EDUCATION MATERIAL

1. ATTITUDE
AND
BMT

2.  Definition
 Theories
 BMT
 Factors affecting attitude

3. Attitudes
 Attitudes are defined as “predispositions towards
action, about or toward people and things,
evaluation of people, objects and ideas, and made up
of emotional reactions, thoughts and beliefs, and
action components.
 They can be learned or genetic and are sometimes
impossible to change.

4. Attitudes
According to Triandis (1971), attitudes have three components:
1. a cognitive component
2. an affective component, and
3. a behavioral component.

5. Functions of Attitudes
 Value-Expressive function
 enable us to express who we are and what we believe in
 Ego-defensive function
 enable us to project internally-held conflicts onto others (e.g.,
homophobia)
 Knowledge function
 enable us to know the world
 Utilitarian Function
 Enable us to gain rewards and avoid punishment

9. Heider’s Balance Theory
Heider’s (1958) cognitive consistency theory suggests:
 There is a need to maintain balance in any given
triad (Person X, Person Y, Object or Person O).
 A positive (+) relationship between two people (X,
Y) and a + relationship to the object or other
person (O) results in balance.

10. Heider’s Balance Theory
 A positive (+) relationship between two people (X,
Y) who have a negative relationship to another
person/object (O) results in imbalance. This
results in pressure to restore balance.
 Heider uses an algebraic formula to identify when
relationships are balanced or not.
 Eight different configurations can be made using positive and
negative relationships

11. Festinger’s (1957) Cognitive Dissonance theory
 In order to maintain consistency among our
beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors, we use
certain mechanisms when conflict arises.
 Rather than being in a state of imbalance or
dissonance, we want to restore balance and have
consonance.

12. Theories of Attitude Change: The Yale Attitude
Change Approach (Hovland, et al. 1953)
 Source – originator of communication
 Message – features of communication itself
 Audience – characteristics of who is receiving the
message

13. Theories of Attitude Change: The Yale Attitude
Change Approach (Hovland, et al. 1953)
 Characteristics of Source
 Credibility
 Expertise
 Trustworthiness
 Attractiveness
 Similarity
 Appearance

14. Theories of Attitude Change: The Yale Attitude
Change Approach (Hovland, et al. 1953)
 Message Factors
 One-sided vs. Two-sided messages
 Order of messages
 Primacy Effects
 Recency Effects
 Repetition

15. Theories of Attitude Change: The Yale Attitude
Change Approach (Hovland, et al. 1953)
 Characteristics of Audience
 Distraction
 Intelligence
 Self-Esteem
 Age (18-25 year olds most susceptible)

16. Theories of Attitude Change: Bem’s
(1965) Self Perception Theory
People infer their attitudes from their
behaviour

17. Petty & Cacioppo’s (1986) Elaboration Likelihood
(dual-process) Model of Persuasion (ELM)
Central route to persuasion occurs when we
think critically about message content and are
swayed by the strength and quality of its
arguments.
Peripheral route to persuasion occurs when we
do not do much thinking but are swayed by
employing heuristics on the basis of non-content
cues (e.g., “experts know best”)

18. The Elaboration-Likelihood Model of
Persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986)
Persuasive
Communication
Ability & Motivation
to pay attention?
No
Yes
Central Route to
Persuasion
Peripheral Route
To persuasion
Attitude Change

19. Values
 Attitudes and values are closely linked.
 Rokeach (1968, 1971, 1973) has argued that people’s
values are also important as a predictor of behavior.
 Values are seen as more fundamental than attitudes and are
more stable and long lasting.

20. Factors Influencing Attitude
 Factors influencing attitude are beliefs, feelings, and
action tendencies of an individual or group of
individuals towards objects, ideas, and people.
 Quite often persons and objects or ideas become
associated in the minds of individuals and as a result,
attitudes become multidimensional and complex.
 Attitudes involve some knowledge of a situation.

21.  Social Factors.
 Direct Instruction.
 Family.
 Prejudices.
 Personal Experience.
 Media.
 Educational and Religious Institutions.
 Physical Factors.
 Economic Status and Occupations
Factors Influencing Attitude

22. BMT

23. Behavior Therapies
 Behavior therapy is therapy based on the principles
of learning, such as the classical and operant
conditioning principles discussed earlier in semester.
 Insight or understanding are not goals of behavior
therapy; behavior change and symptom relief are the
goals.

24. Therapies based on the principles of learning
 classical conditioning
 operant conditioning
 Cognitive learning

25. Therapy Based on Classical Conditioning:
Systematic Desensitization
 Based on the assumption that you cannot
simultaneously be anxious and relaxed. Learn
to associate the feared stimulus with a
relaxation response to change the
conditioning.
 First, anxiety hierarchy created, from least
feared to most feared stimuli; progressive
relaxation is taught. Then, therapist helps pt.
work his/her way up the anxiety hierarchy
until they can imagine each stimulus and
remain relaxed at the same time.

26. Therapy Based on Classical Conditioning:
Flooding
 Another form of counterconditioning (changing
the conditioning that has paired anxiety or fear
with a given stimuli, such as a spider) is flooding.
 In flooding, the person is exposed to the feared
stimulus all at once for a long period of time until
the connection between the stimuli and fear is
broken (extinction takes place).

27. Therapy Based on Classical Conditioning:
Aversive Conditioning
 Aversive conditioning occurs when the therapist
tries to associate an unpleasant state with an
unwanted behavior.
 Examples include associating nausea with alcohol
use (An abuse), or associating shocks with
inappropriate arousal in sex offenders.
 Usually not effective in the long term, so often used
in conjunction with other methods if used at all.

28. Therapy Based on Operant Conditioning:
Behavior Modification
 In behavior modification, reinforcers or punishers
are used consistently to reward desired behavior or
punish unwanted behavior.
 One example of a reinforcing is when a token
economy is used; this means that each good
behavior gets a small token that can be saved and
later spent as money to buy various rewards.
 A-B-C analysis (smoking)

29. Cognitive Therapies
 Cognitive therapists believe that our thoughts
about ourselves and others impact on our feelings
and behavior; it is not the things that happen but
our interpretation of those things that cause us
pain, problems.
 Often, they work to help people change their “self-
talk,” or internal dialogue, making it less negative
and more positive.
 Often used to treat depression.
 Eg :Rational emotive therapy, beck’s cognitive
therapy and self instructional training