Attitude Change Theory

In everyday life, concepts such as personality and attitude are used to qualify other individuals, either positively or negatively. Psychology and the social sciences define such concepts through theoretical perspectives, grounded in research, dissimilar from everyday perspectives. Attitude change theory is a group of concepts, theories, models, and techniques developed to understand the structure of attitudes, their formation, and change. These theories and models emphasize different components of attitudes and sometimes propose conflicting explanations. Some of these approaches are the theory of reasoned action, elaboration likelihood model, balance theory, and cognitive dissonance theory. This entry describes the relationship between attitude and psychological research, the main concepts of the fields, approaches, and application of attitude research within the context of mass media.

An attitude is a theoretical ...