Attitudes and social cognition: WACE Year 12 Psychology Unit 3
“Describe the tri-component model of attitudes, attitude-behaviour consistency, and Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance”
Attitudes have three components (affective, behavioural and cognitive); they predict behaviour best when specific, strong and accessible; and Leon Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory explains that the discomfort of holding conflicting attitudes and behaviours motivates people to change one of them.
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Attitudes are not part of the SCSA Psychology ATAR Year 12 syllabus (Unit 3: Memory and learning, and Unit 4: Motivation, wellbeing and health, taught since 2024), so this page is not examined in the WACE Psychology ATAR exam. The tripartite model of attitudes and cognitive dissonance are now in the Year 11 syllabus (Unit 2: Attitudes, stereotypes and social influence). For the nearest Year 12 content, see sources of motivation, which covers cognitions and emotions as drivers of behaviour.
What this dot point is asking
SCSA Unit 3 examines how people form, hold and change attitudes, and how they interpret the causes of behaviour. You need to explain the structure of attitudes, the conditions under which attitudes predict behaviour, attribution theory, and cognitive dissonance. This content appears in both school assessment and the external examination.
The tri-component model of attitudes
An attitude is a learned, relatively enduring evaluation of a person, object or issue. The tri-component (ABC) model describes three parts:
- Affective: the feelings or emotions toward the attitude object (for example, fear of spiders).
- Behavioural: the way a person acts or intends to act (avoiding spiders).
- Cognitive: the beliefs and thoughts held (believing spiders are dangerous).
For a fully formed attitude these three components are usually consistent with one another.
An attitude is a learned and relatively stable tendency to respond to people, objects or ideas in a favourable or unfavourable way, made up of affective, behavioural and cognitive components.
Attitude-behaviour consistency
Attitudes do not always predict behaviour. A classic demonstration is LaPiere's 1930s study: despite restaurant and hotel staff later stating in writing that they would refuse Chinese guests, almost all had in fact served a Chinese couple in person. This gap shows attitudes and behaviour can diverge.
Attitudes predict behaviour most reliably when:
- The attitude is specific to the behaviour rather than general.
- The attitude is strong, stable and based on direct experience.
- The attitude is accessible (easily brought to mind).
- Situational pressures and social norms are weak.
Attribution: explaining behaviour
Social cognition includes how we explain the causes of behaviour. Attribution theory distinguishes:
- Dispositional (internal) attribution: explaining behaviour by personality or character.
- Situational (external) attribution: explaining behaviour by the circumstances.
The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to over-attribute others' behaviour to disposition while underestimating the situation. The actor-observer bias is the tendency to attribute our own behaviour to the situation but others' behaviour to disposition. The self-serving bias is taking internal credit for success but blaming external factors for failure.
Cognitive dissonance (Festinger)
Leon Festinger proposed that people feel psychological discomfort, called cognitive dissonance, when they hold two conflicting cognitions, or when their behaviour conflicts with their attitudes. Because dissonance is unpleasant, people are motivated to reduce it.
Dissonance can be reduced by:
- Changing the attitude to match the behaviour.
- Changing the behaviour to match the attitude.
- Adding new cognitions that justify the inconsistency.
- Trivialising the conflict.
The boring task experiment
In Festinger and Carlsmith's experiment, participants did a tedious task, then were paid either one dollar or twenty dollars to tell the next participant it was enjoyable.
Those paid twenty dollars had ample external justification for lying, so felt little dissonance and still rated the task as dull.
Those paid only one dollar had insufficient justification, creating dissonance between "the task was boring" and "I just said it was fun". To reduce this, they changed their attitude and reported actually enjoying the task.
A strong WACE answer names Festinger, identifies the conflicting cognitions, and explains attitude change as dissonance reduction.
The smaller the external reward or justification for acting against an attitude, the greater the dissonance, and the more likely the person is to change their attitude to match the behaviour.
- Listing only two attitude components
- The tri-component model has three parts: affective, behavioural and cognitive. Omitting one loses marks.
- Assuming attitudes always predict behaviour
- LaPiere's study shows they often do not; consistency depends on specificity, strength, accessibility and situational pressure.
- Reversing the dissonance effect
- Greater dissonance, and therefore more attitude change, comes from less external justification (the one-dollar condition), not more.
- Confusing attribution biases
- The fundamental attribution error is about judging others by disposition; the self-serving bias is about protecting our own self-image.
Exam-style questions
Questions in the style of SCSA exam questions on this dot point, each with a worked answer. They are written by ExamExplained unless tagged "Past paper"; the year shows the paper a question is modelled on.
Original6 marksDescribe the tri-component (ABC) model of attitudes and explain two factors that determine how strongly an attitude predicts behaviour.Show worked answer →
A 6 mark response needs the three components defined and two factors explained.
Tri-component model. An attitude has an affective component (the feelings toward the object, such as fear of spiders), a behavioural component (how the person acts or intends to act, such as avoiding spiders), and a cognitive component (the beliefs held, such as that spiders are dangerous).
Factors affecting prediction. First, specificity: attitudes predict behaviour better when the attitude is specific to the behaviour rather than general. Second, strength and accessibility: strong attitudes based on direct experience and easily brought to mind predict behaviour more reliably, especially when situational pressures are weak.
Markers award the three components named with an example, and two factors each explained, rewarding reference to attitude-behaviour consistency rather than assuming attitudes always predict action.
Original8 marksUsing Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance, explain how performing a behaviour that conflicts with an attitude can lead to attitude change. Refer to research evidence in your answer.Show worked answer →
An 8 mark extended response needs the theory, the mechanism of attitude change, and named evidence.
- Theory
- Cognitive dissonance is the uncomfortable tension felt when a person holds two conflicting cognitions or acts against an attitude. Because the tension is unpleasant, the person is motivated to reduce it.
- Mechanism
- When a behaviour cannot be undone, one efficient way to reduce dissonance is to change the attitude so it matches the behaviour. Dissonance is greatest, and attitude change most likely, when there is little external justification for the behaviour.
- Evidence
- In Festinger and Carlsmith's study, participants who did a boring task and were paid only one dollar to call it enjoyable later rated it as more enjoyable than those paid twenty dollars. The low-paid group had insufficient external justification, so they reduced dissonance by genuinely changing their attitude.
- Conclusion
- Markers reward naming Festinger, explaining that behaviour can drive attitude change, and using the one-dollar versus twenty-dollar finding to show that less justification produces more dissonance and more change.