Persuasion and public opinion – attitude formation

Attitudes

Enduring systems of positive and negative evaluations, emotional feelings, and pro or con action tendencies with respect to social objects – people, places, things, and ideas.

Opinion

A response to a question about a controversial topic.

Opinion Leader

Those who knowingly or unknowingly influence other people’s opinions on certain subjects.

Public opinion

The sum of accumulated individual opinions on an issue in public debate and affecting a group of people.

Norms

Rules of behaviour that specify appropriate and inappropriate behaviour for people in society.

Folkways

Norms that are looked upon by members of a society or group within the society as not being extremely important and that may be violated without severe punishment or negative social sanctions.

Mores

Norms that are looked upon by members of a society or a group within the society as being extremely important and that when violated result in severe punishment.

Taboos

Powerful social beliefs that a particular activity, food, place, etc. is totally repulsive.

Social Sanctions

A positive social sanction is used to reward conformity to a norm while a negative one punishes deviation from it.

Values

Socially shared conceptions of what a group or society considers good, right, and desirable. The criteria or conceptions used in evaluating things (including objects, ideas, actions, feelings, and events) as to their relative desirability, merit or correctness.

Culture

All the ideas, knowledge, traditions, beliefs, norms and values that are widely known and accepted by individuals in a society.

Subculture

A group that shares some of the cultural elements of the larger society, but also has its own distinctive values, beliefs, norms, etc.

Counterculture

A subculture that rejects conventional norms and values and adopts alternative ones.

Cultural diffusion

The process by which cultural elements spread from their point of origin to another group or another society.

Cultural innovation

The invention and introduction into a culture of new ideas, objects, or methods of doing things.

Cultural universals

Practices or traits that are found in every known human culture.

Ideal culture

The set of values people claim to believe in, not the culture they express in their actual behaviour.

Real culture

The culture people express in their actual behaviour.

Material culture

The physical and technological aspects of a culture.

Non-material culture

All the aspects of a culture that do not have a physical existence. Eg., values, beliefs, etc.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency for individuals in a society to view their culture (and its values, norms, and beliefs) as superior to others.

Language

An abstract system of sounds (speech), signs (written characters), and gestures (non-verbal communication) by which members of a society express their thoughts, feelings, ideas, and desires.

Perception

The way we perceive individuals, institutions, situations, etc.

Predisposition

Being inclined to do or not do something when an issue arises.

Primary group

In a primary group, members have an emotional bond to one another such that the individual’s place in that group can never be filled by another person.

Secondary group

A goal-oriented group formed for a purpose. Members belong because of their interest in the group’s goal, because of the contribution they can make toward achieving it, or because of the contribution group membership can make towards achieving their own goals.

Peer group

A group of interacting companions who usually share similar social characteristics (for example, age, gender, social class, religion, etc), interests, tastes, and values.

Reference group

A group that provides the standards and perspective regulating an individual’s behaviour within a given context, regardless of whether she/he is a member of the group or not.

Social stratification

The process whereby people rank one another in a vertical arrangement – a hierarchy – that differentiates them as superior or inferior.

Socioeconomic status

A social ranking which combines various dimensions of stratification, particularly prestige and wealth. It takes into account a number of factors that determine a person’s social status: income, type of occupation, level of education attained and place of residence, among others.

Status

Socially defined positions in a social institution. One’s status determines how an individual should relate to other people and with whom the individual will interact. Each status usually carries a set of role expectations.

Ascribed status

A social status based on the position into which an individual is born, or characteristics over which he or she exerts no control (age, gender, ethnicity, etc).

Achieved status

A social status based on characteristics over which the individual exerts some control, such as educational attainment, marital status, or type of employment.

Role

Behaviour expected from an individual because of his or her status.

Gender roles

Culturally defined attitudes and behaviours that are widely accepted as appropriate for men and for women.

Socialization

The process through which we learn the dominant beliefs, values, and norms acceptable within our society. The learning process through which individuals develop their personalities and gain a sense of identity.

Primary socialization

This occurs during childhood when the individual learns the culture and lifestyle of his/her own particular group.

Secondary socialization

Learning and adaptation that continues throughout life, building on the primary socialization of childhood.