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Social psychology: Altruism · Attribution · Attitudes · Conformity · Discrimination · Groups · Interpersonal relations · Obedience · Prejudice · Norms · Perception · Index · Outline
Unlike personality, attitudes are expected to change as a function of experience. Tesser (1993) has argued that heredity variables may affect attitudes - but believes that may do so indirectly. For example, if one inherits the disposition to become an extrovert, this may affect one's attitude to certain styles of music. There are numerous theories of attitude formation and attitude change. These include:
- Consistency theories, which imply that we must be consistent in our beliefs and values. The most famous example of such a theory is Dissonance-reduction theory, associated with Leon Festinger, although there are others, such as the
- balance theory of Fritz Heider.
- Self-perception theory, associated with Daryl Bem
- Meta programs, associated with Neuro-linguistic programming
- Persuasion
- Elaboration Likelihood Model associated with Richard E. Petty
- Systematic Heuristic Model of Shelley Chaiken.
- Social judgment theory
- Balance theory
- Abundance theory