Psy 630: Attitudes

Prof. Allen McConnell — Spring 2008

Class meets in 127 Psychology Building
Tuesdays, 5:00-7:30 p.m.

Course homepage: http://www.users.muohio.edu/mcconnar/psy630-attitudes.html

Course prerequisite

Graduate standing in psychology or the instructor's permission
 
 

Readings

Course readings, available for photocopying in the Graduate Student Computer Lab, Psychology Building.
American Psychological Association (2001).  Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.).  Washington, DC: Author.

Social psychology’s definition of an attitude is an enduring evaluation of an attitude object (e.g., people, social groups, consumer products). Indeed, the study of attitudes has been one of the most central areas of social psychology since Gordon Allport (1935). Although ubiquitous, the study of attitudes has undergone many changes: issues about how to construct valid instruments, concerns about whether attitudes predict behavior, debates about whether attitudes are real or are on-the-spot constructions, and controversies how strongly attitudes are guided by nonconscious processes. However, it is crystal clear that understanding attitudes is fundamental for understanding impression formation, group stereotypes, marketing and consumer behavior, jury decision making, political psychology, and many, many other areas of interest to social scientists, and to social psychologists in particular. In addition to studying how attitudes are formed, we will also explore how attitudes are changed (i.e., persuasion), and how people respond to persuasion attempts. The area of attitudes is incredibly expansive, thus it will be impossible to cover every important topic in one semester. Instead, we will explore some important and enduring themes in the area of attitudes and persuasion.

Most of the success in this course rests with the students and their preparation. The format of the course involves students leading discussions each week, with a pair of students (facilitators) determining how to best organize and facilitate discussion on the week’s topics. Because this is a small class, involvement in group discussion is essential. Moreover, it is through the process of discussion and debate that one’s research acumen becomes defined and sharpened. One of the major goals of this class is to help develop one’s thinking and research ideas, and this is best accomplished by expressing one’s ideas in writing and in class discussions.

Facilitating

During the semester, students will have the responsibility of facilitating discussion. Facilitators will need to determine how best to accomplish this goal for the readings. As facilitators, it is not your responsibility to explain the readings to others or review the important points of each paper. Instead, your role is to provide a framework that seems sensible for discussing the topic. For example, you may want to circulate questions via e-mail before class to pose questions of your colleagues. Perhaps you might present an initial framework at the beginning of class (on the board or via overhead) to highlight common (or divergent) themes that run throughout the readings. There are no right or wrong ways to facilitate. The goal of facilitation is to provide structure and direction for fellow students during discussion, not be the discussion.
 

Reaction papers

Each week, students will submit a brief reaction paper (2-3 double-spaced pages) describing their reactions to the week’s readings during weeks that they do not facilitate class discussion. This assignment is very open-ended and subject to great latitude in interpretation. Because some students specialize in different disciplines (e.g., clinical, cognitive psychology), they may want to “spin” the week’s themes in a reasonable fashion toward their interests, which is fine. The goal is to make sure that students come to class not only with the readings read, but do so after putting some degree of thought into the implications of, and interconnections among, the readings. Each acceptable reaction paper contributes 3% to the overall grade. Students must submit their reaction papers by e-mail attachment to the instructor before 5 p.m. of the day before class (i.e., by Monday at 5 p.m.). The instructor will return them at the beginning of class (i.e., Tuesday).  Late reaction papers, regardless of the circumstances, will not be accepted.
 
 

Research proposal

Students will submit a major paper by choosing an area of attitudes based on their own interests and developing a research proposal. The topic need not be one that a student facilitated, though doing so may benefit some students. The research proposal must address an important research question from the perspective of attitudes.  Students outside of social psychology are encouraged to relate attitudes to their area (e.g., developmental psychologists may want to study the formation of group stereotypes in children, clinical psychologists may want to explore how impression formation affects client-therapist interactions). Although students will not be required to carry out the research they propose, the opportunity to develop a well-thought-out proposal should be helpful to those who wish to develop new lines of research or explore ideas relevant to theses, minor projects, and dissertations. This paper must take the form of a research proposal: it cannot be simply a literature review. The instructor will be available to help students refine their ideas and suggest appropriate references.

There is no correct page length.  Papers must be written in accordance with the APA Publication Manual (5th ed.). Additional details and guidelines will be provided later this semester. Topics must be approved by the instructor no later than Tuesday, April 15, at the end of class.  The paper is due by 5 p.m., on Tuesday, April 29 in the instructor’s mailbox, Psychology Main Office (please submit a hard copy, not an attachment to avoid any problems with formatting, printing, etc.).  Being late with either deadline (topic approval or submitting the final paper) without documentation of personal emergency or illness will incur a 10% deduction in the paper’s final grade for each 24-hour period that the relevant assignment is late.

1/15 -- Organizational meeting

1/22 -- Introduction to attitudes

Bohner, G., & Schwarz, N. (2001).  Attitudes, persuasion, and behavior.  In A. Tesser & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Intrapersonal processes (pp. 413-435).  Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1998).  Attitude structure and function.  In D. T. Gilbert, S. T., Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (4th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 269-322). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Fazio, R. H. (1986).  How do attitudes guide behavior?  In R. M. Sorrentino & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition (Vol. 1, pp. 204-243).  New York: Guilford.

1/29 -- Measuring attitudes

Ostrom, T. M., Bond, C. F., Krosnick, J. A., & Sedikides, C. (1994).  Attitude scales: How we measure the unmeasurable.  In S. Shavitt & T. C. Brock (Eds.), Persuasion: Psychological insights and perspectives (pp. 15-42).  Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Schwarz, N., & Bohner, G. (2001).  The construction of attitudes.  In A. Tesser & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Intrapersonal processes (pp. 436-457).  Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Cacioppo, J. T., Petty, R. E., Losch, M. E., & Crites, S. L. (1994).  Psychophysiological approaches to attitudes.  In S. Shavitt & T. C. Brock (Eds.), Persuasion: Psychological insights and perspectives (pp. 43-69).  Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Fazio, R. H., & Olson, M. A. (2003). Implicit measures in social cognition research: Their meaning and use.  Annual review of psychology, 54, 297-327.

2/5 -- ELM

Petty, R. E., & Wegener, D. T. (1998).  Attitude change: Multiple roles for persuasion variables.  In D. T. Gilbert, S. T., Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (4th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 323-390). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1997).  The flexible correction model: The role of naive theories of bias in bias correction. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 29, pp. 141-208). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Petty, R. E., Briñol, P., & Tormala, Z. L. (2002).  Thought confidence as a determinant of persuasion: The self-validation hypothesis.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 722-741.

2/12 -- Metacognitive processes

Petty, R. E., Briñol, P., Tormala, Z. L., & Wegener, D. T. (2007).  The role of metacognition in social judgment.  In A. W. Kruglanski & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (2th ed., pp. 254-284). New York: Cambridge Press.

Rydell, R. J., Hugenberg, K., & McConnell, A. R. (2006). Resistance can be good or bad: How theories of resistance and dissonance affect attitude certainty. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 740-750.

Claypool, H. M., Hall, C. E., Mackie, D. M., & Garcia-Marques, T. (in press). Positive mood, attribution, and the illusion of familiarity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Schwarz, N. (1998). Accessible content and accessibility experiences: The interplay of declarative and experiential information in judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2, 87-99

2/19 -- No class: Monday-Tuesday Switch Day

2/26 -- The limits of introspection and affective prediction

Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231-259.

Wilson, T. D., Lisle, D. J., Schooler, J. W., Hodges, S. D., Klaaren, K. J., & LaFleur, S. J. (1993). Introspecting about reasons can reduce post-choice satisfaction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 331-339.

Gilbert, D. T., Pinel, E. C., Wilson, T. D., Blumberg, S. J., & Wheatley, T. P. (1998). Immune neglect: A source of durability bias in affective forecasting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 617-638.

Dunn, E. W., & Ashton-James, C. (in press). On emotional innumeracy: Predicted and actual affective responses to grand-scale tragedies. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

3/4 -- Self-perception

Lepper, M. R., Greene, D., & Nisbett, R. E. (1973).  Undermining children’s intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28, 129-137.

Dutton, D. G., & Aron, A. P. (1974). Some evidence for heightened sexual attraction under conditions of high anxiety. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 510-517.

Fazio, R. H. (1987).  Self-perception theory: A current perspective.  In M. P. Zanna, J. M. Olson, & C. P. Herman (Eds.), Social influence: The Ontario symposium (Vol. 5, pp. 129-150). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Strack, F., Martin, M. L., & Stepper, S. (1988).  Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 768-777.

3/11 -- Dissonance

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).  Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

Fried, C. B., & Aronson, E. (1995).  Hypocrisy, misattribution, and dissonance reduction.  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 925-933.

Kitayama, S., Snibbe, A. C., Markus, H. R., & Suzuki, T. (2004).  Is there any “free” choice?  Psychological Science, 15, 527-533.

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.

3/18 -- No class: Spring Break

3/25 -- Attitude accessibility

Fazio, R. H. (1995).  Attitudes as object-evaluation associations: Determinants, consequences, and correlates of attitude accessibility.  In R. E. Petty & J. A. Krosnick (Eds.), Attitude strength: Antecedents and consequences (pp. 247-282).  Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Fazio, R. H., & Towles-Schwen, T. (1999).  The MODE model of attitude-behavior processes.  In S. Chaiken & Y. Trope (Eds.), Dual process theories in social psychology (pp. 97-116).  New York: Guilford.

Fazio, R. H., Jackson, J. R., Dunton, B. C., & Williams, C. J. (1995). Variability in automatic activation as an unobtrusive measure of racial stereotypes: A bona fide pipeline? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 1013-1027.

4/1 -- Implicit attitude formation

Wilson, T. D., Lindsey, S., & Schooler, T. Y. (2000).  A model of dual attitudes.  Psychological Review, 107, 101-126.

Smith, E. R., & DeCoster, J. (2000). Dual process models in social and cognitive psychology: Conceptual integration and links to underlying memory systems. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4 108-131.

Rydell, R. J., & McConnell, A. R. (2006). Understanding implicit and explicit attitude change: A systems of reasoning analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 995-1008.

McConnell, A. R., Rydell, R. J., Strain, L. M., & Mackie, D. M. (in press). Social group association cues: Forming implicit and explicit attitudes toward individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

4/8 -- Implicit attitude change

Gawronski, B., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2006). Associative and propositional processes in evaluation: An integrative review of implicit and explicit attitude change. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 692-731.

Dasgupta, N., & Greenwald, A. G. (2001). On the malleability of automatic attitudes: Combating automatic prejudice with images of admired and disliked individuals. Jour

Briñol, P., Petty, R. E., & Wheeler, S. C. (2006). Discrepancies between explicit and implicit self-concepts: Consequences for information processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 154-170.

Rydell, R. J., McConnell, A. R., & Mackie, D. M. (2007). Consequences of discrepant explicit and implicit attitudes: Cognitive dissonance and increased information processing. Manuscript under editorial review.

4/15 -- Affect as information

Schwarz, N., & Clore, G. L. (1996). Feelings and phenomenal experiences. In E. T. Higgins & A. W. Kruglanski (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (pp. 433-465). New York: Guilford.

Martin, L. L., Ward, D. W., Achee, J. W., & Wyer, R. S. (1993).  Mood as input: People have to interpret the motivational implications of their moods.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 317-326.

Tiedens, L. Z., & Linton, S. (2001).  Judgment under emotional certainty and uncertainty: The effects of specific emotions on information processing.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 317-326.

Schwarz, N., & Clore, G. L. (2003). Mood as information: 20 years later. Psychological Inquiry, 14, 296-303.

4/22 -- Social influence and persuasion

Cialdini, R. B. (1995).  Principles and techniques of social influence.  In A. Tesser (Ed.), Advanced social psychology (pp. 257-281).  Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Petty, R. E. (2001).  Subtle influences on judgment and behavior: Who is most susceptible?  In J. P. Forgas & K. D. Williams (Eds.), Social influence: Direct and indirect processes (pp. 117-148). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.

Knowles, E. S., & Linn, J. A. (2004).  Approach-avoidance model of persuasion: Alpha and omega strategies for change. In E. S. Knowles & J. A. Linn (Eds.), Resistance and persuasion (pp. 117-148). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Fujita, K., Eyal, T., Chaiken, S., Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (in press). Influencing attitudes toward near and distant objects. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

4/29 -- Research proposals due by 5 p.m.

Updated Wednesday 9 January 2008