Psychology

The study of attitudes provides at once a window to one of the most longstanding, theoretically nuanced, and empirically rich fields of social psychology, as well as a way of understanding some of the basic processes that underlie a wide range of everyday experiences and critical social issues. Given the area’s extensive history and far-reaching implications, it would be impossible to cover every topic in one quarter. This course will instead highlight some of the most central and enduring themes in attitudes research. Topics will include attitude definition and measurement, the effects of attitudes on cognition and behavior, cognitive dissonance and self-perception theories, dual process models of persuasion, conformity and group influence, implicit vs. explicit attitudes, and context-dependence vs. consistency in evaluative responding.