Social Psychology Sociological Perspectives David E Rohall Melissa

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Social Psychology: Sociological Perspectives Chapter 9: Attitudes, Values, and Behaviors

¡ What are attitudes? Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

The Social Psychological Study of Attitudes ¡ ¡ ¡ Attitudes are the positive or negative evaluation of an object, a person or group, or an idea Sociologists examine how our position in society affects attitude formation The social psychological study of attitudes seeks to explain how social forces affect individuals’ attitudes and how these attitudes, in turn, relate to behavior Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SI: The Social Construction of Attitudes ¡ ¡ The interactionist perspective views attitudes like any other aspect of social life: They are continually being constructed based on our interactions with other people Contemporary research suggests that direct experience with specific people or objects may have as strong or stronger effect on our attitude development than our preexisting values and beliefs Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SI: Dimensions of Attitudes ¡ ¡ ¡ Attitudes have multiple dimensions and they relate to other important concepts Values and beliefs refer to strongly held, relatively stable sets of attitudes The cognitive or “thinking” aspect of an attitude is formally called an opinion It is also possible to have a nonattitude toward an object, when you do not care either way about an object Together, these concepts show the challenges of assessing what people really think and feel about the world Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

Take out two sheets of paper Attitudes ¡ About a healthy lifestyle Behaviors ¡ You engage in that promote a healthy lifestyle Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

Healthy Life Styles – compare and contrast the lists Attitudes Behaviors Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

¡ Do attitudes predict behavior? Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SI: Linking Attitudes and Behavior ¡ ¡ One of the reasons people study attitudes is to predict their behaviors The relationship between our attitudes and behavior is typically small The small relationship between attitudes and behavior may reflect poor measurement of attitudes and/or behaviors People also have agency, the ability to act differently than they think and feel in a situation Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SI: How People Use Their Time ¡ ¡ Time-use researchers try to determine exactly what people do on a day to day basis as a way to really know what people value, regardless of what they say Time use researchers examine two broad dimensions of our time use: l l Productive time Free time Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

Time Use How much free time do you have in a day? ¡ Are you short on time? ¡ How do you use your time? ¡ Are you stressed out or frustrated by the time you have? ¡ http: //www. bls. gov/tus/ ¡ Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

Time Use Research Findings There seems to be a growing number of people who feel rushed despite the fact that we have more free time, on average, and work less than in the past. ¡ Why? ¡ Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

One explanation? Time deepening behavior ¡ People may do more with the time that they have available to them ¡ Four ways to deepening time (p. 232): l l Attempting to speed up an activity Substituting a shorter activity for a longer one (9 holes of golf rather than 18) Doing more than one activity at once (multitasking) Maintaining a schedule for activities Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

Cognitive Dissonance ¡ ¡ What happens when behaviors and attitudes don’t match up? P. 247 – Leon Festinger Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

Prejudice Attitudes ¡ ¡ How and why do prejudicial attitudes develop? How do prejudice attitudes relate to behavior (discrimination, hate crimes, hostile behavior, etc. )? Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SI: Prejudicial Attitudes and Behavior ¡ ¡ ¡ One major application of symbolic interaction to the study of attitudes and behaviors is the understanding of prejudice W. E. B. Du Bois made very frank observations of the poor relationships between African Americans and Whites His observations led many scholars to study the causes of prejudicial attitudes and behaviors Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SI: Blumer’s Theory of Group Position ¡ ¡ Read quote on p. 237 According to Blumer’s theory of group position, prejudicial attitudes reflect a group’s relative position in society Among the dominant group, themes of group superiority (toward one self) and inferiority (toward the minority group) help to sustain one’s higher status in society These two factors influence the development of the feeling of entitlement among the dominant group, believing they deserve their position, and fear of the lower status group Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SI: The Study of Social Distance ¡ ¡ ¡ Social distance refers to how close we feel to other people – p. 238 The strength of attitudes toward people in other groups may reflect our prejudices toward people in those groups Findings from years of research using Emory Borgardus’ (1882– 1973) (1958) social distance scale show that respondents felt “closest” to “Canadians, ” “Americans, ” and “English” and most distant to Asians and Blacks Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SI: La. Piere’s Study of Prejudice ¡ ¡ ¡ Richard T. La. Piere (1934) studied the relationships of prejudicial attitudes and behavior He spent two years traveling extensively with a Chinese couple in the United States, staying at various hotels and eating at local restaurants He sent a survey to establishments asking them, “Will you accept members of the Chinese race as guests in your establishment? ” followed by a visit by Chinese guests Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SI: Findings from La. Piere’s Study ¡ ¡ ¡ La. Piere found that almost all hotel owners or operators indicated that they would not provide service to a Chinese person Of the 251 hotel and restaurant visits, only one hotel refused service According to La. Piere, attitudes exist as symbolic representations in the mind of an individual; what individuals do with those representations is highly dependent on social conditions Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

Contact Hypothesis ¡ Can we reduce prejudice attitudes? Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SSP: Social Structure, Attitudes, and Behavior ¡ ¡ ¡ From a structural point of view, our attitudes reflect our position in society Our attitudes vary based on our social status (i. e. , race, class, and gender) Our attitudes are also affected by agents of socialization Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

Discussion question ¡ ¡ Think about some of your values and beliefs. Write them down. How do you think they would be different if you lived in another place or were of a different gender or race? What aspects of your life affected the values and beliefs you have today? Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SSP: Attitudes and Agents of Socialization ¡ ¡ Individuals rely on their primary agents of socialization for initial sets of values and beliefs that govern attitude processes Families transmit attitudes in at least two ways: l l Families generally produce offspring of similar status in society and status is associated with attitudes Second, families may simply socialize or teach their children their values and beliefs Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SSP: Gender, Attitudes, and Behavior ¡ Americans generally report being moderate to conservative but attitudes can vary tremendously by social status and location: l l l Westerners and women reporting to be more liberal than Southerners and men Married people tend to be more conservative than singles More non Whites identify themselves as liberal than Whites in the U. S. Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SSP: Gender and Behavior ¡ ¡ ¡ Behavioral differences between men and women are quite clear: Men and women continue to spend different amounts of time with their children Women’s time in child care has remained consistent despite the increases in time spent in the paid labor force over the last century These findings show that women are adopting men’s role behaviors at a faster pace than the converse Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

SSP: Attitudes Across the Life Course ¡ ¡ ¡ Social structure and personality researchers study cohort replacement by comparing attitudes toward social issues based on the birth cohort, or generation, to which people belong Americans’ attitudes toward social issues have changed in a number of ways over the years – read stats on p. 245 Generations should develop different attitudes based on their different social interactions and experiences over time Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

GP: Group Processes and Attitudes ¡ ¡ Group processes work shows that interactions in groups affect attitudes toward people inside and outside of the group Ridgeway and Balkwell (1997) combined elements of the symbolic interactionism and group processes perspectives in the development of status construction theory Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

GP: Status Construction Theory ¡ Status construction theory posits that individuals develop status value in face to face interactions in groups l ¡ Read p. 248 for 3 principle linkages This theory asserts that attitudes about individuals in groups form as a result of both direct experience in the group and larger cultural information contained in the status of the individuals Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

GP: Research in Status Construction Theory ¡ ¡ After a series of activities between these groups, Ridgeway and colleagues (1998) found that individuals in both the low and high resource groups developed positive biases toward the high resource group The researchers posit that lower status members give their positive attitudes toward dominant groups in exchange for the dominate groups’ agreement to provide support in some way Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

Status Construction Theory Who is in the high resource group in your service-learning project with CCS? And who is in the low resource group? ¡ Have you observed any evidence in your service-learning project with CCS to support Status Construction Theory? If so, what? Explain. If not, why not? Explain. ¡ Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

GP: Social Identity Theory and Attitudes ¡ ¡ ¡ According to social identity theory, we categorize people into in groups and out groups, people we identify with and people we do not identity with Group bonds can impact attitudes toward members of in and out group members The effects of group status can exist above and beyond interaction processes Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

GP: Linking Social Identity and Attitude Formation ¡ ¡ In one application of social identity theory and attitudes, Willer (2004) found that government issued terror warnings led to increases in approval ratings for the U. S. president These findings are attributed to the tendency to view members of our in group more positively when the group is threatened Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

Discussion ¡ Can you think of a situation in which you were judged incorrectly in a group setting? What caused that misperception? Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007

Chapter 9: Bringing It All Together ¡ ¡ This chapter emphasized the study of attitudes and behavior Symbolic interactionists study the nature and construction of attitudes The social structure and personality perspective emphasizes the effects of our social positions on attitudes and behavior Group processes perspective shows that beliefs about others are informed by our position in a group and group membership Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007