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Gordon Allport claimed that 'attitudes' were social psychology's most 'indispensable concept'. To what extent can they predict behaviour?
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Gordon Allport claimed that 'attitudes' were social psychology's most 'indispensable concept'. To what extent can they predict behaviour? Augoustinos & Walker (1995) claim the attitudes area has been the most researched and heavily invested topic in social psychology. The 1960/70's saw an era of pessimism regarding the attitude-behaviour association. However, by the 80's there was resurgence due to cognitive psychology's impact (Hogg and Vaughan 2002). Attitudes influence perceptions of others and also how we perceive ourselves. Augoustinos & Walker (1995:12) believe attitudes are 'real and tangible, which influence the way that attitude owner behaves'. They are tangible in the sense that attitudes are displayed through specific human behaviours and so can be observed e.g. a lazy attitude shown though someone sleeping a lot. But this does not mean that 'attitude' in itself exists as the question infers, it is a concept/theoretical construct. If G.Allport is correct then, attitudes are the causal stimuli...
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