The three aspects of behavior, affect, and cognition affect human experience is derived from the early Greek philosophers (1969, McGuire). There was also an area that was prescribed in the first social psychology study by (McDougall & Bogardus, 1920). The term attitude was not officially clarified related to the tricomponent model until the end of 1940s. Smith in the year 1947 discerned the difference between affective, cognitive and policy orientation characteristics of attitude. This model of attitudes is known as the ABC-model, was first stated by (Hovland and Rosenberg 1960) and is today widely accepted by researchers in the field of attitudes and behaviors (Solomon et al., 2010). Rosenberg and Hovland argued that an attitude has three basic components: Affect, Behavior and Cognition, and researchers should measure these components in order to appreciate attitudes in more accurate way. The model emphasizes that three things are interrelated which are feel, know and do (2010,Solomon et al)
According to (Breckler 1984) behavior and cognition can be seen as to the response to the stimulus and attitudes. For instance a person who don’t like telemarketing its cognitive and is not pleased with this kind of marketing its emotional so that the response is negative it’s the behavior. The trend can either be optimistic or pessimistic and the intensity shows how strong the attitude is. The direction and intensity depends on the degree of internationalization and people’s experience and skills. There is typically an interaction process between the attitudes and skills. If people think of themselves skilled in a particular area, the attitude normally becomes more positive, leading to greater than before efforts to develop and improve skills in the field because Behavior aspects can be difficult to separate from the other two elements due to the lack of insights (1998,Krosnick & Schuman).
The easiest way to measure the attitude is by requesting people to respond verbally or written, from which the attitude is derived (Miller, Fletcher & Haynes & 2008). The attitude has a direction and strength. Affect describes how a receiver feels about attitude objects and is an emotional component of attitude. These feelings can be either positive or negative depending on the individual’s cognitions (opinions) about the item and helps making up an attitude toward it. The stronger the related emotions are, the stronger the attitude is expected to be. The behavior aspect relates to the receivers intention to do something with regard to an attitude object. This section is an active element of attitudes and concerns with the person’s tendency to counter to the object, the reaction will be different depending on how receivers are influenced by what they know about the entity and what they feel about it. The cognitive factor is likely to be more conscious than the other elements of attitudes, and is more susceptible than others (Solomon et al., 2010). The cognitive component refers to the beliefs and thoughts that a receiver has towards the object to explain the different components in the model of attitude, the following examples have been constructed, based on Solomon et al. (2010): This also consist of an individual’s opinion, perception and knowledge about an issue or item. Individual opinions may not be based on objective assessment or be true, but still play a fundamental role in how the person perceives reality and furthermore the attitude of an article.
A cognitive component is belief(s) about something for example: I like Facebook marketing Messages and want to read all of them. The behavioral module is where people act or how they present in some way toward the attitude object, for illustration: I only read Facebook marketing messages from known senders.
Three Hierarchies of Effects
The attitude varies depending on the ladder of the different components in the tricomponent model. Every sequence of steps that occurs in the process of generating an attitude depends on hierarchy.
The Standard Learning Hierarchy
The standard learning hierarchy depends upon the high involvement of consumer make extensive researches and gather data about the product and on the basis of it he forms beliefs and make decisions on that basis. The approach toward the attitude object is followed by the individual’s behavior. Few products generates high involvement which are expensive and are of greater important for a consumer like house or car like the cognition-affect behavior
(CAB) approach is dominant .during purchase of these type of products consumers collect lot of information and also consider other options and then finally act on the decision they made whether to purchase or not. The product used for long time are of high importance and are difficult to switch with other because of loyalty (Solomon etal., 2010).
The Low-Involvement Hierarchy
In distinction to the standard learning hierarchy, the low-involvement hierarchy necessitate a Cognition-behavior-affect (CBA) order of episodes. The individual does not pedestal the decision by having a strong preference for one brand or another, but instead base the purchase verdict on what they know, as opposite to what they feel, the consumer’s interest in the attitude object may be unenthusiastic and lack of information and experience is also common. In this type products of medium importance are considered by consumers like detergents that brand X makes his/her clothes whiter than brand Y, instead of bothering to compare all of the brands on the shelf. After the product has been purchased, the individual evaluates and establishes a feeling about the product and this cannot be called high involvement like purchasing a car or house etc.
The Experiential Hierarchy
The experiential hierarchy is depicting as an affect-behavior-cognition (ABC) processing order. In the ABC-scenario, purchasing decision is completely influenced on the feeling regarding a particular product or service. Beliefs and behavior are considered to be the core of an attitude and acknowledged as central in an individual’s overall assessment of the attitude toward an object (Solomon et al., 2010 Packaging, the trade name and the advertising about the product can also influence the attitudes Cognition appears after the purchase and enforces the initial affect. For exemplar, a consumer feels that a watch is beautiful and unique so the consumer buys the watch and then develops an attitude toward the product. Several researches (Barone, Miniard & Romeo, 2000 Aylesworth & MacKenzie, 1998: Lee & Sternthal, 1999 ) imply that the frame of mind of a person, when being exposed to the marketing message influences how the commercial is perceived and to what level the information presented will be retain information (Solomon et al.2010)
References
Attitudes How Attitudes Form, Change and Shape Our Behavior: Retrieved from.
http://psychology.about.com/od/socialpsychology/a/attitudes.htm
Consumer Response to Marketing Stimuli: the Relationship between Affect, Cognition, and Behavior Retrieved from.
http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=6494