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Once used to describe the spatial orientation of physical objects (Rokeach, 1968), the concept of attitude has evolved to refer to a person’s mental and neural state of readiness (Breckler & Wiggins, 1989, p.407). The origin of attitude as a modern concept began at the start of the twentieth century, before this point, attitude was a physical concept used by artists to describe the posture of stationary figures, actors and dancers (Shrigley et al., 1988, p.662). After advancements in social sciences research, the psychological meaning surpassed the physical posture connotation. Darwin first used attitude as a mental concept and as having an evaluative quality to describe the emotional readiness of animals in crisis (Shrigley et al.,1988, p.663). Until the middle of the 19th century attitude research had focused on measurement, but then psychology emphasized attitude as a mental concept (Shrigley et al., 1988, p.664). In the next few decades attitude’s effects on behavior became the focal point of research and theory, and history’s transformation of attitude from a physical to an evaluative concept progressed (Shrigley et al., 1988, p.664).
Research on Attitude
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and conative
components(Rokeach,
components (Rokeach,
1968; Azjen,
...
1981, p.7).
Eagly and Chaiken (1993) offered a more comprehensive definition by taking into account three major components of attitude—namely, tendency, entity (or attitude object), and evaluation. They defined attitude as "a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor (p. 1)."
Similar revisions
Characteristics of Attitudes
These definitions, along with the other variations of them, all emphasize four important characteristics of attitudes. Attitudes predispose:
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Value Expressive function -- permits attitudes to express important values to the self concept (Watt et al., 2007, p.442).
These functions allow us to understand the reasons why people hold the attitudes that they do (Katz, 1960, p.171).
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Beliefs, Opinions,
Values,
and
Values
Judgments
In order
...
1960, p.169).
Thus, opinion change cannot fully represent attitude change because a true change in attitude would accompany other relevant changes like behavioral manifestations (Rokeah, 1966, p. 547).
Values are
...
1988, p.672).
Attitude is also different from evaluative expressions in that attitude is an internal evaluative tendency which is just one factor among others that influence evaluative responding, not the only one (Eagly & Chaiken, 2007, p. 586). Evaluative judgments not only reflect the external situation like context effects but also map out a whole range of tendencies such as personality traits and mood (Eagly & Chaiken, 2007, p. 587).
Attitude Theories
Attitude theory has advanced the concept of attitude. The Theory of Reasoned Action theorized by Ajzen and Fishbein in 1980 began the work on attitude theory (Ajzen, 1991, p.42). In the early 1990’s Ajzen revised this theory by adding another component and renamed it as the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991, p.43). TPB theorizes that people act according to their intentions and perceptions of control over the behavior, while the intentions are being influenced by the attitudes toward the behavior, the subjective norms and the perceptions of behavioral control (Ajzen, 1991, p.43). Although this theory has consistently been the most popular theory in the literature, a few more contemporary theories have also been researched. Attitude functional theory (Katz, 1960) maintains that an individual has attitudes that serve different needs (e.g., utilitarian, value-expressive, or ego-defensive; Wang, 2012). In line with the original conceptualization of an attitude and the attitude object or behavior, attitude functional theory maintains that an attitude serves several purposes (Shavitt & Nelson, 2002), although the motives behind an attitude may differ. Bagozzi contributed the Theory of Trying and the Theory of Self-Regulation to attitude theory (Baggozzi, 1992, p.181).
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The concept of attitude proves to be a substantial variable in communication studies. Until researchers can prove what forms an attitude, how it affects behavior, and what causes it to change, it will continue to be a focal point of research in all fields.
Minor revisions by David J. Roaché (August 2012)
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Moderate revisions by Sann Ryu (July 2015)
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References
Ajzen, I. (2001). Nature and operations of attitudes. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 27-58.
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Breckler, J. S., & Wiggins, E. C. (1989). On defining attitude and attitude theory: Once more with feeling. In A. Pratkanis, J. Breckler, A. Greenwald (Eds.), Attitude structure and function (407- 425). NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Dillard, J.P. (1993). Persuasion past and present: Attitudes aren't what they used to be. Communication Monographs, 60, 90-97.
Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.
Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (2007). The advantages of an inclusive definition of attitude. Social Cognition, 25 (5), 582-602.
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Hofstede, G. (1998). Attitudes, values and organizational culture: Disentangling the concepts. Organizational Studies, 19, 3, 477-492.
Katz, D. (1960). The functional approach to the study of attitudes. American Association for public opinion research, 24, 2, 163-204.
Ledbetter, A.M. (2009). Measuring online communication attitude: Instrument development and validation. Communication Monographs, 76(4), 463-486.
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Communication Research,
39(2),
39 (2),
269-290.
Ledbetter,
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Communication Research,
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38 (1),
27-53.
O’Sullivan T., Hartley J., Saunders D., Montegomery, M., Fiske, J. (1994). Key concepts in communication and cultural studies. NY: Routledge.
Ong, L.M.L, de Haes, J.C.J.M., Hoos, A.M., & Lammes, f.B. (1995). Doctor-patient communication: A review of the literature. Social Science Medicine, 44, 7, 903-918.
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Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1981). Attitudes and persuasion: Classic and contemporary approaches. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown.
Petty, R.E., Wegener, D.T., Fabrigar, L.R. (1997). Attitudes and attitude change. Annual Review of Psychology, 48, 609-647.
Rokeach, M. (1966). Attitude change and behavioral change. Public Opinion Quarterly, 30 (4), 529-550.
Rokeach, M. (1968). Beliefs, attitudes, and values: A theory of organization and change. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Shavitt, S. & Nelson, M.R. (2002). The role of attitude functions in persuasion and social judgment. In J.P. Dillard & M. Pfau (Eds.), The persuasion handbook: Developments in theory and practice (pp. 137-153). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.