Psychology 3723F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Cognitive Dissonance, Self-Perception Theory, Avoidant Personality Disorder

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 3723F/G

Document Summary

Chapter 7: this chapter describes behavioral influences on attitude, two major theories, self-perception theory, cognitive dissonance theory. Behavior exploration key points: attitudes based on direct experience are stronger predictors of subsequent behavior than attitudes based on indirect experience, we may incorporate negative experiences into our attitudes more quickly and strongly than positive experiences. Two conditions: (a) when participants had a sense of merged identity with the target performing the behavior (b) when the target"s actions seemed freely chosen. When people observe a close other (e. g. , an ingroup member) engage in a freely chosen behavior, they might infer their own attributes based on the target"s actions: practical demonstration: Self- perception processes may help to understand many practical/applied issues, including the use of small commitments to elicit greater compliance with requests and the effects of over-rewarding children for participating in enjoyable activities.