ABSTRACT
We all have attitudes and they are directed toward virtually everything in our environment: people, places, events, actions, issues, objects, and consumer products such as the automobile. The very prevalence and ubiquity of attitudinal evaluations suggest they must serve some psycho-logical purpose. The scientific exploration of the motives that underlie the formation and expression of attitudes is known collectively as the functional approach. Although evident some 40 years ago (Katz, 1960; Smith, Bruner, & White, 1956), interest in attitude function disappeared from the mainstream of psychological research, which is
surprising, because it seems to be an elementary and crucial domain for investigation, as noted by Murray in the opening quotation.
