What is an Attitude?

1. What is an Attitude? • “An organized predisposition to respond in a favorable or unfavorable manner toward a specified class of objects” (Shaver, 1977) • Position on a bipolar affective or evaluative dimension (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) • Networks of interrelated beliefs that reside in long-term memory and are activated when the attitude object or issue is encountered (Tourangeau & Rasinksi, 1988)

2. Measuring Attitudes:Thurstone’s Equal Appearing Intervals (1928) • Create pool of belief items (~100) • ~300 judges rate favorability of items • Scale value of item = average rating • Exclude items with high variance • Final scale: ~20 evenly distributed items • Person checks items (s)he agrees with • Score = median value of checked items

3. Measuring Attitudes:Likert’s Summated Ratings (1932) • Create pool of belief items • Decide how to score each (+ or -) • exclude neutral or ambiguous items • Administer to relevant sample • bipolar SA (+2) to SD (-2) scale • Criterion of internal consistency • item-total correlations & Coefficient Alpha

4. Issues with Likert Scales • Ambiguity of SD responses • Women deserve same job opportunities as men • So use bipolar scales (“Women deserve…”) • Scaling is compensatory • 5 SA + 5 SD = 10 N = 5A + 5D • Include neutral midpoint? • How many anchors?

5. Measuring Attitudes:Guttman’s Scalogram (1944) • Create set of items that form a uni-dimensional hierarchy • Score = “highest” item person endorses • e.g., attitudes towards gambling: • Place bets with bookie • Gambling trips to Las Vegas • Bet on greyhounds/horses • Office football/basketball pools • Penny ante poker with friends • No-stakes wager with a friend

6. Measuring Attitudes:Osgood’s Semantic Differential Scale • Subjects rate items on bipolar adjectives: • good…………………………………bad • favorable ……………………unfavorable • like……………………………….dislike • Score = sum of responses to all items • Most direct measure of evaluation/affect

8. What is Job Satisfaction? • Spector: • “the degree to which people like their jobs” • “How people feel about their jobs and different aspects of their jobs” Work characteristics Job Satisfaction(s)

9. Porter (1961): Need Satisfaction Desired-Actual Minnesota Work Adjustment Model 20 “reinforcers” (based on Murray’s 12 needs) Locke (1976): Values “Job satisfaction results from appraisal of one’s job as attaining…one’s important job values” provided these values are congruent with basic needs Simple Discrepancy Models

10. Objective characteristics Perceived characteristics Needs/ Values Job Satisfaction(s)

11. March & Simon Evaluation of inducements/contributions ratio Labor market affects value of contributions Cornell Model: Outcomes vs. Expectations Evaluations of outcomes are affected by Frame of Reference (alternatives, past experience, economy) Hulin, Roznowski & Hachiya (1985) Frame of reference influences both contributions and inducements Frame of Reference Models

12. Objective characteristics Perceived characteristics Frame of Reference Needs/ Values Job Satisfaction(s)

13. Questioning the Situational View • A chink in the armor: are perceptions veridical with objective reality? • Social Information Processing model • Dispositional View

14. Alternative Models of JS:Social Information Processing Model Social construction of attitudes vs objective characteristics) Salancik & Pfeffer (1978) Roots in Schachter & Singer (1962) Attitude statements based on: Perception of affective components Social context cues Self-attributions about behavior Generalized Arousal Event JS Cues

15. Alternative Models of JS:Dispositional Approach • Staw & Ross (1985) • Surprising stability over time/situations • Staw, Bell & Clausen (1986) • Childhood temperament predicts adult JS • Arvey et al. (1989) • JS has hereditary component (30%)

16. Caveats re: Dispositional Approach • General questions about behavioral genetics • Gerhart (1987): Situation AND Disposition • Compared effects on current satisfaction of prior satisfaction, pay, job complexity • Job complexity had strongest effect • Why isn’t extrinsic satisfaction heritable? • Why is JS heritable? A JS gene?

17. Temperament and Job Satisfaction • Trait NA/PA may be key factor • Some reason to believe that it may have biological basis, and thus inheritable • Those high in NA are more likely to: • Notice negative stimuli • Evaluate stimuli in negative terms • Recall negative stimuli • Create interpersonal conflict  dissatisfaction

18. Primacy of Affect or Judgment Weiss & Cropanzano (1996) Events Affect JS Weiss et al. (1999) Disposition Mood at work JS Brief (1998) Disposition Interpretations JS

19. Primacy of Affect or Judgment Brief & Weiss (2002) Interpretations JS Disposition Mood Fuller et al. (2003) Strain JS Stress events Mood

20. Attitudes and Behavior Attitude: Act Behavior Intent Behavior Subjective Norm Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen)

21. Attitudes and Behavior Behavior beliefs Attitude: Act Evaluation Behavior Intent Behavior Normative beliefs Subjective Norm Motivation to Comply Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen)

22. Attitudes and Behavior Behavior beliefs Attitude: Act Evaluation Behavior Intent Behavior Normative beliefs Subjective Norm Constraints Motivation to Comply Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen)