Psychological Foundations of Attitudes

Download or read book Psychological Foundations of Attitudes written by Anthony G. Greenwald and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2013-09-24 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Psychological Foundations of Attitudes presents various approaches and theories about attitudes. The book opens with a chapter on the development of attitude theory from 1930 to 1950. This is followed by separate chapters on the principles of the attitude-reinforcer-discriminative system; a systematic test of a learning theory analysis of interpersonal attraction; a "spread of effect" in attitude formation; Hullian learning theory; and possible origins of learned attitudinal cognitions. Subsequent chapters deal with mechanisms through which attitudes can function as both independent and dependent variables in the attitude-behavior link; and the problem of how people go about applying a summary label to their attitudes and the reciprocal effects that rating has on the content of attitude. The final chapters discuss a commodity theory that relates selective social communication to value formation; the freedoms there are in regard to attitudes; attitude change occasioned by actions which are discrepant from one's previously existing attitudes or values; and the conflict-theory approach to attitude change.