Transcript Attitudes and Actions

ATTITUDES AND ACTIONS
UNIT 14
ATTITUDES
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Attitude – any belief that includes an evaluation
of some object, person, or event and
predisposes us to act in certain way toward that
object, person, or event.
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Attitudes affect Actions
 Our
attitudes affect our actions – but do you think
our attitudes always affect our actions? …
Sometimes our actions can affect our attitudes.
ROLE PLAYING
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Role Playing
 When
you adopt a new role, you desire to follow the
social prescriptions of that role.
 Ex.
You get married; you want to be a caring and
supportive spouse
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Ex. You are asked to play the role of a guard for 1 to 2 weeks so you play that
role.
STANFORD PRISON STUDY (1971)
Stanford University, California
 2 week simulated prison study right before college
students come back
 2 dozen students (paid 15$ day)
 Purposely chose “well adjusted” middle class
students with no prior background with
emotional/psychological disorders. Asked them
questions such as drug use.
 After they have sample Q. What comes next?
 Randomly assignment- flip a coin.
STANFORD PRISON STUDY
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Uniforms, whistles, billyclub, sunglasses Q.Why?Orientation telling them they couldn’t physically touch
them but could remove them of their individuality,
dehumanize, control them as guards would.
Local Police do a mock arrest, handcuff them in public,
fingerprint blindfold and take to the basement of
psychology building- where little rooms were converted
into cells. Hall closet became solitary confinement.
Psychology Professor became the Superintendent.
They used an ex-felon to assist in creating the mock
prison
STANFORD PRISON STUDY
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Results: Had to be stopped after 6 days. Each day the
abuses became harsher
Made them eat cold sausages, pushups, solitary
confinement, took away their beds
Prisoners began to have emotional breakdowns.
Results: Good people put in situations can commit bad acts.
Most people looked at the guards as being evil, sadistic.
Another example is slave owners whipping slaves. Evil act
committed by normal everyday person.
This was an experiment conducted in a controlled setting. Q.
Can we Generalize to the larger world?
VIDEO- The Human Experiments
LESSONS FROM STANFORD PRISON STUDY TO
EXPLAIN THE ACTIONS OF SOLDIERS AT ABUGRAIB
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Abu- Ghraib- prison in Iraq where Iraqi prisoners
have been allegedly tortured- illegal in war,
Sadaam is on trial for several war crimes including
torture. Bush administration denied any torture
goes on, then photos released showing
malnourished prisoners, naked, dogs attacking.
The world saw a few of these photos,
embarrassing to US. Then we said there have been
some abuses. Abuses vs. Torture
LESSONS FROM STANFORD PRISON STUDY TO
EXPLAIN ABUSES AT ABU GRAIB
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. The generals say 99.9% of soldiers behave
admirably. “there are a few bad apples
everywhere” Q. What does he mean by a few
bad apples? Psychologists argue that the
lessons from the Stanford Prison Experiment
can be used to explain Abu Graib and the
abuses at Guantanomo (US prison in Cuba)
ABU GRAIB AND THE STANFORD PRISON STUDY
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. A few of the soldiers that were in the photos
have been punished, but no higher level
officers have. Many believe the conditions were
in place for the soldiers to commit these illegal
acts, that the military institution allowed it, set
the environment for it to take place. Many
argue that these soldiers were actually good
men placed in a bad situation similar to what
we read about the Nazi war criminals.
STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT
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Deindividuation – reduce self-consciousness
and personal responsibility. Members are made
to feel anonymous.
HOW CAN OUR ACTIONS INFLUENCE OUR
ATTITUDES?
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We can influence our attitudes by altering our
actions
 Ex.
If you are prejudice of a certain racial group.
How can you attempt to eliminate your prejudice?
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY
 Cognitive
Dissonance Theory Psychological discomfort (dissonance)
occurs when our behaviors threaten
our beliefs about ourselves. We
reduce this dissonance by changing
our attitudes.
STUDY ON COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
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1. Recall an event in which you caused mental,
emotional and/or physical harm on another person
2. Explain why you did this?
3. Recall a time when someone else inflicted mental,
emotional and/or physical harm to you?
4. Explain why this person did this to you?
REDUCING COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
1.You text and drive, knowing that
doing so is dangerous and illegal in
some places.
2. Ex. In the 7th grade you and your friends go to
a CD store and get the 5 finger discount (steal).
You have been raised to believe that stealing is
wrong. Dissonance (tension, discomfort, guilt)
arises. How do you remove the dissonance?
EXAMPLES OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY
3. You believe that you are a smart
person but you do lousy on a test.
4. You believe that you are a very
good athlete but you lose the game.
EXAMPLES OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
5. A young mother thinks of herself as an
honest person and tries to raise her
children that way. Yet, she writes notes
excusing them from school for illnesses
when they are not sick.
6. A student who hates psychology class
is asked by her teacher to encourage a
group of students to take psychology
next year. She does speak to the other
students.
FESTINGER AND CARLSMITH STUDY
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1950’s – subjects perform boring tasks (Subjects agreed
that the task that they performed was boring) and then are
paid to tell the incoming subject (actually a confederate) that
they enjoyed the task.
After lying to the confederate, the subject was asked to
reveal his/her real attitude toward the boring task.
Participants who were paid $20
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Lied and told the next person it was so much fun!!
Still found the task boring will later asked about the task
No Dissonance – felt that their payment justified their lies
Participants who were paid $1
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Lied and told the next person the task was fun
Later when asked… they reported that the task was actually fun
for them.
Those paid $1 experience dissonance and changed their
attitudes to match their behaviors (telling others it was fun)
LESSONS FROM THE FESTINGER AND
CARLSMITH STUDY
Lawyers defending guilty murderers or
corporations that are polluting waters.
 Stock Market Traders that cheat people out of
hard earned money.
 People who work for Corporations that have
brought up on ethical violations charges.
 Ex. Bank of America (2008 Stock market
collapse).
 Ex. Transocean (not having oil rigs up to safety
regulations).
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VIDEO 
Zimbardo and Cognitive Dissonance
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Cognitive dissonance (Dissonant & Justified)
ACTIONS AFFECT ATTITUDES
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The Foot-in-the-Door phenomenon (compliance
strategy)
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Small request is made, Small request is agreed to,
larger request is made.
 You
are more likely to agree to the larger request having
agreed to the small task.
EXAMPLES OF FOOT IN THE DOOR
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Ex. Salesman asks you to test drive a
new car, you agree to drive the car,
then salesman ask you to purchase
the car
My wife asks me to get her a soda; I
agree and on my way to the kitchen.
She asks me to make her a sandwich
too.
Parent asks you to go turn off the
lights in your room, and then she yells
down the hall to pick up your dirty
clothes while you’re there.
DOOR IN THE FACE…
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Door-in-Face phenomenon
(compliance strategy)
a
large request is made, large request is rejected,
more likely to agree with a more reasonable
request
 Ex. Dad… can I stay out Friday night until 4AM? No
way… that’s far too late for you to be out. Then can I
stay out until 1 AM?
MERE EXPOSURE EFFECT
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Mere exposure effect – the more we are exposed
to something the more we will come to like it.
Ex. New product that has been advertised on radio and
TV. If you have heard these ads (been exposed) then
you are more likely to buy it.
 Blind taste tests and research on the effectiveness of
advertising proves this. (Miller Brewing vs. Anheiser
Busch)
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Ex. Candidate that spends more money on campaign
much more likely to win
NORMS OF RECIPROCITY
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Norms of Reciprocity – if people do something
nice for you, you feel obligated to do something
nice in return
 Ex.
Someone helps you with homework you want to
help them
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Ex. Businessmen take their clients (people that they need)
out to dinner or give them tickets to a Panthers game.
Q How might a salesman use this knowledge to help them
gain a sale?
PERSUASION
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Central Route to Persuasion – present
information with strong arguments, facts and
logic
 Ex.
– politicians use this approach when they know
their audience has a need for substance and need
to show their knowledge. Route is usually used in
the presidential debates.
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Q. How would a car salesman use this?
PERSUASION
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Peripheral route to persuasion – emphasize
emotional appeal, focus on positive feelings,
and focus on personal traits.
 Ex.
– Route is used during national convention.
 Ex MSNBC (most of their audience being Democrats) and
Fox News (most of their audience being Republicans)
AND most talk radio (Rush Limbaugh) use this approach
to gain viewers and make money.
Q
How could a salesman use this approach to persuade
you to buy?
CENTRAL AND PERIPHERAL ROUTES
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Psychology And Advertising :40 secs.-2:40
Political groups and route to persuasion:
 Q. More central or peripheral:
 (JFK, LBJ and politicsof fear, Obamacare
(government takeover, cannot keep your urrent
plan or current doctor)…gov’t shutdown…why are
groups so opposed to it?
 YouTube - Science Of Persuasion
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