User:Creese55/Attitude (psychology)

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Article Evaluation: The article defines the meaning of an attitude in depth and addresses several components that attitude is a thought. Overall I enjoyed reading this article however I will be making changes to the Formation section of the article. The content in this article was very relevant to this article.

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'''An attitude is a general and lasting positive or negative opinion or feeling about some person, object, or issue. Attitude formation occurs through either direct experience or the persuasion of others or the media'''. According to Doob (1947), learning can account for most of the attitudes we hold. The study of attitude formation is the study of how people form evaluations of persons, places or things. Theories of classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning and social learning are mainly responsible for formation of attitude. Unlike personality, attitudes are expected to change as a function of experience. In addition, exposure to the 'attitude' objects may have an effect on how a person forms his or her attitude. This concept was seen as the "Mere-Exposure Effect". Robert Zajonc showed that people were more likely to have a positive attitude on 'attitude objects' when they were exposed to it frequently than if they were not. Mere repeated exposure of the individual to a stimulus is a sufficient condition for the enhancement of his attitude toward it. Tesser (1993) has argued that hereditary variables may affect attitudes - but believes that they may do so indirectly. For example, consistency theories, which imply that we must be consistent in our beliefs and values. As with any type of heritability, to determine if a particular trait has a basis in our genes, twin studies are used. The most famous example of such a theory is Dissonance-reduction theory, associated with Leon Festinger, which explains that when the components of an attitude (including belief and behavior) are at odds an individual may adjust one to match the other (for example, adjusting a belief to match a behavior). Other theories include balance theory, originally proposed by Heider (1958), and the self-perception theory, originally proposed by Daryl Bem. '''There are several characteristics that influences how and why attitudes form. Here is a closer look at how attitudes form.'''


 * Experience : Attitudes form directly as a result of experience. They may emerge due to direct personal experience, or they may result from observation.
 * Social Factors : Social roles and social norms can have a strong influence on attitudes.
 * Learning - Attitudes can be learned in a variety of ways.
 * Conditioning- Operant conditioning can also be used to influence how attitudes develop.
 * Observation- People also learn attitudes by observing people around them. When someone you admire greatly espouses a particular attitude, you are more likely to develop the same beliefs.