Attitudes
• Three components which form attitudes.
• Cognitive – concerned with beliefs, ideas or
factual knowledge of object/person.
• Affective (emotional) component – refers to
the evaluation of the attitude objective.
• Behavioural – refers to behaviour of a
person with respect to the attitude object/
person.
Attitude examples
•
•
•
•
•
•
Cognitive
“I believe in fitness training”
Affective
“I enjoy fitness training”
Behavioural
“I participate in fitness training with
enthusiasm”
How attitudes are formed
Beliefs
Attitudes
Intentions
Behaviour
Values
Beliefs and values (cognitive) form our feelings (affective)
toward an object/person, and then dictate our behaviours.
Attitude formation
• Attitudes are largely developed through the
following experiences.
• Learning (almost entirely)
• Peer groups
• Familiarity. A sport which is widely
available or someone is exposed on regular
occasions is more likely to result in a
positive attitude.
Attitude formation
Operant conditioning
• Socialisation (major factor). Attitudes
learned from significant others
• E.g. teachers, parents, coach, peers by
imitation, modelling and observation.
• Therefore cannot underestimate power of
media, top athletes etc.
Changing attitudes
•
•
•
•
Is it possible??
Depends on how specific an attitude is.
Persuasive communication
Create cognitive dissonance
(Festinger 1957)
Variables affecting persuasion
Peoples perceptions of
Who
What
(source)
(message)
Status
Accurate
Credibility Argument
Expertise
Presentation
Trust
Emotion
Motives
Background
To whom
Where
(Receiver)
(Context)
Education
commitment
The persuader
•
•
•
•
Status in the eyes of the recipient
Popularity of role model
Credibility- trustworthiness/previous advice
Social or cultural background
The receiver
• Are they ready for the message. Able to
understand in terms of emotional
intellectual development.
• How strong is current attitude.
• Motivated to change or open to the
possiblilty?
The message
• Accuracy- Is it credible/correct?
• Delivery – Is it with
confidence/enthusiasm?
• Clarity – Clear, easy to understand and
logical?
• Factual appealing to intellect
• Emotional- appealing to loyalty,
responsibility and duty.