Attitude is an opinion, belief or value judgement which is based on experience or shared knowledge. (1) dispositions either develop through direct experience or are learned from others through sociali-zation. The study of attitudes is particularly important when (2) stereotypes, bias, prejudice, persuasion, and survey material. With particular reference to attitudes about it is important to recognize how often we display attitude towards new groups (3) _we have had little or no contact. For example, we may form stereo-types about journalists, thinking of them as ambitious, (4) tough and cynical, without ever having met one. In this sense, the process (5) occurs. Where an attitude extends from specific instar.ces within a category to include all members of that category.
Attitudes can be said to have three main components: the cognitive or intel-lectual (the information that is at hand about the target); the emotional or affective (the 'gut reaction' to such information); and the behavioral (the degree to which we act out that which we know and feel). In this way, a football supporter can have an extensive knowledge of his or her team's history, a liking of the game, and will have attended some fixtures. It is (6) intellectual and affective qualities because they can usually be inferred only from the behavioral component. (7) often give replies which they think conform to others expectation of them, and which are therefore socially acceptable. In this way to attitude tests may well provide answers (8) this possibility many questionna.res ask seemingly indirect questions, (9) pe-ople will not realize the actual purposes of the test, and (10) neous answers. "real" and spontaTaken from O'Sullivan, et al. (1994). Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies. Routledge.