2.2 What is subtle about social interaction?  (Page 24/26)

Attitudes

During the coarse of an interaction or, for example, a conversation, someone might change their attitude many times, there might be large attitude changes or small ones. They change their attitude when they have an emotional reaction (generated from the other person most likely) or make an assessment or evaluation of the other person, their behavior, or what is going on (the conversation most likely). The nature of their evaluation might be similar to evaluations they have reached in the past, so it is a learned response or attitude change. That person might just happen to change his or her attitude in such a way when someone does such a thing, it is just what they do. A person might also generate a new attitude based on a new situation and new information they have gathered in this situation. When I say people make evaluations during interactions, I mean they reach conclusions about the other person, form ideas and opinions of them, their behavior and the interaction. These "evaluations" occur all the time and, since they can be natural and unconscious to a large extent, are going to be influenced by the persons previous experience with forming conclusions, opinions and ideas during an interaction. This means that not all the opinions and ideas you reach during an interaction (and their resulting attitude changes) are going to be completely under your awareness (conscious). That makes sense, of course you don't know all the times you change your attitude and all the assessments of the the interaction you are making during the interaction, the point is, however, that you are making them and they are influencing you behavior. Your attitude can change without you directing it, that shows that you are reaching conclusions and having evaluations and assessments during an interaction that you aren't completely aware of.