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
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Utilitarian
•Attitudes help people obtain awards and avoid punishment
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Value-expressive
•To express core values and strongly held beliefs
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Ego-defensive
•Attitude can serve as a defense against unpleasant emotions people do not want to consciously
acknowledge
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They are so stupid!
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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.
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Social identity
•People hold attitudes to communicate who they are and what they aspire to be.
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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.
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