Belief-based
approaches
1.
(a) Explain the general idea of belief-based approaches to attitude. (b) What
is a salient belief? How can one identify a person's salient beliefs about a
given object? Explain how, in a survey context, one might identify the modal
(average) salient beliefs about an object.
2.
(a) According to the summative model of attitude, what are the two determinants
of attitude? (b) What is belief strength? Describe questionnaire items that might
be used to assess belief strength. (c) What is belief evaluation? Describe
questionnaire items that might be used to assess belief evaluation. (d) Explain
the summative model's description of how belief strength and belief evaluation
combine to produce attitude; that is, describe and explain the summative
model's formula. Give an example that illustrates the model's application.
3.
(a) Sketch alternative strategies for attitude change suggested by the
summative model. (b) Explain (and give an example of) the strategy of adding a
new salient belief (of appropriate valence) about the object, the strategies of
increasing or decreasing the evaluation of an existing salient belief, the
strategies of increasing or decreasing the strength of an existing salient
belief, and the strategy of changing the relative salience of existing beliefs.
(c) Explain how this model can be useful in identifying possible foci for
persuasive appeals.
4.
(a) How supportive is the research evidence concerning the summative model?
That is, what is the general pattern of correlations between the model's
predictions and direct measures of attitude? (b) What is attribute importance?
Does adding attribute importance to the summative model's formula improve the
predictability of attitude? Why not? Identify two possible reasons.
5.
(a) Describe the weighted averaging model. (b) What does the research evidence
indicate about whether the averaging model or the summative (adding) model is
superior? Identify two reasons that there is not compelling evidence to support
one model over the other.