PSY204 Attitudes, Persuasion, and Attitude Change

A relatively enduring organisation of beliefs, feelings and behavioural tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols.

A group of attitude theories stressing that people try to maintain internal consistency, order and agreement among their various cognitions.

People prefer attitudes that are consistent with each other over those that are inconsistent. A person (P) tries to maintain consistency in attitudes to, and relationships with, other people (O) and elects of the environment (X).

An unpleasant state of psychological tension generated when a person has two or more cognitions (bits of information) that are inconsistent or do not fit together.

Inconsistency is experienced when a person makes a considerable effort to achieve a modest goal.

The process of forming our attitudes, mainly from our own experiences, the influences of others and our emotional reactions.

Repeated exposure to an object results in greater attraction to that object.

Pairing a neutral stimulus with a unconditioned stimulus.

A liked or disliked person (or attitude object) may affect not only the evaluation of a second person directly associated but also others merely associated with the second person.

Tendency for a person to reproduce the actions, attitudes and emotional responses exhibited by a real-life or symbolic model.

Idea that you gain knowledge about yourself by making an attribution or explanation of your own behaviour.

Paring reinforcement or punishment with a behaviour to either increase or decrease the strength of behaviour.

Message intended to change an attitude and related behaviours of an audience.

The point of origin of a persuasive communication.

Communication from a source directed to an audience.

Intended target of a persuasive communication.

When people attend to a message carefully, they use a central route to process it; otherwise they use peripheral route.

When people attend to a message carefully, they use systematic processing; otherwise they process by using heuristics (mental short cuts).

People try to protect their freedom to act. When they perceive that this freedom has been curtailed, they will act to regain it.

Advance knowledge that one is to be the target of persuasion attempt. Often produces resistance to persuasion.

A variable that qualifies an otherwise simple hypothesis with a view to improving its predictive power.

A way of making people resistant to persuasion. By providing them with a diluted counter-argument, they can build up effective refutations to a later, stronger argument.

Based on attitude bolstering, Resistance could be strengthened by providing additional arguments that back up the original beliefs.

Employs counter-arguments and may be more effective. A person leans what the opposition’s arguments are then hears them demolished.

How easy an attitude comes to mind.

How strong someone’s attitude is.