PSYCH 280 1st Edition Lecture 10Outline of Last Lecture I. Development of the SelfII. Weaknesses of the Selfa. Explaining behaviorb. Predicting behaviorc. Predicting duration of future feelingsIII. Illusions of the Selfa. Uniquenessb. Transparencyc. Spotlight effectOutline of Current Lecture I. ConsistencyII. Psychological “Balance” (Heider’s POX Theory)a. POX Theory WeaknessIII. Cognitive Dissonance TheoryIV. Cognitive Dissonance Theory and AttitudesCurrent LectureI. ConsistencyPeople crave consistency—we do not like inconsistency and we also want to appear consistent to others. In order to appear consistent, people will use numerous strategies:a. “Foot in the Door” strategy: people will use this strategy to appear more consistent to others. People will start by asking a small favor—one that almost anyone would do. From there, the person will ask a larger favor, which, in order to appear consistent, the subject will often agree to the larger favor.b. “Lowballing” technique: this technique is most often used by salesmen. A personwill strike a deal with someone that is non-binding (no contract) and then later, change the terms of the contract, to which most people will agree to (since they already said “yes” to the deal in the first place).II. Psychological “Balance” (Heider’s POX Theory)These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.The POX theory states that there is a triangular relationship between three things (you, an object/person/idea, and another person/object/idea) and in order to have this triangular relationship balanced (consistent), a positive (positive attitude) or negative (negative attitude) sign is placed inbetween each of the three things, and the sign of the product of the three signs is computed. If the product is positive, it indicates there is a balanced psychological relationship between you and the two things/people/ideas. If the product is negative, it indicates there is a negative psychological relationship between you and the two things/ideas/people. If the resulting triangular relationship is not balanced, people will try to change their attitude towards one component of the triangle in order to make the relationship balanced.There is a weakness with this theory, however. The POX Theory and triangle doesn’t work if therelationship invokes jealously or involves possessions.III. Cognitive Dissonance TheoryThe cognitive dissonance theory states that people will experience discomfort if their behavior conflicts with their attitudes and beliefs (i.e. cheating when you don’t believe in cheating). In order to reduce this discomfort, people will try to do one of four things:a. Deny or distort the meaning of the behavior (“That’s not what my behavior really was—I didn’t really cheat.”)b. Change the behaviorc. Attribute the behavior to external factors/forces (“I wasn’t able to study the night before because my roommate was super loud… therefore, I had to cheat—everyone else would’ve done it too!”)d. Change their attitude to come in line with the behavior (“I guess cheating isn’t that bad.”)IV. Cognitive Dissonance Theory and AttitudesBasically, attitudes are largely justifications that we develop for our behaviors, so that we don’t experience discomfort when our behaviors conflict with our beliefs about those behaviors. If wedo not have an external justification for our behavior (such as a reward like money), we begin tochange our attitudes towards that behavior so we can reduce the discomfort of dissonance.If we have insufficient (external) justification, people will engage in different strategies to reduce the discomfort of dissonance:a. Reverse Incentive Effect: When people aren’t given an external justification (or a very small/low external justification) for a behavior, people tend to increase their liking for that behavior in order to reduce the discomfort they feel. (They start to believe they liked the activity so that it goes in line with their behavior.)b. Favor Doing Effect: If a person does a favor for someone they don’t particularly like, after doing the favor, they will like that person more than before the favor. This occurs because it is inconsistent for someone to do a favor for someone if they don’t like that person, and therefore, the person will change their attitude towards the person so they can be consistent with their behavior.c. Effort Justification: The harder someone works in order to reach a goal or achieve something, the more they will like it. It would be inconsistent for someone to not like the thing they put a lot of effort into achieving, so through cognitive dissonance theory, people will like the thing (goal, object, etc) to reduce discomfort and inconsistency.d. Decisions: If a person chooses x over y, they will like x more and like y less after they made the decision. This way, people will reduce discomfort and feel good about their
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