Functional approach
Functional approach
* The beauty of functional approach is that it helps
us understand WHY people hold attitudes
* Knowledge (Katz, 1960)
* Utilitarian (Katz, 1960)
* Value-expressive (Katz, 1960)
* Ego-defensive (Katz, 1960)
* Social-adjustive (Smith, Bruner, & White, 1956)
* Social identity (Shavit, Nelson, 2000)
Knowledge
* Attitudes help people make sense of the world
Utilitarian
* Attitudes help people obtain awards and avoid
punishment
Value-expressive
* To express core values and strongly held beliefs
Ego-defensive
* Attitude can serve as a defense against
unpleasant emotions people do not want to
consciously acknowledge
They are so
stupid!
Social-adjustive
* We all like to be accepted by others. Attitudes
help us adjust to reference groups. People
believe they will be more accepted by others if
they take this side.
Social identity
* People hold attitudes to communicate who they
are and what they aspire to be.
Persuasion  Function matching
* A persuasive message is most likely to change an
attitude when the message is directed at the
underlying function of attitude. Messages that
match the function served by an attitude should
be more compelling than those that are not
relevant to the function addressed by the
attitude.