Attitudes That Forms the Three Components

Attitudes are stable cluster of feelings, beliefs and behaviour and displays one intention towards specific things like people,situation and work. Example, work related attitudes relates to the aspect of work and work setting and we need to understand that diverse workforce have varying attitudes.

Attitudes form three component which is actively happening in our daily activities. Affective component is the emotional reaction towards something. Peter had been with the company for three years and have always been a role model in the company and is expecting his promotion due today but was shocked by the boards decision to give the promotion to much junior staff who was recognised for his recent contribution which made up 15% of the company's annual profit. Behavioural component looks at how the subject faces and reacts to the matter's attention. Peter was displeased by the board's decision and requested for a transfer out of the department without considering the efforts he had made in his three years, His performance shows he have no interest in working as hard as he used to, giving the boss a low performance impression. Cognitive component is to think and reason but it is the hardest to action among the three components. Think and anaylze before you take your next big step.

Cognitive dissonance is a feeling of discomfort caused by the information received which is affecting your positive self-concept. Leon Festinger suggests that people seek harmony in their attitudes, belief and behaviours and try to reduce the tendency of inconsistency among these elements. Reducing dissonance can be achieved by changing the behaviour or justifying the behaviour with new cognition added. The aim is to established consistency as we are always motivated to avoid inconsistencies. Example, We are always bombarded by influence at work and sometimes we just do not want to go to work because we are not motivated but we have to adapt and cling on to the job because we have a family to feed and that thinking changes the way we look at things which constantly reminds us why we go to work in a motivation way.

The central route to persuasion occurs when one derives from the message with positive understanding and do not require further elaboration to understand what the message is driving. In an advertising world, a commercial message uses part of central route to bring a point to the users to purchase the product. Example, how an asthma suffers decides on purchasing the best medication to reduce the number of asthma attacks would not understand the medical jargons used on the advertisement instead creating a message that elaborate on the benefits which an asthma suffers can receive which reduces the number of asthma attacks would surely sell it's product.

The peripheral Route to persuasion occurs when one is unable to understand what the message is trying to drive but some factors within the message actually gives a positive signal to further the consumer back to the product message which is driven. Example, If Michael Jordan is to do endorse for a brand of batteries, would anyone have purchased the batteries, why on earth would a basketball player be in a battery advertisement. Studies shows that though Michael Jordan plays basketball, the batteries will still sell in the eyes of consumers who are knows who michael jordan is and why should michael be endorsing these batteries, could they be as good as how michael jordan plays his basketball? Jansport backpack introduced an advertisement which had little to talk about but had more visual effects that somehow caught the eyes of a young boy who immediately went to the nearest sports store and purchased the pack and realised it was as good as what the advertisement was trying to put a point across.

The elaborate likelihood model is a combination of central and peripheral route and this two forms do not lead to the same attitude changes. A common question asked in the technology world, " Since you know that windows is not the fastest platform, why are you not switching over to a faster platform?" There are tons of answers to this question but it is the social psychology that have a fairly simple answer to it.

Self awareness theory states that when one looks at themselves more often than not, they tend to evaluate and compare their behaviour against internal values and standards which might be short coming. Example, Telling a lie or being guilty is what your friends will stigma you as being dishonest and not worthy of being friends, once you are exposed to the lies you have been telling, the subject tends to drink, abuse their bodies and even suicide attempts. The subject could have calm down and think of alternative ways to handle stress like this by attending spiritual aids and mental therapy which helps calm one person and resolve your problems and failures in a better way.