Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Attitudes - cognitive representations of our evaluation of ourselves, other people, things, actions, events, ideas - and attitude change have been a central concern in social psychology since the discipline began. People can - and do - have attitudes on an infinite range of things but what are attitudes, how do we form them and how can they be modified?

This book provides the student with a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the basic issues in the psychological study of attitudes. Drawing on research from Europe and the USA it presents up-to-date coverage of the key issues that will be encountered in this area, including attitude formation and change, functions of attitudes, attitude measurement, attitudes as temporary constructs, persuasion processes and prediction of behaviour from attitudes.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgements (p. ix)
• Series preface (p. xi)
• Part I Basic issues in attitude research (p. 1)
• 1 What is an attitude, and why is it important? (p. 3)
• What is an attitude? (p. 4)
• Why do people have attitudes? (p. 6)
• Research applying attitude functions (p. 9)
• Why study attitudes? (p. 10)
• Overview of the book (p. 15)
• Chapter summary (p. 16)
• Exercises (p. 17)
• Note (p. 17)
• Further reading (p. 18)
• 2 The measurement of attitudes (p. 19)
• The concept of measurement (p. 19)
• Direct measurement (p. 22)
• How do we know if the measurement is good? (p. 30)
• Indirect measurement (p. 33)
• Implicit attitudes: A conceptual case for indirect attitude measurement (p. 39)
• Chapter summary (p. 45)
• Exercises (p. 46)
• Notes (p. 47)
• Further reading (p. 47)
• 3 Beyond valence: Structure and strength (p. 49)
• Intra-attitudinal structure (p. 50)
• Inter-attitudinal structure (p. 60)
• Attitude strength (p. 62)
• Concluding comments (p. 66)
• Chapter summary (p. 66)
• Exercises (p. 67)
• Notes (p. 67)
• Further reading (p. 68)
• Part II Where do attitudes come from? (p. 69)
• 4 Nature and nurture as sources of attitudes (p. 71)
• Genetic influences (p. 71)
• Attitudes may be acquired (p. 76)
• Concluding comment (p. 85)
• Chapter summary (p. 85)
• Exercises (p. 86)
• Notes (p. 86)
• Further reading (p. 87)
• 5 Attitudes as temporary constructions (p. 89)
• Context influences on information retrieval for attitude construction (p. 90)
• Context influences on evaluations (p. 96)
• How the judgment is put together: Context influences on information use (p. 106)
• Attitudes as temporary constructions versus stable entities: A critical appraisal (p. 111)
• Chapter summary (p. 114)
• Exercises (p. 115)
• Notes (p. 115)
• Further reading (p. 116)
• 6 Persuasion: I. From effortless judgments to complex processing (p. 117)
• Persuasion processes that require little cognitive effort (p. 118)
• Persuasion through more effortful processing (p. 122)
• Chapter summary (p. 132)
• Exercises (p. 133)
• Notes (p. 134)
• Further reading (p. 134)
• 7 Persuasion: II. The dual-processing approach (p. 135)
• The elaboration likelihood model (p. 135)
• The heuristic-systematic model (p. 153)
• Concluding remarks on dual-processing accounts (p. 159)
• Chapter summary (p. 161)
• Exercises (p. 162)
• Notes (p. 163)
• Further reading (p. 163)
• 8 Behaviour influences on attitudes (p. 165)
• When sanctions or incentives backfire: Reactance and overjustification (p. 165)
• Incentives versus cognitive dissonance (p. 168)
• Behaviour-induced attitude change and processing effort (p. 183)
• Chapter summary (p. 184)
• Exercises (p. 185)
• Note (p. 186)
• Further reading (p. 186)
• Part III Consequences of attitudes (p. 187)
• 9 Attitude influences on information processing (p. 189)
• Theoretical assumptions guiding research on attitude-processing links: Consistency, function and structure (p. 189)
• Attitude effects on attention, encoding and exposure (p. 192)
• Attitude effects on judgment and elaboration (p. 198)
• Attitude effects on memory (p. 211)
• Conclusion: Attitudes predict information processing (p. 215)
• Chapter summary (p. 216)
• Exercises (p. 217)
• Further reading (p. 217)
• 10 Attitude influences on behaviour (p. 219)
• Do attitudes predict behaviour? (p. 219)
• When do attitudes predict behaviour? (p. 221)
• Expectancy-value models: Attitudes toward behaviour and other determinants of behaviour (p. 233)
• Two processes by which attitudes guide behaviour: The MODE model (p. 239)
• Conclusion: Attitudes do predict behaviour (but do they cause it?) (p. 241)
• Chapter summary (p. 242)
• Exercises (p. 243)
• Further reading (p. 243)
• Part IV Postscript (p. 245)
• 11 What's left? (p. 247)
• Glossary (p. 249)
• References (p. 255)
• Author index (p. 285)
• Subject index (p. 291)