1. Schedule for Today • Presentation -Social Judgment Theory • Discussion – Social Judgment Theory • Presentation/Discussion – Cognitive Constancy Theories

2. Key Points • People with high ego-involvement have a narrow latitude of acceptance, a strong anchor point and a large latitude of rejection. Latitude of Rejection A NC

3. Ego-Involvement • The issue is important to you.

4. Anchor Point • The central point of your belief system about anything. It is your anchor. • A strongly held belief will have a large anchor. • A weakly held belief will have a small anchor.

5. Key Points • People with low ego-involvement have a wide latitude of non-commitment. Latitude of Non-Commitment R A

6. Key Points • People with moderate ego-involvement have a more evenly distributed latitudes. NC R A

7. Key Points • People with an open mind have a broad latitude of acceptance. R NC Latitude of Acceptance

8. Why is this important? • Because our best chance for affecting attitude shift is to present information that is as discrepant as possible with their anchor while being in their latitude of acceptance. A NC R

9. A little is better than none • An incremental change may be the best we can get at any one time, but over time we may see a more prominent shift. A NC R

10. Other Key Points • A highly credible speaker will stretch a person’s latitude of acceptance. • Focus on the other person’s point of view rather than just what you want to say. • Be satisfied with what CAN be done.

11. Cognitive Constancy Theories • Cognitive Dissonance • Balance Theory • Congruity Theory • Rokeach’s Value Theory

12. Cognitive Dissonance Theory • Based on the belief that we have a drive for lack of cognitive dissonance. • In other words, we want consistency between our beliefs and our actions. • We also want consistency between our beliefs.

13. We seek to avoid dissonance • Surround ourselves with people of the same attitudes. • Selective exposure to information that supports our beliefs.

14. What if we can’t avoid it? • If we have psychological inconsistency involving behavior, we either have to change our attitude or our behavior. • Change will occur in whichever has the weakest resistance to change.

15. Or . . . • We can trivialize or minimize the transgression (only if we have high self-esteem)

16. What if we can’t avoid it? • If we have psychological inconsistency involving cognitions, we either have to change our attitude or change the weight of one of the cognitions.

17. How does this pertain to us? • We can create dissonance to induce a behavior shift (but that does not ensure an attitude shift)

18. Other Options • We can become a credible person in a person’s life and suggest incremental change • How does this relate to Social Judgment Theory?

19. Other theories • Balance theory • Congruity Theory • Rokeach’s Value Theory