Contemporary Perspectives on the Psychology of Attitudes

Attitudes research has long formed a central construct in social psychology. This volume draws together cutting edge research that has emerged in this field and examines its implications for the concept of attitude as a paradigm of social psychological understanding. Dividing the subject into two main parts, this book first addresses the structural and behavioural properties of attitudes including affective-cognitive factors, the nature of attitude ambivalence and intention-behaviour relations. The second section of the book focuses on representational and transformational processes, such as meta-cognitive attitudinal processes, the role of implicit and explicit attitudes, cultural influences and attitude change. In a third, concluding section, the Editors draw together these contemporary perspectives and elaborate on their impact for future theorising and research into attitudes. Empirically supported throughout, this collection represents a timely integration of the burgeoning range of approaches toattitude research by expert contributors to the field.