PSYCHNOTES

Attitudes

Blake McKimmie

Interested: government propaganda

^want to try to change people’s behaviour

Recent: try to be manipulated by advertisements (ex: drink responsibly, slipslopslap –campaigns)

^related to attitude research

Ex: Blood Donation – Australian red cross researches into beliefs so then able to evaluate and employ manipulation strategies to increase blood donations

VIDEO:

Campaign KRUDD

His campaign uses a technique: involves EXPERT (to make you think more positive about policies)

^he uses Al gore’s support video as EXPERT

Didn’t say anything about policies just congratulated KRUDD – hoped presence of al gore to increase support of KRUDD policies

WHY TARGET BELIEFS?

Attitude do predict people’s behaviours under certain circumstances

An attitude is an association between an act or object and an evaluation

ATTITUDE has three components: beliefs, feelings, behavioural tendencies

Ex: horror movies are not very entertaining

Ex: I feel scared when I see horror movies

Ex: I would intend to go and see a horror movie

Attitudes ARE NOT

Values (= broad abstract goals that lack a special reference point, ex: academia is important but attitude is: I want to do well this semester)

Opinions (= verbal manifestations of an attitude, the expression of an evaluative position)

Schemas (= attitudes suggest how people feel about objects; schemas are not necessarily affective; schemas don’t really have feeling based element while attitude has EFFECTIVE FEELING based element; schema = representation of knowledge)

Attitude change

Research focuses on 4 factors: Communicator, Message, the Audience and Channel

Communicator: Ex – in adverts attractiveness of actors

Message:

Audience: Ex – audience self esteem, gender, level of interest

Channel: Ex – door knock, radio, television

Communicator factors

Credibility of the source: hypothesis that more credible sources would have more effect on attitude change than noncredible sources

Ex: HOvland & Weiss

Participants read article about practivcaliy of building nuclear powered submarines

Message attributed to Oppenheimer (central people in atomic energy/bombs)

or Pravda (not as persuasive- random newspaper source)

THIS WAS BEFORE NUCLEAR POWERED SUBMARINES WERE NOT PARTICULARLY COMMON

As time passes, credibility dissipates = SLEEPER EFFECT

^delayed persuasiveness of sources of low credibility

Discounting = what happens immediately (at first; you discount message due to low cred)

Disassociation = content becomes separated from source (four weeks later, no longer important who source is)

^^Important when we receive messages from sources that are high or low credibility. Ex: Lawyers, Jurors, Police officers – witness who are credible/not credible: what they say, etc.

Attractiveness (comm fact)

In advertisements : clearly see there is expectation attractive people are more persuasive (because more attractive people in advertisements)

Use as simple decision cue

Ethos that attractive likable people are more persuasive

EXPERIMENT: debono and telesca

Side of woman attractive or made to look unattractive

Strong and weak message

Results: attractive woman seen as more persuasive, but only for the strong message

More attractive = spend more effort thinking about message

Message Related factor

Fear

Ex: Australian Grim Reaper HIV bowling ad campaign

Really hope that this campaign will shock people into taking action in preventing themselves from contracting HIV

^campaign had absolutely no effect – looks like a joke, amusing not paying attention to message, maybe too scary or too funny,

^doesn’t contain all elemtns you need

Message variables:

Fear is a common tool used in ads

Early studies showed fear can have opposite effect: is fear an effective way to change people’s attitudes?

Janis & Feshbach EXP:

Varied the extent of fear causing information about dental decay

Found that participants given high fear message were less likely to follow the recommendations in the message

DEPENDS ON EFFICACY

Other reseachers found opposite pattern

Depends on whether you provide information about how to effectively respond (ROGERS)

^don’t just say threat, tell how to respond to fear (behaviour that can be performed that will respond to that fear), have to say behaviour will be effective in reducing threat, say that you can easily employ behaviour

WHAT DOOMED GRIM REAPER CAMPAIGN: no mention of ease

Ex: American Campaign – in cold war

Says threat, simple behaviours mentioned and mentions efficacy, mention very easy, ensure minimised risk, difficult message but very effective

Process of attidue change

Elaboration likelihood model (Petty and cacioppo)

Usually classed as dual process model

Persuasive Message

Central Route (high cognitive effort): Yes, little or none, Quality of argument

Peripheral Route (Relatively spontaneous and effortlessly): Little or none, Yes, Emotional Appeal

a) Elaboration = consideration of strengths and weaknesses of argumentb) Association with positive stimulic) Cause of attitude change

Central route not very effective in every day because you’d spend your time researching and evaluating choices available; therefore, not bad to use peripheral in everyday cases

Which route to persuasion?

RouteFactors

Central Route Peripheral Route

Issues importance to us VERY NOTMood - GoodTime to think Lots LimitedCognitive capacity to think YES -

Central Route when: issue is important to us, time to think about issue, cognitive capacity to think about the issue

Peripheral Route when: limited time to think about the message, in a good mood, distracted, issue not important

Consistency of beliefs we hold

Trying to maintain sensible consistent cognitive state

1) Heider’s balance theory – balanced triadTry to avoid inconsistent relationships – unbalanced triad (things you like don’t like ea other)Things that you like should like each other = balanced triadGets thinking about internal relationships about belifs in respect to attitude to change

2) Cognitive Dissonance ThoeyrFestinger: Inconsistency between cognitions results in an aversive psychological state called dissonanceSeek to reduce by: changing one of cognitions, reducing importance of one of cognitions, adding additional consonant cognitions – ALL OF WHICH REDUCE DISSONANCE

WATCH VIDEO ONLINEEXP: festiner and carlsmith2 simple motor tasks in 1 hrTold “real” purpose was to look at effects of psychological “set” on performance: whether you’re expecting to be interesting or not and effectOffered $1 or $20 to tell next person (confederate) that task was enjoyed^in 50s $20 is substantialThen rated how much enjoyed taskFESTINGER THINKGS: OVERALL DESIRE TO OBTAIN CONSISTENCY DRIVES ATTITUDE CHANGEDissonance explanation

Try to see relationships between cognitions held: behaviour, attitude reward (in case of EXP)

Behaviour is that we will compare everything to that; can’t go back and say didn’t really do that behaviour

In $20 condition: said task was fun => got paid $20 (CONSISTENT), (INCONSISTENT) said wask was fun => thought task was boring’

In $1 condition: said task was fun => got paid $1 (INCON), (INCON) said task was fun => thought task was boring: HIGH INCONSISTENCY so starts to think task was fun to reduce incon

No dissonance:GRASSHOPPER STUDY: ZIMBARDOAttitude towards various foodstuffsAsks if they would like to eat fried grasshppers either by friendly or unfriendly expdrimenterOf those who agreed, more changed their attitudes to be favourable about eating grasshoppers when asked by unfriendlyMORE LIKELY TO REFRAME DONT LIKE GRASSHOPPER to LIKE HOPPER in unfriendly

Hypocrisy

(water use)

Positive self-concept inconsistent with eelings of hypocrisy

Dickerson, thibodeau, Aronson, Miller

Water conservation – showering

Manipulated mindfulness of past behaviour

A public commitment urging others to take shorter showers vs no commitment

Measured length of shower and whether they turned the tap off during the shower

Hypocrites engaged in more water conservation behaviour: self persuasion to restore overall cognitive consistency

TAKE HOME POINTS

Communicator factors can influence attitude change but different ways

Fear can under right conditions be effective way to change attitudes

Attitude may change via central or peripheral processing

Behaviour can sometimes bring about attitude change

MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Talking about thrugh two sub disciplines of social sci:

How children acrquire morals: learn different bcetween right and wrong

Theories that explain how morals acquired

EXPERIMENTS ON MORAL DILEMMASmoral development

Very different to logic: never ONE correct answer. Everybody has differing opinions, not like maths. Moral issues have different opions because hav HUGE emotional component to issue (ties into personality and social behaviour)

We want children to acquire morals. WANT SOCIETY TO BE AHPPY AND HARMONIOUS

^need moral justice in society

Evolving sense of morality = researchers look at

Ex: Euthanasia Opinion?

Ex: Is it okay to kill people who is threat/menace? Death penalty?

Ex: okay to steal from rich and give to poor?

Theories of moral development:

Social learning theory and Cognitive Thoeries (primarily piaget and colberg: based on moral development reflects where you are cognitively)

Social learning theory

Very prevalent in 60s

Premise is that children learn to be moral because they imitate adults: kinda forms through socially shaped processes

According to this: parents are major role in moral development

^parenting : do this action bad = punishing, do this action good = rewarded

Came about by Bandura : experiments on bobo dolls

Children imitate particularly imitate aggressive behaviour

Waatch video of woman bashing doll

Children allowed to do whatever to doll

After video, act aggressively (EXXACTLY what women did and initate new torture forms)

Chidlren picked up novel hostile behaviour

Two groups: 1 watch agressive, Other did not watch aggressive

Problems with social learning

Sometimes children = more moral than parents

Stages of development which children are thinking about right and wrong but aren’t reasoning like adults

Piaget and Kohlberg theories

Moral dilemmas = investigated reasoning about moral issues

Stages of moral development

Linked to cognitive development

They believed moral development went through stages like cognitive development. And that cog and mroal development very mch LINKED

EXAMPLE: Which girl was naughtier?

A) Little girl not allowed jam unless mother gave her. Little girl broke 1 cup when reaching for jar when mum out

B) Little girl broke 15 cups when called for idnner by mum (bumped into table)

Piagets stages of moral development

Heteronomous morality age 4 to 8

Subject to anothers law

Laws/rules are facts not negotionable or changeable

Outcome of acts most important

THINK B is right because more cups broke

Automoomus morality age 8 to adult

Subject to ones own law (How you feel about things)

Laws reative and socially constructed

Intioen behind acts most important (MOTIVE, INTENT)

Think A is right because of circumstance

Kohlberg’s work

Took over piaget’s work

Tested 84boys from 5 to adult on a series or moral dilemmas

Found 6 stage developmental progression

Kohlberg moral dilemma 1:

Joe wanted to go to camp. Father promised if joe payed for himself. Joe saved money for camp. Before camp, joes father changed his mind. Father and friends want to go fishing trip but doesn’t have money. Father asks joe for his camp savings. What should joe do?

Stick it to the man mate

3 level stages with 2 substages ea

Preconventional Morality – 0 to 9

Individual perspective: egocentric and concrete (link to piaget first)

Stage 1: joe should or will be punished

Stage 2: joe shouldn’t because can do what wants with money and he wants to go to camp

Conventional Morality – Adolescents and adults

MEMBER OF SOCIETY perspective, interpersonal orientation

Stage 3: joe shouldn’t because joe sacrifice hard and worked in good faith to do something father promised

Stage 4:

PostConventional Morality: Minority of adults

Universal, prior to society perspective

Stage 5: joe has tot to refuse because ea person as a free individual right to enjoy property as long doesn’t infringe on others rights

Stage 6: dalai lama, mother therese (orther waise no hope)

SUMMARISE THESE STAGES AS EXAM PREP

Modern approaches to moral development

Gender Differnces in moral reasoning

Carol Gilligan

- Student of Kohlberg- Repeated study and found: women most often in stage 3 (advocate of care), men most

often in stage 4 (advocate of justice)- Proposed: cooperative orientation vs justice orientation

Domains of Reasoning about right and wrong

Moral rules v social conventional rules

- Morality is concerned with concepts of harm, welfare, fairness- Social convention is concerned with social order and organisation

^3 year olds can tell difference in moral and conventional issues ^backfired on piaget and kohlberg’s theory

The role of parents

Discipline

- Harsh physical discipline linked to hostility and aggression in children- No effect on moral development- So does this mean parents no link to moral development?- NOPE: PARENTING STYLES (See diagram)-