Contemporary Perspectives on the Psychology of Attitudes

What is an attitude? How do different research approaches characterise 'attitude' and its applications in social psychology? The Attitude concept has long formed an indispensable construct in social psychology. In this volume, internationally renowned contributors review contemporary developments in research and theory to capture the current metamorphosis of this central concept. This book draws together the latest developments in the field to provide a scholarly and accessible overview of the study of attitudes, examining the implications for its position as a paradigm of social psychological understanding. Dividing the subject into two main parts, this book first addresses the structural and behavioural properties of attitudes, including the affective-cognitive structure of attitudes, the nature of attitude ambivalence and intention-behaviour relations. The second section focuses on representational and transformational processes, such as meta-cognitive attitudinal processes, the role of implicit and explicit attitudinal processes, cultural influences and attitude change. In a third, concluding section, the editors draw together these contemporary perspectives and elaborate on their impact for future theorising and research into attitudes. Empirically supported throughout, this collection represents a timely integration of the burgeoning range of approaches to attitude research. It will be of interest to social psychologists, sociologists, political scientists and researchers with an interest in attitudinal phenomena.

Geoffrey Haddock is an established researcher in the field of attitudes and social cognition at the University of Cardiff. He is a regular contributor to leading journals in the field of Social Psychology. Gregory Maio forms part of the research group into Social Cognition and Relationships at the University of Cardiff. In 2001 he received the Spearman Medal for psychological work of outstanding merit from The British Psychological Society. Geoffrey Haddock and Greg Maio are established researchers in the field of attitudes and social cognition. They are both members of the Social Psychology Research Group at Cardiff University.

Part 1: Attitudes, Attitude Properties, and Behaviour. Gregory R. Maio, Victoria M. Esses, Karin Arnold, James M. Olson, The Function-structure Model of Attitudes: Incorporating the Need for Affect. Geoffrey Haddock, Thomas L.H. Huskinson, Individual Differences in Attitude Structure. David Trafimow, Paschal Sheeran, A Theory About the Translation of Cognition Into Affect and Behaviour. Steven J. Breckler, Hold Still While I Measure Your Attitude: Assessment in the Throes of Ambivalence. Howard Lavine, Attitude Ambivalence in the Real of Politics. Christopher J. Armitage, Mark Conner, The Effects of Attitudinal Ambivalence on Attitude-intension-behaviour Relationships. Sheina Orbell, Intention-behaviour Relations: A Self Regulation Perspective. Marco Perugini, Richard P. Bagozzi, An Alternative View of Pre-volitional Processes in Decision Making: Conceptual Issues and Empirical Evidence. Part 2: Attitude Awareness, Attitude Representations, and Change. Pablo Brinol, Richard E. Petty, Self-validation Processes: The Role of Thought Confidence in Persuasion. Yaacov Schul, Coping with Invalid Messages by Increasing or Decreasing Processing Complexity. Tilmann Betsch, Henning Plessner, Elke Schallies, The Value-account Model of Attitude Formation. Patrick T. Vargas, On the Relationship Between Implicit Attitudes and Behaviour: Some Lessons from the Past, and Directions for the Future. Charles G. Lord, The Role of Exemplar Stability in Attitude Consistency and Attitude Change. J. Richard Eiser, Putting Humpty Together Again: Attitude Organization From a Connectionist Perspective. Karen Jordens, Frank Van Overwalle, Connectionist Modelling of Attitudes and Cognitive Dissonance. Etsuko Hoshino-Browne, Adam S. Zanna, Steven J. Spencer, Mark P. Zanna, Investigating Attitudes Cross-culturally: A Case of Cognitive Dissonance Among East Asians and North Americans. Arie W. Kruglanski, Ayelet Fishbach, Hans-Peter Erb, Antonio Pierro, Lucia Mannetti, The Parametric Unimodel as a Theory of Persuasion. Part 3: Some Concluding Thoughts. Gregory R. Maio, Geoffrey Haddock, Theories of Attitude: Creating a Witches' Brew.