Chapter One

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION

Human beings are essentially social beings. We stay with
other and our actions, thoughts, and feelings are affected by
the presence of others. At the same time, we influence the
behavior ofother individuals. This consists of large amount of
human behavior. Social psychology is a discipline that tries
to understand the human social behavior. As is the case with
psychology, even social psychology has a past which is less
than 100 years. This course will help you to learn and answer
many questions. You will learn theoretical perspectives in
various areas of social psychology. You will understand that
the scope of social psychology is wide and it is ever
widening. Social cognition, attribution, attitudes,self,
stereotype, prejudice and discrimination, impression
formation/ mgt etc. This course will equip you to understand
social behavior and will also motivate you to work in the area
of social psychology and to become social psychologist.
1.2. A DEFINITION
Defining any field is a very difficult task. So is the case with
social psychology. Here are some examples:
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 According to Gordon Allport (1954), social psychology is
best defined as the discipline that uses scientific methods in
“an attempt to understand and explain how the thought,
feeling and behavior of individuals are influenced by the
actual or imagined presence of other human beings”.
Myers and Spencer (2006) define social psychology as the
“scientific study of how people think about, influence, and
relate to one another”.
Barron and Byrne (2007) defined social psychology as “the
scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and cause
of individual behavior and thought in social situations”.
 Provide one example that describes the above definition of
SP.
Three factors in the definition worth explaining.
1.2.1 Social Psychology: It’s Scientific Nature :
For many students, the word science means physics,
chemistry biology, genetics, etc. They and many others
would wonder whether social psychology is science. To
understand the scientific nature of social psychology, we
need to understand what we mean by science. In reality
science is not a label for certain fields of advanced studies in
2
natural sciences. It has set of values and methodology.
Accuracy, objectivity, skepticism, and open-mindedness are
the values of science. The data collection, analysis and
inferences are drawn in most error-free manner. The
collection
of data and interpretation is as free as possible from the
human biases. Only those scientific conclusions are accepted
that have been proved time and again. The views are open to
change, no matter how strong they are. The principles that
are determinants of science are Empiricism; Objectivity;
Parsimony; and Converging evidence. Empiricism means
human experience, so the scientific enquiry should be human
experience and not beyond and without it. Considering all
these parameters, science differs from the non-science.
1.2.2 Social Psychology: Focus on individual Behaviour :
The social thoughts and actions are taken by individuals.
They might be influenced by the society. But the thought and
actions are of the individuals, and not groups. The social
psychology has a very strong focus on individuals, and tries
to understand the behaviour of individuals. It also tries to
understand various environmental influences on social
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thought and actions, viz., Culture, social norms, etc. Still the
focus of the social psychology enquiry is individual.
1.2.3 Understand Causes of Social Behaviour and
Thought :
Human social behaviour and thoughts are caused by many
things. Social psychology would try to understand them.
Let’s see some of the important ones:
Actions and Characteristics of Other Persons :
We are affected by various actions of others. For example,
you are standing in the queue for a local train ticket and
somebody tries to break the queue. In no time, you would get
upset with the person and shout at him. This and many other
instances would help you to understand that your behavior is
affected by the actions of other individuals. Similarly, certain
characteristics of people also change your behavior. For
example, you are waiting at bus-stop, and you realize that a
blind man wants to cross a road. You would quickly move
ahead and help him. These and many other physical
psychological and social characteristics of people are
responsible for our actions.

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 Describe beggars’ behavior/characteristics that made you
change your behavior.
• Cognitive Process : Our thinking determines what we do in
social circumstances. This is studied in the area of social
cognitions. Cognition is our thinking process. Our behavior is
determined by what we think. That is one reason why two
people do not respond to the same situation identically. Since
two different people think differently about the situations and
social realities, they respond differently.

• Environment: The physical world around us to a great

extend determines our behavior. Researchers have shown that
the temperature is related with individual aggression and
irritability. Similar types of questions are also asked in social
psychology.
• Cultural Context : The culture in which we stay or are
born and brought up determines our behaviour. Culture is
sum of values, beliefs, practices, art, language, etc. Every
culture has a different belief and value system. For example,
our decisions would depend on whether we belong to
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individualistic culture or collectivistic culture. For instance,
marriage would be decided by individual in individualistic
cultures and they are decided by a process of mutual
agreement among the family members in collectivistic
cultures.
• Biological Factors : The biological factors influence our
social behaviour. They can be understood as physiological
factors and neurological factors, genetic factors, and
evolutionary factors.
1.2.4 Brief History of Social Psychology :
Although ancient forms of social and political philosophy
addressed such questions as the nature-nurture controversy, the
origins of society and the function of the state, it was mostly a
speculative exercise and devoid of fact gathering. An empirical
approach to the study of social life did not appear until latter
part of the nineteen century. When precisely social psychology
did begin is unknown for speculations about social behavior
stretch back to ancient times.
As human society begins people were influencing and
being influenced and they were using their own techniques to
influence others. Hence we cannot exactly trace when social
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psychology began. So we will only see some prominent
contributions of important figures that have their own impact
in the development of the discipline. Few are listed below.
Aristotle: We believe good men to lead society and they have to
be leaders than other men. Leadership which Aristotle is
concerned about is one of the major topics in social psychology
today.
Plato: He states that some people are blessed at birth with
leadership potential. This view shows not only a concern of
leadership quality but it is purely related to the genetic theory
in social psychology.
T. Hobbes : claimed that power was most basic source of
dominance and people in sociable behavior come to power. The
influence of power seeking as one major motive in human
social behavior is still central in social psychology.
Karl Marks: states that the social system determines the
dominant personality of individuals. In socializing one a
number ofinfluences are identified like education, peers,
information and mainly the social system.
N. Tripletti (1898) based his research on bicycle riding
competitions he concluded that competition is more productive
7
in the society. Today competition is a major topic in conflict.
Ross (1908) published the first social psychology textbook. He
focused on interpersonal processes, imitation and conformity.
He is more of a sociologist.
McDougal (1908) who is a psychologist by profession also
wrote a text on
social psychology in the same period and he largely focuses on
the role of
genetics, social-instinctive behavior, fear and curiosity.

The World War II was a major event in the history of social

psychology. Many social psychologists fled Europe and went
to USA. They have started working in the auspicious funding
atmosphere. The topics they chose were related to American
problems, e.g., to combat moral warfare strategies during the
time of war. Then studies by Milgram on obedience, Festinger
studies on cognitive dissonance and social comparisons,
Heider’s work on balance theory and attribution theory
dominated 1940’s and late1950’s. In the decade of 1960’s
Stereotyping and Prejudice, School Desegregation,
Aggression, Altrusim, Bystander Intervention,Interpersonal
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 Relations, Attraction, became topics of modern research. The
decade of 1970’s saw the emergence of Kahneman- Tversky
model of heuristics, models of schemas and increasing
cognitive trends. Many other disciplines have emerged in the
social psychology. Evolutionary social psychology,
neuroscience perspective in social psychology, studies on
implicit processes, cross-cultural research, is the new methods
that lead to the development of modern social psychology.
Currently, Social psychology is ever developing science.
Various journals of social psychology publish research done in
this area: some of them are Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of
Applied Social Psychology, are some examples.

 What social psychological phenomena do you think worth

studying in the current Ethiopian scenario.

Psychological and sociological forms of social psychology

Psychological social psychology focuses on the cognitive
structures and processes of individuals. This approach
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emphasizes the primacy of individual processes and
functions in explaining the operation of social systems and
reflects the pre-eminence of the individual in the US and
British tradition of psychological research.

Sociological social psychology emphasizes the

determining function of social systems, institutions and
groups for individual behaviour. This approach derived
from the belief that a theory of society should be the
starting point for social psychological theorizing and the
growing concern following the Second World War. that
social psychology in Europe was too reliant on the US
tradition. Social psychologists, such as Tajfel and
Moscovici, considered that the social psychology that was
developing at that time was too individualistic, too
behaviorist and too dependent upon a particular
methodological approach – the laboratory experiment –
where individuals were divorced from their social context.

Such concerns led to the argument that social psychology

must include theoretical and empirical analyses of the
relations between individual psychological functioning and

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 social processes and structures which shape this
functioning and are shaped by it.

Theories in Social Psychology

Theories in social psychology are bodies of related concepts
and propositions about social interaction between individuals;
individual processes in social stimulus situations: and. the social
structure, in relation to the individual. A particular theory at the
present day social psychology can be devoted to any one or
some combination of the above aspects of the discipline.
1. Genetic Theorist: they assume that large component of social
behavior is related to unlearned genetic causes. To them social
behavior is thought to be caused by instincts. They have made
researches to make comparison in identical twins, fraternal
twins, siblings, distant relatives and non-relatives in their social
behavior to see similarities in terms of genetics. Each group
was developed in a similar to control the effects of environment
difference. Results showed marked similarity in identical twins
more than fraternal and fraternal more than other siblings and
siblings more than distant relatives clearly demonstrating effect
ofgenetics on social behaviour.

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2. Learning Approach: this minimizes internal factors such as
the thinking process in explaining social behavior. Social
phenomena are thought to arise through learning. It deals with
observable behavior. They assume that internal mental
processes could be inferred through observed behavior. Many of
human social behavior is thought to be a product of learning
observable behavioral actions and may be formed through
reinforcement or social modeling, or operant conditioning or
classical conditioning.
3. Psychoanalytic Theory: it explains social behavior because
of activity in the unconscious part of the brain. They state
ruminants of early experience and repressed wishes as major
causes of social behavior. Childhood experiences are considered
vital in shaping adult behavior. However, this theory is difficult
to test scientifically for it relies on the unobservable and the
unconscious ones.
4. Role Theory: it suggests that social behavior is shaped by the
rotes that society provides for individuals to play. To them,
society has certain expectations for certain roles we are
assigned for. There are behaviors that we expect from a priest,
police, teacher, medical practitioner, accountant, lawyer, nurse,
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 guard, housewife, farmer and other occupations. Thus, people
are expected to behave in accordance with these expectations,
and social behavior develops in this manner.
5. Cognitive Approach: This is a direct opposite of the learning
approach. It assumes that the thinking process and perception of
our social world are examined to explain social behavior. This
relates to how people came to understand and represent the
world and this is crucial in development of social behavior.
In this theory internal mental processes are focused.
Modern social psychologists often find that they cannot
fully understand the topics they study using any single
general theory, such as social learning theory. Rather, they
combine and integrate ideas from different theoretical
traditions. Instead of focusing primarily on overt behavior,
thinking, or emotions new theorists seek to understand the
interrelationship among behaviors, thought, and feelings.
An example to demonstrate how the various theories
could be employed in explaining a given social behaviour is
presented below.

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 Observed social behaviour: in a class some students are shy.
To explain this social behaviour the different theorists use
their own viewpoint. Explain this behavior from the theories
discussed above.

Chapter Two
Research Method in Social Psychology
How Social Psychologists Answer the Questions They
Ask-
In social psychology we study human behaviour in social
context. Information based on the research covers major
part of any text on social psychology. To be scientific in
understanding, it is essential to know how the information
is gathered. This picture becomes clear when we have some

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 basic understanding of research. It is important to know
what was the method used in any
research. We often come across research regarding attitude
of people towards certain product, what is the opinion of
people regarding a political party, political leaders, etc. To
rely on this
information the way research was conducted needs to be
explored. This helps us to develop insight in to the issue.
Characteristics of Science
1. Science Makes Systematic Observations
All of us do a lot of observing in our daily lives, and we
draw conclusions about things based on those observations.
Science also bases its findings on observations, but they are
made much more systematically than our everyday
observations. The scientist’s systematic observations
include using (a) precise definitions of the phenomena
being measured, (b) reliable and valid measuring tools that
yield useful and interpretable data, (c) generally accepted
research methodologies, and (d) a system of logic for
drawing conclusions and fitting those conclusions into
general theories.
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2. Science Produces Public/ objectivity Knowledge
Another important characteristic of science as a way of
knowing is that its procedures result in knowledge that can
be publicly verified. This was the attribute that Peirce found
most appealing about science—its objectivity. For Peirce,
being objective meant eliminating such human factors as
expectation and bias. The objective scientist was believed
to be almost machine-like in the search for truth. In science
this usually takes the form of defining the terms and
research procedures precisely enough so that any other
person can systematically repeat the study, presumably
achieving the same observable outcome
3. Science Produces Data-Based Conclusions
Another attribute of science as a way of knowing is that
researchers are data-driven. research psychologists expect
conclusions about behaviour to be supported by the
evidence of objective information gathered through some
systematic procedure. For instance, a claim made by a
college admissions director hat ‘‘this year’s incoming class
is better prepared than any in recent memory’’ (annual
claim at some schools) would compel the scientific thinker
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 to respond, ‘‘Let’s see the data for this year and the past
few years,’’ and ‘‘What do you mean by better prepared?’’
4. Science Produces Tentative Conclusions
Related to the data-driven attitude that characterizes
researchers is the recognition that conclusions drawn from
data are always tentative, subject to future revision based
on new research. That is, science is a self-correcting
enterprise, its conclusions never absolute, yet there is
confidence that research will eventually get one ever closer
to the truth.
5. Science Asks Answerable Questions
As mentioned earlier, empiricism is a term that refers to the
process of learning things through direct observation or
experience. Empirical questions are those that can be
answered through the systematic observations and
techniques that characterize scientific methodology. They
are questions that are precise enough to allow specific
predictions to be made. As you will learn next, asking
questions is the first step of any research project.
Following are some basic methods employed in social
psychological research:
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1/ Descriptive Research: Describing the World Around
Us
A. Systematic Observation
One basic technique for studying social behavior involves
systematic observation— carefully observing behavior as it
occurs. Such observation is not the kind of informal
observation we all practice from childhood on, such as
people watching in an airport; rather, in a scientific field
such as social psychology it is observation accompanied by
careful, accurate measurement of a particular behavior
across people. For example, suppose that a social
psychologist wanted to find out how frequently people
touch each other in different settings. The researcher could
study this topic by going to shopping malls, restaurants and
bars, college campuses, and many other locations and
observe, in those settings, who touches whom, how they
touch, and with what frequency. Such research would be
employing what is known as naturalistic observation—
observation of people’s behavior in natural settings
(Linden, 1992). Note that in such observation, the
researcher would simply record what is happening in each
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 context; she or he would make no attempt to change the
behavior of the people being observed. In fact, such
observation requires that the researcher take great pains to
avoid influencing the people observed in any way. Thus,
the psychologist would try to remain as inconspicuous as
possible, and might even try to hide behind natural barriers
such as telephone poles, walls, or even bushes,
 What tool do you use to record/measure observational data
data?
 Give one social psychological issue that can be studied
using this method.
B/ Survey method
Here, researchers ask large numbers of people to respond to
questions about their attitudes or behavior. Surveys are
used for many purposes— to measure attitudes toward
specific issues such as smoking, to find out how voters feel
about various political candidates, to determine how people
feel about members of different social groups, and even to
assess student reactions to professors (your college or
university probably uses a form on which you rate your
professors each semester). Social psychologists often use
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 this method to assess attitudes toward a variety of social
issues—for instance, national health care reform or
affirmative action programs. Scientists and practitioners in
other fields use the survey method to measure everything
from life satisfaction around the globe to consumer
reactions to new products.
In order to be useful as a research tool, though, surveys
must meet certain requirements.
First, the people who participate must be representative of
the larger population about which conclusions are to be
drawn—which raises the issue of sampling. If this
condition is not met, serious errors can result.
 What tool do you use to record/measure survey data data?
 Give one social psychological issue that can be studied
using this method.
2.Correlation: The Search for Relationships
At various times, you have probably noticed that some
events appear to be related to the occurrence of others: as
one changes, the other changes, too. For example, perhaps
you’ve noticed that people who drive new, expensive cars
tend to be older than people who drive old, inexpensive
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ones, or that people using social networks such as
Facebook tend to be relatively young (although this is
changing somewhat now). When two events are related in
this way, they are said to be correlated, or that a correlation
exists between them. The term correlation refers to a
tendency for one event to be associated with changes in the
other. Social psychologists refer to such changeable aspects
of the natural world as variables, since they can take
different values.
From a scientific point of view, knowing that there is a
correlation between two variables can be very useful. When
a correlation exists, it is possible to predict one variable
from information about one or more other variables. The
ability to make such predictions is one important goal of all
branches of science, including social psychology. Being
able to make accurate predictions can be very helpful. For
instance, imagine that a correlation is observed between
certain attitudes on the part of individuals (one variable)
and the likelihood that they will later be very difficult to
work with, both for their coworkers and boss (another
variable). This correlation could be very useful in
21
 identifying potentiallydangerous people so that companies
can avoid hiring them. Similarly, suppose that a correlation
is observed between certain patterns of behavior in married
couples (e.g., the tendency to criticize each other harshly)
and the likelihood that they will later divorce. Again, this
information might be helpful in counseling the people
involved and perhaps,
if this was what they desired, in saving their relationship.

How accurately can such predictions be made? The

stronger the correlation between the variables in question,
the more accurate the predictions. Correlations can range
from 0 to –1.00 or +1.00; the greater the departure from 0,
the stronger the correlation. Positive numbers mean that as
one variable increases, the other increases too. Negative
numbers indicate that as one variable increases, the other
decreases. For instance, there is a negative correlation
between age and the amount of hair on the heads of males:
the older they are, the less hair they have.
 Give one social psychological issue that can be studied
using this method.

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3. The Experimental Method: Knowledge Through
Systematic Intervention
As we have just seen, the correlational method of research
is very useful from the point of view of one important goal
of science: making accurate predictions. It is less useful,
though, from the point of view of attaining another
important goal: explanation. This is sometimes known as
the “why” question because scientists do not merely wish
to describe the world and relationships between variables in
it: they want to be able to explain these relationships, too.
In order to attain the goal of explanation, social
psychologists employ a method of research known as
experimentation or the experimental method. As the
heading of this section suggests, experimentation involves
the following strategy: One variable is changed
systematically, and the effects of these changes on one or
more other variables are carefully measured. If systematic
changes in one variable produce changes in another
variable (and if two additional conditions we describe
below are also met), it is possible to conclude with
reasonable certainty that there is indeed a causal
23
relationship between these variables: that changes in one do
indeed cause changes in the other. Because the
experimental method is so valuable in answering this kind
of question, it is frequently the method of choice in social
psychology. But please bear in mind that there is no single
“best” method of research. Rather, social psychologists,
like all other scientists, choose the method that is most
appropriate for studying a particular topic.
EXPERIMENTATION: ITS BASIC NATURE In its
most basic form, the experimental method involves two key
steps: (1) the presence or strength of some variable
believed to affect an aspect of social behavior or thought is
systematically changed and (2) the effects of such changes
(if any) are carefully measured. The factor systematically
varied by the researcher is termed the independent
variable, while the aspect of behavior studied is termed the
dependent variable. In a simple experiment, then,
different groups of participants are randomly assigned to be
exposed to contrasting levels of the independent variable
(such as low, moderate, and high). The researcher then
carefully measures their behavior to determine whether it
24
does in fact vary with these changes in the independent
variable. If it does—and if two other conditions are also
met—the researcher can tentatively conclude that the
independent variable does indeed cause changes in the
aspect of behavior being studied.
To illustrate the basic nature of experimentation in social
psychology, we’ll use the following example. Suppose that
a social psychologist is interested in the question,Does
exposure to violent video games increase the likelihood that
people will aggress against others in various ways (e.g.,
verbally, physically, spreading false rumors, or posting
embarrassing photos of them on the Internet; see). How can
this possibility be investigated by using the experimental
method?
EXPERIMENTATION: TWO KEY REQUIREMENTS
FOR ITS SUCCESS Earlier, we
referred to two conditions that must be met before a
researcher can conclude that changes in an independent
variable have caused changes in a dependent variable. Let’s
consider these conditions now. The first involves what is
termed random assignment of participants to experimental
25
conditions. This means that all participants in an
experiment must have an equal chance of being exposed to
each level of the independent variable. The reason for this
rule is simple: If participants are not randomly assigned to
each condition, it may later be impossible to determine if
differences in their behavior stem from differences they
brought with them to the study, from the impact of the
independent variable, or both.
The second condition essential for successful
experimentation is as follows: Insofar as possible, all
factors other than the independent variable that might also
affect participants’ behavior must be held constant. To see
why this is so, consider what will happen if, in the study on
video games, two assistants collect the data. One is kind
and friendly, the other is rude and nasty. By bad luck, the
rude assistant collects most of the data for the aggressive
game condition and the polite one collects most of the data
from the nonaggressive game condition. Again, suppose
that participants in the first group are more aggressive
toward another person. What do the findings tell us? Again,
virtually nothing, because we can’t tell whether it was
26
playing the aggressive video game or the rude treatment
they received from the assistant that produced higher
aggression. In situations like this, the independent variable
is said to be confounded with another variable—one that is
not under systematic investigation in the study.
Key Concepts
Independent variable The variable that the researcher
manipulates in an experiment.
Dependent variable The measure the researcher assesses
to determine the influence of the independent variable on
the participants’ behavior.
Experimental group A group comprising participants who
receive the experimental treatment in an experiment.
Control group A group in an experiment comprising
participants who do not receive the experimental treatment.
Random assignment A method of assigning participants to
groups in an experiment that involves each participant’s
having an equal chance of being in the experimental or
control group.
Extraneous variable Any variable not controlled by the
researcher that could affect the results of a study.
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Confounding variable An extraneous variable in an
experiment that varies systematically with the independent
variable, making it difficult or impossible to establish a
causal connection
between the independent and dependent variables.
Evaluating Experiments
When evaluating experiments, ask yourself these questions:
• What was the independent variable, and how was it
manipulated?
• What were the experimental and control groups?
• What was the dependent variable?
• What methods were employed to test the hypothesis, and
were the methods
sound?
• Were there any confounding variables that could provide
an alternative explanation for the results?
• What was found? That is, what changes in the dependent
variable were observed as a function of manipulation of the
independent variable?
• What was the nature of the sample used? Was the sample
representative of the general population, or was it limited
28
 with respect to demographics, such as age, gender, culture,
or some other set of characteristics?
 Give one social psychological issue that can be studied
using this method.
 Take the individual assignment about previous
experimental studies
The Role of Theory in Social Psychological Research
There are many ways through which the topics for research
projects are formulated. Some are formulated by informal,
day-today observations of the social world, events around
us.
However, sometimes ideas or topics for research is
suggested by the earlier studies. Earlier research indicated
need to further explore some of the facts. Even though
these are the various ways through which the ideas for
research are generated, the most important basis forresearch
ideas in social psychology is formal theories.
 Theories are defined as the efforts by scientists in any field
to answer the question Why?
Theories involve attempts to understand why certain events
or processes occur as they do.
29
 Where other type of research tries to observe and describe
the various social behaviours, the research based on
theories tries to explain and attempt to understand the
principles behind it.
 A theories are also sets of interrelated statements or
propositions about the causes of a particular phenomenon.
Social psychological theories play an important role in
helping us understand complex social behaviors.
The quest for knowledge and the rights of individuals :
Seeking an appropriate balance :
There is similarity between social psychologist and
researchers from many other fields. They use similar types
of experimentation and systematic observation methods,
and in their emphasis on theory construction. However,
there is one technique, which is unique in social
psychology, which is deception. This technique involves
efforts by researchers to withhold information
about experimental conditions; it is because many social
psychologists believe that if participants know the true
purpose of an investigation then their behavior will be
changed by that knowledge.
30
 However, the use of deception raises important ethical
issues, which are worth considering.
Some important guiding principles for use of deception are
as follows :
(1) Use deception only when it is essential to do so-when
no other means for conducting a study exist;
(2) Always proceed with great caution; and
(3) Make certain that every possible precaution is taken to
protect the rights, safety, and welfare of research
participants.
 Examine if the experiments you reviewed had deceptions in
their procedures and if so check if there were debriefing or
not.

Chapter 3 SOCIALIZATION@@@@@@@@@@

Chapter Four
ATTITUDES
Meaning of Attitude
What is an attitude? People have attitudes toward a wide
variety of things: AIDS victims, condom use, safe sex friends,
31
parents, teachers, education, art, politics, voting and election,
religion, marriage, race, abortion, capital punishment, welfare,
affirmative action, and so forth. But a precise definition of
attitude has remained elusive. So many definitions are
forwarded by social psychologists. Despite the plethora of
definitions, most research has considered sentiment, or
affect to be the most important dimension of attitude. In a
broader sense the term attitude refers to an evaluation of our
social world. Having this base, sociologists and social
psychologists have defined it in the following ways:
Attitudes are evaluations people make about objects,
ideas, events, or other people. Attitudes can be positive or
negative. Explicit attitudes are conscious beliefs that can
guide decisions and behavior. Implicit attitudes are
unconscious beliefs that can still influence decisions and
behavior.
Hogg and Vaughan (1998) defined attitude as a relatively
enduring organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral
tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events
or symbols.

32
We can pick out two important features of attitudes from this
definition. First, attitudes are long lasting. Once we have an
attitude, for example to education, we are likely to stick to it.
Second, attitudes involve making judgments. Our attitudes to
sport are likely to emerge as either distinctly positive or
distinctly negative. Some predispositions are momentary ones,
in which case they are not called attitude. The concept of
attitude is typically reserved for more enduring, persistent
organization of predispositions.

The structural approach to attitude

This approach looks at the different components that make
up our attitudes. It is generally agreed that there are three
aspects to our attitudes: the cognitive dimension, the
affective dimension and the behavioral dimension. The
cognitive dimension of attitudes concerns our beliefs,
thought, information, and understanding component of
attitude. The affective dimension of attitudes concerns our
feelings (in psychology the term ‘affective’ means
emotional). An attitude here is capable of arousing affect of
33
 varying intensity centering around the object of the belief
taking negative or positive position .The behavioral
dimension of attitudes concerns our actions. Thus this
component refers to the response through action, and
activity which is an expression of the cognitive and
affective components
Example: Helen believes that smoking is unhealthy, feels
disgusted when people smoke around her, and avoids being
in situations where people smoke.
 Why it is important to understand attitude?
Understanding attitudes is important to psychologists for a
number of reasons. As parents and teachers, if we can
understand how children acquire attitudes, we can use this
under-standing to try and ensure that as many young people as
possible develop positive attitudes to education, race, etc. By
understanding the link between attitudes and behavior, we can
try to help more people enjoy the benefits of education. An
understanding of the ways in which attitudes change is
valuable in helping us to increase education participation and
to motivate students.
 Think about your own attitude to pre-marital sex.
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 1 Identify the cognitive component to your attitude (What
your belief)?
2 Identify the affective component to your attitude (What
your feeling)?
3 Identify the behavioral component to your attitude (What
you do)?
 How well do the cognitive, affective and behavioral
components of your attitudes fit together?
 If they do not fit together, what happens?
Measurement of Attitude
Since attitude is more abstract which we can not usually touch,
see or directly observe it: its measurement is so difficult. The
most common way of measuring attitude is by asking people
about their opinion, feeling, and emotions. These are self
report methods. We usually use questionnaires which might be
open ended or close ended to get a self report from people. The
following example clearly demonstrates how difficult it is to
measure attitude.
Two ways of attitude measurement procedures are used as
indicated below.
A. Direct measures which include
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 Likert scales. Likert (1932) developed the simplest
and what has become the most common way of measuring
attitudes. We start by producing an equal number of
positive and negative statements concerning whatever we
are measuring attitudes to. These statements can concern
beliefs, feelings and behaviours. People are asked to
respond to the statements, usually on a five-point scale,
ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Examples
of statements measuring attitudes to boxing are the
following.
1. Boxing causes brain damage SA A
D SD
2. I watch boxing matches on TV SA A
D SD
3. I find boxing exciting SA A
D SD
You can see that Item 1 refers to a belief, Item 2 to a
behaviour and Item 3 to an emotion. Thus cognitive,
behavioural and affective dimensions are all included. Item
1 is a negative statement while the other two are positive
statements. In order to score this type of test, you need to
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 give all the positive statements values of 1–5, 5 being the
most positive. For the negative statements you must reverse
this, giving them values of 5–1. Each person who fills in
the test can then be given a score for each item and finally
an overall score which shows how positive or negative their
attitude is.
 Semantic differential scales
Osgood et al. (1957) developed an alternative procedure for
direct measurement of attitudes. To prepare a semantic
differential scale, you must first think of a number of words
with opposite meanings that are applicable to describing the
subject of the test. There are seven points between each
pair of words. The respondent’s task is to select a point in
between the two extremes that best describes how they feel.
Kenyon (1968) developed a semantic differential scale
called the Attitudes Towards Physical Activity (ATPA) to
measure how positively people feel about sport and
exercise. The ATPA uses eight pairs of words opposite in
meaning, referring to various types of physical activity and
various functions of physical activity. Some items from the
ATPA are shown.
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(a) Sport as a social experience
Good 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bad

Pleasant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 unpleasant
Someone with a positive attitude towards sport as a social
experience would be expected to select numbers nearer 1
than 7 for each word-pair. The ATPA has been commonly
used as a measure of attitudes to sport in sport psychology
research. Simon and Smoll (1974) developed a modified
version of the ATPA for use with children.
 Pick a social psychological issue and construct a mini-attitude
scale using the above two formats.
B. Indirect Measures of Attitude
 Inferring attitude from people's performance on an
objective test. For example a low performance in Maths or
Physics or English may somehow show the individuals low
attitude towards these subjects.
 Inferring attitude from people’s psychological
reactions to tests or an attitude object or person. For example

38
people exhibit maximum test anxiety for a test in a subject they
do not like. They may shiver or sweet when the exam
approaches.
 Using bogus pipeline: it is a technique by which
subjects are induced to state their attitudes honestly in the
belief that a machine has already registered their true attitudes.
The essential feature of the technique is to convince
participants that theinvestigators already know their true
attitudes. Participants are made to pass through a machine in
which they are told that the machinery is capable of measuring
their attitudes toward an object. In this way subjects tend to
disclose their true attitudes, for they believe that those attitudes
have already been recorded by the machine.
Despite all these the validity and reliability of attitude
scales is usually less due to the subjective nature of attitude
itself.
Attitude and Behavior
Attitude is assumed to be the key factor in predicting behavior
since behavior could be a reflection of attitudes. But research
also proved that there is a very-inconsistent pattern between
the attitudes people have and the behaviors they exhibit.
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 Behavior does not always reflect attitudes. However,
attitudes do determine behavior in some situations.
1. If there are few outside influences, attitude guides behavior.
Example: Aster has an attitude that eating chips is
unhealthy. When she is at home, she does not eat chips.
However, when she is at parties, she indulges in these
foods.
2. Behavior is guided by attitudes specific to that behavior.
Example: Megan might have a general attitude of respect
toward seniors, but that would not prevent her from being
disrespectful to an elderly woman who cuts her off at a stop
sign. However, if Megan has an easygoing attitude about
being cut off at stop signs, she is not likely to swear at
someone who cuts her off.
3. Attitude strength. The stronger the attitudes are, the greater
their impact on behaviour. Strong attitudes are those that
are firmly held and that highly influence behavior.
Attitudes that are important to a person tend to be strong.
Attitudes that people have a vested interest in also tend to
be strong. Furthermore, people tend to have stronger

40
attitudes about things, events, ideas, or people they have
considerable knowledge and information about.

ATTITUDE FORMATION
Attitudes are learned rather than innate. The learning of
attitude is an integral part of the socialization process and may
occur through direct experiences, or vicariously through
interactions with others, or it can be a product of cognitive
processes. Attitudes can be formed through various ways:
Some of these are
 Effects of direct experience: many of the attitudes
people hold are the products of direct experience with the
attitude object. Touching, tasting, talking, seeing the attitude
object, person or issue.
 Classical conditioning: one way by which we learn
attitudes is through association of various social happenings.
For example most people in Ethiopia have fear of snake. The
fear of snake as an attitude is not largely a result of the direct
experience of the danger of snakes. Rather the fear is a result of

41
association. We heard about snake in many parts of the bible.
Snake is associated with evil in most cases and hence we fear it.
 Instrumental conditioning: One most important way
of developing or forming attitudes is learning from
consequences. A child may help his parents and the response
may be very good like: thank you, this is a nice behavior. This
would increase the likelihood of the behaviors. There are many
do's and don'ts' from the society that shape our attitudes. In
instrumental learning attitudes that have positive
consequences or that remove negative consequences
will be strengthened and those attitudes that are followed by a
punishment or negative effect will be weakened.
 Social learning or observation learning: one learn
many attitudes by modeling, imitating, and identifying oneself
with parents, peers, teachers, neighbours, and other people
which one usually consider them as models.
 Mere exposure effect .hypothesis that mere repeated
exposure of an individual to a stimulus object enhances his or
her attitude toward it.For example, in experiment #3 by
Zajonc, subjects were shown nonsense symbols.Each character
was shown from 0–25 times.  The subjects were then asked to
42
 rate how they felt about each character.Eleven out of twelve
times, the character was liked better when it was in the high
frequency category.
 Describe the role that schools/education play in
attitude formation, development and change.
 Comment on the following
“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine
your altitude”. (Zig Ziglar).

Chapter Five
PERSUASION

Persuasion is the effort to change our attitudes through the

use of various kinds of messages. It is a part of daily life.
Studies of social psychologists yielded insights into the
cognitive process that play a role in persuasion.

An attitude change is any significant modification of an

individual's attitude. Formation and change of attitude are not
two separate things, they are interwoven. People are always
adopting, modifying, and relinquishing attitudes to fit their ever-
changing needs and interests. Acceptance of new attitudes

43
depends on who is presenting the knowledge, how it is
presented, how the person is perceived, the credibility of the
communicator and the conditions under which the knowledge is
received. To sum up, it is very difficult to put a clear distinction
between attitude change and formation of attitude. This is
largely because when we are changing one form of attitude we
are forming a different form of attitude. Thus, these two are
inseparable.
There are everyday attempts to change the attitude of people.
Advertisers, politicians, and other propagandists know that
producing mass changes in attitudes is difficult. Nevertheless,
there are still so many attempts as:
membership to parties,voting for a candidate,Smoking a given
kind of cigarette, following a certain type of religion,etc
What is important to note here is that deeply held attitudes that
generally arc built up over years are related to a great many other
attitudes and beliefs and are supported by strong emotional
feelings and thus they are highly resistant to change, even
though they can sometimes be influenced by long-term
powerful persuasion. In contrast, some attitudes are quiet
susceptible to influence. People change their attitudes toward
44
politicians, products, ideas, and behaviors all the time.
Therefore, attitude change is an important phenomenon in
many social situations.
Attitudes Change When:
one receives new information which is largely a
cognitive change
one has direct experience with the attitude object
which brings in touch with the attitude target that develops the
affective change
forcing a person to act this or that way which is a
behavioral change
In the attitude change process, there are four sequential steps:
Attention- refers to giving focus to the attitude object. It is
when we give attention that we can precede to the next step.
Comprehension-this refers to understanding the issue.
Retention-this refers to maintenance and elaboration of
the attended information.
Action-relates to taking action based on our understanding and
retention
Routes to Persuasion
There are two routes to persuasion. They are :-
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(1) The central route to persuasion. Persuasion that occurs
when interested people focus on the arguments. e.g:
Advertisement of computer.
(2) Peripheral Route to persuasion. Persuasion that occurs
when people are influenced by incidental cues. e.g:
Attractiveness of the speaker.

Elements/factors of Attitude change

In attitude change who said what to whom under what

condition with what media and with what effect are essential.
Four broader factors increase or decrease attitude change with
specific details are included in most literatures.

1. Factors involving the source of communication

(communicator)
Prestige of the communicator
Likeability of the communicator
Similarity of communicator to audience
Reference group: belonging to the group one belongs to
2. Factors concerning the communication (message)
itself
Discrepancy in current and new message
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Nature of organization of the message
One sided versus two-sided message
Stating a conclusion for the communication
Order of presentation: primacy and recency effects
Novelty of information
Semantics or language use
Not all messages are equally effective, those messages that
add something new to the former information we had are more
attended to and more influential. On top of that, those messages
which are well organized are more effective and that is why
rhetoric skill and writing skills are given as courses in colleges
and universities. For tough audiences presenting two sided
messages are more important than one-sided message. With
regard to the order of presentation, messages at the beginning
and at the end are usually more effective in influencing one: this
is because the first information is attended with better attention
than middle information. Owing to this communicators use
anecdotes and attractive introduction with a comprehensive
conclusion at theend.
3. Factors in the surrounding environment
(situational factors)
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The effect of reinforcement or reward
Fear arousal messages
Distraction
Use of various channels
4. Factors involving the characteristics of the target
audience
Personality factors, Self esteem, Intelligence
Sex differences
Defensive styles
Commitment of the audience to the attitude
Inoculation (getting additional arguments to support our
original position)
Forewarning (prior knowledge of persuasive intent)
Finally, who the audience is remains pivotal in changing his
or her attitude. Research has documented that individuals with
high self-esteem and intelligence are very difficult to change
their attitudes than those with low self-esteem and intelligence.
In terms of sex, females tend to be easier to change their
attitudes than males. On top of these in terms of personality,
some individuals are so defensive and others are submissive;
so defensive personalities are difficult to persuade. Defense
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mechanisms here refer to protection of the self or the ego from
shame, inferiority, and anxiety.
The level of commitment of the audience to the attitude is
crucial to change attitudes. Similarly, if one is a committed
member of the Catholic religion it will be very difficult to
change him to Orthodox or Protestant religion. However, if one
is less committed to his/her political, religious or any other
attitude s/he will easily be persuaded to change it. Inoculation
refers to getting additional arguments to support our original
position, this creates resistance to persuasion.
Resisting Persuasion Attempts
We are highly resistant to persuasive messages. If we were
not, our attitudes would be in a constant state of change.
Several factors contribute to such resistance to persuasion.
1. Reactance: It is negative reactions to efforts by others to
limit our personal freedom. In other words we tend to
protect our personal freedom.
2. Forewarning: It is the prior knowledge of persuasive
intent. It is the knowledge that someone is trying to change
our attitudes.

49
3. Selective Avoidance: It is a tendency to direct our
attention away from information that challenges our
existing attitudes.
4. Counter arguing against competing views: When
exposed to persuasive messages we actively counter argue
against the information they contain. This also increases
our resistance to persuasion.
5. Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: These are
two additional processes that play a role in resistance to
persuasion. Biased assimilation is the tendency to evaluate
information that disconfirms our existing views as less
convincing than that confirms these views. Attitude
polarization is the tendency to evaluate information in such
a way that it strengthens our initial views.

Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is an unpleasant state that occurs
when individuals discover inconsistencies between two of
their altitudes or between their attitudes and their behavior.
Baron and Byrne (1997) has also defined cognitive dissonance
as an internal state that results when we notice inconsistency

50
 between two or more of our attitudes or inconsistency between
our attitudes and our behavior. This creates a feeling of
dissatisfaction. In this case, we will be forced to change our
own attitudes in ourselves. Dissonance theory begins with a
very reasonable idea: people do not like inconsistencies and
are uncomfortable when it occurs. Cognitive dissonance is a
tension that arises when one is simultaneously aware of two
inconsistent cognitions. For example dissonance may occur
when we realize that we have with little justification acted
contrary to our attitudes or made a decision favoring one
alternative despite reasons favoring another.
The magnitude of the dissonance depends on the degree of
the discrepancy, the number of discrepant cognitions and the
importance of the various cognitions. Example of CD, A man
who believes in a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy
makes an anti-abortion speech.
 Add more example of CD
Reducing Cognitive Dissonance
Three ways are identified by Baron and Byrne (1997) that
are assumed to be helpful in reducing cognitive dissonance.
These are:
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  Attitude or behavior change: changing the
inconsistent attitude or behavior can be one way out of
cognitive dissonance.
 Adding new information: this is finding new
information that would help in crystallizing the attitudes and
behaviors that we have.
 Trivialization: downplaying the importance of the
inconsistent attitudes or behaviors. Trivialization is a technique
of reducing cognitive dissonance in which the importance of
attitudes or behaviors that are inconsistent with each other is
cognitively reduced.

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