2.2 What is subtle about social interaction?  (Page 25/26)

People come to conclusions about how good or bad elements of the interaction are during the course of the interaction. These conclusions might result in an attitude change. The conclusion (assessment) might be stored, it may be a conclusion you come to frequently and each time you change your attitude in a similar manner. Or it might be that during an interaction you reach completely new conclusions about what is going on and change your attitude in new and different ways from how you changed it in the past. Of course each time is going to be at least a little different, it is really a matter of degree. Here I am discussing the "conclusions" people reach during an interaction, however, if you were to ask someone how many conclusions they reached during an interaction they would probably say none. The conclusions aren't completely conscious - in an interaction your opinion is changing about the interaction all the time, you change your attitude continuously, each time you don't take note of that. Sometimes they are conscious - an example would be you saying, "this person is bad, i'm going to have a negative attitude towards him or her from this point on in the conversation". Conclusions and evaluations like that occur all the time without your awareness, they are a natural part of an interaction. People might also change their behavior based off of these conclusions and evaluations they reach about what is going on, not just change their attitude or opinion (beliefs).

Some evaluations people can make can be of "approval or disapproval", or the "attribution of good or bad qualities". Your emotional responses and beliefs which help influence your evaluations and attitude changes might also have a history- your beliefs were probably formed from past interaction, and your emotional responses are probably mostly learned ones. Your beliefs may also change right then in the interaction, what is going on could change your opinions right then and have resulting attitude changes at that time. What are your motivations for having various attitudes? People naturally have attitudes, based upon what they are thinking at the time, they are going to have a certain attitude from their current mindset in an interaction. This mindset is formed by your reaction to what is going on, which is influenced by your beliefs and who you are (and "you are" a product of your behavioral history, so your beliefs and emotional responses are going to be mostly learned).

What does having an attitude do? It could facilitate the management and simplification of information processing, help achieve desired goals and avoid negative outcomes, maintain or promote self-esteem, or convey information about your values and self-concepts. An attitude might serve any one of those purposes, for example an attitude that comes from a core value belief you have might help you express your values, or an attitude that you formed because of a belief of your self-worth could help serve your self-esteem, for example. Your attitude can be favorable or unfavorable, it shows judgement and a goal - for instance if you are nice you have reached the judgement to be nice and you have a goal you plan on using your attitude for, your attitude is favorable.