Literature Review: Judging Groups and Society: Generalization and Individualization

Joel Furches

Abstract

In the unit under consideration in this paper, Social Cognitive Development literature contains a number of studies on the subject of the formation and function of attitudes. Attitudes, according to Fiske and Taylor (2017), are defined as some variable believed to modify the response that a behaving individual has to a stimulus experienced by that individual. In other words, it serves as a kind of perceptual filter for stimuli which modulate the response to those stimuli. Things brought under consideration in this unit included how persuasion is instrumental in changing attitudes, the structure of attitudes, how attitudes function in connection to other concepts in the field, such as heuristics, motives, and automated versus controlled processes. This paper will attempt to summarize and synthesize the concepts discussed in the literature.

Keywords: psychology