conduct (stop smoking) or their mindset (downplay the health consequences of smoking) in order to ease this pain.

Heider’s balance hypothesis, which contends that individuals like harmonious partnerships, is another illustration. In order to preserve cognitive consistency in their connections and preferences, if an individual likes their buddy Person A and Person A like a certain movie, the individual is likely to also grow to appreciate the movie.

Fritz Heider’s Balance Theory is a Cognitive Consistency theory that describes how people try to maintain harmony in their relationships and attitudes. This idea holds that humans desire balanced conditions in which they have congruent views about people or objects. When there is a disparity in an unbalanced state, it causes psychological distress and encourages people to adjust their attitudes or perceptions in order to bring the situation back into balance.

Example of a Balance Theory

Suppose, Mrs. Y likes her friend Mr. X, and Mr. X likes a particular book. If Mrs. Y dislikes the book, this creates an imbalance because Mrs. Y’s positive attitude toward Mr. X conflicts with her negative attitude toward the book that Mr. X likes. To restore balance, Mrs. Y might decide to read the book and find aspects she enjoys, thus aligning her attitude with Mr. X’s, or she might downplay the significance of Mr. X’s preference, maintaining her initial dislike for the book but minimizing its impact on her view of Mr. X. In either case, Mrs. Y is motivated to resolve the inconsistency to achieve a balanced state.

Congruity Theory, also referred to as the theory of Cognitive Consistency, claims that people have an incentive to keep their attitudes and reality perceptions consistent. According to this idea, people make an effort to keep their beliefs, values, and behaviors in line in order to prevent cognitive dissonance, which happens when these things diverge. According to congruity theory, people strive for coherence by modifying their attitudes or perceptions in order to bring their attitudes and the information they come across into harmony.

Example of a Congruity Theory

Take someone who is passionate about protecting the environment, for instance. They could suffer from cognitive dissonance if they keep supporting a business that is well-known for its unsustainable methods. They might either boycott the company’s goods to make up for this contradiction, or they could reframe the information they have been given to justify their ongoing support. Either way, the person aims to keep their opinions about the company’s activities and their attitude toward environmental conservation consistent.

The concept of Affective-Cognitive Consistency, which is often referred to as Affective-Cognitive Balance, asserts that people attempt to preserve balance between their feelings and their ideas or opinions. According to this idea, in order to lessen psychological distress, people are driven to minimize differences between their affective states (emotions) and their cognitive assessments (beliefs or thoughts). People are driven to change their ideas or feelings in order to bring their emotions and cognitions back into harmony when there is an imbalance.

Example of an Affective Cognitive Consistency Theory

Consider a person who has an extreme fear of flying yet needs to take an aircraft for a crucial business trip. Even if they are nervous, they might comfort themselves by reminding oneself of the safety records for flying (cognitive evaluation) in order to lessen their anxiety (emotional state) and regain equilibrium. As an alternative, individuals might go to therapy to deal with their fear of flying, which would adjust their emotional reaction to conform to their mental assumptions about how safe flying is. To lessen discomfort, the person aims for affective-cognitive consistency in both situations.

According to Leon Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory, people feel uncomfortable on a psychological level when they have opposing attitudes, behaviors, or beliefs. People are motivated to lessen the discrepancy by aligning their ideas or behaviors to make them more consistent with one another by this discomfort, sometimes referred to as cognitive dissonance. According to the hypothesis, people try to be internally consistent in order to preserve their psychological health.

Example of an Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Suppose, someone who routinely drives a gas-guzzling car feels that environmental conservation is important. Their actions are in conflict with their views about the environment, which leads to cognitive dissonance. They may start carpooling, buy a more fuel-efficient automobile, or minimize the negative environmental effects of their car in order to get over this uneasiness. By doing this, people lessen the cognitive dissonance that results from the discrepancy between their driving behavior and their environmental assumptions.

Functional Theory of Attitudes proposed by Daniel Katz’s in 1960’s, suggests that people’s attitudes have a specific purpose in assisting them in navigating and adjusting to their social surroundings. According to this idea, attitudes have particular functions that satisfy psychological and social demands rather than being arbitrary collections of beliefs or opinions.

According to functional theory, attitudes may be divided into four main categories:

1. Utilitarian Function: When attitudes assist people in maximizing rewards and minimizing penalties, they have a utilitarian function. Individuals form favorable attitudes toward things or actions that make them happy or beneficial, and unfavorable attitudes toward things or actions that cause them harm or disadvantages. A person may, for instance, feel better and have more energy when they eat healthily, yet they may feel negatively about smoking because of its detrimental impacts on one’s health.

2. Knowledge Function: When attitudes assist people in simplifying, organizing, and understanding their surroundings, they provide a knowledge function. As cognitive frameworks, attitudes help people organize and make sense of complicated information. For example, a person’s beliefs toward political ideology might help them understand and traverse the political environment, which makes decision-making easier.

3. Ego-Defensive Function: When attitudes shield people from dangers to their identity or sense of self-worth, they perform an ego-defensive function. Individuals may adopt attitudes that support their ideas or behaviors as a coping mechanism for uncomfortable emotions or cognitive dissonance. For instance, a smoker who is aware of the health hazards may justify their actions by downplaying such risks in order to maintain their perception of themselves as capable decision-makers.

4. Social-Adjustive Function: When attitudes support people in merging into their social surroundings and preserving social ties, they serve a socially adaptive purpose. In an effort to fit in and be accepted, people adopt attitudes that are consistent with the standards and beliefs of their social groupings. For example, in order to feel accepted and prevent social rejection, teenagers may take on the attitudes and actions of their peer group.

Muzafer Sherif and his associates created the Social Judgment Theory (SJT) in the 1960s to investigate how people interpret and digest persuasive communications in light of their preexisting beliefs. Persuasive communications are more likely to be accepted within a range of latitudes that people have for acceptance, rejection, and noncommitment, according to the hypothesis. SJT suggests a number of crucial ideas to comprehend how people assess persuasive messages:

1. Latitude of Acceptance: This is the range of viewpoints that a person considers appropriate on a certain topic. Within this range, messages are more likely to be accepted since they are seen as consistent with the recipient’s preexisting beliefs.

2. Latitude of Rejection: This is the range of viewpoints that a person considers intolerable on a certain topic. Within this range, messages are more likely to be interpreted negatively since they conflict with the recipient’s preexisting beliefs, which might result in rejection.

3. Latitude of Non-commitment: This is the range of opinions on a subject that a person does not firmly embrace or reject. Messages that lie inside this range are seen as being halfway between acceptable and undesirable, which can cause ambivalence or apathy.

Additionally, SJT puts out the idea of the “boomerang effect,” which states that efforts to reason with those who have strong opinions may just serve to confirm those opinions. For instance, if someone is adamantly opposed to gun control measures, hearing a compelling argument in favor of stringent gun laws may strengthen their resistance rather than cause them to change their mind.

In general, Social Judgment Theory provides light on how people interpret and react to persuasive messages in light of their preexisting attitudes. This highlights the significance of understanding audience attitudes and the necessity of using clever message framing in order to convince others.

In conclusion, theories about the formation of attitudes, such as the Functional Theory of attitudes and Cognitive Consistency Theories, provide a significant understanding of the intricate processes that underlie human behavior and belief systems. Each theory—from Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory to Heider’s Balance Theory and Katz’s Functional Theory—offers a distinctive viewpoint on the formation, maintenance, and evolution of attitudes across time. Furthermore, Social Judgment Theory clarifies how people understand and react to persuasive communications in light of their preexisting opinions. Understanding these ideas enhances our understanding of human cognition and behavior and emphasizes the significance of customized communication tactics in successfully influencing attitudes and actions.

In what ways do attitudes fulfill utilitarian purposes?

Attitudes help people maximize benefits and reduce penalties, which serves utilitarian purposes.

What is SJT’s acceptance latitude?

In SJT, the latitude of acceptance is the range of opinions that one may accept on a certain subject.

How can theories of cognitive consistency explain changes in behavior?

People change their behavior when they encounter cognitive dissonance, which motivates them to modify their views or actions in order to create consistency and reduce discomfort.

Can there be a benefit to cognitive dissonance?

Yes, cognitive dissonance may be advantageous since it encourages people to reconsider their attitudes or actions, which promotes personal development and behavioral modification.