Attitude and Behaviour

Fatima Tariq, Khadija Bibi, Laiba Khan, Maryam Azad, Aimen Mukhtar, Nimra
Arshad, Aina Qazi & Asma Attique

Department of Psychology, Army Burn Hall College for Girls, Abbottabad

Health Psychology

Ma’am Raeesa

January 04, 2023

 ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR

Attitude:

“An attitude is a predisposition to respond cognitively, emotionally, or behaviourally

to a particular object, person, or situation in a particular way”.

Behaviour:

“Behavior represents an individual’s reaction to a particular action, person or

environment”.

Behavior is the manner of acting or controlling oneself towards other people. It is

essentially, any output of the brain.

Attitude Change:

Attitude change occurs anytime an attitude is modified. Thus, change occurs when a
person goes from being positive to negative, from slightly positive to very positive, or
from having no attitude to having one. Because of the functional value of attitudes,
the processes that change them have been a major focus throughout the history of
social psychology.

Dual Process Approach to Attitude Change:

According to dual process models of attitude change, there are two general types of
processes:

1. Those that occur when one puts forth relatively little cognitive effort
2. Those that occur with relatively high cognitive effort.

BASES:

There are three bases for attitude change:

i. Compliance
ii. Identification
iii. Internalization

These three processes represent the different levels of attitude change.

1. Compliance
 Compliance refers to a change in behavior based on consequences, such as an
individual's hopes to gain rewards or avoid punishment from another group or
person. The individual does not necessarily experience changes in beliefs or
evaluations of an attitude object, but rather is influenced by the social
outcomes of adopting a change in behavior.
2. Identification
Identification explains one's change of beliefs and affect in order to be similar
to someone one admires or likes. In this case, the individual adopts the new
attitude, not due to the specific content of the attitude object, but because it is
associated with the desired relationship. Often, children's attitudes on race, or
their political party affiliations are adopted from their parents' attitudes and
beliefs.
3. Internalization
Internalization refers to the change in beliefs and affect when one finds the
content of the attitude to be intrinsically rewarding, and thus leads to actual
change in beliefs or evaluations of an attitude object. The new attitude or
behavior is consistent with the individual's value system, and tends to be
merged with the individual's existing values and beliefs. Therefore, behaviors
adopted through internalization are due to the content of the attitude object.

3 COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDE

i. Cognitive Component: Your thoughts and beliefs about the subject

ii. Affective Component: How the object, person, issue, or event makes you feel
iii. Behavioral Component: How attitude influences your behavior

ATTITUDE FORMATION

Several factors can influence how and why attitudes form, including:

Experience

Attitudes form directly as a result of experience. They may emerge due to direct
personal experience, or they may result from observation.

Social Factors
Social roles and social norms can have a strong influence on attitudes. Social roles
relate to how people are expected to behave in a particular role or context. Social
norms involve society's rules for what behaviors are considered appropriate.

Associative Learning

There are two ways in which we can learn by association, either implicitly through
classical conditioning, or explicitly through operant conditioning. -Implicit attitudes
are unconscious but still have an effect on our beliefs and behaviors. -Explicit
attitudes are those that we are consciously aware of and that clearly influence our
behaviors and beliefs.

Self-Perception

According to self-perception theory, when people are unsure of their own attitudes,
one way to infer them is by looking at their behaviors. The idea behind self-
perception theory is that we form attitudes not due to exposure or associative learning,
but from observations of our own behavior.

Conditioning

Operant conditioning can also be used to influence how attitudes develop. Imagine a
young man who has just started smoking. Whenever he lights up a cigarette, people
complain, chastise him, and ask him to leave their vicinity. This negative feedback
from those around him eventually causes him to develop an unfavorable opinion of
smoking and he decides to give up the habit.

Observation

Finally, people also learn attitudes by observing people around them. When someone
you admire greatly espouses a particular attitude, you are more likely to develop the
same beliefs. For example, children spend a great deal of time observing the attitudes
of their parents and usually begin to demonstrate similar outlooks.

ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR

Behavior is the observable component of what we do; while attitude is the non-
observable component of why we do.
We tend to assume that people behave according to their attitudes. However, social
psychologists have found that attitudes and actual behavior are not always perfectly
aligned.

After all, plenty of people support a particular candidate or political party yet fail to
vote. People also are more likely to behave according to their attitudes under certain
conditions.

Factors Influencing Attitude Strength

 Are an expert on the subject

 Expect a favourable outcome
 Experience something personally
 Stand to win or lose something due to the issue
 Are repeatedly expressed attitudes

Changing Attitudes to Change Behavior

Attitude and behavior are woven into the fabric of daily life. Research has shown that
individuals register an immediate and automatic reaction of "good" or "bad" towards
everything they encounter in less than a second, even before they are aware of having
formed an attitude.

Changing to Match Behavior

In some cases, people may alter their attitudes to better align them with their behavior.
Cognitive dissonance is a phenomenon in which a person experiences psychological
distress due to conflicting thoughts or beliefs. In order to reduce this tension, people
may change their attitudes to reflect their other beliefs or actual behaviors.

CHANGE OF ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR

How to Change Attitude

 Generating a Positive Attitude:

A change in attitude depends on living a new kind of life. Whatever the
negative parts of your life may be, you'll need to let them go if you're going to
develop a better attitude.
 Look for the positive:
 To develop a positive attitude you should force yourself to notice the good.
Someone with a negative attitude can easily find the downside of any
circumstance. Share your positive observations with others, and keep negative
remarks to yourself.

How to Change Behavior

 Changing Your Own Behavior:

Set yourself up for success by making sure you have practical ways to reach
your goals. You’ll be better able to keep track of your progress and stay
motivated if you stick to one or two small, specific, and achievable goals.
Choose behaviors that you actually want to change, not just that other people
ask you to change.
 Maintaining Behavioral Changes:
Observe and record the behavior you’re changing. Ask for help if you need it
from supportive friends and family members. Experiencing too much stress
can keep you from being able to successfully change your behavior. Continue
modifying your behavior.

WHY ATTITUDES CHANGE

While attitudes can have a powerful effect on behavior, they are not set in stone. The
same influences that lead to attitude formation can also create attitude change.

1) Associative Learning
There are two ways in which we can learn by association, either implicitly
through classical conditioning, or explicitly through operant conditioning.
 Implicit attitudes are unconscious but still have an effect on our beliefs
and behaviors.
 Explicit attitudes are those that we are consciously aware of and that
clearly influence our behaviors and beliefs.
2) Elaboration Likelihood Theory
This theory of persuasion suggests that people can alter their attitudes in two
ways. First, they can be motivated to listen and think about the message, thus
leading to an attitude shift.
Or, they might be influenced by the characteristics of the speaker, leading to a
temporary or surface shift in attitude. Messages that are thought-provoking
 and that appeal to logic are more likely to lead to permanent changes in
attitudes.
3) Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Cognitive dissonance, a theory originally developed by Festinger (1957), is the
idea that people experience a sense of guilt or uneasiness when two linked
cognitions are inconsistent, such as when there are two conflicting attitudes
about a topic, or inconsistencies between one's attitude and behavior on a
certain topic. The basic idea of the Cognitive Dissonance Theory relating to
attitude change, is that people are motivated to reduce dissonance which can
be achieved through changing their attitudes and beliefs.

METHODS OF ATTITUDE CHANGE

Attitude changes can take place by following methods:

i. Self-perception
ii. Learning theory
iii. Cognitive Dissonance
iv. Persuasion.

Self-perception

Self-perception theory argues that when we have no (or a very weak) prior existing
attitude on a particular issue we can infer our attitudes from observing our own
behaviors. If we return a lost wallet, we infer that we are honest. Often, subtle
pressures around us shape our behavior, but we fail to recognize those pressures. As a
result, we mistakenly believe that our behavior emanated from some inner disposition.
Perhaps we aren't particularly trustworthy and instead returned the wallet in order to
impress the people around us. But, failing to realize that, we infer that we are clean
honest. By believing in our behavior, we infer that we are honest and that really
makes a change in our previous un-trust-worthy attitude.

Learning Theory

Classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning can be used

to bring about attitude change. Classical conditioning can be used to create positive
emotional reactions to an object, person, or event by associating positive feelings with
the target object. Operant conditioning can be used to strengthen desirable attitudes
and weaken undesirable ones. People can also change their attitudes after observing
the behavior of others.

Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance theory argues that behaving in a way that contradicts existing
attitudes creates a feeling of discomfort. For example, an animal lover may feel upset
if he accidentally run over a cat. So that people will be motivated to try to resolve this
dissonance. People will look for ways to try to explain it and, if none are apparent,
they will resort to resolve the discrepancy: they will change their attitude so that it
matches the behavior they have performed.

Persuasion

While cognitive dissonance is attitude change via an internal discrepancy, persuasion

refers to attitude change via an external message. How do people think about, and
incorporate information they receive in TV that is counter to their current point of
view? This theory of persuasion suggests that people can alter their attitudes in two
ways. First, they can be motivated to listen and think about the message, thus leading
to an attitude shift. Or, they might be influenced by characteristics of the speaker,
leading to a temporary or surface shift in attitude. Messages that are thought-
provoking and that appeal to logic are more likely to lead to permanent changes in
attitudes.

Comparison Chart
BASIS FOR ATTITUDE BEHAVIOR
COMPARISON

Meaning Attitude refers to a Behavior implies the

person's mental view, actions, moves, conduct or
regarding the way he/she functions of an individual
thinks or feels about or group towards other
someone or something. persons.

Based on Experience and Situation

observation

Trait Human Inborn

What is it? A person's mind set Outward expression of

attitude

Reflects What you think or feel? What you do?

Defined by Way we perceive things Social Norms

Community Health Interventions

There is a long history of community intervention in the field of public health.
Mitler’s review of contemporary approaches to community health promotion traces
them to the late 1800s. The goals of community interventions are diverse, ranging
from decreasing morbidity or mortality, to increasing the practice of a healthy
behavior or healthy organizational practices, to securing passage of public health
policy. Policies can be oriented to active prevention (i.e., policies that require
individuals to take action in order to be protected) or passive prevention (i.e., policies
that protect individuals without the individual engaging in a health-protective
behavior).

Community interventions typically employ an array of programmatic approaches

including those that focus on changing individual behavior and those that target
contextual influences that facilitate or impede individual behavior. Thus, a
predominant theme in community intervention is the need for comprehensive
intervention at multiple levels including individual, organizational, and community
levels.

Characteristics of Successful Community Health Interventions

Several characteristics of intervention strategies have been found to be successful.

Interventions that utilize data-based planning and feedback systems (epidemiologic,
public opinion, strategic) are effective in the development and refinement of
interventions. Successful interventions also involve the target population in some
aspects of the effort. Success is also related to developing clearly articulated, highly
focused, agreed-upon goals and objectives, maintaining flexibility at the tactical
(programmatic) level, and emphasizing passive prevention approaches whenever
possible so that people are protected automatically rather than having to engage in an
active behavior. Furthermore, effective interventions often change the social norms
around which individual behavior occurs and target the root causes of problems,
especially those in the sociocultural environment. Finally, community intervention
strategies that take into account the resources available (i.e., ends being adjusted to
the means) and consider the timing and location of intervention in design and
implementation are typically more successful.
Although in practice, health promotion is implemented through multiple levels (from
the individual through policy), the community level is key to building a
comprehensive strategy to promote health and prevent disease among the population
at large. The importance of community intervention is often based on the assumption
that greater improvement in health can be obtained by small changes in the behaviors
(or environments) of large numbers of people than by large changes among a small
number of people at high risk. That is, the goal of many community interventions is to
affect small shifts in the distribution of risk and protective factors.

Theory of Community Health Interventions

Ecological Perspective

From an ecological perspective, the potential to change individual risk behavior is

best considered within the social and cultural context in which behavior occurs.
Interventions that are informed by a social-ecological perspective attend to
extraindividual level factors such as community norms and the structure of
community services including their comprehensiveness, coordination, and linkages, in
addition to individual motivations and attitudes. Thus, individual change is
understood within the social and cultural context in which it is to occur.

Social Cognitive Theory

Social cognitive theory has been a key theory guiding the development of community
health promotion interventions. Bandura noted that self-efficacy, outcome
expectancies, and perceived incentive value are key aspects of social cognitive theory.
Self-efficacy refers to a person’s belief about how capable he or she is to perform a
specific behavior and relates to a person’s willingness to participate in community
change. Outcome expectancy refers to a person’s belief that a behavior will result in a
specific outcome. A person will be more willing to spend time and effort to bring
about a change to the extent he or she perceives the change will have the intended
effect. Perceived incentive value refers to the relative importance one places on a
possible outcome. In general, a person is more likely to engage in a behavior if he or
she considers the behavior to be important (i.e., valuable).

Social Marketing Approach

Social marketing has also influenced the design of community interventions. Social
marketing is the extension of marketing principles to social and health issues, and
focuses on the marketing context structure, made up of product, price, promotion,
position, and place. The social marketing approach emphasizes the context
(marketplace) and the needs of the target population (consumer) so that tailored
interventions are designed and delivered. Social marketing is based on two general
assumptions: (1) programs/messages should be designed on the basis of the perceived
needs and expectation of consumers and (2) successful programs are those that
achieve a successful exchange between message sender and receiver.

Community Development Approach

Community development (or community organization) is the study of or intervention

around the natural organization of persons and institutions in community systems. A
key to this approach involves comprehensive planning and community
diagnosis/analysis. There are three critical dimensions at the core of successful
community development: (1) multisectoral inclusion, (2) organizational linkages, and
(3) enabling and support. Multisectoral inclusion refers to the involvement and
subsequent active participation of diverse community members and organizational
constituencies in planning, implementing, and evaluating community health
programs. Organizational linkages can be described as the communication,
coordination, and collaboration among multiple community sectors toward joint goals
and objectives. Enabling and support refers to a community’s ability to determine its
own “health.” An enabling approach will change the typical hierarchical relationship
between researchers (giving direction) and community groups (taking direction).

Mass Media Approach

The mass media are often used in community interventions. Mass media can influence
awareness, interest (or motivation), trial attempts (or experimentation), and adoption
of behavior. The media are important in setting the public agenda about health issues
(i.e., what people think about and how issues are framed). Thus, the media can create
and reinforce public awareness about an issue, contribute to its salience, serve as a cue
to action, and reinforce action is that taken.

Empowerment
Empowerment, defined as efforts at individual, organizational, and community levels
of analysis to exert control and gain mastery over salient issues, has also influenced
community intervention. Wallerstein (1992) and Zimmerman (1990) defined
empowerment by the absence or low levels of normlessness, powerlessness, social
isolation, and helplessness. Critical components of empowerment include
participation, control, and critical awareness. Community coalition and other strategic
alliances such as networks, consortia, leadership councils, and citizen panels
exemplify the “empowering” process. Members pool their individual resources to
develop a critical mass in leveraging community change. Important benefits result
from participating if the group climate is supportive of members, the group is highly
committed to the work, and the group has a strong identification with its community.

Evaluation of Community Health Interventions

Evaluation of the success of community interventions has resulted in mixed findings.

Multiple factors may account for the inconsistency in success of community
interventions, including methodological or implementation concerns and
measurement issues. Difficulties in detecting outcomes often stem from issues such as
random assignment, appropriate control sites, and measuring intermediate and long-
term outcomes. Difficulties in producing effective outcomes may also result from a
lack of use of “best practices” and difficulty implementing intervention strategies.

Conclusions

Community interventions are popular because they have the potential to improve
health above and beyond what can be achieved by individual approaches alone.
Indeed, part of the rationale underlying the efficacy of community intervention is the
belief that changing the community at large is a more cost-effective means of
achieving societal health goals then reaching individuals one person at a time. Also,
community interventions have the potential advantage of delivering beneficial
programs both to those who explicitly desire assistance as well as those who could
benefit from intervention but who do not know they could benefit or who do not have
access through more traditional service delivery mechanisms.