ATTITUDE

Examining Theories of Conditioning, Dissonance, Persuasion, and Attitudes

Conditioning and Attitude Formation

The sources describe social learning as a crucial process in attitude development. Social learning encompasses various mechanisms, including:

  • Classical Conditioning: This type of learning occurs through association. Repeatedly pairing a neutral stimulus (e.g., a product) with a positive unconditioned stimulus (e.g., attractive people) can lead to the neutral stimulus eliciting a positive response on its own. This technique is commonly used in advertising.

  • Instrumental Conditioning: This learning process involves rewards and punishments for expressing certain attitudes. Individuals are more likely to adopt attitudes that are reinforced by positive outcomes or avoidance of negative outcomes. For example, entering new social networks can lead to attitude shifts as people seek acceptance and rewards from those networks.

  • Observational Learning: Attitudes can also be formed by observing others, particularly individuals we admire or identify with. This occurs through social comparison, where we assess the validity of our views by comparing them with those of others.

The sources highlight that these conditioning processes can significantly impact our attitudes even without our conscious awareness. Subliminal conditioning and mere exposure, where repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to more favourable attitudes, are examples of how attitudes can be shaped implicitly.

Dissonance Theory

Cognitive dissonance arises when individuals notice inconsistencies between their attitudes and their behaviour. This state is psychologically uncomfortable and motivates people to resolve the discrepancy. The sources explain that dissonance is particularly strong when individuals have little justification for their attitude-inconsistent behaviour. The less-leads-to-more effect demonstrates this phenomenon, where smaller rewards for counterattitudinal behaviour often lead to more significant attitude change than larger rewards.

The sources provide examples of how dissonance can impact attitudes in situations involving forced compliance, where external pressures influence individuals to act in ways that contradict their true beliefs. In these cases, attitude change is more likely when individuals feel a minimal level of pressure to comply, as this creates a greater sense of dissonance.

Elaboration Likelihood Model and Persuasion

Elaboration likelihood is a central concept in understanding persuasion. The sources delve deeper into this idea by outlining the elaboration-likelihood model (ELM). This model proposes two distinct routes to persuasion:

  • Central Route (Systematic Processing): This route involves carefully scrutinizing the arguments presented in a message. Attitude change is more enduring and resistant to counter-persuasion when this route is activated. However, this requires motivation and the ability to process the message deeply.

  • Peripheral Route (Heuristic Processing): This route relies on mental shortcuts and peripheral cues, such as the attractiveness or credibility of the communicator. This route requires less cognitive effort but leads to more temporary and less resilient attitude changes.

The ELM suggests that the choice of route depends on factors like the individual's motivation, cognitive capacity, and the relevance of the message. When motivation and capacity are high, individuals are more likely to engage in systematic processing. However, when these factors are low, individuals tend to rely on heuristic processing.

Influence of Speaker Traits and Principles of Persuasion

Your notes emphasize the importance of speaker traits in persuasion. The sources corroborate this, stating that communicators perceived as credible and attractive are generally more persuasive. This aligns with the peripheral route of the ELM, where these cues can sway attitudes without deep processing of message content.

Your list of principles of persuasion draws upon common tactics used to influence attitudes and behaviour. While the sources don't explicitly outline these principles in a numbered format, they offer insights into several of them:

  • Reciprocity: The door-in-the-face technique, where a large request is followed by a smaller one, exploits the principle of reciprocity to increase compliance.

  • Scarcity: Techniques like playing hard to get and the fast-approaching-deadline technique leverage the principle of scarcity, where limited availability enhances the perceived value of something.

  • Authority: The sources emphasize how the perceived authority of a communicator significantly impacts obedience and compliance. Milgram's classic experiments demonstrated the potent influence of authority figures on behaviour.

  • Consistency - Commitment: Techniques like the foot-in-the-door technique, where a small request precedes a larger one, capitalize on our desire to appear consistent in our actions.

The principles of liking (quality) and social proof (quantity) also align with concepts presented in the sources. As discussed earlier, liking and similarity influence attitude formation and compliance. Similarly, social validation and normative social influence highlight how our behaviour is swayed by what we perceive others are doing.

Attitudes: Facets and Influences

Your notes provide a comprehensive overview of attitude facets:

  • Experience, Norms, Upbringing: The sources emphasize how social learning, including classical and instrumental conditioning, shapes our attitudes based on experiences, social norms, and upbringing.

  • Behavioural Affect: This facet aligns with the concept of cognitive dissonance, where inconsistencies between attitudes and behaviour create an uncomfortable emotional state that motivates attitude change.

  • Enduring & Flexible: The sources highlight how attitudes can be both enduring, particularly when formed through direct experience, and flexible, as demonstrated by the impact of social influence and persuasive messages.

  • Positive, Negative and Uncertain: The sources discuss how attitudes vary in valence and certainty. Stronger attitudes, characterized by greater extremity and certainty, are more likely to guide behaviour.

Your list of influences on attitudes also resonates with information in the sources:

  • Expertise: The sources explicitly mention expertise as a key factor influencing the credibility of a communicator, which in turn affects persuasiveness.

  • Expectance (Favourable Outcome): This influence aligns with instrumental conditioning, where attitudes are shaped by the expectation of positive outcomes.

  • Experience: The sources highlight how personal experience with an attitude object strengthens the attitude and its impact on behaviour.

  • Success: The concept of success can be linked to the self-serving bias, where individuals are more likely to attribute positive outcomes to their internal qualities, reinforcing positive attitudes.

  • Common Beliefs: This influence relates to social comparison and normative social influence, where individuals are swayed by the beliefs and actions of others, particularly those they identify with.