Mrunal E2:P1:Atttiude-meaning, Structure, Function, CAB Model Simplified

Mrunal E2/P1:Atttiude-meaning,structure,function,CAB model simplified
09/10/15 12:26 pm
- Mrunal - http://mrunal.org -
[Ethics] E2/P1: Attitude- Meaning, Structure, Functions, CAB

Model- cognitive, affective, behavioral components
Posted ByMrunalOn 01/10/2015 @ 8:30 pm In Ethics | 22 Comments
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E2/P1: Video Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE14)

Attitude: Meaning & types
Attitude: Salient Features
CAB Model of Attitude
Attitude Structure #1: Uni-Directional
Attitude Structure #2: Bi-directional
Potential vs felt ambivalence
Attitude: Functions
Belief + Value = Attitude
E2/P1: Video Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE14)
Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/7IuEfKdc_Qs
Attitude: Meaning & types

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Attitude is always about Something. Its a state of mind- your positive/negative feeling towards
a person, object, event, idea, environment.
It determines how people will arrive at a correct judgement.
Attitude AND Aptitude are different- Surviving terminal disease depends on your attitude
towards life rather than aptitude in physical training. Well discuss more on this during next
lecture (E3)
Attitudes can be positive or negative
Positive attitudes
Negative attitudes
Optimism, persistence Pessimism
Jealous
Content (satisfied)
Tolerant
intolerant, rigid
Modest, humble
Inferiority, superiority
Cooperative
Condescending, hostile
Cheerful
Cynical
Attitude: Salient Features

1. Attitudes are directed towards an object, event, person or organization and give specific reaction to
them.
2. Attitude affects group behavior e.g. Jury service, racial prejudice, work environment, voting
pattern and more.
3. They help us understand ourselves and others.
4. They can be explicit formed by recent events
5. They can be implicit- derived from past memories and traumatic experiences.
6. They protect us from acknowledging harsh realities of life and thereby help coping up with
emotional conflict.
7. Theyre situational.
8. Some thinkers say Attitude is permanent, forms habit and becomes predictable
9. Some thinkers say Attitude is tentative- a person will form attitude from his past experience but if
new situation comes hell evaluate and change attitude. Thus, Attitudes are spontaneous reaction
to environment.
10. Persuasion can change attitude of a person. If a trustworthy, expert, likable person says, rich
peoples love for fur-clothes has led to extinction of xyz. Species. Then next time you see a rich
lady, youll feel repulsed. Well discuss more on persuasion and attitude change in third session of
this lecture (E2/P3).
Physiology determines attitude
Physiology: Age
Physiology: Disease
1. Pre-teen: pliant
2. Teen: rebellious
3. Old man: conservative
1. TB: Optimistic
2. Epileptics: cynical
3. Encephalitis: aggressive.
Some thinkers dont agree with above, and believe that Social factors determine a persons attitude.
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CAB Model of Attitude
Attitude =combination of cognitive, affective and behavioral components
C:
Cognitive
Knowledge and beliefs.

When you form an opinion from the available information thats cognitive attitude.
If youre framing an opinion about humans, then you may end up stereotyping.
e.g snake is poisonous. (your belief)
e.g. cricketers play for money and not for nation.
e.g. death penalty should be removed because it doesnt reduce crime rate. (your
belief)
A:
Affective
Feelings and emotions such as pleasure, hate, fear, anger, happiness, sorrow.
What do we feel when that object is present before us?
e.g. I fear snakes (your feeling)
e.g. I hate cricket because all matches are fixed. (your feeling)
e.g. I dislike the idea of death penalty. (your feeling)
B:
Behavioral
Overt behavior. Your predisposition (Sensitivity) towards a person / object.

e.g. Ill run away if there is a snake.
e.g. I will not buy xyz brand toothpaste because it is promoted by a cricketer and I
know all cricketers are match fixers. (your behavior / action in shopping mall.)
e.g. Ill lead a candle march against Death penalty. (your behavior on street)
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CAB has synergy- each component is independent, but they will strengthen each other.
Attitude Structure #1: Uni-Directional
Like a number-line, attitude has two ends negative (left hand) and positive (right hand).
Our attitude towards death penalty? It can be positive or negative.
Component What do you think about snakes?
Cognitive Snake is poisonous. (your belief)
Affective I fear snakes (your feeling)
Behavior
Ill run away. (your behavior)
Overall
Positive/negative
Negative
Negative
Negative
Negative attitude towards snake.
Limitation of uni-directional structure?

Difficult to distinguish between neutral and ambivalent attitude.
1. e.g. do you like chocolates?
a. Neutral: A poor illiterate person in remote island may say Ive never heard of this term so
I dont have any positive/negative feeling about it.
b. Ambivalent: an intelligent person may say yes I know chocolates bad for teeth (negative
cognitive) but still I love them (positive affective). So +1 1 = 0
Attitude Structure #2: Bi-directional
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If we plot negative attitude on Y-axis and positive on X-axis, we can show neutral / ambivalence as per
following graph:
So, what is the implications?
Neutral
attitude
Difficult to change his behavior.
Ambivalent
attitude
Possible to change his behavior by providing new information.

Because ambivalent situation makes person uncomfortable (Cognitive dissonance).
e.g. corruption: we know it is bad (Cognitive) but still we give/take bribes
(behavior) so some ambivalence = dissonance.
Potential vs felt ambivalence

Felt
Potential
e.g. chocolate example- you know there is inconsistency (its bad for teeth yet you like it).
Such ambivalence will give you dissonance.
You yourself unaware of the inconsistency, and therefore at present no dissonance.
But when youre forced to think about the topic, potential will be converted to felt
ambivalence.
e.g. corruption and tax evasion are equal. Both violate law, both hurt public
exchequer. However, a tax evader might not realize he is as bad as a corrupt official,
until you consider him to think about it.
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Sequence is potential => felt =>cognitive dissonance. Result?

A. either person will stop wrong-behavior OR
B. hell begin justifying his wrong behavior.
Thats how attitude changes. Well discuss more on this in E2/P3.
Attitude: Functions
Object
appraisal
Social
adjustment
Attitudes help us approach beneficial things and avoid harmful things.

Attitude helps us identify with people we like e.g. I love SRK, so Ill buy frooty,
because he is endorsing it.
Utilitarian
When you go to market, youll buy or not buy a product thinking will this
product help me (cognitive).
If youve big property, youll oppose property tax hike.
So, youre supporting capitalism, not because of ideology but because of your
attitude, since It enhances our happiness/survival.
Knowledge
helps organize new information, and create generalization / stereotyping.

Positive aspect: Indian Crow is black, so all crows in the world should be
black. (yes theyre, so your time is saved in not having to go on world journey
to check the facts)
Negative aspect: I believe good things happen to good people so, if bad
thing happened to him- if he must be a bad person. (Stereotyping / prejudice).
Ego-defensive
Grapes are sour, because I cant eat them.

It prevents us from guilt feeling, by holding attitudes that protect our selfesteem (Defend your ego).
Mechanisms? Denial, Repression, Projection, Rationalization
The British felt Indians incapable of ruling themselves, because theyre uncivil
people. So, one way to counter it was through reviving the ancient Vedic
traditions/Aryan pride.
Externalization
Value
expressive
Similar to ego-defensive. By blaming external factors we try to defend our internal

conflict e.g. I got low marks in interview because panel was biased.
To express ones central values.
Example Gandhi stopped wearing coat/pants and switched to Khadi dhoti to
express his central value self-reliance, simple living.
An advertisement / marketing guru must be observant about above functions. Only then he can make a
successful ad.
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Product
Ad-concept
Utilitarian. So ad must show that given brand is cheap and yet cleans the clothes
Detergent
efficiently.
Value expressive. Ill purchase more gold to show Im of higher status. Company will even
Gold
use photos of Goddess Laxmi.
Ego defensive mechanism must not be trigged. So, No gods/goddesses must be shown in
Shoes
ad.
Politics
Ego defensive mechanism to deflect personal attacks to group attack.

e.g. any criticism of the then Chief minister Modi is attack against 5 crore
Gujaratis. So, theyre vote in his favor to show their support, and theyll bash the
critiques on social media.
Belief + Value = Attitude

Belief
Belief is What we think about things.

e.g. IPL is corrupt.
Value
Value is what we think should happen.

e.g. Corruption is bad. Honesty is best policy.
Value can be desirable or undesirable.
They guide our behavior.
Values can be for individual, group, organization and nation, while virtues are
associated only with an individual (e.g. physical fitness=> courage.)
Attitude
Attitude is our like / dislike for an object, event, organization or person.

Belief (IPL Corrupt) + Value (Honest is best) = frame our attitude towards
event/people.
In above example, persons attitude will be of Hatred / cynicism towards cricket,
cricketers, products endorsed by those cricketers.
Mock Questions and Case studies after three-part article series on E2 is over. In the next part (E2/P2),
well take a look at moral and political attitudes, and role of social media.
Visit Mrunal.org/Ethics for more study material on Ethics.
Article printed from Mrunal: http://mrunal.org
URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2015/10/ethics-e2p1-attitude-meaning-structure-functions-cabmodel.html
Copyright 2014 Mrunal. All rights reserved.
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Mrunal E2/P1:Atttiude-meaning,structure,function,CAB model simplified

[Ethics] E2/P1: Attitude- Meaning, Structure, Functions, CAB

E2/P1: Video Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE14)

E2/P1: Video Lecture by Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198/CSE14)

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/7IuEfKdc_Qs

Attitude: Meaning & types