Attitude Change and Persuasion Essay

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Attitude Change & Persuasion

Examine the functions of attitudes and use appropriate examples to support the discussion.

Mark Snyder and Kenneth G. DeBono reference "functional theories" about attitudes; they explain that the functional aspect of attitudes allows people to "…execute plans and achieve goals" (Snyder, et al., 1989). Interestingly, the functional theory often serves "…very different functions for different people" because albeit two people may have very "similar attitudes," the persuasive conditions that are needed to change those similar attitudes may "…be quite different" (Snyder, 340). That last sentence is backed up by the fact that in order to "successfully change an attitude," the specific function that is being served by that attitude must be addressed, Synder continues.

The authors provide four different functions that attitudes can perform. The first function they call "Ego-Defensive"; people protect themselves from "accepting truths about themselves" that are not desirable truths (and may be threatening to the individual) (Snyder, 340). An example they use to protect themselves is "reaction formation": a person may despise his or her neighbor, but a reaction formation would be to become excessively friendly to that hated neighbor. In other words, hiding true feelings is a function of an attitude aimed at protecting a person from the real truth.

A second function pointed to by Synder is "Knowledge"; people need to organize their information in some kind of "efficient manner" and hence they will categorize objects based on their "limited information" and use "attributes associated with general categories" in order to pass judgment on "specific objects" (340). A third function is "Value Expressive," this attitude involves letting a person express his or her own "true self, that is, his or her underlying values, dispositions, or personality" (Synder 341). An example of a value expressive attitude is when a voter that wants to ban assault rifles goes to the polls and votes for a candidate whose specific platform is to ban assault rifles.

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The voter is thus expressing certain values (hence, "value expressive").

The fourth function of attitudes pointed to by Snyder is called "Social Adjustive"; this attitude is formed because the individual wants to fit in with a particular social group. For example, taking the previous example (wants to ban assault rifled) a person who demonstrates a Social Adjustive attitude would attend a cocktail fundraiser for a candidate that supports the ban on assault weapons. That individual would not necessarily be expressing "true inner values" but rather would be associating with a liberal gun-control organization because this group lets the person fit in and join a social situation that is desirable for that individual (Snyder, 341).

Meanwhile Kenneth Levin and colleagues add "instrumental function" to the list of four attitude functions mentioned above by Snyder. The attitudes that serve an instrumental function are defined by the "…motivation to maximize rewards and minimize punishments" (Levin, 1999, 164). The person showing an attitude that matches the definition of an instrumental function will most likely be hoping for (and planning for) "positive consequences" that relate to his or her attitude. An example shown by Levin is the woman shopping for a new car; she is responding to the "persuasive appeals of a salesman" because she is in search of an auto that specifically matches….....

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