What are attitudes and their components? Discuss why attitudes are unreliable predictors of behaviour.
Psychology 1101 Assignment 2 - Research Essay What are attitudes and their components? Discuss why attitudes are unreliable predictors of behaviour. Lorna Plenderleith Abstract This essay discusses the nature of attitudes and their reliability when used to predict behaviour. Using various sources, an in depth look is taken at the problems defining attitude. The theories regarding the formation of attitudes are discussed, as well as the inherent problems in accurately measuring and reporting attitudes. The reliability of attitude to predict behaviour is questioned and found to be tenuous at best. In this essay I will firstly define attitudes and their components, looking at certain definitional problems with the term attitude, arising from the fact that describing an attitude will always involve interpretation. It follows that an attitude is an essentially subjective phenomenon, and hence any attempt to define an attitude as a theoretical predictor of behaviour will be unreliable. I will follow this with an analysis of how an attitude is formed, discussing several theories regarding this. I will then look at some of the methodological problems of attitude research in its various forms, concentrating on the particular technique of questionnaire, and how these forms of research are inadequate for use in the prediction of behaviour. Finally I will conclude that while
Marx Vs. Weber
Marx Vs. Weber During the nineteenth century, Karl Marx and Max Weber were two of the most influential sociologist. Both their views on the rise of capitalism have various similarities and differences. They believe that capitalism is relatively new to the modern world. Their views differ on the rise of capitalism. Regardless of Marx and Weber's differences, both theorists agree that capitalism is a system of highly impersonal relations. Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818 to the father of a Jewish lawyer. As a young student Marx often read works written by Hegel. From school, Marx wrote to his father of his feelings on Hegel. He had found a disliking for those Hegelians who sought to "draw atheistic and revolutionary conclusions from Hegel's philosophy" (Granat Encyclopedia, pg.153) In order to better understand the views of Marx we must look at the philosophy of Hegel. German philosophy in the nineteenth century was dominated by the ideas of Hegel. Hegel's philosophy was based on the concept of idealism. By looking at prior philosophers one will see that Hegel's philosophy was similar to that of Immanuel Kant. Kant was interested in the study of knowledge. Kant had argued that ideas or concepts are apriori. Apriori ideas are one which exists before one's knowledge of the world, which is ideas are not empirical. Hegel's philosophy was an expansion on the
What's so funny? A Study of Race and Stand-up Comedy on Cable TV
Michael Seyoum Hailu Sociology Senior Research Seminar Research Proposal October 15, 2004 What's so funny? A Study of Race and Stand-up Comedy on Cable TV A man walks into a bar... Most of us have likely heard a variation of a joke that starts with the above words, and ends with a punch line intended to make an audience of one or numbering in the hundreds or millions burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter. But do we all find the joke funny? Ruling out the very subjective nature of what we as individuals find humorous, do some jokes elicit belly-aching laughter from certain social groups while getting little or no response from others? Though laughter may be an almost universal act, the causes seem to be much less so. As a life long fan of stand up comedy, the questions that led to this paper have been ruminating in my head for several years. Comedy seems to come, if you'll pardon the cliché, in all shapes and sizes. From television sit-coms and late night shows, to satirical magazines and comedy recordings, there isn't a medium that hasn't been used to deliver the laughs to an expectant audience. In addition race, gender and socio-economic status seem to have a relationship with comedy that begs for scholarly analysis. Each of these social classifications would offer an interesting viewpoint from which to analyze both comedy and the classification itself. However
Commentary on 2 cultural texts.
Commentary on 2 cultural texts The sixteenth century was a time of great scientific, historical, religious and artistic upheaval. Without the benefit of computers, Television, Radio or Nosy Neighbours, much dissemination of social codes and conventions, stories, fables and legends, came from ballads of sonnets. Literacy ballads and the like were a basic format of song, with an emphasis on action rather than character, that told a story, usually concerning some social phenomena, such as romantic relationships, cheating wives or husbands, and sometimes work trades, such as ploughmen, Carpenters, etc... Traditionally most sonnets dealt with the theme of romantic love and in general, referred to a mistress, friend, or a familial relation. The two ballads discussed here show to highly contrasting themes of 16th Century rural life: Romance and Love, and Justice and social interaction. The second focusing on how conflict between individuals might have been dealt with, or resolved. "Astrophil and Stella" One of the most famous, and important artistic creations 16th Century English culture gave birth to was Sidney's sonnet sequence called "Astrophil and Stella". The sequence is about a man, Astrophil who is attracted to and in pursuit of a married woman, called Stella. On stealing a first kiss from Stella whilst she is asleep Astrophil worries about her reaction if she should find
Building quality survey
Conclusion and Evaluation I am now going to refer back to each of my guiding questions to enable me to answer my investigative question. . What should the social-economic & environmental characteristics of Worcester outer-wards be like in theory? To answer this question I will split it up into to sections; social-economic characteristics and then environmental characteristics. First I will speak about the social-economic characteristics. Social-Economic Characteristics These include four variables, for each I shall say what they are and what in theory they should show. I. Building quality survey; in theory the higher the average scores for the buildings in that ward, the better the social-economic characteristics. II. Economic activity; in theory within the population of a ward, the higher the percentage there is of economically active people, the better the social-economic characteristics of a ward and vice versa. III. Household type; in theory the higher the percentage of households that are classified owner occupied the better the social-economic characteristics of the ward. IV. No central heating; in theory the higher the percentage of households that have central heating the better the social-economic characteristics of the ward. V. House prices; in theory the higher the house prices the better the social-economic characteristics of the ward. A way of deciding
How useful is Marx's theory of historical materialism to the understanding of the development of capitalism?
How useful is Marx's theory of historical materialism to the understanding of the development of capitalism. The Marxist movement begins by considering the formerly accepted idealistic perception of history and world development. Hegelianism, which follows from its principal the belief in the rule of concepts, dominance of religion and of a universal principle within the existing world, achieves only, as Marx would say, thoroughly one-sided 'elucidations of Christianity from the point of view of religious history'1 and entirely fails to explain the actual empirical reality of history and human development. Rather history itself can only be understood when examining, analogously, the historical development of material production and reciprocally that the development of society can only be understood within the context of history. This follows from the very basic conception that the writings of history begin with the existence of man, the pre-conditions for mans existence depend upon his material activities in relation to his natural surroundings. In order for human survival, man must first produce his own physical means of subsistence, it follows therefore that human history originates from mans material production. Mans means of subsistence is dependant upon the natural conditions of his environment, of which he must interact with and reproduce. This definite and essential
This extract is about different approaches to feminism and how they have been affected by modernism.
Culture and Society: Portfolio of Assignments 100% 7. Feminist Critique of Modernism 50% Lewis Stanley Cohen's critique of Hebdige's reading of the symbolism of the swastika By: Elisha Morrison This extract is about different approaches to feminism and how they have been affected by modernism. Feminism is the belief in social, political and economic equality of the sexes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism (2007). Feminists emerged with the feeling that they were oppressed by men because they were women and were ready to speak out about it. In 1790 the first piece of writing recognised as feminist was A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft. Capitalism was identified to be the catalyst of the inequalities towards women whereby women were seen as inadequate, weak and inept to contribute within the workforce and therefore incompetent to vote. The only feasible role for them was a domestic one - looking after the house and children. The first group of feminists described are the Suffragettes. They were middle-class and well-educated and were understandably frustrated by the inequalities they faced against men when they were intellectual and more than able to have a role within the workforce. Texts by "Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and George Eliot" (Lewis 2002) were of importance to the Suffragettes seeing that those texts also identified
Stress. The total stress score from the social readjustment scale does not adequately reflect what the author believes to be his personal level of stress associated with social readjustment. The scale covers most issues that deal with social readjustment.
Weighting Schemes and Stress Jackson Akwaowo Psychology 351 Tara LaCasta-Revell March 24, 2009 The total stress score from the social readjustment scale does not adequately reflect what the author believes to be his personal level of stress associated with social readjustment. The scale covers most issues that deal with social readjustment. The positions of issues on the scale have no relevance to importance to individuals, as stated in a popular proverb, "one man's meat is another man's poison", so what is important for one individual, might be trivial for another. The reaction to the issues would still be the same regardless of what position it ends up on the scale. Theories are needed to explain and predict stress, as well as for the design and evaluation of interventions. Although there has been a history of developing, testing, applying, and refining psychological theories on stress, debates and limitations in evidence exist (Dombeck and Wells-Moran, 2006). The component of theories which, for example, predicts change should be better elaborated so that we can more easily understand what actually reduces stress. Theories need to be empirically testable in two ways. Theories need to specify a set of changeable predictors to describe, explain, and predict behavior change, and they should enable us to design an effective intervention that produces exactly those
Evaluate Marx's account of historical materialism as an analysis of social change.
Sociology Essay Evaluate Marx's account of historical materialism as an analysis of social change. In this essay I will look at Marx's account of historical materialism, with an emphasis on the materiality of labour and production, the concept of class and the organisation of social structures into these classes (or orders); and social change as the history of the class struggle (e.g. the role played by the modes of production, ideology and contradiction.) Marx's theory will be criticised on the grounds that it is, arguably, economically reductional and teleological; and concluding that his theory, while not bearing out a 'truly' classless society, it is still a valuable sociological tool for analysing the history of social change. Introduction Historical materialism was a term applied by Karl Marx to his theory of society and history. 'Historical' entailed the analysis of how particular forms of society had come into existence, and the specific historical context within which apparently universal or eternal social forms - state, market and so forth - were located. 'Materialism' denoted the rejection of Hegealian idealism and the primacy of socio-economic processes and relations. Hence, it was a sustained attempt to account for the determining role in history played by productive forces. Historical Materialism As An Analysis Of Social Change Marx's view of history is
Weber, capitalism, religion and social control
Weber, capitalism, religion and social control The analysis of the relationship between religion and social change can usually be seen as a debate between those who believe that religion can be change promoting, such as Weber, and those who believe religion to be change inhibiting, such as Marx and Durkheim. Marx's view fro example, would be that religion would inhibit social change at it legitimises and justifies the status quo, whereas this is usually contrasted with Weber, who suggests that religion can cause social change, in that it helped in the development of capitalism. 1905 saw the publication of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, which was possibly the most influential of Weber's works, and also one of the most important theories on religion and its effect on the wider economic structure. Weber was interested in the rise of capitalism in Western Europe, and also the ideas and beliefs that were influential in bringing about this development in economic behaviour. Weber believed that the religious beliefs of Calvinism led to the development of capitalism, and thus Weber believes that there is a convergence of attitudes and beliefs between the religious behaviour of Calvinism, and the concepts of capitalism. He believed that this relationship could only be found in Western Europe, and although Weber thought it would be far too simplistic to claim that
