COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN THE ATTITUDE-BEHAVIOR RELATION

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The proposed research has the long-term objective of providing an understanding of how individuals structure and cope with their social environments. Specifically, the research centers upon the functional value of attitudes and examines the process by which attitudes serve to simplify the behavior of a mentally healthy individual. Attitudes aid individuals to cope with the multitude, variety, and complexity of stimuli encountered daily and, thus, contribute to effective daily functioning. A model of the various cognitive steps involved in the process by which attitudes guide behavior is proposed. Although there has been a recent resurgence of research on the attitude-behavior relation, little attention has been paid to the process question. The proposed model suggests that the necessary steps in this process include (1) that the attitude be accessed from memory upon mere observation of the attitude object, (2) that, through selective perception, the now accessed attitude influence one's immediate perception of the object, and (3) that these immediate perceptions prompt behavior toward the object. The process model, then, hypothesizes that attitude accessibility and selective perception are critical steps in the occurrence of attitude-behavior consistency. The proposed research will test each of the links in the process model by examining: (1) several determinants of attitude accessibility, (2) the effect of variables previously shown to affect accessibility, such as the manner of attitude formation and repeated expression of one's attitude, on attitude-behavior consistency, and (3) the mediating nature of selective perception in promoting attitude-behavior consistency. In addition, implications of the process model for the issue of attitude measurement are to be investigated empirically.