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Attitudes

Attitudes. From intentions to actions Gabriela Ilie, Ph.D. University of Toronto. Attitudes vs. Intentions. Which one is a better predictor of behavior? Intention: committing to acting in a certain way, or engaging in a particular behavior's)

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Attitudes

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  1. Attitudes From intentions to actions Gabriela Ilie, Ph.D. University of Toronto

  2. Attitudes vs. Intentions • Which one is a better predictor of behavior? • Intention: committing to acting in a certain way, or engaging in a particular behavior's) • The disposition most closely linked to a specific action tendency is the intention to perform the action under consideration (e.g., Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Fisher and Fisher, 1992)

  3. From Intentions to action • Many studies have substantiated the predictive validity of behavioral intentions. • Examples: Intention-behaviour correlation • Donating blood .75 (Giles & Cairns, 1995) • Using homeopathic medicine .75 (Furnham & Lovett, 2001) • Attending church .90 (King, 1975) • Having an abortion .96 (Smetana & Adler, 1980)

  4. From Intentions to action • Intentions are close antecedents of overt action. • The predictive validity of intentions is typically found to be significantly greater than that of attitudes toward the behavior.

  5. From Intentions to action • Manstead, Proffitt and Smart (1983) • How much can we predict mother’s feeding method (either a or b) based on their attitudes toward a) breast feeding, or b) bottle feeding of newborn infants. Correlation of 0.67. • Mother’s intentions towards these alternative feeding practices has a correlation of .82 with the feeding method the mothers ended up using.

  6. Ajzen et al. (1982) • How likely are you to smoke marijuana in the next 3 to 4 weeks? • Asked by telephone four weeks later they indicated whether they smoked m or not? • The self report of m use correlated .72with intentions, and correlated .53 with the students’ attitudes towards smoking m.

  7. Discrepancies • Indeed, intentions can accurately predict a variety of corresponding action tendencies. • At the same time, research has also revealed considerable variability in the magnitude of observed correlations, and also relatively low intention-behavior correlations have been observed. (hmmm…cognitive dissonance?)

  8. Intention-behavior incompatibility • Measuring something general with specifics of that behaviour • For example: Kerner and Grossman, 1998, measured the correlation between people’s intention to exercises over a 5 month period with their behaviour (e.g. climbing stairs or lifting weights – notice v. specific). • Correlation: r = 0.21, very low…

  9. Why? • A compatible measure of intention would have asked participants to indicate the extent to which they intended to engage in the particular prescribed exercise behaviour in the next 5 months.

  10. How stable are our intentions • Some studies measured people’s intentions 6 months before they engaged in the behaviour. • Why is this a potential issue? • Intentions change over time. • E.g voting campaign. Something happens with the candidate, a scandal story gets publicized and people’s intentions change.

  11. Cognitive dissonance • Even when behaviour meet the criterion of compatibility and when the measure of intention is relatively stable over time, people still sometimes say they will do something and end up doing something else. • This is described in your textbook as the literal inconsistency.

  12. According to Campbell (1963) people with moderate dispositions tend to display behaviors consistent with the disposition when the behaviors are easy to perform (e.g. express an intention to exercise) but not when they are difficult to perform (e.g. actually engage in exercise).

  13. Campbell (1963) • Moderate disposition explanation Reject Strong prejudice Moderate prejudice B E H A V I O R Weak prejudice Accept Letter Face-to-face Remember LaPierre’s (1934) study with the Chinese couple?

  14. Implementation intentions • “How come you didn’t do what you said you will do? “ • “Oh well… I forgot” • “Gee.. It slipped my mind!” • Having people state when, where and how they will carry out their intentions can greatly increase the likelihood that they will do so.

  15. The case of incomplete volitional control: • The degree of success to attain a specific behavior, depends not only on the person’s intentions, but also: • On such factors as inherent abilities • Physiological dispositions • Availability of requisite opportunities and resources

  16. External factors: • Opportunity • Dependence on others • Internal factors: • Information, skill, and abilities • Emotions and compulsions

  17. Video clip – choosing experiences moment to moment

  18. Video clip - entanglement

  19. Video clip – Washington DC experiment

  20. Video clip – intention inconsistencies…like positive thinking

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