Attitudes Change and Its Influence - Essay Example

Attitudes Change How do you think attitudes change? Do others’ attitudes influence us and if so how? I think attitudes change mainly if the person instigating the change is persuasive in a way he or she can effectively connect with the audience and if the message is presented in a way that the audience can relate to and understand. For instance, if a teenager really hates studying, but is persuaded by his or her friend that being successful is the only way to get out of his or her parents’ house and to do that he or she must study hard, then that teenager may be persuaded to change her attitude towards studying. Another way that attitudes change is when a drastic event occurs that makes a person realize that he or she is wrong. For example, when a loved one dies, this traumatic event usually instigates a change in attitude and behavior. In this light, I believe that other people’s attitudes influence us a lot. There are people that we respect and idolize and thus we listen to their advice and try to follow in their footsteps. What is the justification of effort? Think of an experience that can be explained by the justification of effort and provide an example. The justification of effort is all about the mentality that when people work hard for something, achieving it will become more meaningful and of greater significance than those that they have achieved with less effort. By accomplishing this difficult task through immense effort, his or her self-esteem will be boosted. If people know about this task, the chances of the person backing out will be considerably lesser as there is more pressure to succeed. A very good example of the justification of effort is the way fraternities of different universities across the globe initiate those who want to become members. This is called pledging. Hazing and paddling are terms that are usually linked with the initiation rites as pledges would be beaten up by paddles to test their commitment to the fraternity or brotherhood. The high degree of difficulty to get into these fraternities gives them an air of exclusivity and increases the members’ self-esteem and self-confidence. Because they have worked hard for the membership, they will value it more. This is how the ensure loyalty among the members. Because the effort they have put into it is great, then they will place more significance on it. 3. What are the two self-presentational strategies? Provide an example of each strategy other than those used in the Aronson text.   The two self-presentational strategies are self-handicapping and Ingratiation. Because we treat people consistent to the way that we perceive them and have formed impressions of them, we have a tendency to present ourselves in a way that we want others to perceive and treat us. Self-handicapping is when we give excuses for future failure in order to minimize the effect of the failure like a decrease in self-esteem. For example, I am a swimmer and because I have scouted the other swimmers for the competition and have seen that they are faster than me and that I am bound to lose, I start to miss practice and focus on my studies. I start working diligently on a project that is not due until next week. And so, on the day of the meet, if I lose, I say that it’s because I was working on my project and I missed practice—even if you could have finished the project after the meet. Ingratiation, on the other hand, means having to literally “suck up” to everyone, especially to the higher ups. This means having to always present a nice front, even if at times, you don’t really mean it. For instance, when your professor tells a really corny joke, you laugh the hardest because you want to be on the teacher’s good side. 4. List reasons why people join groups?   There are many reasons why people join groups, primarily because people need a sense of belongingness. Here are other reasons why people join groups: Inclusion. They need to feel included and be a part of a group that they can relate to and so their needs for socialization can be met. Affection. People need to make friends and establish meaningful relationships. Support. People need support and encouragement, especially when difficulties arise. Support groups are formed to help people support each other during times of trouble. Safety. People feel a lot safer when they are in the company of a group. They feel that they can take on more dangerous things when the members of the group are with them. Practicality. However, there are times when joining a group is just for practical means, i.e. in order to increase or strengthen the business, in order to maximize learning, or to increase social standing. Group Synergy. There are difficult tasks that need people to work together as a group; this is the concept of group synergy where the philosophy is that “two heads are better than one.” Control. Other times, people need to hone their leadership abilities. Thus, they join a group with the sole reason of becoming the leader of that particular group. 5. What is the Social Comparison Theory? Provide an example of when this theory might have applied to you in the past.   We identify and measure our abilities by comparing ourselves with other people. We usually compare ourselves with someone who we think are similar to us and have similar interests, opinions, and skills. However, with the absence of such a person, we find just about anyone to compare ourselves to. For instance, when I was still studying, I would always compare my grades with my best friend who I think is roughly on the same level as me. Whenever I would perform well in a test, I would always make sure to check on how well he did. I compared myself to him rather than comparing myself to the genius in our class because I knew that he was on another higher level altogether. 6. Why do people obey authority figures?   Obedience is different from compliance as in the latter one does have a choice in following a request or an order, while the former means that the person feels he or she does not have a choice. Fear of punishment is also one reason why people obey authority figures. They obey because their superiors have the power to mete out punishments like detention (in the case of students), suspension (in the case of students and employees), and even dismissal. For instance, soldiers obey the orders of their superiors because they feel they have no choice in the matter and they fear punishment, in terms of imprisonment or dismissal. In other cases, people obey authority figures out of respect for their position and because they trust in their superiors’ skills and ability to make wise decisions. I think this is the best reason to obey authority fissures, although, sadly, it is not the most common one. 7. Distinguish the difference between social facilitation and social loafing. Provide an example of each. Social facilitation is the tendency of people to perform easy tasks well in the presence of others. The degree of excellence of the performance decreases when the task becomes more difficult and vise versa. The presence of an audience stimulates the person and this stimulant is also the cause for apprehension when performing difficult tasks that, in turn, causes the person to perform poorly. For instance, football stars perform better in front of a bigger crowd as the cheers spur them to perform better while the bench players, because they lack self-confidence, tend to perform poorly when faced with a big audience. Social loafing, on the other hand, is when people excel at difficult tasks (in the presence of others), while they do poorly at simple tasks. The philosophy behind this is that people have the tendency to loaf during simple tasks, especially group ones and when they know no one is watching. However, they excel at complex tasks because they know they have an audience and this motivates them. For example, when a cooking class is divided into groups in order to prepare a certain recipe, a loafer may slack off because he knows that his efforts are not being noticed, but when asked to cook the dish by himself, he performs better because he knows he is being watched and evaluated. It can be said, therefore, that social facilitation is the opposite of social loafing. 8. What is post-decision dissonance? Provide an example of when you have used this dissonance.   Post-decision dissonance happens when a person has just made a decision and feels some misgivings regarding this particular decision—whether it was a wise one or not. The person then is prone to defend his choice with reasons that makes the decision more desirable. A very common example is buyer’s remorse wherein a person who just bought something regretted the act of buying it. Was it practical? Will it be useful? This happened to me just recently as I just invested on a web-based business. While I have weighed the pros and cons and studied the business carefully before making the decision, after I have made the decision to invest, I began to feel like maybe I did the wrong thing and that I might just end up losing a lot of money. What I did was, I just thought about the pros and cons again and how the former outweighed the latter and decided that this is really a good investment and that I would just work hard in order to make it profitable. 9. You are the parent of Kevin and you tell him to stop hanging out with Joe because he is a troublemaker. According to the reactance theory, what is Kevin likely to do? What would be a better way to handle this situation?   Reactance Theory states that whenever a person’s free will is challenged due to a threat specifying a particular action to take instead of them being able to choose freely, that person has the tendency to act negatively in that he or she will take the threatened action just to prove that they can. With respect to Kevin’s situation, if I tell him to stop hanging out with Joe because he is a troublemaker, chances are he will just hang out with Joe more—just to prove that he can do it and that no one can take away his freedom. Parents should always be careful when dealing with their children. They need to remember that when they should not command their children to make certain decisions or take action in a specific way. A better way to handle this situation is just by warning Kevin about Joe in a way that I would let him know that ultimately he still has the choice to be friends with him or not and that I trust his judgment. I will even applaud his decision to give Joe a chance, despite his reputation, with the clear message that Kevin should influence Joe and not the other way around. In this way, I have let him know that I am worried and that I just want what’s best for him, but that I also trust him to make the right decision. It is important to also let him know that he can tell me anything and I won’t judge him if he made a mistake. This way, our line of communication remains open and he knows that he can come to me when problems arise. He is also better equipped to make the right decision and not rash ones. 10. What are some social norms that have changed over the years? Do you think these social norms are positive or negative changes?   Social norms have evolved a lot over the years. A good example is how teenager pregnancy is viewed. Even though it is still frowned upon today, the teenager is given more options than being hidden away and putting the child up for adoption or getting married early. Also, an unmarried couple living together today is just normal unlike before when couples have to get married before society deems it acceptable to live together. Homosexuals, whether gay or lesbian, have also come out of their closets. Where before, queers (as they were called back then) were widely discriminated upon, now it is discouraged to discriminate against homosexuals. Of course, the role of women in society is one of the social norms that have undergone drastic changes. Women now excel in the corporate world and in various other professions, where before they have just been seen as housewives. I believe that these are all positive changes, the problems that were before dealt with in secrecy and are taboo are now being addressed in the open. Although, of course, negative changes cannot be avoided in the course of modernization, like how marriage is not being given the right importance as one can just marry someone and divorce them soon after, I believe that the world has changed for the better—especially when it comes to those I have mentioned above. Read More