Skip to main content

Attitudes — Previous Year Questions

📊 Topic Overview​

MetricValue
Total Appearances29 (10.4% of all questions)
Priority🔴 HIGH — appears in all 14 years
Section DistributionSec A: 16
Most Repeated QuestionsFactors affecting attitude formation/change (13 times)
ProbabilityExtremely High

🎯 Must-Know Concepts​

  1. Definition, nature, and three-component (ABC) model of attitudes
  2. Factors affecting attitude formation (classical conditioning, operant conditioning, observational learning, social norms)
  3. Factors affecting attitude change (persuasive communication, dissonance)
  4. Theories of attitude organisation — Katz's functional theory, Kelman's three-process theory
  5. Relationship between attitude and behaviour (Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour)

🔥 Most Repeated Question: Factors Affecting Attitude Formation (13 times)​

Answer (Section A — ~450 words):​

An attitude is a learned predisposition to respond consistently in a positive or negative manner towards an object, person, group, issue, or situation. Attitudes have three components — Affective (feelings/emotions), Behavioural (tendency to act), and Cognitive (beliefs/knowledge), collectively known as the ABC model.

Factors Affecting Attitude Formation:

1. Classical Conditioning Attitudes can be acquired through classical conditioning when a neutral stimulus (an object, person, or group) is repeatedly paired with a stimulus that already elicits an emotional response. Staats and Staats (1958) demonstrated this by pairing national names with positive or negative words, producing corresponding attitude changes. Advertising extensively uses classical conditioning — pairing products with attractive, pleasant imagery creates positive product attitudes.

2. Operant Conditioning Attitudes strengthened by positive reinforcement and weakened by punishment. When a person expresses an attitude and receives social approval (praise, agreement), the attitude is reinforced and more likely to be expressed in future. Insko (1965) showed that telephone interviewers who reinforced ("good") certain attitude positions produced more of those positions in participants.

3. Observational Learning (Social Learning) Bandura's social learning theory explains attitude formation through observation of models. Children observe parents' and peers' attitudes toward social groups, health behaviours, political positions, and acquire similar attitudes vicariously. Media models also shape attitudes — exposure to violent media content can produce favourable attitudes towards aggression.

4. Social and Cultural Norms Cultural environments provide ready-made attitudes through socialisation. Family, peer groups, religious institutions, and educational systems transmit normatively approved attitudes. Reference group influences are particularly powerful — people adopt attitudes held by groups they aspire to join or identify with.

5. Direct Experience First-hand, direct experience with an attitude object produces stronger, more accessible, and more persistent attitudes than indirect experience (Fazio and Zanna, 1981). Attitudes formed through direct experience predict behaviour more strongly.

6. Media and Communication Mass media expose individuals to attitude positions on a massive scale. Repeated exposure to a message increases its persuasiveness (mere exposure effect). Agenda-setting effects of media determine which issues receive attitudinal elaboration.

7. Cognitive Consistency Once formed, attitudes tend to be consistent with each other and with behaviour. Heider's balance theory predicts that people prefer balanced attitudinal triads. Dissonance between attitudes and behaviour motivates attitude change (Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory).

In conclusion, attitude formation is a multi-pathway process involving conditioning, social learning, cultural transmission, and direct experience. Understanding formation processes is essential for designing effective attitude change interventions in health communication, advertising, and social policy.

📝 Other Key Questions​

Explain theories of attitude organisation — Katz's functional theory and Kelman's three-process theory (Section B)​

Answer (~250 words):

Katz's Functional Theory (1960) Katz proposed that attitudes serve psychological functions for the individual, which is why they are held and why they resist change. He identified four functions:

Instrumental/Adjustive Function: Attitudes help people gain rewards and avoid punishments. People form favourable attitudes towards things associated with rewards. Changing such attitudes requires showing that a new attitude better serves this function.

Ego-Defensive Function: Attitudes protect self-esteem by externalising blame. Prejudiced attitudes may protect the holder from confronting their own insecurities. These attitudes are resistant to change through information alone — they require self-insight approaches.

Value-Expressive Function: Attitudes express core values and self-concept. Environmentally conscious people hold pro-ecological attitudes to express their identity. Change requires demonstrating that a new attitude better expresses cherished values.

Knowledge Function: Attitudes provide a simplified framework for understanding a complex world. Stereotypic attitudes serve this function. Change requires providing clear, consistent new information.

Kelman's Three-Process Theory (1958) Kelman identified three distinct processes through which social influence changes attitudes:

Compliance: Person adopts an attitude to gain approval or avoid punishment — attitude change is superficial and lasts only as long as surveillance continues.

Identification: Person adopts an attitude to maintain a satisfying relationship with an influencing agent — change lasts as long as the relationship is valued.

Internalisation: Person adopts an attitude because it is congruent with their existing values — this is the deepest, most enduring form of attitude change.

Discuss the nature, components and characteristics of attitude (Section B)​

Answer (~250 words):

An attitude is a learned, evaluative predisposition to respond positively or negatively to an object, person, event, or idea. Attitudes are central to social psychology because they influence perception, motivation, and behaviour.

Nature: Attitudes are learned (not innate), evaluative (involve positive/negative valence), relatively enduring (persist over time), and directed at specific objects. They vary in strength (accessibility, centrality), extremity, and ambivalence (holding simultaneous positive and negative feelings).

Three Components (ABC Model): Affective Component: Emotional reactions to the attitude object — liking, disliking, fear, admiration. Measured through physiological responses and self-report of feelings.

Behavioural Component: Predisposition to act in certain ways towards the object. Note that attitudes do not always predict behaviour directly (La Piere, 1934).

Cognitive Component: Beliefs and knowledge about the object. Stereotypes are the cognitive component of prejudice.

Characteristics:

  • Valence: Positive or negative direction
  • Multiplexity: Number of elements comprising the attitude
  • Strength/Centrality: Core attitudes resist change; peripheral attitudes are more malleable
  • Ambivalence: Holding conflicting positive and negative evaluations simultaneously
  • Accessibility: Ease with which an attitude comes to mind — highly accessible attitudes influence behaviour most strongly

🧠 Memory Aids​

ABC of Attitudes: Affect (feelings) → Behaviour (tendency to act) → Cognition (beliefs)

Katz's Functions: "I Eat Vegetables Knowingly" → Instrumental, Ego-defensive, Value-expressive, Knowledge

📚 Related Content​

✅ Self-Assessment​

  1. What are the three components of attitude in the ABC model?
  2. Explain cognitive dissonance and how it leads to attitude change.
  3. How does Kelman's internalisation differ from compliance in attitude change?
  4. What four functions do attitudes serve according to Katz?
  5. How do attitudes formed through direct experience differ from those formed through indirect experience?

💡 Exam Tips​

  • Section A: Define → ABC components → formation factors (at least 4) → conclusion. Mention Staats-Staats, Insko, Bandura, Fazio.
  • Section B: Katz vs Kelman is a favourite pairing. Structure as theory 1 (brief name and explanation) + theory 2 + comparison sentence.
  • Always distinguish attitude formation (how they are created) from attitude change (how they are modified).