Argyle's Theory Of Attitude Essay

An attitude can be defined as a “predisposition to act in a certain way towards some aspect of one’s environment, including other people” Mednick et al, (1975). Many theories have been put forward to predict attitude change, Argyle (1994). However, attitudes are extremely difficult to define and can’t be directly seen or measured, so behaviour is inferred from what people say or do. An attitude is the subjective evaluation of objects, people, events, ideas, activities and feelings. This evaluation is normally of a positive or negative nature and is based normally on experiences which you have conflicting feelings towards. Attitudes have a past, present and future, to which behaviour develops in a sequence. Many believe there are three components
The aim of this experiment was to observe forced compliance, where by children were placed in a room full of desirable toys and told that one toy in particular was forbidden to be played with. Before leaving the room the researchers explained to the children that if they played with this most desirable toy in their absence, there would be severe consequences for at least one half of the group and only mild consequences for the other. The researchers proceeded to leave the room and observed that none of the children played with the toy. The researchers then re-entered the room and gave permission to all the children to play with all of the toys and found that those children in the group to which the most severe punishment would be given were most likely to play with the toy. Those children in the group to have been only mildly punished for having played with the toy, did not play with the toy at all, this the researchers concluded was due to dissonance, the children had decided that it was not worth it to play with said toy and justified this by refraining from doing so. Researchers have not always obtained the induced-compliance effects predicted by dissonance theory. Two important limiting conditions have been identified. The predicted dissonance effects in induced-compliance situations are obtained only when the participants feel
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