Psychology 584 Course Syllabus

PSY  584: Attitude Formation and Change

Fall 1999 / Wednesdays 12:05-2:30, Room 640

Instructor:  Theresa Vescio

Office: 438 Moore Building

Phone: 863-1714

 email:  tkv1@psu.edu

Course Structure and Objectives

The course will be in discussion format. Discussion will generally focus on 3 to 5 empirical and/or theoretical articles, which serve as exemplars of the type of thinking and research that has been done in the area. Assigned readings should provide a sound theoretical background for each topic, as well as a summary of relevant research. Readings are balanced between classic and contemporary contributions to the field of attitudes and persuasion. Beyond surveying relevant attitude research and theorizing, the primary goal of this course to encourage critical and integrative thought.

Course Requirements

     Weekly Thought Papers and/or Comments

Each week you will be asked to turn in a 1 to 2 page thought paper. The goal of the thought paper is to simultaneously encourage critical thinking about the readings prior to class and enhance discussion quality during class. There are no formal rules regarding thought paper structure or content. The assignment is intended to provide a context within which you can raise points of interest and/or questions. Your paper may focus on theoretical, empirical, methodological, integrative or practical issues. Examples of the kinds of questions you might address include (but are not limited to) the following: (a) How does this argument (or these data) relate to other theories? (b) Is the theoretical rationale sound? (c) Does the study demonstrate what it claims to demonstrate? (d) Are there alternative explanations for the findings? (e) Are there problems with the design, statistics, procedures, etc? (f) What might other theories of social psychology (or other disciplines) have to say about the finding or approach? (g) Are the results consequential? (h) What further directions should be taken in this line of research?

The thought papers are due by 1:00 p.m. the day before class Thought papers should be forwarded electronically to all class members. Your thought papers should be copied as text into the body of you email. Please do not forward your papers as attachments, as it may be difficult for people to access text in the absence of compatible software.

      Discussion Facilitation

Each student will also be asked to facilitate two course sessions. Discussion facilitation will help develop skills in leading conversations (particularly for seminars and workshops). Rotating discussion facilitators should also keep the style of weekly discussions fresh, by capitalizing onthe variety of styles represented by the students' interests and personalities.

As a discussion facilitator, your role will be to help keep the conversation going and on track. Again, there are no formal "rules" about how you should facilitate discussion.If you feel creative, great. If you feel anxious and find that a more scripted initial presentation of interesting ideas and issues is helpful that will also work. In general, however, facilitators should read all thought papers prior to class and outline(or cluster) points of interest: by issue, by depth, or whatever seems to fit the particular topic. If you wish, you may begin the class discussion by "setting the stage," (i.e., abstracting the main points, sketching the design). Or you may guide discussion by providing all discussants with an outline summarizing each students thoughts. As the conversation develops, encourage people who wrote pertinent comments to contribute to the class.

    Term Paper

The term paper should be an in-depth pursuit of the students' own interests, adopting an attitudes/persuasion perspective. As a detester of busy work, I strongly encourage you to pursue a project that is useful to you. For example, you may want to reviewliterature relevant to your area of specialization, write up data for a thesis, or propose a study that you intend to pursue. All students should write a literature review (though the amount of detail may vary depending on the students’ ultimate goal) and either present or propose research. Papers should be 10 to 15 pages in length. And all students are strongly encouraged to discuss their topics with the instructor early in the term. Papers are due by 5:00 p.m. on December 10.

Grading

READING LIST

Week 1 / September 1: Attitude Definition and Important Issues

McGuire, W. J. (1985). Attitudes and attitude change. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (3rd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 233-346). New York: Random House.

Greenwald, A. G. (1989). Why attitudes are important:  Defining attitude and attitude theory 20 years later. In A. R. Pratkanis, & S. J. Breckler (Eds.), Attitude structure and function (pp. 429-440). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum

Week 2 / September 8: Attitude Formation

Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior. USA: Addison Wesley. Ch. 2 (pp. 21-52) & Ch. 6 (pp. 216-287).

Cacioppo, J. T., Priester, J. R., & Berntson, G. G., (1993). Rudimentary determinants of attitudes. II: Arm flexion and extension have differential effects on attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 5-17.

Murphy, S. T., Monahan, J. L., & Zajonc, R. B. (1995). Additivity of nonconscious affect: Combined effects of priming and exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 589-602.

Week 3 / September 15: Attitude Function

Katz, D. (1960). The functional approach to the study of attitudes. Public Opinion Quarterly, 24, 163-204.

Snyder, M., & DeBono, K. G. (1989). Understanding the functions of attitudes:  Lessons from personality and social behavior. In A. R. Pratkanis, S. J. Breckler (Eds). Attitude structure and function (pp. 339-359). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Pratkanis, A. R., & Greenwald, T. G. A sociocognitive model of attitude structure and function.  In L. Berkowitz (Ed.) Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 245-285, Vol. 22) Academic Press, San Diego, CA, USA. 19895.

Week 4 / September 22: Attitude Measurement and Structure

Himmelfarb, S. (1993). The measurement of attitudes. In A. H. Eagly & S. Chaiken, The Psychology of Attitudes (pp. 23-87). Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Judd, C. M., & Kulik, J. A. (1980). Schematic effects of social attitudes on information processing and recall. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 476, 1193-1207.

Breckler, (1984). Empirical validation of affect, behavior, and cognition as distinct components of attitude. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 1191- 1205.

Crites, S. L., Fabrigar, L. R., & Petty, R. E. (1994). Measuring the affective and cognitive properties of attitudes: Conceptual and methodological issues. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 619-634.

Week 5 / September 29: Attitude-Behavior Relations

Wicker, R. A. (1969). Attitude versus actions: The relationship of verbal and overt behavioral responses to attitude objects. Journal of Social Issues, 25, 41-78.

Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1974). Attitudes toward objects as predictors of single and multiple behavioral criteria. Psychological Review, 81, 59-74.

Ajzen, I. (1988). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179-211.

Madden, T. J., Ellen, P. S., & Ajzen, I. (1992). A comparison of Theory of Planned Behavior and the Theory of Reasoned Action. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 3-9.

Kraus, S. J. (1995). Attitudes and the prediction of behavior: A meta-analysis of the empirical literature. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 58-75.

Week 6 / October 6: Importance and Accessibility

Fazio, R. H. (1990). Multiple processes by which attitudes guide behavior: The MODE Model as an integrative framework. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.) Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, (Vol 23) pp., 75-109.

Blascovich, J., Ernst, J. M., Tomaka, J., Kelsey, R. M., Salomon, K. L., & Fazio, R. H. (1993). Attitude accessibility as a moderator of autonomic reactivity during decision making. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 165-176.

Fazio, R. H., Jackson, J. R., Dunton, B. C., & Williams, C. J. (1995). Variability in automatic activation as an unobtrusive measure of racial attitudes: A bona fide pipeline? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 1013-1028.

Week 7 / October 13: Introspection and Attitude Polarization

Wilson, T. D., Dunn, D. S., Kraft, D., & Lisle, D. J. (1989). Introspection, attitude change, and attitude-behavior consistency: The disruptive effects of explaining why we feel the way we do. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.) Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 22). (pp. 287-343). San Diego: Academic Press

Miller, A. G., McHoskey, J. W., Bane, C. M., & Dowd, T. G. (1993). The attitude polarization phenomenon: Role of response measure, attitude extremity, and behavioral consequences of reported attitude change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 561-574.

Wilson, T. D., Hodges, S. D., & LaFleur, S. J. (1995). Effects of introspecting about reasons: Inferring attitudes from accessible thoughts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 16-28.

Week 8 / October 20: Balance Theory

Heider, F. (1946). Attitudes and cognitive organization. Journal of Psychology, 21, 107-112.

Osgood, C. E., & Tannenbaum, P. H. (1955). The principle of congruity in the prediction of attitude change. Psychological Review, 62, 42-55.

Insko, C. A. (1984). Balance theory, the Jordan paradigm, and the Wiest tetrahedron. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 18, pp. 89-140). San Diego, CA. Academic Press.

 Week 9 / October 27: Persuasion: Message Processing

Janis, I. L., & Feshbach, S. (1953). Effects of Fear-Arousing Communications. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 48, 78-92.  Reprinted in L. A. Peplau, D. O. Sears, S. E. Taylor, and J. L. Freedman (Eds.), Readings in Social Psychology (2nd edition, pp. 64-78). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

Baron, R., Logan, H., Lilly, J., Inman, M., & Brennan, M. (1994). Negative emotion and message processing. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 30, 181-201.

Wood, W., & Kallgren, C. A. (1988). Communicator attributes and persuasion: Recipients’ access to attitude relevant information in memory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 14, 172-182.

Pratkanis, A. R., Greenwald, A. G., Leippe, M. R., Baumbardner, M. H. (1988). In search of reliable persuasion effects: The Sleeper Effect is dead; long live the Sleeper Effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 203-218.

Carli, L. L., LaFleur, S. J., & Loeber, C. C. (1995). Nonverbal behavior: Gender and influence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 1030-1041.

Week 10 / November 3: Dissonance and Other Interpretations of Induced Compliance Effects

Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58, 203-210.

Bem, D. J. (1967). Self-perception: An alternative interpretation of cognitive dissonance phenomena. Psychological Review, 74, 183-200.

Steele, C. M. (1988). The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 21, pp. 261-302). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1980). Private and public self-attention, resistance to change, and dissonance reduction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 390-405.

Week 11 / November 10: Dissonance: Integrative Considerations and Contemporary Thought

Schlenker, B. R. (1982). Translating actions into attitudes: An identity-analytic approach to the explanation of social conduct. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 15, pp. 193-247). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Cooper, J., & Fazio, R. H. (1984). A new look at dissonance theory. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 17, pp. 229-266). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Elliott, A. J., & Devine, P. G. (1994). On the motivational nature of cognitive dissonance: Dissonance as psychological discomfort. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 366-381.

Simon, L., Greenberg, J., & Brehm, J. (1995).Trivialization: The forgotten mode of dissonance reduction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 247- 260.

Week 12 / November 17: Cognitive Theories of Persuasion

Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1984). Cognitive theories of persuasion. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 17). New York: Academic Press.

Chaiken, S., & Maheswaran, D. (1994). Heuristic processing can bias systematic processing: Effects of source credibility, argument accessibility, and task importance on judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 460-473.

Petty, R. E., Schumann, D. W., Richman, S. A., & Strathman, A. J. (1993). Positive mood and persuasion: Different roles for affect under high- and low-elaboration conditions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 5-20.

Week 13 / November 24: Persuasion in Group Settings

Maass, A., West, S. G., & Cialdini, R. B. (1987). Minority influence and conversion. In C. Hendrick (Ed.), Group processes, (pp. 55-79). Newbury Park: CA: Sage.

Wood, W., Pool, G. J., Leck, K., & Purvis, D. (1996). Self-definition, defensive processing, and influence: The normative impact of majority and minority groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1181-1193.

Mackie, D. M., Gastardo-Conaco, M. C., & Skelly, J. J. (1992). Knowledge of the advocated position and the processing of in-group and out-group persuasive messages. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 145-151.

Wilder, D. A. (1990). Some determinants of the persuasive power of ingroups and outgroups: Organization of information and attribution of independence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 1202-1213.

Week 14 / December 1: Resistance to Persuasive Messages

McGuire,W. J. (1964). Inducing resistance to persuasion some contemporary approaches. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 191-229). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Brehm, J. W., Y Sensenig, J. (1966). Social Influence as a function of attempted and implied usurpation of choice. Journal of Personality and Social.Psychology, 4, 703-707..

Frey, K. P., & Eagly, A. H. (1993). Vividness can undermine the persuasiveness of messages. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 32-44.

Kruglanski, A. W., Webster, D. M., & Klem, A. (1993). Motivated resistance and openness to persuasion in the presence or absence of prior information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 861-876.

Week 15 / December 8: Final Thoughts

Eagly, A. H. (1992). Uneven progress: Social psychology and the study of attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 693-710.

Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1993). Chapter 14: Future Directions in the Study of Attitudes. In The Psychology of Attitudes (pp. 665-696).