PSY 274 1st Edition Lecture 14Outline of Last Lecture I. AttitudesII. FormationIII. Cognitively based attitudesIV. Behaviorally based attitudesV. Affectively based attitudesVI. Classical conditioningVII. Operant conditioningVIII. Social learningIX. Mere exposureX. Caveats XI. Attitude polarizationXII. Social Judgment TheoryCurrent Lecture I. Consistency Theories of Attitude ChangeII. Balance Theory III. Cognitive Dissonance a. Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance StudyIV. Effort JustificationV. Post-Decision SpreadVI. Reducing dissonance/restoring balance can be done by:VII. Spontaneous behaviorsVIII. Deliberative behaviorsIX. Aggregation principleCurrent Lecture: Consistency Theories of Attitude Change1. People expect and prefer consistency (i.e., psychological harmony among attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors)2. Inconsistency causes psychological discomfort and physiological tension 3. Individuals are motivated to restore consistency and get everything back in line. Dissonance reducing strategies- Balance Theory oBalanced balanced not balancedwe like to like the things that people we like like. Ex. She dislikes the movie her favorite baseball player dislikes.P (person) –o (another person) – x (object)Balance = consistency- Cognitive Dissonance (more broad as this doesn’t need an object like the previous theory)o Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Studyo Examples: Effort Justification: When people work hard or sacrifice, they try to convince themselves it’s worthwhile Ex. After taking a class you know its going to be hard you say oh it was worth it/ people who save up for a purchase like it more because they worked to save on it/ why you like a group more if they made you work hard to get into it Post-Decision Spread: People downplay close alternatives aftera decision is made (when you have to decided between two then you pick one and start to look at why the other is not as good the one you picked so that you feel better about your decision and not bad about why you didn’t pick the other one. - How inconsistency leads to attitude change o Reducing dissonance/restoring balance can be done by: Minimizing importance(the fact that this is inconsistent doesn’tmater, I don’t care) “its just a stupid movie” Adding consonant ideas (i.e., telling yourself why dissonant elements make sense; mental justification) “he didn’t like it cuzof the actor but I like him and its okay if he doesn’t like the actor as much as me” Changing behavior (from now I will do it differently and better) Changing attitudes or beliefs involved / “I hate the move or I hate him for not liking it”Other dissonance example:Smoking despite knowledge that its harmfulMinimizing dissonance: I can quit any time, or I know someone who did it and nothing happened to them, I run and eat healthy so this isn’t bado Do we always have to be consistent? No. Consistency can be seen as socially motivated (we don’t actually have to be consistent but we have to appear consistent for others; we like to show others we are consistent)- The appearance of consistency matters to usWe can tolerate certain amounts of inconsistencyVegetarians who wear leather shoesSUV rivers who are pro environmentLog cabin republicansIf you have to deal with your dissonance right away then that’s when you are more likely to do one of the things mentioned above not weeks later. o Attitude Behavior Consistency Spontaneous behaviors- Attitude strength related properties Deliberative behaviors- Specificity principle: More closely the attitude relates to the behavior, the greater its predictive ability- Aggregation principle: General attitudes predict aggregates of
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