Self-Concept, Attitudes, and Persuasion: Psychology Key Theories and Tests

Self-Concept

The beliefs and knowledge people have about themselves including personality abilities values and social roles.

Development of the Self-Concept

Children first describe themselves using physical characteristics and activities. As they mature they increasingly describe themselves using personality traits beliefs and relationships.

Mirror Test

A test of self-recognition in which recognizing a mark on yourself in a mirror indicates self-awareness. Most children pass around 18 to 24 months.

Independent vs Interdependent Self

An independent self defines identity through personal traits and achievements while an interdependent self defines identity through relationships social roles and group membership.

Functions of the Self

The self helps organize self-knowledge regulate behavior through self-control manage impressions and maintain self-esteem.

Self-Awareness Theory

When attention is focused on yourself you compare your behavior with your personal standards. If they do not match you either change your behavior avoid self-awareness or change your standards.

What Increases Self-Awareness?

Mirrors cameras audiences hearing your own voice and anything else that draws attention to yourself.

Limits of Introspection

People often believe they know why they behave a certain way but research shows these explanations are frequently inaccurate.

Self-Perception Theory

People infer their attitudes by observing their own behavior especially when their attitudes are weak unclear or ambiguous.

Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

Emotion depends on both physiological arousal and the interpretation of that arousal.

Misattribution of Arousal

People sometimes mistake the cause of physiological arousal which can influence emotions or attraction. Example: Fear on a suspension bridge may be interpreted as attraction.

Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation comes from enjoyment or interest while extrinsic motivation comes from rewards punishments or external pressure.

Overjustification Effect

Providing unnecessary external rewards for an enjoyable activity can reduce intrinsic motivation.

Growth vs Fixed Mindset

A growth mindset believes abilities improve through effort while a fixed mindset believes abilities are largely unchangeable. Carol Dweck found growth mindsets increase persistence after failure.

Social Comparison Theory

People evaluate themselves by comparing themselves with others. Upward comparison can inspire improvement while downward comparison can increase self-esteem.

Looking-Glass Self

People partly develop their self-concept by imagining how other people see and evaluate them.

Implementation Intentions

Specific if then plans increase self-control by deciding in advance when where and how to act toward a goal.

Impression Management and Ingratiation

People try to influence how others see them often by complimenting agreeing with or behaving favorably toward others.

Self-Handicapping

People create or claim obstacles before a performance so failure can be blamed on the obstacle instead of low ability. It may be behavioral or reported.

Cognitive Dissonance

The psychological discomfort that occurs when attitudes beliefs or behaviors are inconsistent. People are motivated to reduce this discomfort.

Leon Festinger

Developed Cognitive Dissonance Theory and proposed that people seek consistency between their attitudes and behaviors.

How is Cognitive Dissonance Reduced?

People reduce dissonance by changing their behavior changing their attitudes adding new justifications or minimizing the importance of the conflict.

Counterattitudinal Behavior

Behaving in a way that contradicts your true beliefs often leading to attitude change if there is insufficient external justification.

Insufficient vs Sufficient Justification

Small rewards or punishments produce greater attitude change because they provide insufficient justification while large rewards provide enough external justification so attitudes usually remain unchanged.

Festinger and Carlsmith Study

Participants paid one dollar to say a boring task was enjoyable later reported liking it more than those paid twenty dollars because one dollar created greater cognitive dissonance.

Post-Decision Dissonance

Discomfort experienced after choosing between two attractive alternatives because the rejected option also had desirable qualities.

Spreading of Alternatives

Reducing post-decision dissonance by increasing the attractiveness of the chosen option and decreasing the attractiveness of the rejected option.

Effort Justification

The tendency to value an outcome more highly if significant effort embarrassment or pain was required to achieve it.

Aronson and Mills Study

Participants who completed a severe initiation rated a dull discussion group more positively than those with an easy initiation demonstrating effort justification.

Ben Franklin Effect

Doing a favor for someone can increase your liking for that person because you justify your helpful behavior by assuming you must like them.

Hypocrisy Paradigm

People are more likely to change their behavior after publicly advocating a position and then being reminded that they have failed to follow it themselves.

Self-Affirmation Theory

People can reduce cognitive dissonance by affirming another valued aspect of themselves instead of changing the threatened attitude.

Claude Steele

Developed Self-Affirmation Theory which explains that protecting overall self-worth reduces defensiveness.

Free Choice and Dissonance

Dissonance is strongest when people freely choose their behavior because they feel personally responsible for the outcome.

Commitment and Irrevocability

Dissonance increases when decisions are difficult important freely chosen and cannot easily be reversed.

Self-Perception vs Cognitive Dissonance

Self-perception explains attitudes by observing behavior when attitudes are weak while cognitive dissonance involves psychological discomfort when strong attitudes conflict with behavior.

Real-World Applications of Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance helps explain smoking justification unhealthy habits consumer satisfaction hazing political beliefs and attitude change after difficult decisions.

Attitude

A positive negative or mixed evaluation of a person object idea or event that influences thoughts feelings and behavior.

Three Components of Attitudes

Attitudes consist of an affective component emotions a behavioral component actions and a cognitive component beliefs or thoughts.

Explicit vs Implicit Attitudes

Explicit attitudes are conscious and deliberate while implicit attitudes are automatic unconscious and may differ from what people report.

Theory of Planned Behavior

Behavior is best predicted by behavioral intentions which are influenced by attitudes subjective norms and perceived behavioral control.

Attitude Accessibility

The easier an attitude comes to mind the more likely it is to predict behavior.

When Do Attitudes Predict Behavior?

Attitudes best predict behavior when they are strong specific personally important accessible and when outside pressures are low.

Persuasive Communication

Effective persuasion depends on who delivers the message what the message says and who receives it.

Source Characteristics

Persuasion is stronger when the communicator is seen as credible trustworthy expert attractive or likable.

Message Characteristics

Persuasion is influenced by whether the message appeals to logic or emotion presents one or both sides and creates moderate rather than extreme fear.

Audience Characteristics

People are more easily persuaded when they are distracted less knowledgeable or when the message matches their level of involvement.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

People use the central route when they carefully evaluate evidence and the peripheral route when they rely on simple cues such as attractiveness or credibility.

Central vs Peripheral Route

The central route produces stronger longer-lasting attitudes while the peripheral route produces quicker but less stable attitude change.

Need for Cognition

People high in need for cognition enjoy thinking deeply and are more likely to use the central route to persuasion.

Fear Appeals

Fear is most persuasive when people believe the threat is serious personally relevant and that they can effectively prevent it.

Reactance

People often resist persuasion when they feel their freedom to choose is being threatened.

Product Placement

Attitudes toward products can be shaped simply by repeated exposure in movies television or social media without direct advertising.

Mere Exposure Effect

Repeated exposure to a stimulus generally increases liking for it even without conscious awareness.

Cognitive Dissonance and Attitudes

People sometimes change their attitudes after behaving inconsistently with their beliefs in order to reduce psychological discomfort.

Conformity

Changing your behavior or beliefs to match the real or imagined expectations of others.

Why Do People Conform?

People conform because they want to be correct informational social influence or accepted normative social influence.

Informational vs Normative Social Influence

Informational influence occurs when people conform because they believe others are correct while normative influence occurs because people want approval or want to avoid rejection.

Sherif's Autokinetic Effect Study

Demonstrated informational social influence by showing that people use others as a source of information when a situation is ambiguous.

Asch's Line Judgment Study

Demonstrated normative social influence by showing that people often conform to an obviously incorrect majority opinion.

Factors That Increase Conformity

Conformity increases when the group is unanimous large but not too large important cohesive and when responses are made publicly.

Factors That Reduce Conformity

Conformity decreases when at least one other person disagrees with the majority when responses are private and when people feel confident in their own judgment.

Compliance

Changing behavior because of a direct request even if private beliefs do not change.

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

Gaining compliance with a large request by first getting agreement to a small request.

Door-in-the-Face Technique

Gaining compliance by making a large request that is refused followed by a smaller request that seems more reasonable.

Lowball Technique

Gaining commitment first and revealing hidden costs after the person has already agreed.

That's-Not-All Technique

Increasing compliance by adding bonuses or reducing the cost before the person responds.

Obedience

Changing behavior because of a direct order from an authority figure.

Milgram's Obedience Study

Most participants continued administering what they believed were dangerous electric shocks because an authority figure instructed them to continue.

Factors That Increased Obedience

Obedience increased when the authority was legitimate nearby responsible and when the victim was distant.

Factors That Reduced Obedience

Obedience decreased when the authority was absent when others refused to obey or when the victim was physically close.

Stanford Prison Experiment

Philip Zimbardo demonstrated that social roles situational pressures and group norms can strongly influence behavior although the study has important ethical and methodological criticisms.

Minority Influence

A consistent confident and flexible minority can influence the majority over time and create lasting attitude change.

Group

A collection of two or more people who interact influence one another and share common goals or identities.

Social Facilitation

The presence of others improves performance on simple or well-practiced tasks but can impair performance on difficult or unfamiliar tasks.

Zajonc's Theory of Social Facilitation

The presence of others increases physiological arousal which strengthens the most likely response making easy tasks easier and difficult tasks harder.

Social Loafing

The tendency for individuals to put forth less effort when working in a group than when working alone.

How to Reduce Social Loafing

Keep groups small make individual contributions identifiable increase task importance and strengthen group cohesion.

Deindividuation

A loss of self-awareness and personal responsibility in groups that can increase impulsive or antisocial behavior.

Factors That Increase Deindividuation

Anonymity large groups darkness high arousal and reduced personal accountability.

Group Polarization

Discussion within a group strengthens the average opinion of its members making the group more extreme in its original position.

Why Does Group Polarization Occur?

People hear new supporting arguments and compare themselves with others causing opinions to become stronger.

Groupthink

A faulty decision-making process in which the desire for harmony overrides realistic evaluation of alternatives.

Symptoms of Groupthink

Illusion of invulnerability pressure on dissenters self-censorship illusion of unanimity and failure to consider alternatives.

How to Prevent Groupthink

Encourage disagreement assign a devil's advocate seek outside opinions and have leaders remain impartial during discussion.

Group Cohesiveness

The degree to which members are attracted to the group and motivated to remain part of it.

Pros and Cons of Cohesiveness

High cohesion increases cooperation and satisfaction but may also increase conformity and groupthink.

Leadership

The process of influencing individuals or groups to achieve shared goals.

Task-Oriented vs Relationship-Oriented Leaders

Task-oriented leaders focus on accomplishing goals while relationship-oriented leaders focus on morale communication and group harmony.

Transformational vs Transactional Leadership

Transformational leaders inspire change through vision and motivation while transactional leaders rely on rewards rules and exchanges.

Collective Intelligence

A group's ability to solve problems effectively depends more on communication equal participation and social sensitivity than on the intelligence of individual members.