Theories Of Attitude Change Research Articles

Conflict and attitudes toward the opponent: An application of the Collins and Hoyt attitude change theory to groups in interorganizational conflict.

Conflict and attitudes toward the opponent: An application of the Collins and Hoyt attitude change theory to groups in interorganizational conflict.

Congruity theory and linear models of attitude change.

Congruity theory and linear models of attitude change.

Belief, Salience, Media Exposure, and Summation Theory

This is a report of two studies which reexamine Fishbein's Summation Theory of attitude change with particular focus on the correlation between belief salience and belief strength. To test the possibility that earlier studies may have been concept bound, a partial replication of the Kaplan-Fishbein [3] study was conducted with the concept, “American Indian.” No statistically significant correlations were obtained. Examination of individual responses led to the second study which tested that possibility that weak beliefs may be salient and strong ones not salient depending upon the media sources of information about the concept. When subjects were asked to recall the media sources of their information, it was found that weakly held salient beliefs were attributed to old fashioned “western adventure” entertainment sources with significantly more frequency than strongly held salient beliefs. Implications for Summation Theory and for attitude change theories are discussed. New lines of research are suggested.

Perspective as a Determinant of Attitude Formation and Change

In an experimental comparison of the Sherif-Hovland and Upshaw attitude change theories, Upshaw's ‘perspective’ theory is sustained: subjects are influenced more by the end points of scales than by ‘assimilation and contrast.’

Scaling Chinese Traditional-Modern Attitudes and the GSR Measurement of "Important" Versus "Un-Important" Chinese Concepts

This paper is concerned with theoretical and scaling problems involved in the development and research application of the Chinese T-M Scale, used to test the Traditional-Modern consistency theory of attitude change. T-M theory considers that individuals exposed to conflicting traditional and modern cognitions resolve traditional-modern conflict either by the development of compromise attitudes or by alternate modes of inconsistency reduction. The compromise attitudes formed as a result of this process, are held to be more adaptive for the satisfactory adjustment of individuals in situations of rapid biological and social change. A model of susceptibility to T-M attitude change is also presented, together with a GSR experiment designed to test certain aspects of T-M theory in the laboratory. In the GSR experiment it was found as expected that more "important" Chinese traditional-modern concepts elicited a significantly higher level of GSR arousal in response to attitude change in the direction of ieer-group pressure, while a high degree of unresolved attitudinal conflict was also found among these more "important" concepts. These peer-group pressures also resulted in significantly greater change occurring among these more "important" Confucian concepts in a traditional direction, while the "un-important' concupts changed in a modern direction.

Long-range experimental modification of values, attitudes, and behavior.

1. Contemporary social psychologists generally agree that a necessary prerequisite to cognitive or attitude change is the presence of a state of imbalance or inconsistency. Two major experimental methods generally employed to create such a psychological state are (a) to induce a person to engage in behavior that is incompatible with his attitudes and values and (b) to expose him to information about the attitudes or values of significant others that are incompatible with his own attitudes and values. In contrast to these two well-known methods, we have employed a third method, namely, to expose a person to information designed to make him consciously aware of states of inconsistency that exist chronically within his own value-attitude system below the level of his conscious awareness. 2. While the main theoretical focus of contemporary social psychology is on the concept of attitude and on theories of attitude change, the present focus is on the concept of value and on a theory of value change. This shift from attitudes to values is made on the assumption that values are more fundamental components within a person's makeup than attitudes and, moreover, that values are de-

Task experience and attitudes towards decision making

This study attempts to extend the work by Breer and Locke (1965) on the effect of task experience on the development of attitudes. Subjects were assigned either to a task where rational problem solving approaches were instrumental to task success, or where rational approaches were less instrumental. The hypothesis that different task experience (rational vs. irrational) would lead to differential attitude change received some support. The relationship between this experiment and the work of Breer and Locke, and of the relationship between task experience and other attitude-change theories, were discussed.

Towards a Mathematical Theory of Influence and Attitude Change

Towards a Mathematical Theory of Influence and Attitude Change