Understanding Attitudes and Aggression: Key Concepts
Understanding Attitudes
The concept of attitude is considered an internal disposition, learned and lasting, that holds the answers to a favorable or unfavorable object. When we report that we are communicating a certain attitude, we have feelings and pleasant or unpleasant thoughts about that object. Considering the structure of attitude as a single dimension (one-dimensional definition), we evaluate the attitude object in terms of positive or negative.
Other authors conceive the structure of attitude as comprised of several components. Attitudes are considered as a predisposition to respond to stimuli with some sort of response:
- Affective: Feelings of education
- Cognitive: Beliefs, opinions
- Conative: Action express or behaviors
The relation between the three classes would be given by consistency: the match between what we feel, think, and our proceedings.
Functions of Attitudes
The main functions of attitudes are four:
- Defensive Function: Attitudes function as mechanisms for defense, allowing someone to protect themselves from negative feelings.
- Value-Expressive Function: We need to express attitudes that reflect our own values, directed to confirm the validity of the very concept of self.
- Instrumental, Utilitarian, or Adaptive Function: Attitudes help us to achieve desired objectives.
- Knowledge Function: Attitudes structure or organize information overload that comes from our external environment, simplifying the complex and engaging world better.
Receiver Factors Influencing Attitudes
- Self-Esteem: The higher the self-esteem, the less susceptible to influence the individual is.
- Authoritarianism: An authoritative person is very susceptible.
- Social Isolation: The sense of social isolation leads to greater dependence on the approval of others.
- Fantasy Proneness: People more prone to fantasies are more susceptible to persuasion.
- Critical Guidance: Individuals whose values are more compatible with adaptation and conformity are more susceptible than those whose orientation values independence.
Understanding Aggression
Definitions of aggression:
- Behaviors intended to cause actual harm but do not succeed.
- Symbolic or verbal in nature.
- Used to achieve something, so calculating and instrumental.
- Intent to cause physical or psychological harm.
- Provokes actual harm.
- Alteration of the excited state, so aggression can be classified as anger.
According to Archer and Browne, aggression has three characteristics. Green draws a distinction between angry or emotional aggression and instrumental aggression. The first is accompanied by a strong negative emotional state of anger. The main objective is to do harm. Instrumental aggression is devoid of emotion, getting another goal that is not to do harm.
Aggression is focused on four key ideas:
- Aggression is an innate drive.
- Aggression is a natural response to frustration.
- Aggressive behavior is learned.
- Aggression can be understood as the exercise of coercive power.