An attitude is composed of three distinct elements: an affective component, which involves feelings and emotions; a behavioral component, which relates to how the attitude influences actions; and a cognitive component, which encompasses beliefs and knowledge about the attitude object.

Three Components of Attitude

A marketing team is reviewing customer feedback for a new smartphone. One customer wrote, "I am extremely frustrated with the short battery life of this phone; it's a major design flaw." Based on this statement, what is the primary attitude object?

Any target of judgment that has an attitude associated with it. Attitude objects may be people, social groups, policy positions, abstract concepts, or physical objects.

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General evaluations of people, groups, objects, concepts, or issues that last over time. They can range from positive to negative.

Attitudes in Social Psychology

APA Dictionary. Attitude Object. In dictonary.apa.org dictionary. Retrieved April 9, 2022, from https://dictionary.aa.org/attitudeobject

Attitude Object

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Biased attitudes or feelings about a person or group based on preconceptions rather than prior experience.  

Prejudice

Behavior that is inconsistent with an attitude. For example, having a negative attitude toward a news anchor but continuing to watch their news is considered counterattitudinal behavior. 

Counterattitudinal Behavior

Behavior that is consistent with an attitude. For example, having a positive attitude towards a news anchor and continuing to watch their news is considered proattitudinal behavior. 

Proattitudinal Behavior 

The extent to which behavior toward an attitude object is consistent with the attitude associated with that object. Positive attitudes are associated with approach behaviors; negative attitudes are associated with withdrawal behaviors.

Attitude-behavior Consistency 

An individual’s positive psychological state of development.

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