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Psychology's main aim is to explain and predict human behaviour.
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| Submitted: Thu Mar 04 2004
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Psychology's main aim is to explain and predict human behaviour. If there is a link between a person's attitude and their behaviour then possibly a person's behaviour can be predicted by understanding their attitudes. It has been said that attitude is 'probably the most distinctive and indispensable concept in psychology' (Allport, 1954). The strongest influence on the formation of attitudes is social learning whereby people learn from their direct and indirect experiences. Some also argue that genetics play an influential part. Is it difficult to define exactly what an attitude is; Petty and Caioppo (1986) defined it as 'general evaluations people make about themselves, others, objects or issues' and went on to say 'attitudes have a past, present and future; they were developed from past experience, they guide our current behaviour, and can direct our development in the future'. There are many definitions of attitude, and the main gist of...
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