Soc 319: Sociological Approaches to Social Psychology

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Soc 319 Sociological Approaches to Social
Psychology
Thursday February 26, 2009 Attribution Theory
(contd) Attitudes
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I. Attribution Theory

• What is It?
• 1. Naïve scientist
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vImCQNq8rtWcfeature
  related
• B. Dispositional vs. Situational Attributions
• 1. Subtractive Rule
• C. Covariation Principle (Kelley)
• 1. Three sources of behavior
• a. Actor
• b. Object
• c. Context

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C. Kelly Covariation (contd)

• 2. Sources of information for making attribution
• a. Consensus
• b. Consistency
• c. Distinctiveness
• 3. Examples

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Kelleys Cube (e.g., McArthur, 1972)
Is Joe the Comedian funny? Is Mary easily amused?
Or is tonight a special event?
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D. Sources of Bias in Making Attributions

• 1. Correspondence bias (Jones 1979)
• a. Explanations
• 2. Actor-observer effect (You fell, I was
  pushed)
• a. Explanations
• 3. Self-serving bias (Im good, youre lucky)
• a. Explanations

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E. Attributions for Success and Failure

• 1. Dimensions
• a. Locus of control
• b. Stability
• 2. Combinations
• a. Internal/stable Ability (your ability at
  logic reasoning)
• b. Internal/unstable Effort (how many hours
  you studied the LSAT guide)
• c. External/stable Task difficulty (how
  difficult the test is)
• d. External/unstable Luck

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Attributions for Success and Failure
Source Weiner et al., 1972
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F. Consequences of Success Failure Attributions

• Such attributions may affect subsequent
  achievement behaviors and motivation future
  achievement expectancies persistence at similar
  tasks pride or shame felt following success or
  failure.
• a. Optimistic attribution style. Negative
  outcomes attributed external, unstable and
  specific causes and positive outcomes to
  internal, stable, global causes.
• b. Pessimistic attribution style. Negative
  outcomes attributed to internal, stable, and
  global forces. (Im a bad person) positive
  events in terms of external, unstable, and
  specific causes.

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I. Attitudes

• A. Definitions
• 1. General an attitude is a predisposition to
  respond to a particular object in a generally
  favorable or unfavorable way.
• 2. Tripartite approaches to attitude
• a. Affective or - evaluation (like/dislike)
  of object
• Cigarette smoke is smelly and disgusting.
• b. Behavioral predisposition to respond or a
  behavioral tendency towards the object.
• I do not and would never smoke.
• c. Cognitive beliefs about object
• Smoking causes cancer and emphysema.

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B. Why attitudes are important

• Among most distinctive and indispensable topics
  in social psych (Allport 1954).
• An important indicator of social and normative
  change.
• Early social psychological research presumed
  attitude towards a given object must influence
  actions towards that object.
• e.g., political polls, marketing polls, fertility
  aspirations.
• The relationship between attitudes and behaviors
  varies
• Strength of relationship contingent on properties
  of attitude, person, and social context.

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C. How we develop attitudes

• 1. Instrumental conditioning
• a. Bennington College study (Newcomb 1943)
• 2. Classical conditioning
• 3. Observational learning

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Political Attitudes of Bennington College Women
(Newcomb, 1943)
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Presidential Election 1960
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D. Measurement of Attitudes

• 1. Direct or self-reported measures
• a. Single items
• b. Likert scale
• c. Semantic differential (Osgood, Suci,
  Tannenbaum 1975)
• 2. Indirect methods
• a.Wrong number technique
• b. Lost letter technique

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Examples of self-reported attitude scales

• Semantic differential (evaluation, potency,
  activity)
• Smokers are
• Good 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 Bad
• Clean 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 Dirty
• Likert scale Please indicate whether you
  strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor
  disagree, disagree, or disagree strongly.
• I believe that cigarette smoking should be
  banned from all public places.
• Americans should be free to smoke whenever and
  wherever they like.

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E. Structure of attitudes

• Vertical structure
• Horizontal structure

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Structure of Attitudes
Vertical Structure ?
Primitive Belief I follow Gods teachings
Horizontal Structure?
Premarital sex leads to promiscuity. Promiscuity
spreads STDs.
The Bible says premarital sex is wrong.
Premarital sex causes pregnancy. Teen
pregnancies ruin girls lives.
Premarital sex is wrong
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F. How Attitudes Change Over Time

• 1. Age effect how ones chronological age
  affects some attitude (e.g., maturation or
  developmental effects)
• 2. Cohort effect how membership in a birth
  cohort affects some attitude (e.g., how boomers
  and Gen Xers differ)
• 3. Period effect how a historical moment affects
  some attitude, for all people at that moment
  (e.g. if 2002 differs from 2000, it could be a
  9-11 effect)

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Are Baby Boomers really more politically liberal
the Gen Xers (or Gen Y)?
Anti-war protest, 1968
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Important questions to ask

• Were Baby Boomers more likely than members of
  other birth cohorts to also protest in 1978, and
  1988, and 1998. It yes, then we would believe
  they are a distinct cohort.
• Were most protesters in 1968 teenagers? If not,
  then perhaps protests were a period effect.
• Are most protests in 1968, and 1978 and 2006 led
  by young adults? If yes, then we would say
  participation in protests reflects an age effect.

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Approval/Disapproval of Gay Marriage (2005), by
Age