Functions, structure and types of social attitudes. Social setting

Are you here: Individual protection means

Social attitudes V social psychology denote the subjective orientations of individuals as members of groups (or society) towards certain values that prescribe for individuals certain socially accepted ways of behavior.

In the 20th century Smith determined social attitude as “the disposition of the individual, according to which the tendencies of his thoughts, feelings and possible actions are organized in relation to the social object.”

Smith identified 3 components in his approach attitude (disposition, installation):

· Cognitive(knowledge about an object) - is associated with the formation of a stereotype, a construct, simply with the assignment of an object of knowledge to a certain category.

· Affective- “responsible” for the formation of prejudice towards an object or, conversely, its attractiveness.

· Conative (behavioral)- determines the way behavior is included in the process of social cognition.

There is disagreement about the relationship between the components of the installation. Some authors argue that there is a very close agreement between them, others believe that this is not supported by empirical data. Controversy is also raised by the question of the role of various components: is the central link of the attitude the emotion about a situation or object, and the selection and mobilization of knowledge is carried out in accordance with the emotional experience, as if by its “order” or, on the contrary, knowledge dominates in the attitude. V.A. Yadov proceeds in his dispositional concept. The main idea underlying this concept is that a person has a complex system of various dispositional formations that regulate his behavior and activities. These dispositions are organized hierarchically, i.e. lower and higher levels can be designated. Determination of the levels of dispositional regulation of an individual’s social behavior is carried out on the basis of D.N.’s scheme. Uznadze, according to which an attitude always arises in the presence of a certain need, on the one hand, and a situation of satisfying this need, on the other. However, designated by D.N. Uznadze’s attitudes arose during the “meeting” of only elementary human needs and quite simple situations to satisfy them.

Personality orientation

Under N.l. is understood as a set of dominant needs, interests, motives, goals and values of an individual, serving as a guideline for his social activity. K.K. Platonov considered N.l. as one of the substructures of personality, which is its highest level and includes drives, interests, inclinations, ideals, worldview and beliefs.

The orientation of the individual acts as a system-forming property of the individual, which determines his psychological make-up. Direction expresses the goals of the individual, his motives, his subjective attitudes towards various aspects of reality. In broad terms, orientation is the ratio of what a person receives and takes from society (material and spiritual values) to what she gives him and contributes to his development. N.l. is formed in the process of its development in the system of social relations. The orientation of the individual determines how the individual participates in social processes(promotes their development, counteracts, inhibits or evades). N.l. is partially characterized by the need-motivational sphere of the individual, which is the initial link of orientation. Based on the orientation of the individual, his life goals are formed, which act as a general generator of all private goals of the individual associated with individual activities. N.l. - this is an already established system of her most important target programs, which determines the semantic unity of her proactive behavior, resisting the accidents of existence. N.l. always socially conditioned and formed in the process of education.

Orientation is attitudes that have become a property of the individual and manifest themselves in such various forms as attraction, desire, aspiration, interest, inclination, ideals, worldview, and belief.

Attraction is the most primitive, inherently biological form of orientation. From a psychological point of view, it is a mental state that expresses an undifferentiated, unconscious or insufficiently conscious need.

Desire is a conscious need and attraction to something specific. Desire, being conscious, has a motivating force. It sharpens the consciousness of a future goal and the construction of a plan.

The next form of focus is aspiration. Aspiration arises when a volitional component is included in the structure of desire. Therefore, desire is often considered as a very specific motivation for activity.

The orientation of a person is most clearly characterized by her interests. Interests are a specific form of manifestation of cognitive needs, ensuring that the individual is focused on understanding the goals of the activity and thereby contributes to the individual’s orientation in the surrounding reality. Subjectively, interest is revealed in the emotional tone that accompanies the process of cognition or attention to a certain object. One of the most significant characteristics of interest is that when it is satisfied, it does not fade away, but, on the contrary, evokes new interests that correspond to a higher level of cognitive activity.

Interest in the dynamics of its development can turn into an inclination. This happens when the volitional component is included in interest. Propensity characterizes an individual’s focus on certain activities. The basis of the inclination is the deep, stable need of the individual for a particular activity, i.e. interest in a certain type of activity. It is generally accepted that the emerging inclination can be considered as a prerequisite for the development of certain abilities.

The next form of manifestation of personality orientation is the ideal. An ideal is the objective goal of an individual’s inclination, concretized in an image or representation, i.e. what he strives for, what he focuses on. A person’s ideals can act as one of the most significant characteristics of a person’s worldview, i.e. systems of views on the objective world, on the place of man in it, on man’s relationship to the surrounding reality and to himself.

Beliefs - the highest form of orientation - are a system of individual motives that encourage him to act in accordance with his views, principles, and worldview. Beliefs are based on conscious needs that encourage a person to act and form his motivation for activity.

Orientation is the leading, system-forming component of the psychological makeup of the individual, because all others, one way or another, work for it. In its prepersonal form, orientation in the form of a set of innate biological needs begins to determine the external and internal activity of a child even when he does not have even a hint of a general understanding of the world, but also an adult’s need for a much greater to a greater extent determine his comprehension of reality, than this comprehension - his needs.

The orientation of the individual, along with character, are regulators of human behavior with ready-made information content. The personality needs a constant influx of new information, its analysis, recoding and use as signals that control the body. One of complex elements personality structures that serve this purpose are abilities.

A concept that to a certain extent explains the choice of motive that prompts a person to act is the concept social attitude.

The installation problem was the subject of research at the school of D. N. Uznadze.

D. Uznadze defined the installation as a holistic dynamic state of an object, a state of readiness for a certain activity.

This state is determined by the factors of the subject’s needs and the corresponding objective situation.

The disposition to behave in order to satisfy a given need and in a given situation can be reinforced if the situation is repeated, then a fixed installation as opposed to situational.

The installation in the context of D. Uznadze’s concept concerns the issue of implementing the simplest physiological needs person.

The idea of identifying special states of a person that precede his actual behavior is present among many researchers.

This range of issues was considered I. N. Myasishchev in his human relationship concept.

The relationship, understood “as a system of temporary connections of a person as a personality of a subject with all of reality or with its individual aspects,” explains the direction of the future behavior of the individual.

The tradition of studying social attitudes has developed in Western social psychology and sociology.

The term “attitude” is used to denote social attitudes.

In 1918 W. Thomas And F. Znaniecki established two dependencies, without which it was impossible to describe the adaptation process: the interdependence of the individual and the social organization.

They proposed to characterize both sides of the above relationship using the concepts of “social value” (to characterize a social organization) and “social setting”, “attitude” (to characterize an individual).

For the first time, the concept of attitude was introduced - “the state of consciousness of an individual regarding some social value.”

After the discovery of the attitude phenomenon, a boom in its research began.

Several different interpretations attitude: a certain state of consciousness and nervous system, expressing readiness to react, organized on the basis of previous experience, exerting a directing and dynamic influence on behavior.

The main method used was various scales proposed L. Turnstone .

Attitude functions:

1) adaptive (adaptive)– the attitude directs the subject to those objects that serve to achieve his goals;

2) knowledge function– attitude gives simplified instructions regarding the method of behavior in relation to a specific object;

3) expression function (self-regulation function)– attitude acts as a means of freeing the subject from internal tension, expressing oneself as an individual;

4) protection function– attitude contributes to the resolution of internal conflicts of the individual.

In 1942 M. Smith the structure of the attitude is defined:

1) cognitive component (awareness of the object of social installation);

2) affective component ( emotional assessment object);

3) behavioral component (sequential behavior in relation to an object).

Stereotype- this is an excessive generalization of a phenomenon that turns into a stable belief and influences a person’s system of relationships, modes of behavior, thought processes, judgments, etc.

The process of forming stereotypes is called stereotyping.

As a result of stereotyping, a social attitude is formed - a person’s predisposition to perceive something in a certain way and act in one way or another.

Features of the formation of social attitudes are associated with the fact that they have some stability and carry the functions of facilitation, algorithmization, cognition, as well as an instrumental function (introducing the individual to the system of norms and values of a given social environment).

An installation can help to perceive the image of another person more correctly, acting on the principle of a magnifying glass during attraction, or it can block normal perception, obeying the principle of a distorting mirror.

D. N. Uznadze believed that attitude is the basis electoral activity person, and therefore is an indicator of possible directions of activity.

Knowing a person's social attitudes, one can predict his actions.

Changes in attitudes depend on the novelty of information, individual characteristics the subject, the order in which information is received and the system of attitudes that the subject already has.

Since the attitude determines the selective directions of an individual’s behavior, it regulates activity at three hierarchical levels: semantic, target and operational.

On semantic At the level of attitudes, they are of the most general nature and determine the relationship of the individual to objects that have personal significance for the individual.

Target Attitudes are associated with specific actions and a person’s desire to complete the work he has started.

They determine the relatively stable nature of the activity.

If the action is interrupted, then the motivational tension still remains, providing the person with the appropriate readiness to continue it.

The unfinished action effect has been discovered K. Levin and more thoroughly studied in the studies of V. Zeigarnik (Zeigarnik effect).

At the operational level, the attitude determines decision-making in a specific situation, promotes the perception and interpretation of circumstances based on the past experience of the subject’s behavior in a similar situation and the corresponding prediction of the possibilities of adequate and effective behavior.

J. Godefroy identified three main stages in the formation of social attitudes in a person in the process of socialization.

The first stage covers the period of childhood up to 12 years.

The attitudes that develop during this period correspond to the parental models.

From 12 to 20 years of age, attitudes take on a more specific form; their formation is associated with the assimilation social roles.

The third stage covers a period from 20 to 30 years and is characterized by the crystallization of social attitudes, the formation on their basis of a system of beliefs, which is a very stable mental new formation.

By the age of 30, attitudes are highly stable and it is extremely difficult to change them.

Any of the dispositions possessed by a particular subject can change.

The degree of their changeability and mobility depends on the level of a particular disposition: the more complex the social object in relation to which a person has a certain disposition, the more stable it is.

Many different models have been put forward to explain the processes of change in social attitudes.

Most studies of social attitudes are carried out in line with two main theoretical orientations - behaviorist And cognitivist.

In behaviorist-oriented social psychology (research on social attitudes by K. Hovland as an explanatory principle for understanding the fact of changes in attitudes (the designation of “social attitude” in Western social psychology)) the principle of learning is used: a person’s attitudes change depending on how the reinforcement of that attitude is organized or other social attitude.

By changing the system of rewards and punishments, you can influence the nature of the social attitude.

If the attitude is formed on the basis of the previous life experience, then change is possible only under the condition of “switching on” social factors.

The subordination of the social attitude itself to higher levels of dispositions justifies the need, when studying the problem of changing attitudes, to turn to the entire system of social factors, and not just to “reinforcement.”

In the cognitivist tradition, an explanation for changes in social attitudes is given in terms of the so-called correspondence theories of F. Heider, G. Newcomb, L. Festinger, and C. Osgood.

A change in attitude occurs when a discrepancy arises in the cognitive structure of an individual, for example, a negative attitude towards an object collides with a positive attitude towards a person who gives this object a positive characteristic.

The incentive to change the attitude is the individual’s need to restore cognitive conformity, orderly perception outside world.

The phenomenon of social attitudes is determined both by the fact of its functioning in the social system and by the property of regulating the behavior of a person as a being capable of active, conscious, transformative production activity, included in a complex interweaving of connections with other people.

Therefore, in contrast to the sociological description of changes in social attitudes, it is not enough to identify only the totality of social changes that precede and explain the change in attitudes.

These analysis requirements can be met under one condition: when considering the installation in the context of the activity. If a social attitude arises in a certain area human activity, then you can understand its change by analyzing changes in the activity itself.

2. Varieties of social attitudes existing in society

Prejudice– a special type of attitude (mainly negative) towards members of a certain social group.

Discrimination– negative actions directed against these people, attitudes translated into actions.

Prejudice- this is an attitude (usually negative) towards representatives of a social group, based only on their membership in this group.

A person who is prejudiced against a particular social group evaluates its members in a special (usually negative) way based on their membership in this group.

Their personality traits or behavior do not matter.

People who are prejudiced against certain groups often process information about those groups differently than information about other groups.

They pay more attention to information that is consistent with their preconceived views, it is repeated more often, and as a result is remembered more accurately than information that is inconsistent with these views.

If prejudice is a special type of attitude, then it may not only involve a negative evaluation of the group against which it is directed, but also contain the negative feelings or emotions of the people expressing it when they find themselves in the presence of or thinking about members of the group they like. I do not like.

Prejudice may include opinions and expectations about members of different social groups – stereotypes, which assume that all members of these groups exhibit the same traits and behave in the same way.

When people think about prejudice, they usually focus on its emotional or evaluative aspects.

Prejudice is associated with certain aspects social cognition– the ways in which we extract, store, recall, and later use information about other people.

In our attempts to find explanations for various phenomena of the social world, we often use the shortest cognitive shortcuts.

This is usually done when our ability to cope with social information reaches its limit; then we are most likely to rely on stereotypes as mental shortcuts for understanding or forming judgments about other people.

Social attitudes are not always reflected in external actions.

In many cases, people who have negative views of members of various groups may not express these views openly.

Laws, social pressure, fear of retribution - these keep people from openly expressing their prejudices.

Many people who have prejudices feel that overt discrimination is bad and perceive such actions as a violation of personal behavioral standards.

When they notice that they have been discriminated against, they feel a great deal of discomfort.

In recent years, blatant forms of discrimination—negative actions against targets of racial, ethnic, or religious prejudice—have been rare.

The new racism is more subtle, but just as brutal.

Social control is the influence of society on a person’s attitudes, ideas, values, ideals and behavior.

Social control includes expectations, norms And sanctions. Expectations- the requirements of others in relation to a given person, appearing in the form of expectations.

Social norms- patterns that prescribe what people should say, think, feel, do in specific situations.

Social sanction– a measure of influence, the most important means of social control.

Forms of social control– diverse ways of regulating human life in society, which are determined by various social (group) processes.

They predetermine the transition of external social regulation to intrapersonal regulation.

This occurs due to the internalization of social norms.

In the process of internalization, the transfer of social ideas into the consciousness of an individual occurs.

The most common forms of social control are:

1) law– a set of regulations that have legal force and regulate the formal relations of people throughout the state;

2) taboo include a system of prohibitions on the commission of any human actions or thoughts.

Social control is exercised through repetitive, habitual ways of behavior of people common in a given society - customs.

Customs are learned from childhood and have the character of social habit.

The main feature of a custom is its prevalence.

Custom is determined by the conditions of society in this moment time and thus differs from tradition, which is timeless and exists for quite a long time, passed on from generation to generation.

Traditions– such customs that have developed historically in connection with the culture of a given ethnic group; passed on from generation to generation; determined by the mentality of the people.

Customs and traditions cover mass forms behavior and play a huge role in the integration of society.

There are special customs that have moral significance and are associated with the understanding of good and evil in a given social group or society - morality.

Category morals serves to designate customs that have moral significance and characterize all those forms of behavior of people in a particular social stratum that can be subjected to moral assessment.

At the individual level, morals are manifested in a person’s manners and the characteristics of his behavior.

Manners include a set of behavioral habits namely this person or a specific social group.

Habit- an unconscious action that has been repeated so many times in a person’s life that it has become automated.

Etiquette- an established order of behavior, forms of treatment, or a set of rules of behavior relating to the external manifestation of attitude towards people.

Any member of society is under the strongest psychological influence social control, which is not always recognized by the individual due to the processes and results of internalization.

Social norms are certain patterns that prescribe what people should say, think, feel, and do in specific situations.

Most often, norms are established models, standards of behavior from the point of view of not only society as a whole, but also specific social groups.

Norms perform a regulatory function both in relation to to a specific person, and in relation to the group.

A social norm acts as a social phenomenon that does not depend on individual variations.

Most social norms are unwritten rules. Signs of social norms:

1) general significance. Norms cannot apply to only one or a few members of a group or society without affecting the behavior of the majority.

If norms are social, then they are generally valid within the entire society, but if they are group norms, then their general significance is limited to the framework of this group;

2) the possibility of a group or society applying sanctions, rewards or punishments, approval or blame;

3) the presence of a subjective side.

It manifests itself in two aspects: a person has the right to decide for himself whether to accept or not accept the norms of a group or society, to fulfill them or not to fulfill them;

4) interdependence. In society, norms are interconnected and interdependent; they form complex systems regulating people's actions.

Normative systems can be different, and this difference sometimes contains the possibility of conflict, both social and intrapersonal.

Some social norms contradict each other, putting a person in a situation of having to choose;

5) scale. Norms differ in scale into social and group norms.

Social norms operate throughout society and represent forms of social control such as customs, traditions, laws, etiquette, etc.

The effect of group norms is limited to the framework of a specific group and is determined by how it is customary to behave here (mores, manners, group and individual habits).

All procedures by which an individual’s behavior is brought to the norm of a social group are called sanctions. Social sanction is a measure of influence, the most important means of social control.

Types of sanctions: negative And positive e, formal And informal.

Negative sanctions directed against a person who has deviated from social norms.

Positive sanctions are aimed at supporting and approving a person who follows these norms.

Formal sanctions imposed by an official, public or state body or their representative.

Informal usually involve the reaction of group members, friends, colleagues, relatives, etc.

Positive sanctions are usually more influential than negative ones. The impact of sanctions depends on many circumstances, the most important of which is agreement on their application.

Attitude is probably the most characteristic and indispensable concept in modern American social psychology.

G. Allport

Our self-awareness is structured in such a way that we involuntarily evaluate everything we encounter in life, from food to the actions of politicians. Nothing leaves us indifferent; we have our own opinion and position on every issue. However, how does it appear and how is it formed?

Social psychologists have long been interested in people's reactions and their attitudes towards objects, phenomena and other people. In 1918, American and Polish researchers W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki called this attitude attitude. They studied emigrants from Poland through their letters to their homeland. Scientists have found that if the immigrants regarded their life in America as a temporary stay for the purpose of earning money, they found it difficult to adapt and slowly mastered the language and culture of the country. But if the emigrants believed that they had moved to America forever, then all adaptation processes went much faster and more efficiently. This gave rise to scientists to highlight the concept attitude how to relate to your situation in new country, to your tasks in a new place and to other people.

There are many definitions of the term "attitude", but most of them note that people tend to evaluate various aspects social world and treat them in a certain way. In Russian psychological literature, “attitude” is translated as “social attitude.” Despite all the inaccuracy and even inadequacy this term, which contradicts the meaning of attitude phenomena, it is still used in Russia. And today it is an established term with significant research tradition. The attempt of sociologist V. A. Yadov to designate attitudes with a more precise term “position”, unfortunately, did not gain much popularity, since positions in Russian science are consistently associated with a worldview, which constitutes only a part of attitudes. Therefore, we will use both the term “social attitude” and “attitude”, meaning the same thing - evaluative attitude to almost any aspect of the social world.

7.1. On the nature of attitudes

Attitudes are close in their psychological content to the values discussed in the previous chapter. Both influence people's behavior. At the same time, these concepts should be distinguished. We have to separate them, since even in the words used - values and evaluative attitudes - there is a root price. It is also necessary to distinguish one from the other because attitudes and values have different effects on people’s behavior.

Values are present in human consciousness as socially formed and socially approved assessments of life goals and ways to achieve them. They are perceived by people as something stable, permanent, sanctified by tradition and little subject to change. If we talk about their influence on the behavior of an individual, then they rather play the role of a long-term strategy, a kind of general life guidance, than a direct factor that influences specific actions of people. Values are the “bearing support” of moral and regulatory norms of human behavior. Values learned in the process of life are weakly subject to change.

Attitudes cover a much wider class of phenomena, they are individualized and often influence specific human behavior. Under the influence of this attitude, we buy a teapot we like in a store, make our choice in a referendum, and start a long-term relationship (based on the impression from the first meeting). Unlike values, attitudes are perceived as evaluative formations, but less stable and subject to change. We may like a different teapot, additional information may change our mind about the referendum, and we may separate from our prospective spouse forever.

Attitude is an attitude about which a person can say that he does not have a ready-made opinion, does not have sufficient information to make his judgment. Conversely, we can thoughtlessly join thoughts read in books, impressions imposed by advertising, and opinions expressed in news programs. Most of us do just that, because in the modern world it is difficult for a person not to know the opinions of others on the issues that matter most to him. And only in rare cases does a person think and try to form his own attitude towards a particular subject. It is the connection with the actual behavior of people and the susceptibility to change that have made attitudes such a popular subject of research in social psychology. It is not without reason that a significant part of social psychologists believe that the subject of research in our science is the influence on a person’s attitudes, beliefs and actions.

An important feature of attitudes is their versatility. They can simultaneously represent emotions and feelings, knowledge and opinions, as well as behavioral responses or intentions to act in a certain way. This connection between mental structures person and his real actions immediately put attitudes in the first row of research tasks. Less than 20 years after the new term was coined in the mid-1930s. G. Allport, based on a generalization of 16 different definitions of attitude, was able to give his own:

Attitude – it is a state of neuropsychic readiness, organized on the basis of experience and exerting a directing or dynamic influence on the individual's reactions to all objects with which he encounters.

Modern scientists draw attention to the fact that this definition rather refers to the area general psychology than social, since it lacks the most important component - the influence of the social environment and the influence of the situation in which the individual finds himself. Therefore, today, on the one hand, in science there is a huge amount of research on attitude and methods for studying it, and on the other hand, there is an equally impressive discrepancy in the definition of this concept. This fact was noticed by the French researcher Germaine de Montmollin. She argues that the conditions and processes of attitude change are studied widely and seriously, but what exactly an attitude is remains unknown and does not seem to be of particular importance (113, p. 101).

It is quite obvious that attitudes are associated with internal mental processes, but their influence on specific human behavior is different. It is determined by the subject of the attitude. When we want to justify our attitude towards something, we most often resort to value judgments, speaking about the object like this: “In my opinion, it is good, not yet old and looks decent.” This can be said about a person, a car, a dog, a computer, etc. In other words, any object and phenomenon of the social world becomes the subject of an attitude. Implicitly, it is clear to us that there is a significant difference in the content of the mental structures involved between our attitude towards pets or a type of bread and our attitude towards a political party or family planning issues. But both are associated with attitude. Therefore, most psychologists agree on the following understanding of it:

Attitude – it is an evaluative attitude, or psychological tendency, with which qualitatively special entities are evaluated. They contain a positive or negative reaction to something, a certain degree of approval or disapproval.

Social attitudes often function as schemas, or cognitive structures, that contain and organize information about certain concepts, situations, and events. It is the content of people’s social attitudes that can explain their political preferences when choosing candidates for senior government positions, the attractiveness of certain ideas, and the significance of a particular leader. Since the 20s. XX century in American social psychology, thousands of studies have been conducted on various aspects of the influence of relationships on specific behavior of people in different situations, depending on age, gender, education, nationality, religion, and also taking into account many other variables.

The phenomenon of attitude has become a central concept in social psychology and has been studied in various scientific fields. IN behaviorism attitude is viewed as an implicit, mediating response - a hypothetical construct or intermediate variable between the objective stimulus and the external response.

Within cognitive psychology the internal cognitive structure of attitude is studied. Thus, according to M. Rokeach’s definition, a social attitude is a system of views, ideas about an object or situation that is relatively stable over time, predisposing to a certain reaction. According to S. Asch, installation is the organization of experience and knowledge associated with a given object; a hierarchically organized structure, the parts of which function in accordance with their place in the overall structure. According to cognitivism, the role of attitude is to mediate newly received information. In the existing cognitive structure of consciousness (knowledge system), attitudes are energetically “charged” and create the dynamics of personality development.

IN psychoanalysis 3. Freud put forward the thesis that an attitude does not have its own energetic charge, but can regulate existing psychoenergetics. Installation performs special role, it contributes both to the emergence of tension of individual motives and to the resolution of specific conflicts between motives.

IN symbolic interactionism the concept of attitude is considered as a mechanism for the formation of the “I-concept”, which is formed on the basis of the internalization of other people’s attitudes. A person’s attitude towards himself is a general stable coordinate system around which all other attitudes are located. G. Kelman (N. Kelman, 1968) identified the presence of three processes that contribute to this stability: submission, identification, internalization. Subordination is a process in which an attitude is maintained under the influence of external control. Identification is a process aimed at maintaining social connections. Internalization gives stability to the attitude and is explained by the fact that the object of the attitude itself has personal meaning for the individual, regardless of external control or approval from society (210, pp. 105-107).

Speaking about the relationship between values and attitudes, we can say that values are more stable in nature and are determined by the culture of the society in which the individual lives. Attitudes are the result of psychological processes of personality development, the history of her life path and the social situations she encountered. The susceptibility of attitudes to fairly rapid change is an important aspect. If values practically do not change, only their priority changes as social development, That change in attitudes has been the subject of almost all research in recent years. In the modern world, the media and advertising leave little room for the individual to make his own judgment because we are constantly told what other people think about most issues. Imposing someone else's opinion requires us to be attentive, legible and responsible when making decisions.

7.2. Features of the formation of installations

It is quite obvious that social experience plays a large role in the formation of a system of relations. We may or may not like politicians, actors, fad diets, medications advertised on television, or the sight of couples kissing in public. One way or another, we acquire most of our evaluative attitudes throughout our lives. Therefore, social attitudes can be considered acquired.

At the same time, in recent years, social psychologists have also turned to the study of genetic factors that can influence the content of attitudes. For example, the attitudes of identical twins who were raised apart were compared. The similarity of their relationships and the coincidence of most attitudes indicate that genetics influences the formation of a system of social attitudes (34, p. 183).

The system of a person’s relationships with other people, objects and phenomena is built on feelings, knowledge, habitual behavior and depends on genetic factors. We like or dislike certain people and objects, but we cannot always clearly explain why. Even in the case when, on a rational level, we consider a politician’s candidacy for a high post not entirely suitable, this makes us dislike her less. This led American psychologists to believe that people vote with their hearts rather than with their minds. They are more concerned with the feelings they have for the candidate than with knowledge of what policies the candidate is going to pursue. Scientists estimate that approximately a third of the electorate actually knows nothing about specific politicians, but nevertheless feels strongly about them strong feelings! (12, p. 218). In Russia, this percentage may be even higher, and emotional choices are made even more often than in the United States.

The strongest emotions in people are caused by topics that are not recommended by etiquette for discussion at the table, namely politics, sex and religion. It is in these areas that attitudes are based on human emotions. In this case, attitudes are formed under the influence of values, moral and religious beliefs that are present in the family, discussed in schools, and pronounced on the TV screen.

Additionally, emotional responses to taste, color, smell, and appearance can also influence relationship formation. Most people enjoy the look of a cake decorated with cream roses, despite the catastrophic amount of fat and sugar it contains. The cake and the smell of vanilla reminds you of a birthday in childhood, the atmosphere of a holiday, the pleasant anticipation of gifts and the arrival of guests. In psychology, this phenomenon is called classical conditioning.

Classical conditioning – This is an emotional reaction to a neutral stimulus, which for a long time accompanied events, phenomena, objects or people that were significant to the individual, as a result of which it acquired their emotional qualities.

The smell of a Christmas tree, the sight of a bottle of champagne or colored eggs, or the sounds of familiar music have such emotional meanings for us. U politicians a well-chosen image, characteristic words and expressions, manner of speaking, etc. can be used as classical conditioning. It is important to note that classical conditioning can operate subconsciously, which is often used in information and journalistic programs.

Here's one study that looked at subconscious conditioning. Students were offered photographs to view stranger who was doing everyday things: shopping in a store or walking down the street. While viewing, other photographs appeared literally momentarily, which it was known that they would definitely cause either a positive or negative reaction. Moreover, their appearance was so brief that the participants in the experiment did not have time to notice them. The results showed that people did not pay attention to the use of additional photographs. Nevertheless, these photographs (the newlyweds laughing and the sight of open heart surgery) influenced the participants' value judgment and attitude towards the stranger. Those who were shown “nice” photographs expressed more favorable judgments about the stranger. Those who saw the “unpleasant” photographs expressed unfavorable judgments. These studies have shown that attitudes can be influenced by subconscious factors.

Instrumental, or operant conditioning is another type of reaction. It also begins to form in childhood. Each of us has at least once met a kind of “little sage” who reasons and speaks like an adult. This behavior always evokes the tenderness and delight of adults and the approving smiles of parents. A child, trying to receive praise, expresses adult thoughts that actually represent the family’s views on certain phenomena and objects: for example, that a Toyota is much more economical than a Ford, and a parliamentary republic is better than a presidential republic, since it is less threatened by degeneration dictatorship. In fact, the child does not know any of this; he borrows the words and attitudes of adults, who play an active role in the formation of children's ideas and systems of value judgments.

Instrumental conditioning– it is a process in which people voluntarily perform certain actions depending on the expected reward or punishment.

Instrumental attitudes can be called borrowed, since they are formed under the influence of situations of parental approval or disapproval. In this way, children are made to understand what is and is not possible. This is an important aspect of education, since actions that lead to positive results want to be repeated again and again. By rewarding children with a smile, praise or exclamation of approval, we play an active role in the formation of children's social attitudes, a system of relationships to various objects of the social world.

Another mechanism for the formation of attitudes is imitation, which is due to the fact that we all learn to behave by example. This principle also works when parents do not set themselves the goal of conveying certain views to their children. By observing the actions of others, we adopt forms of behavior, thoughts and feelings expressed and expressed on this or that occasion, even if they were not intended for children's ears. Children imitate their parents more often than the latter would like. Thus, you can prohibit children from smoking, but the sight of smoking parents or other significant adults can shape positive attitude to smoking.

Many attitudes are formed through the process of social learning, consciously or subconsciously. But this is not the only way. Mechanisms for forming attitudes include social comparison– the tendency to compare oneself with other people in order to determine the correctness or incorrectness of one’s thoughts, feelings and actions. Depending on the extent to which our views on social reality are consistent with the views of other people, we draw a conclusion about the accuracy of our ideas and attitudes. Moreover, the mechanism of social comparison works depending on the situation in which the assessment takes place. Most often, our attitudes are formed on the basis of direct experience and influence our behavior much more strongly than attitudes formed on the basis of information sources. They are easier to recall, and this enhances their influence on behavior.

Thus, attitudes can be formed through procedures of classical, instrumental and subconscious conditioning, as well as through imitation and social comparison.

7.5.2. Motives for message processing

Social psychologists, when studying message processing motivation, have concluded that people who spend time processing messages are motivated by accuracy, security, and reciprocity. Let's try to explain this situation.

Motivation for accuracy of judgments. Most often, a person considers the arguments presented in a message out of a desire to form a more accurate idea of how one should treat a particular fact, phenomenon, political idea or policy. This is especially important when the information is directly related to a person, when he is personally involved in the process. Only when strongly interested does a person make an effort to critically evaluate the arguments contained in the message. When engagement is low, when the topic of the message is not important or relatable, a person relies on secondary cues called heuristic information processing. This personal involvement was the basis for an experiment by R. Petty, D. Cacioppo and R. Goldman (1981) in one of the colleges. Students were informed about the change examination system. They were divided into four groups. The first group was given strong arguments (changes will lead to better employment) and created strong involvement ( new system will be entered immediately). The second group was presented with strong arguments, but formed little engagement (the new system will be introduced in the next 10 years). The third group had weak arguments(it is necessary to maintain the ancient Greek traditions of education), but strong involvement (the new system will be introduced immediately). The fourth group received weak arguments and weak involvement. Petty et al predicted that the quality of arguments should have a stronger impact on test takers with high rather than low involvement (if new exams are due tomorrow, then this has personal significance for the student). However, trust in the source of information (a respected professor or high school student) turned out to be an important factor. High trust in the source of information increases a person's engagement. The results obtained completely confirmed the researchers' predictions. Motivation for accuracy presented knowledge works when the information concerns the recipient personally, affects his interests at the moment, and not in the distant future (12, p. 228).

Motivation for protection. Motivation is activated if a person wants to maintain his own attitudes when faced with strong arguments. This happens in cases where:

– directly expresses disapproval of our position or the position of the group with which we identify. (For example, Italian Prime Minister S. Berlusconi called those who were going to vote for his rival in April 2006 idiots. The statement cost him dearly - the elections were lost.)

– the message challenges an attitude that serves a self-defining function or reflects core values;

– those around us question or threaten our personal freedom, which immediately causes a response;

– others question our aspirations, hopes and desires, for example the desire to become an actress;

– those around you are characterized by isolation, dogmatism and closeness to new experiences. A body of research shows that in situations where something we hold dear is threatened, we use every defense at our disposal to maintain our beliefs, no matter what arguments are presented to us against them. Thus, the students who participated in the experiment objected to written exams, and when they were told that the majority supported the proposal, they concluded that the voting was biased. This is very reminiscent of the situation after parliamentary elections, when losing parties accuse election commissions of unfair vote counting.

Motivation for reciprocity. Reciprocity motivation is focused in the area of interpersonal relationships and can be an important persuasion factor in the process of attitude change. Reciprocity is an important principle of interpersonal relationships. We like those who like us, we cooperate with those who cooperate with us, we help those who help us, and we attack those who are aggressive towards us. This has led psychologists to believe that reciprocity may also play a role in persuasion. The results confirmed the correctness of this assumption. Consequently, we can change our attitude towards something or someone in response to the persuasive influence of those people who previously changed their views by agreeing with our arguments. This important principle was confirmed by a detailed study by R. Cialdini (1992). We can say that reciprocity plays a major role in some cases when it is necessary to change the partners’ attitudes.

7.5.3. Persuasive Communication and the Yale Method of Attitude Change

Over the past half century, American social psychology has done a great deal of work to understand what makes persuasive communication effective. The patterns found are also used in our country.

This work began during World War II and was aimed at raising the morale of American soldiers. The direction of research was determined by Aristotle, who in his book “Rhetoric” wrote that “verbal persuasion is of three types. The first type depends on the personality of the speaker; the second is to create a certain mood in the audience, the third, or visible, evidence is contained in the words of the speech itself.” Significant results were achieved by M. Sheriff and K. Hovland (Hovland, 1961), who conducted many experiments and found out the conditions under which people can be influenced through persuasive communications. Following Aristotelian principles, researchers have studied the question of “who says what to whom.” Psychologists have analyzed the source of the communication (for example, how attractive or competent the speaker appears), the communication itself (for example, the quality of the arguments, whether the speaker represents both sides of an issue or not), and the nature of the audience (what techniques work in hostile or friendly audiences).

Efficiency Persuasive communications depend on who is saying what is being said and to whom it is being said.

Since these studies were conducted mainly at Yale University, this approach to the study of persuasive communications came to be called the Yale method of attitude change.

The Yale Method of Changing Attitudes - is the study of the conditions under which people are likely to change their attitudes in response to a persuasive message, given certain conditions related to the source and nature of the communication and the audience.

It's worth recalling the cognitive models we discussed in the previous paragraph because the Yale Attitude Change Method suggests two ways in which persuasive communications can be effective. With the central path of persuasion, a person is willing and able to listen to arguments, and with the peripheral path, a person does not pay attention to arguments, but is influenced by superficial characteristics.

The Yale Method of Changing Attitudes.

WHO: source of communication.

People who are trustworthy (competent) are more persuasive than those who lack trustworthiness.

Attractive people who have appropriate physical or personality traits are more persuasive than unattractive people.

WHAT: nature of communication.

People are more persuaded by messages that do not seem specifically designed to influence them. You can provide one-sided information (that is, one that argues only for a position that is favorable to you) or two-sided information (that is, one that argues for and against your position). Generally bilateral messages work better if you are prepared to counter the other side's arguments.

Works well already known information, which is presented from a new angle or in a new interpretation. This forces the listener to think about long-known facts and make their own decisions.

New information about long-known facts has a special impact in the case of subsequent group discussion.

Information that is aimed at finding agreement and eliminating contradictions is more persuasive than information that is aimed at finding differences and inconsistencies.

Is it better to deliver your speech before or after someone raises an objection? If both messages come back to back and there is a short period of time before the person can decide something, then it is better to say your words first. Under these conditions, it is likely that primacy effect, when the message that a person hears first has the greatest impact. If there is a pause between messages and the listener can make a decision immediately after hearing the second message, then it is better if the information you want to convey comes at the end. Under these conditions it probably works novelty effect, when people remember the second speech better than the first.

TO WHOM: the nature of the audience.

An audience that is confused during persuasive communication will often be more suggestible than an audience that is not.

People with a low intellectual level are more suggestible than intellectuals; people with moderate self-esteem - more than people with low or high self-esteem.

A person is especially susceptible to changing attitudes at the receptive age of 18-25 years. In younger or older mature age people’s attitudes are quite stable and resistant to change (12, p. 226).

Concluding the problem of changing attitudes, we pay attention to the following circumstance: people whose attitudes are based on the analysis of arguments are likely to maintain their attitudes over time and will be more resistant to counterarguments than people whose attitudes are based on peripheral signals.

The study of the system of personality relationships, attitudes, social attitudes and social representations is one of the leading topics in social psychology. This is due to the fact that they are all related to human behavior, and in certain situations they have prognostic value, allowing one to predict specific actions of people, groups and communities. At the same time, the history of the study of attitudes suggests that this concept includes a fairly wide class of phenomena that are close in content to values and social ideas, but are not identical to them.

Just like values, a person’s attitudes towards objects, phenomena and other people are connected with his system of value judgments. However, if the value system plays the role of strategic goals in determining possible human behavior, then attitudes are formed throughout life and are the tactical tool that directs specific human actions.

Attitude as an attitude, being a long-term but subject to change assessment of objects, people and phenomena, has a three-component structure, which includes emotional, cognitive and conative components. Attitudes with an emotional basis are built on a person’s feelings and emotions and have significant stability. Cognitive attitudes are based on people's ideas about the properties of an object. Therefore, a change in knowledge about an object can lead to a change in attitude.

The process of forming a system of attitudes begins in childhood and develops and changes throughout life. Attitudes can be formed using classical or subconscious and operant (instrumental) conditioning.

One of the most developed areas in the study of attitudes is devoted to their change. Models of attitude change created within the framework of cognitive psychology place the main emphasis on communicating new, previously unknown knowledge, which can become persuasive communication.

People may be affected by central path beliefs when they have motive and the ability to carefully consider arguments. But more often they succumb peripheral path convictions when they do not want or cannot listen carefully to the arguments. Developed by a team of scientists, the Yale Attitude Change Method also emphasizes the cognitive component.

| |

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

Social setting

Plan

1. The concept of social attitude. The importance of attitude research in school D.N. Uznadze

2. Approaches to the study of social attitudes in other schools of Russian psychology (categories of attitude, personality orientation, personal meaning)

3. Tradition of research into social attitudes in Western psychology

4. Definition of social attitude, its structure

5. Functions of social attitudes in the regulation of individual behavior

6. Correlation between social attitudes and real behavior

7. Changes in social attitudes

8. Yadov’s hierarchical theory of attitudes

Literature

1. Andreeva G.M. Social Psychology. M., 2000.

2. Andreeva G.M., Bogomolova N.N. Petrovskaya L.A. Foreign social psychology of the 20th century. M., 2001.

3. Belinskaya E.P., Tikhomandritskaya O.A. Social psychology of personality. M, 2001.

4. Bogomolova I.N. Modern cognitive models of persuasive communication//World of Psychology. 1999. No. 3. P. 46-52.

5. Zimbardo F., Leippe M. Social influence. M, 2000.

7. Self-regulation and prediction of social behavior of the individual / Ed. V.A. Yadova. M., 1979

8. Tikhomandritskaya O.A. Social change and changing social attitudes. /Social psychology in the modern world. Ed. G.M.Andreeva, A.I.Dontsova. M, 2002.

9. Festinger L. Theory of cognitive dissonance. St. Petersburg, 1999.

10. Shikhirev D.Zh. Modern social psychology in the USA M., 10979.

11. Yadov V.A. On the dispositional regulation of an individual’s social behavior // Methodological problems of social psychology. M., 1975

1. The concept of social attitude. The importance of attitude research in school D.N.Uznadze

Social attitudes are one of the mechanisms for regulating human behavior. They help us understand why people act in certain ways in certain situations. A person’s social attitudes determine his existence in the macrosystem “in society, in a certain culture and at the micro level - in a specific social group, at the level of interpersonal interaction. Moreover, on the one hand, the attitudes themselves are formed under the influence of society, on the other hand, they influence society, determining people’s attitude towards it.

In everyday practice, the concept of social attitude is used in the sense close concept attitude (for example: He will not go to the match - he is prejudiced against large gatherings of people. She likes brunettes. N - blond, he is not her type).

Social attitudes in social psychology denote the subjective orientations of individuals as members of groups (or society) towards certain values that prescribe for individuals certain socially accepted ways of behavior.

If the concept of social attitude is developed in social psychology, then in general psychology there are long-standing traditions of attitude research. In general psychology, the attitude was the subject of special research in the works of the outstanding Soviet psychologist D. N. Uznadze and his school (A. S. Prangishvili, I. T. Bzhalava, V. G. Norakidze, etc.), who developed a general psychological theory installations.

D. N. Uznadze introduced the idea of an attitude as a “holistic modification of the subject.” An attitude is a holistic dynamic state of a subject, a state of readiness for a certain selective activity. An attitude arises when two factors “meet” - a need and the corresponding objective situation of satisfying needs, which determines the direction of any manifestations of the psyche and behavior of the subject. A fixed attitude occurs when a given combination (need and situation) is repeated. The setting in the context of D.N. Uznadze’s theory concerns the realization of the simplest physiological needs of a person. In this theory, attitude is interpreted as a form of manifestation of the unconscious.

2. Approaches to the study of social attitudes in other schools of Russian psychology (categories of attitude, personality orientation, personal meaning)

The idea of identifying special states that precede its actual behavior is present in many studies.

In theory L.I. Bozhovich, when analyzing the processes of personality formation, uses the concept of direction, which can also be interpreted as a kind of predisposition to act in a certain way in relation to spheres of life.

In theory A.N. Leontiev’s concept of “personal meaning” is close to the social attitude, which is considered as the relationship between the motive and purpose of the proposed activity.

If impulsive behavior encounters certain obstacles, it is interrupted, an objectification mechanism specific only to human consciousness begins to function, thanks to which a person separates himself from reality and begins to treat the world as existing objectively and independently of him. Attitudes regulate a wide range of conscious and unconscious forms of human mental activity.

3. Tradition of social attitudes research- attitudes in Western psychology

The study of social attitudes was begun in 1918 by sociologists W. Thomas and F. Znanecki when they considered the problem of adaptation of Polish peasants who emigrated to America. In their work “The Polish Peasant in Europe and America” they defined a social attitude as “an individual’s state of consciousness regarding some social value”, the experience of the meaning of this value. Their main interest was concentrated on how the social environment and culture as a whole can determine people's attitudes towards certain social objects that are significant to them. (W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki developed a typology of personalities in accordance with the nature of their adaptation to the social environment: 1) bourgeois type (characterized by stable, traditional attitudes); 2) bohemian type (unstable and incoherent attitudes, but a high degree of adaptability); 3) a creative type, capable of inventions and innovations due to the flexibility and creativity of their attitudes. It is “creative” individuals, according to these authors, who contribute to the development of social life and culture). The very nature of the social system is determined by the character social action individuals based on values and attitudes.

W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki showed that changes in living conditions for the most part led to a change in ideas about the significance of social objects and their assessment by people, i.e. to a change in social attitudes. In cases where the definition of the situation by individuals did not coincide with group (social) values, conflicts could arise and develop, leading in turn to maladjustment of people, and ultimately to social disintegration. Four basic human desires (needs) were cited as reasons for changing social attitudes: new experience, security, recognition and dominance.

It was assumed that the attitude satisfied these human desires through a change in attitude towards values (certain social objects) in compliance with the norms accepted in a given society.

Thus, initially “the study of social attitudes followed the path of considering the problem of adaptation, which subsequently found expression in a number of functional theories of attitude. Among the most famous works that define the functions of social attitudes are the theory of M. Smith, D. Bruner, R. White (Smith, Bruner, White, 1956], as well as the theory of D. Katz.

4. Definition of social attitude, its structure

The concept of attitude and related issues were actively developed in the social psychology of the twentieth century. Smith defined a social attitude as “the disposition of an individual according to which the tendencies of his thoughts, feelings, and possible actions are organized in relation to the social object” [1968]. . In his approach, Smith conceptualized the social attitude as:

a. cognitive component (awareness),

b. affective component (assessment)

c. conative or behavioral component (behavior in relation to a social object).

Currently, due to the special interest in the study of attitude systems, the structure of a social attitude is defined more broadly. Attitude acts as “a value disposition, a stable predisposition to a certain assessment, based on cognitions, affective reactions, established behavioral intentions (intentions) and previous behavior, which can in turn influence cognitive ones. processes, on affective reactions, on the formation of intentions and on future behavior" [cit. By: Zimbardo, Leippe. M., 2000. P. 46]. Thus, the behavioral component of a social attitude no longer appears only as direct behavior (some real, already completed actions), but also as intentions (intentions). Behavioral intentions can include various expectations, aspirations, plans, action plans - everything that a person intends to do.

As for the cognitive component, it may include beliefs, ideas, opinions, all cognitions formed as a result of cognition of a social object. Affective reactions are various emotions, feelings and experiences associated with the attitude object. The attitude itself acts as a total assessment (evaluative reaction), which includes all of the listed components. An example of the installation system is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig.1. Installation system (Zimbardo, Leippe. M., 2000)

5. Installation functions

The concept of attitude defines one of the most important psychological mechanisms for including an individual in social system; attitude functions simultaneously both as an element of the psychological structure of the individual and as an element of the social structure. Various authors have identified four key functions(which have certain similarities with the attitude functions in the theory of Smith, Bruner and White).

1.Instrumental(adaptive, utilitarian) function: expresses adaptive tendencies of human behavior, helps to increase rewards and reduce losses. Attitude directs the subject to those objects that serve to achieve his goals. In addition, social attitude helps a person evaluate how other people feel about a social object. Supporting certain social attitudes enables a person to gain approval and be accepted by others, since they are more likely to be attracted to someone who has attitudes similar to their own. Thus, an attitude can contribute to a person’s identification with a group (allows him to interact with people, accepting their attitudes) or leads him to oppose himself to the group (in case of disagreement with the social attitudes of other group members).

Self-protective function: social attitude helps resolve internal conflicts of the individual, protects people from unpleasant information about themselves or about social objects that are significant to them. People often act and think in ways to protect themselves from unpleasant information. For example, in order to increase his own importance or the importance of his group, a person often resorts to forming a negative attitude towards members of the outgroup.

Function of expressing values(self-realization function): attitudes give a person the opportunity to express what is important to him and organize his behavior accordingly. By carrying out certain actions in accordance with his attitudes, the individual realizes himself in relation to social objects. This function helps a person to define himself and understand what he is.

4. Knowledge organization function: based on a person’s desire to meaningfully organize the world around him. With the help of attitude, it is possible to evaluate information coming from the outside world and correlate it with a person’s existing motives, goals, values and interests. The installation simplifies the task of learning new information. By performing this function, attitude is included in the process of social cognition.

So, social attitudes set the direction for people’s thoughts and actions in relation to a specific object or situation, they help a person establish and maintain social identity, organize a person’s ideas about the world around him, and allow him to realize himself. Attitudes are actively involved both in the process of regulation of social behavior and in the process of social cognition. In general, we can say that attitude, performing all the listed functions, adapts a person to the surrounding social environment and protects him from negative influences or uncertainty.

6. Correlation between social attitudes and real behavior

For the first time, the discrepancy between the attitude and the actual behavior of a person was established in the experiments of R. Lapierre in 1934. He traveled with two Chinese students around the United States, checking into many hotels and everywhere meeting a normal reception.

However, when, after the trip, he again turned to the hotel owners with a written request to accept him with Chinese students, in 52% of cases he was refused (which indicated the existence of negative attitudes, which, however, did not manifest themselves in real behavior.

The problem of discrepancy between social attitudes and real behavior is one of the central problems in attitude research.

7. Changes in social attitudes

Social changes cannot but affect the internal regulators of behavior, “tuning” them to the transformations of the social environment that have occurred. Of course, this restructuring does not happen immediately.

The study of changes in attitudes in social psychology is associated with the so-called theories of cognitive correspondence, created in the 50s of the 20th century by F. Heider, T. Nyokom, L. Festinger, C. Osgood and P. Tannenbaum [see: Andreeva, Bogomolova, Petrovskaya , 2001]. Their main idea is a person’s desire for psychological consistency of his cognitions (beliefs, opinions, ideas about his own behavior). If, for example, a person’s beliefs conflict, he begins to experience tension and discomfort. To relieve this unpleasant state, a person tries to establish consistent and relaxed relationships between cognitions by changing some of them. Thus, a change in attitude will occur precisely when a person’s cognition in the situation social impact will come into conflict with each other. By changing “old” attitudes, it is possible to accept new information, which in turn will contribute to the formation of attitudes consistent with it.

There is also, in our opinion, an important circumstance in which the adaptive orientation of the social attitude is also manifested. Thus, a situation of social change brings with it the need to constantly make new choices, be it, for example, a new place of work, leisure activities, or even a brand of goods. As you know, any choice is always accompanied by tension and even stress if it is extremely significant for a person. Social attitudes play an important role in relieving the resulting tension. This fact has also been studied in detail within the framework of correspondence theories, namely the theory of cognitive dissonance by L. Festinger.

Cognitive dissonance in this case occurs because the chosen alternative is rarely entirely positive, and the rejected alternative is rarely entirely negative. Dissonant cognitions are ideas about the negative aspects of the chosen alternative and the positive aspects of the rejected one. Moreover, after the choice has been made, a “regret phase” begins, during which the chosen alternative is devalued, and the rejected one seems more attractive. True, this one; The phase usually does not last long. This is followed by a dissonance-reducing reevaluation of the decision, i.e. acceptance of the original decision as correct. What does a person do in this case? People begin to confirm the success of their choice in every possible way, for example, they look for information that emphasizes the correctness of their decision, ignoring negative information. These actions can, accordingly, reduce the attractiveness of the rejected object and (or) increase the attractiveness of the chosen one, i.e. change attitudes [Festinger, 1999].

2. Change in social attitudes can occur as a result of persuasive communication through changes in cognitions. For example, during persuasive communication (through means mass communication) a person’s attitudes towards current events or historical facts, attitudes towards famous political figures, etc. can be changed.

One of the most famous areas of empirical research on attitude change is research into persuasive communication conducted in the 50s at Yale University (USA) and associated with the names of K. Hovland and his colleagues I. Janis, G. Kelly, M. Sherif and others. Designing their experiments within the framework of the well-known concept of the communication process, these researchers demonstrated the influence on attitudes of numerous characteristics of the source of information (the communicator), the content of the message and the characteristics of the audience [see: Bogomolova, 1991; Gulevich, 1999]. At the same time, the persuasive message was interpreted as a stimulus, and the change in social attitudes occurring under its influence was interpreted as an acquired reaction.

It was shown that between communicative stimuli and changeable social attitudes there are “implicit constructs” that play the role of mediators in the process of persuasive communication. These may include: firstly, the beliefs of the recipients themselves, secondly, the predisposition of recipients to accept persuasive influence and, finally, the mediating factors psychological processes(attention, understanding, acceptance).

The problem of changing attitude is also considered in modern cognitive models of persuasive communication. The most famous of them are the Probabilistic Model of Information Processing by R. Petty and J. Cacioppo and the Heuristic-Systematic Model by S. Chaiken. Let us only note that both models consider different ways for a person to process incoming information, and depending on how the information is processed, the stability and “strength” of changes in his attitudes will depend.

So, a change in social attitudes can occur as a result of persuasive communication through changes in cognitions. For example, in the course of persuasive communication (through mass media), a person’s attitudes towards current events or historical facts, attitudes towards famous political figures, etc. can be changed.

3. Changes in attitudes are also explained by the “Foot in the Door” phenomenon, when a change in attitudes is a consequence of a series of minor concessions, as well as phenomena. Described by Cialdini in his work “Psychology of Influence”.

8. Hierarchical structure of personality dispositions

One of the most famous models regulation of social behavior is the theory of the hierarchical structure of personality dispositions by V. A Yadov [Yadov, 1975]. In this concept, personality dispositions represent predispositions recorded in social experience to perceive and evaluate the conditions of activity, the individual’s own activity and the actions of others, as well as the predisposition to behave appropriately under certain conditions [Self-regulation and forecasting of social behavior of the individual, 1979]. The proposed hierarchy of dispositional formations acts as a regulatory system in relation to the behavior of the individual, i.e. The main function of the dispositional system is the mental regulation of social activity or behavior of the subject in the social environment. If we structure activities in relation to immediate or more distant goals, we can distinguish several hierarchical levels of behavior. Moreover, each of the levels of dispositions is “responsible” for regulating a certain level of behavior.

First level-- elementary fixed attitudes -- responsible for the regulation of behavioral acts -- the subject's immediate reactions to the current objective situation. The expediency of behavioral acts is dictated by the need to establish an adequate correspondence (balance) between the specific and rapidly changing influences of the external environment and the vital needs of the subject” at a given moment in time.

Second level-- social attitudes (attitudes) regulate the actions of the individual. An act is an elementary socially significant “unit” of behavior. The expediency of carrying out an action is expressed in establishing a correspondence between the simplest social situation and the social needs of the subject.

Third level- basic social attitudes - already regulates some systems of actions that make up behavior in various fields life activity, where a person pursues significantly more distant goals, the achievement of which is ensured by a system of actions.

Fourth level- value orientations - regulates the integrity of behavior, or the actual activity of the individual. “Goal setting” at this highest level is a kind of “ life plan”, the most important element of which are individual life goals related “to the main social spheres of human activity in the field of work, knowledge, family and social life. [Yadov, 1975. P. 97].

Thus, at all levels, a person’s behavior is regulated by his dispositional system. Moreover, in each specific situation and depending on the goal, the leading role belongs to a certain dispositional formation. At this time, the remaining dispositions represent “background levels” (in the terminology of N.A. Bernstein). Thus, lower dispositional levels are activated and restructured to ensure the implementation of behavior regulated by a higher dispositional level that is adequate to the situation. And higher dispositional levels are activated to coordinate a behavioral act or action within the framework of purposeful behavior in a given field of activity. In general, at the moment immediately preceding a behavioral act, deed or the beginning of an activity, in accordance with the level of activity, the entire dispositional system comes to a state of actual readiness, i.e. forms an actual disposition. However, as already mentioned, the leading role here will be played by precisely those levels of the dispositional hierarchy that correspond to certain needs and situations.

Dispositional regulation of social activity can be described by the following formula:

“situations” (= conditions of activity) - “dispositions” - “behavior” (= activity) [Yadov, 1975. P. 99].

In conditions of radical social changes, one of the first to undergo change is, apparently, lower-level dispositions - social attitudes (attitudes) as means that ensure human behavior in specific situations of his interaction with the social environment. This becomes possible due to their greater mobility and ability to change during social influence compared to higher level dispositions, e.g. value orientations. Attitudes adapt a person to the changing demands placed on him by society. Therefore, during social crises, when generally accepted norms and values are destroyed or changed, it is attitudes that are activated as less global, but no less significant regulators of social behavior. In this regard, such an important problem of social psychology as the problem of social attitudes, their role in the adaptation of the individual to new living conditions becomes especially relevant in the situation of social changes that have occurred.

Functions, structure and types of social attitudes. Social setting

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Similar documents