CHAPTER-6

Attitude and Social Cognition

Nature and Components of Attitude
Attitude is defined as the way in which we perceive the world around us and more
specifically it can be defined as our opinion, state of mind, and views on a particular
topic called attitude object.

Three components of Attitude:

 Affective component: It is defined as our feelings about the attitude object.

 Behavioural component: It is defined as a predisposition to act towards the
attitude object in a certain manner.
 Cognitive component: It is defined as our beliefs about the attitude object.

There is a clear distinction between attitude, beliefs, and values:

 Beliefs are defined as the cognitive component of attitude and they lay the
foundation of attitude. For example, Belief in God
 Values are ethics and moral values that have a should or an ought aspect. For
example, Honesty, Integrity, etc.

Features Of Attitude
There are various features of attitude. The four significant features of attitudes are
explained as follows:

1. Valence (Positivity/Negativity) clearly exhibits whether our attitude towards

the attitude object is positive or negative in nature.
2. Extremeness tells us if an attitude is positive or negative.
3. Simplicity or complexity (Multiplexity) tells the number of attitudes present
within a broader attitude. Attitude can be simple if it has only one attitude and
it can be complex as well if it comprises several attitudes within a broader
attitude.
4. Centrality defines the role of a particular attitude in the attitude system and
how it impacts the other attitudes in the attitude system.

Attitude Formation and Change

Humans acquire attitudes in various ways. The Attitude Formation and Change for
Attitude and Social Cognition is:

Process of Attitude Formation

1. Learning attitudes by Association: This is definitely evident when a student
likes a subject because he/she likes the teacher teaching that subject. Thus,
this positive association also helps the students in learning the subject.

2. Learning attitudes through Exposure to Information: Attitudes are also

learned by exposure to information apart from the physical presence of
others. For example, Reading about Relationships would help us in
understanding it’s importance in our life.

3. Learning attitudes by Group or Cultural Norms: We learn attitudes through

Group/Cultural Norms. Norms are unwritten social rules which everyone is
supposed to adhere to under specific situations. Doing prayer daily is a must
in some religions and children by seeing their parents doing prayer daily,
develop a positive attitude towards prayer.
4. Learning attitudes through Modelling: We also learn attitudes by observing
others. For example, children can learn generosity by observing the pro-social
Behaviour of their parents.

5. Learning attitudes through Reward/Punishment: If a child is appreciated for

his/her particular attitude, then he/she will continue it further. For example,
rewarding a child when he scores good marks in exams: Whereas if a child is
reprimanded for spending too much time on. Social media, then he/she will
develop a negative attitude towards it.

Factors that Influence Attitude Formation

Attitude formation takes place through many factors like Modelling,
Reward/Punishment, and Association. Other Factors that influence Attitude
Formation are explained as follows:

1. Family and School Environment is important for attitude formation in

childhood and adolescence.

2. Reference Groups indicate norms about acceptable behaviour and ways of

thinking in society.

3. Personal Experiences play a crucial role in attitude formation. For Example, if

raj was provided emotional support by his friend in times of need, then it is
 most likely that raj will develop trust in people and will be there for others in
times of need.

4. Media Related Influences have become an important factor in influencing

attitude formation especially in times of technological advancement as audio-
visual media and the internet have become very powerful sources of attitude
formation. For Example, If the media highlights the high recovery rate of
coronavirus then people will be less scared and more relaxed.

Process of Attitude Change

The process of Attitude Change has been studied and theorized by many
researchers. The major theories are explained as follows-

Balance Theory
This theory was proposed by Fritz Heider. It can be described in the form of a P-O-X
triangle where P is the person whose attitude is being studied, O is the other person
and X is the attitude object. Balance is crucial as imbalance would be logically
uncomfortable. As per this theory, the balance would be attained-

1. When all the three sides of the P-O-X triangle are positive.
2. When two sides of a P-O-X triangle are negative and one side is positive.

For example, If P has a positive attitude towards Counselling in times of

Psychological distress (X), then( P-X) is positive but if O has a negative attitude
towards X then side (O-X) is negative but at last P and O are good friends then side
(P-O) is positive. Here, the two sides are positive and one side is negative which
implies imbalance and for creating balance O will have to develop a positive attitude
towards X.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

 It was proposed by Leon Festinger
 Here the main emphasis is laid on the Cognitive component of the attitude
and it should be consonant which means that they should be logically in line
with each other.

For example, Cognition 1: One must not smoke. Cognition 2: I like to smoke. Here,
both the Cognitions are dissonant that are not logically in line with each other.

 In order to attain Cognitive Consonance, the person in the given case should
either stop drinking or shouldn’t preach that one must not drink alcohol.
  Both Balance theory and Cognitive Dissonance Theory are examples of
Cognitive consistency, that is the Cognitions must move in the same
direction. Cognitive Dissonance leads to mental discomfort.

Two-step Theory
The two-step theory was proposed by Indian Psychologist S.M Mohsin. Attitude
change takes place in two steps: 

1. The target of change identifies with the source and the target is the one
whose attitude has to be changed and the source is the one through which the
attitude of the target will change. Identification is the process in which the
target of change identifies with the source and has regard for the same
2. The source shows the change in his/her attitude by changing the Behaviour
towards attitude object and target also changes attitude by observing the
source.

For example, If Sarthak’s favourite cricketer advertises cola and thus, Sarthak will
also start drinking cola. Here the target of change is Sarthak and the source of
change is his favourite cricketer. If the cricketer realizes that cola and other soft
drinks are not good for his fans then he will bring a change in his own attitude and
stop advertising cola and thus, Sarthak will stop drinking cola as well.

Factors that Influence Attitude Change

Since humans are easily affected by multiple factors that can influence our attitude.
Some of the major factors that influence Attitude Change for Attitude and Social
Cognition are:

Characteristics of the Existing Attitude

 There are 4 properties of existing attitude namely valence(positive/negative),
simplicity or complexity, extremeness, and centrality play an important role in
influencing attitude change.
 A positive attitude is very easy to change as compared to a negative attitude
and extreme and complex attitudes are difficult to change as well.
 Attitude change can be congruent which implies that a Positive attitude can
become more positive and vice-versa.
 Attitude change may be incongruent when it takes place in a direction
opposite to that of the existing attitude which implies that a Positive attitude
may become negative and vice-versa.

Source Characteristics 
  Source attractiveness and source credibility are two important factors that
influence Attitude Change.
 Attitude change is most likely to happen when the information comes from a
highly credible and attractive source as compared to a less credible and
attractive source.

Message Characteristics 
 attitudes will change when the amount of information that is given is
sufficient enough.
 Whether the message contains an emotional appeal or rational appeal does
make a difference in influencing attitude change.
 The motive and mode of the message are crucial as well.

Target Characteristics
 Characteristics of target like persuadability, intelligence, and self-esteem
determine attitude change.
 People who are flexible, open, and broad-minded accept changes in their
attitude as compared to people who have rigid and flexible approaches.

Attitude Behaviour Relationship

There would be consistency between attitudes and behaviours when:

1. When a particular attitude occupies a central place in the attitude system.

2. When a person is not evaluated by others
3. Absence of any kind of external pressure to behave in a specific way.
4. When the person is aware of his/her attitude.
5. When an individual would believe that a particular individual would have a
positive impact.

Prejudice And Discrimination

Let’s check the next topic under Attitude and Social Cognition class 12 notes,
Prejudice and discrimination. The stereotype is defined as a collection of ideas about
a specific group and all members belonging to the stereotyped group are assumed
to possess those characteristics. Prejudice is defined as an unverified negative
attitude towards a group. Hatred is its affective component and Discrimination is the
behavioural component of prejudice.

Social Psychologists have come up with the following sources of prejudice:

Learning Prejudice can be learned through reward/punishment, Modelling, and Reference G
prejudiced person does harbor resentment and hostility towards the outgroup.
A strong social Identity Individuals who have a strong sense of social identity and a positive attitude towa
and In group Bias group to which they belong boosts their ego and thus they hold negative attitudes
other groups.
Scapegoating The majority group places blame on the minority group for their socio-economic
because the minority group may be weak or small in number.
Kernel Of Truth Small components of truth about a particular group can be overemphasized, leadi
prejudice towards that group.
Self Fulfilling Prophecy  The group which is the target of prejudice at times is itself responsible for prejudi
as it behaves in such a way that conforms to negative expectations about them.
Strategies for Handling Prejudice
Even though prejudice can easily cloud our judgement, there are ways to handle
prejudice. The following are the strategies to handle prejudice for Attitude and Social
Cognition class 12 notes:

 Minimising opportunities for learning prejudices

 Changing such attitudes
 De- emphasizing the narrow social identity of the group

The above-mentioned strategies can be effectively accomplished through the

following steps:

1. Education and Dissemination of information will help in tackling prejudice and

stereotypes towards the specific target groups
2. Increasing intergroup contact will facilitate direct communication, removal of
misunderstandings between the groups and this can be successful only when
the group members meet in a cooperative context.
3. Highlighting the individual identity rather than group identity will help in
properly understanding the person of the specific target group.

Social Cognition

The concept of social cognition is explained as follows-

1. Social Cognition refers to the process of gathering and analysing information

regarding social objects and it includes all the processes which help in
understanding, interpreting social behaviour.
2. Social cognition is guided by mental units known as schemas.
3. Schemas are mental structures that provide guidelines about processing
information about any object and they reduce the time and effort required in
cognition
4. Schemas that function in the form of categories are termed Prototypes.
Impression Formation and Explaining Behaviour of Others
through Attribution
Let’s check the next topic under Attitude and Social Cognition class 12 notes which
is Impression formation. The person who forms the impression is known as the
perceiver and the person about whom the impression is formed is known as the
target. The perceiver attributes the causes for the target’s behaviour and thus,
explains the reason why the target behaved in a particular way. Factors that
influence impression formation and attribution are explained as follows-

 Situational Factors.
 Nature of information available to the perceiver.
 The personality of the perceiver.
 Social Schemas in the perceiver.

Process of Impression Formation:

 Selection-The perceiver gathers some bits of information about the target.

 Organization-The perceiver systematically combines the information.
 Inference – the perceiver concludes the target that what kind of a person
he/she is.

The sequence in which the information is presented also determines the impression
formation:

 Primacy effect: the information presented first has a stronger influence and

impact than the information which is presented at the end.
 Recency effect: the information presented last has a stronger influence and
impact than the information which is presented first.
 Halo Effect: we have a tendency to think that if a person has a particular set
of positive qualities then he/she must be having other positive qualities too.

Attribution of Causality
Attribution is defined as the process of assigning causes to a person’s behaviour in a
specific situation and the causes assigned may be classified as internal
causes(within the person) and external causes(situational factor).

 Fundamental Attribution Error

In a specific situation while assigning causes to a person’s behaviour more focus is

laid on the internal factors of the individual than on the external factors
  Actor Observer Effect

There is a clear distinction between the attribution made for one’s own positive and
negative experiences and others’ positive and negative experiences. The main
reason for the actor-observer effect is that a person desires to have a nice image of
himself/herself in front of others.

Behaviour in Presence of Others

The mere presence of others brings a drastic change in our performance and this is
called social facilitation. Norman Triplet observed Social Facilitation in 1897 when
he saw that a cyclist’s speed was higher when he was cycling in a group as
compared to solo cycling. When the person fears being evaluated in front of others it
is known as evaluation apprehension. Reasons why Social facilitation happens:

 Person experiences arousal and because of that work is carried out more
intensely.
 The nature of the task to be performed in the presence of others determines
our performance.
 When other presents are also performing the same task, is a situation of co-
action.

Social Loafing is observed When there a large number of people present in a group
then all of them will take less effort if they are performing something together and
this is based on diffusion of responsibility.

Pro-Social Behaviour
Attitude and Social Cognition also includes the detailed topic of pro-social behaviour,
The concept of Pro-Social Behaviour refers to the behaviour in which an individual
does good for others without expecting anything in return. It is also known as
Altruism and can’t be done by exerting pressure on an individual. The Factors
influencing Prosocial Behaviour

 Prosocial behaviour is activated by learning. For example, if the family

emphasizes being kind and generous, then children from such families will be
altruistic.
 Social norms must be kept in mind while helping others.
 Social Responsibility-Duty to help others in times of need.
 Reciprocity: Helping those who have helped us in the past.
 Equity: Help when it is fair to do so.
 Prosocial behaviour will be exhibited by those who are very empathetic,i.e.
Who can feel the distress of others.
  Prosocial behaviour may be reduced when there are many bystanders.
 For example, A road accident victim usually doesn’t get help as there are
many people surrounding him/her and others passing by thinking that he/she
will get help. This is called Diffusion Of Responsibility

NCERT Solutions
Define attitude. Discuss the components of an attitude.
Attitude is defined as how we perceive the world around us and more specifically it
can be defined as our opinion, state of mind, and views on a particular topic called
attitude object

What are the factors that influence the formation of an attitude?

Factors that influence the formation of an attitude are Family and School
environment, Reference Groups, Personal Experiences, and Media-Related Influences

Describe the important factors that influence impression formation.

Ans 3 Factors that influence impression formation and attribution are explained as
follows:
– Situational Factors
– Nature of information available to the perceiver
– Personality of the perceiver
– Social Schemas in the perceiver