Social Skills and Attitude Formation Notes

Drive Reduction Theory: A motivational theory centered on the concept of Homeostasis, where a physiological "Drive" triggers a "Behavior" to achieve a state of balance.
Pavlov's Classical Conditioning: A learning process involving:
- Neutral Stimulus (NS): A stimulus that initially causes no reaction.
- Unconditioned Stimulus (US): A natural trigger for a response.
- Unconditioned Response (UR): A naturally occurring reaction.
- Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that now triggers a reaction after association with the US.
- Conditioned Response (CR): A learned reaction to the CS.

The Three Components of Attitude:
- Cognitive: What a person believes about the source.
- Affective: How a person feels about the source.
- Behavioral: How a person acts toward the source.
Explicit Attitudes: Conscious and deliberate opinions that are openly expressed (e.g., stating an enjoyment of teaching).
Implicit Attitudes: Unconscious and automatic reactions that shape behavior without awareness (e.g., instinctive unease or cultural bias despite conscious egalitarian beliefs).

Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB): Predicts behavior based on three factors:
- Attitude toward the behavior: Evaluation of the behavior as good or bad.
- Subjective norms: Influence of social pressure and others' opinions.
- Perceived behavioral control: One's perceived ability to perform the behavior.
Self-Perception Theory (Bem, 1967): Suggests that when internal cues are weak, individuals infer their attitudes by observing their own behavior and the circumstances under which it occurs.
Attitude Formation and Advertising:
- Classical Conditioning: Associating a product (Neutral Stimulus) with a celebrity like Brad Pitt (Unconditioned Stimulus) to create positive emotions.
- Operant Conditioning: Changing attitudes through reinforcements and rewards.

Core Concept: Occurs when beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors are inconsistent, creating psychological discomfort and tension.
Dissonance Reduction Strategies:
- Change the behavior or change the cognition (justify).
- Add new cognitions (e.g., "effort is more important than perfection").
- Trivialize or ignore the inconsistency.
- Use self-affirmation.
Interpersonal Dissonance: Resolved by changing own attitude, changing the other person's attitude, or derogation (dismissing the other person).

The Caffeine Habit (Sara): Tasked with identifying classical conditioning elements (library smell as CS) and operant components (coffee as a reward for assignments).
Mariam and Yousef (TPB): Analysis of daily habits like late-night social media use and exercise routines using attitude, norms, and control metrics.
Aisha and Workplace Boundaries: Evaluation of how praising compliance (Operant Conditioning) and social modeling (Social Factors) shaped an attitude toward setting limits.
Sami (Public Speaking): An integrated scenario featuring cognitive dissonance, persuasion from a charismatic speaker, and the transition from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation.

Audience Prompt on Self-Reflection: "Tell me about a time when you went along with something because you thought everyone else agreed with it — even though you actually had doubts."
Scenario Reflection: Students are asked to describe a personal habit developed through classical or operant conditioning, identifying the cues and strategies needed for improvement.
Cognitive Dissonance Journal Entry (Leon Festinger, 1957): A task requiring a 150-200 word description of personal conflict and a 100-150 word theoretical explanation using correct terminology like "inconsistency" and "tension."