RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AFFECTIVE BEHAVIORAL AND COGNITIVE COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDE

It has long been assumed that attitudes have affective, behavioral, and cognitive components. Two hypotheses were derived from this assumption and tested in three correlational studies. Individuals were predicted to show greater consistency of response to attitude scales measuring the same component than to scales measuring different components. The Campbell and Fiske (1959) multitrait-multimethod matrix procedure was used to test this hypothesis. Second, it was hypothesized that the correspondence between verbal attitude scales and nonverbal attitudinal responses should be highest when both are drawn from the same attitude component. Indices of overt behavior were compared with verbal measures of the affective, behavioral, and cognitive components as a test for the second hypothesis. Construction of verbal measures for the three components required development of a procedure for assessing the amount each verbal statement reflected each component. Scales of attitude toward the church were prepared using the methods of equal-appearing intervals, summated ratings, scalogram analysis, and self-rating. Both hypotheses were supported, but the dominant feature was a high intercorrelation between the three components with the uniqueness of each component contributing very little additional variance. © 1969.