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[Ethics] E2/P1: Attitude- Meaning, Structure, Functions, CABModel- cognitive, affective, behavioral components

Posted ByMrunalOn 01/10/2015 @ 8:30 pm In Ethics | 22 Comments

1. E2/P1: Video Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE14)

2. Attitude: Meaning & types

3. Attitude: Salient Features

4. CAB Model of Attitude

5. Attitude Structure #1: Uni-Directional

6. Attitude Structure #2: Bi-directional

7. Potential vs felt ambivalence

8. Attitude: Functions

9. Belief + Value = Attitude

E2/P1: Video Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE14)

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/7IuEfKdc_Qs

Attitude: Meaning & types
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Attitude is always about Something. Its a state of mind- your positive/negative feeling towards

a person, object, event, idea, environment.

It determines how people will arrive at a correct judgement.

Attitude AND Aptitude are different- Surviving terminal disease depends on your attitude

towards life rather than aptitude in physical training. Well discuss more on this during next

lecture (E3)

Attitudes can be positive or negative

Positive attitudes Negative attitudes

Optimism, persistence Pessimism

Jealous Content (satisfied)

Tolerant intolerant, rigid

Modest, humble Inferiority, superiority

Cooperative Condescending, hostile

Cheerful Cynical

Attitude: Salient Features

1. Attitudes are directed towards an object, event, person or organization and give specific reaction to

them.

2. Attitude affects group behavior e.g. Jury service, racial prejudice, work environment, voting

pattern and more.

3. They help us understand ourselves and others.

4. They can be explicit formed by recent events

5. They can be implicit- derived from past memories and traumatic experiences.

6. They protect us from acknowledging harsh realities of life and thereby help coping up withemotional conflict.

7. Theyre situational.

8. Some thinkers say Attitude is permanent, forms habit and becomes predictable

9. Some thinkers say Attitude is tentative- a person will form attitude from his past experience but if

new situation comes hell evaluate and change attitude. Thus, Attitudes are spontaneous reaction

to environment.

10. Persuasion can change attitude of a person. If a trustworthy, expert, likable person says, rich

peoples love for fur-clothes has led to extinction of xyz. Species. Then next time you see a rich

lady, youll feel repulsed. Well discuss more on persuasion and attitude change in third session of

this lecture (E2/P3).

Physiology determines attitude

Physiology: Age Physiology: Disease

1. Pre-teen: pliant

2. Teen: rebellious

3. Old man: conservative

1. TB: Optimistic

2. Epileptics: cynical

3. Encephalitis: aggressive.

Some thinkers dont agree with above, and believe that Social factors determine a persons attitude.


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CAB Model of Attitude

Attitude =combination of cognitive, affective and behavioral components

C:

Cognitive

Knowledge and beliefs.When you form an opinion from the available information thats cognitive attitude.

If youre framing an opinion about humans, then you may end up stereotyping.

e.g snake is poisonous. (your belief)

e.g. cricketers play for money and not for nation.

e.g. death penalty should be removed because it doesnt reduce crime rate. (your

belief)

A:

Affective

Feelings and emotions such as pleasure, hate, fear, anger, happiness, sorrow.

What do we feel when that object is present before us?

e.g. Ifearsnakes (your feeling)

e.g. Ihatecricket because all matches are fixed. (your feeling)

e.g. I dislikethe idea of death penalty. (your feeling)

B:

Behavioral

Overt behavior. Your predisposition (Sensitivity) towards a person / object.

e.g. Ill run away if there is a snake.

e.g. I will not buyxyz brand toothpaste because it is promoted by a cricketer and I

know all cricketers are match fixers. (your behavior / action in shopping mall.)

e.g. Ill lead a candle march against Death penalty. (your behavior on street)


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CAB has synergy- each component is independent, but they will strengthen each other.

Attitude Structure #1: Uni-Directional

Like a number-line, attitude has two ends negative (left hand) and positive (right hand).Our attitude towards death penalty? It can be positive or negative.

Component What do you think about snakes? Positive/negative

Cognitive Snake is poisonous. (your belief) Negative

Affective I fearsnakes (your feeling) Negative

Behavior Ill runaway. (your behavior) Negative

Overall Negative attitude towards snake.

Limitation of uni-directional structure?

Difficult to distinguish between neutral and ambivalent attitude.

1. e.g. do you like chocolates?

a. Neutral:A poor illiterate person in remote island may say Ive never heard of this term so

I dont have any positive/negative feeling about it.

b. Ambivalent:an intelligent person may say yes I know chocolates bad for teeth (negative

cognitive) but still I love them (positive affective). So +1 1 = 0

Attitude Structure #2: Bi-directional


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If we plot negative attitude on Y-axis and positive on X-axis, we can show neutral / ambivalence as per

following graph:So, what is the implications?

Neutral

attitudeDifficult to change his behavior.

Ambivalent

attitude

Possible to change his behavior by providing new information.

Because ambivalent situation makes person uncomfortable (Cognitive dissonance).

e.g. corruption: we know it is bad (Cognitive) but still we give/take bribes

(behavior) so some ambivalence = dissonance.

Potential vs felt ambivalence

Felte.g. chocolate example- you know there is inconsistency (its bad for teeth yet you like it).

Such ambivalence will give you dissonance.

Potential

You yourself unaware of the inconsistency, and therefore at present no dissonance.

But when youre forced to think about the topic, potential will be converted to felt

ambivalence.

e.g. corruption and tax evasion are equal. Both violate law, both hurt publicexchequer. However, a tax evader might not realize he is as bad as a corrupt official,

until you consider him to think about it.


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Sequence is potential => felt =>cognitive dissonance. Result?

A. either person will stop wrong-behavior OR

B. hell begin justifying his wrong behavior.

Thats how attitude changes. Well discuss more on this in E2/P3.

Attitude: Functions

Object

appraisalAttitudes help us approach beneficial things and avoid harmful things.

Social

adjustment

Attitude helps us identify with people we like e.g. I love SRK, so Ill buy frooty,

because he is endorsing it.

Utilitarian

When you go to market, youll buy or not buy a product thinking will this

product help me (cognitive).If youve big property, youll oppose property tax hike.

So, youre supporting capitalism, not because of ideology but because of your

attitude, since It enhances our happiness/survival.

Knowledge

helps organize new information, and create generalization / stereotyping.

Positive aspect:Indian Crow is black, so all crows in the world should be

black. (yes theyre, so your time is saved in not having to go on world journey

to check the facts)

Negative aspect:I believe good things happen to good people so, if badthing happened to him- if he must be a bad person. (Stereotyping / prejudice).

Ego-defensive

Grapes are sour, because I cant eat them.

It prevents us from guilt feeling, by holding attitudes that protect our self-

esteem (Defend your ego).

Mechanisms?Denial, Repression, Projection, Rationalization

The British felt Indians incapable of ruling themselves, because theyre uncivil

people. So, one way to counter it was through reviving the ancient Vedic

traditions/Aryan pride.

ExternalizationSimilar to ego-defensive. By blaming external factors we try to defend our internal

conflict e.g. I got low marks in interview because panel was biased.

Value

expressive

To express ones central values.

Example Gandhi stopped wearing coat/pants and switched to Khadi dhoti to

express his central value self-reliance, simple living.

An advertisement / marketing guru must be observant about above functions. Only then he can make asuccessful ad.


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Product Ad-concept

DetergentUtilitarian. So ad must show that given brand is cheap and yet cleans the clothes

efficiently.

GoldValue expressive. Ill purchase more gold to show Im of higher status. Company will even

use photos of Goddess Laxmi.

ShoesEgo defensive mechanism must not be trigged. So, No gods/goddesses must be shown in

ad.

Politics

Ego defensive mechanism to deflect personal attacks to group attack.

e.g. any criticism of the then Chief minister Modi is attack against 5 crore

Gujaratis. So, theyre vote in his favor to show their support, and theyll bash the

critiques on social media.

Belief + Value = Attitude

BeliefBelief is What we think about things.

e.g. IPL is corrupt.

Value

Value is what we think should happen.

e.g. Corruption is bad. Honesty is best policy.

Value can be desirable or undesirable.

They guide our behavior.

Values can be for individual, group, organization and nation, while virtues are

associated only with an individual (e.g. physical fitness=> courage.)

Attitude

Attitude is our like / dislike for an object, event, organization or person.

Belief (IPL Corrupt) + Value (Honest is best) = frame our attitude towards

event/people.

In above example, persons attitude will be of Hatred / cynicism towards cricket,

cricketers, products endorsed by those cricketers.

Mock Questions and Case studies after three-part article series on E2 is over. In the next part (E2/P2),

well take a look at moral and political attitudes, and role of social media.

Visit Mrunal.org/Ethicsfor more study material on Ethics.

Article printed from Mrunal:http://mrunal.org

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2015/10/ethics-e2p1-attitude-meaning-structure-functions-cab-

model.html

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