ABSTRACT
The new approach to understanding and measuring underlying attitudes was developed by Anthony Greenwald. He developed a powerful argument that we should reconceptualise what we mean by an attitude in the light of new research in cognitive rather than social psychological research (the principal domain for this type of work). He cited the conclusion of Myers (1987) who had come to the view that the models of the attitude-behaviour relationship only really worked by ‘limiting the scope of the attitude concept.’ Thus,
Our attitudes predict our actions (1) if other influences are minimized, (2) if the attitude is specific to the action, and (3) if, as we act, we are conscious of our attitudes, either because something reminds us of them or because we acquired them in a manner that makes them strong. When these conditions are not met, our attitudes seem disconnected from our actions. (Myers 1987: 45)
Greenwald (1990: 256), clearly not a man to mince his words, wrote – ‘Myer’s conclusion is decidedly embarrassing as a summary of the predictive power of social psychology’s major theoretical construct’. What he did in the remainder of this short paper was to review new research in cognitive psychology on unconscious cognitive processes to provide a new theoretical basis to the work on attitudes. The fully formed Gordon Allport, the psychologist who had rejected Freud’s attempt to bring the role of the unconscious even into his brief meeting with his younger self, would have turned in his grave. One consequence of Greenwald’s devastating review was to ‘call into question the appropriateness of the presently most favoured techniques of attitude measurement’ (ibid.: 256). The rest as they say is history.