SPC EXAM 2

the _____ and ____ information we collect changes over time as our interpersonal relationships change

amount and type

Cognitive dissonance "feels" like

an amalgamation of physiological arousal, negative affect and mental anguish

Buyers Remorse

the dissonance we experience after making a larger purchase and the steps taken to justify our actions

Social distance

4-12 ft -casual/social settings

Intimate distance

0-18 inches -intimate relationships

We cannot directly observe __________

attitudes

Incentive Value:

motivation to reduce uncertainty will increase if one participant has the potential to reward the other

Theorems of Uncertainty Reduction Theory

-An important thing that URT theorems are trying to do is show relationships between the different axioms

axioms associated with uncertainty reduction theory

-As the amount of Verbal Communication Increases, the level of uncertainty experienced by each participant decreases -As nonverbal warmth increases, uncertainty decreases (which promotes more nonverbal warmth) -High levels of uncertainty cause increases in information-seeking behavior (and vice versa) -High levels of uncertainty decrease the level of intimacy in a relationship (and vice versa) -High levels of uncertainty produce high levels of reciprocity (and vice versa) -Similarities between people decrease uncertainty and dissimilarities increase uncertainty -Increases in uncertainty produce decreases in how much you like the other person (and vice versa)

Assumptions of Uncertainty Reduction Theory

-Uncertainty happens in interpersonal situations due to differing expectations -Uncertainty is stressful and uses a lot of our cognitive energy -People meeting for the first time both want to reduce uncertainty and increase predictability -Interpersonal relationships go through a three step developmental process with an Entry Phase, Personal Phase, & Exit Phase WHICH DIFFER in order and length of time depending on the participants

7 concepts relating to uncertainty

-Verbal output (what is said) -Nonverbal warmth (how we respond physically to a person) -Information seeking (how we collect info) -Self-disclosure (how much personal info we reveal to another) -Reciprocity of disclosure (how much info we reveal in response to the self-disclosure of someone) -Similarity (how alike we perceive ourselves to be to someone) -Liking (affinity towards the other person)

expectancies

-are the cognitions and behaviors that we think will happen in conversations/interactions with others and include verbal and non-verbal behavior -are a result of social norms, stereotypes, gossip (hearsay), and individual idiosyncrasies

Examples to reduce dissonance

-change your attitude -add consonant conditions -derogate the unchosen alternative (its better than...) -spread apart the alternatives (prior evaluation of options was close, in order to make yourself feel "better" you raise the evaluation -alter the importance of the cognitive elements (trivilize the movie choice to make it unimportant) -suppress thoughts (denial) -communicate (use conversation to help bolster your decision) -alter the behavior (leave crappy movie)

Criticisms of cognitive dissonance theory

-dissonance as the core concept is lacking (what is it) -seld concept interpres with dissonance -lack of practival utility -testability issues: hard to disprove

Strengths of cognitive dissonance theory

-heuristic value: ton of research -offers insight into the relationship between attitudes, cognitions, affect and behavior -broad scope

People make predictions about non verbal behavior

-nonverbal behavior is ambiguous and can be interpreted in many different ways, so it is important to understand that our predictions/evaluations (often based on attractiveness, posture, personal space, etc.) may be inaccurate

Basic premise of EVT is that people in general have certain expecations about the behavior (verbal and nonverberal of others)

-not only examines these expectations, but also examines what happens when verbal and nonverbal expectations are violated

The two types of expectancies are

-preinteractional (potential to interact) and interactional (actually performing interaction) -cultural background also has an influence on what our expectations are and how we believe we should act

Four Assumptions of Cognitive Dissonance Theory

1. Humans want consistency between thoughts and beliefs (aspect of human behavior- smoking in spite of the knowledge that it causes cancer) 2. Dissonance is created by psychological inconsistencies (as opposed to logical inconsistencies- we want best for earth but dont recycle because logically you alone cant make a difference or believe its important to give back to community and the charity you work doesnt do anything causing you to be psychologically uncomfortable) which arouse cognitive dissonance 3. Dissonance is cognitively uncomfortable 4. We are psychologically drive to reduce dissonance

Principles of Consistency Theories

1. The mind operates as an intermediary between stimulus and response. 2. When people receive information (a stimulus), their minds organize it into a pattern with other previously encountered stimuli. If the new stimulus does not fit the pattern or is inconsistent, then people will feel discomfort. As a result, they will then take steps to reduce the discomfort

Burgoon emphasizes that humans have two competing needs when it comes to space

1. affiliation 2. personal space

Three factors that influence Magnitude of Dissonance

1. how important the issue/event is 2. the dissonance ratio: the number of dissonant vs consonant feelings you have about an issue/event 3. the strength of reasoning used to justify the discrepancy between dissonant/consonant feelings

Territoriality is frequently accompanied by two behaviors

1. prevention 2. reaction

Four basic ways to avoid information that increases dissonance

1. selective exposure 2. selective attention 3. selective interpretation 4. selective retention

Two criteria for CDT crituqued

1. theory does not possess a high degree of practical utlity, because CDt offers mulitple ways to reduce dissonance, the theory is not able to predict outcomes with any degree of precision 2. it is difficult to disprove the theory (is the dissonance not strong enough to make an action happen or is the theory wrong?)

Public distance

12 ft and beyond -formal meetings/discussions

Personal distance

18 in- 4 ft -family and close friends

Out of these Axioms, ____ DIFFERENT theoretical statements which explain the uncertainty reduction process can be created

21

Axiom 9 (proposed):

As individuals reduce uncertainty in an initial encounter, they experience more satisfaction from the interaction than if the uncertainty remained at a high level.

Three Types of Cognitive Relationships

Consonant Relationship Dissonant Relationship Irrelevant Relationship

Selective attention

paying attention to information that is consonant with attitudes beliefs

Magnitude of Dissonance

How strong your feelings of dissonance are will influence what you do to reduce those icky feelings you have about your friend becoming a Gator -quantitative amount of dissonance a person experiences -will determine actions people mat take and cognitions they espouse to reduce dissonance

Edward Hall

Personal space - identified four primary zones of personal space in North American culture

Proactive processes

The attempts we make to reduce uncertainty before we engage ourselves in a communication episode

Axiom 8:

Uncertainty is negatively related to interaction with social networks

Expectancy Violations Theory

a means of examining the influence that nonverbal communication has on message production.. in fact the theory was initially called "nonverbal expectancy violations theory" -nonverbal was dropped to include all types of behaviors that violate expectations

Several ways to reduce dissonance

a. an individual can add or subtract cognitions to change the ratio of consonant to dissonant cognitions b. an individual might try to reduce the importance of the dissonant cognitions c. an individual might distort information or stimuli to fit original beliefs in an effort to reduce dissonance

primary territories

are the exclusive domain of an individual and are usually marked to indicate ownership -initialed drews towel

Janis and Gilmore- biased scanning

argue that when individuals participate in an inconsistency, such as arguing a position they do not believe in , they become motivated to think up all the arguments in favor of the position while suppressing all the arguments against it -this process should increase the chances of accepting the new position

Self affirmation- Steele

argues that dissonance is the result of behaving in a manner that threatens ones sense of moral integrity

Dissonance can be reduced through both

behavioral and attitudinal changes

Reaction

behaviors are usually the resulting response to an attempt to prevent access to an object or area

Prevention

behaviors are warnings used to prevent other people or groups from invading a territory or territories and can include offensive displays as well as markers or symbols ex: gangs and graffiti

Cognitive Relationship: Irrelevant Relationship

beliefs and behaviors do not relate

Confidence in your decision

bettors were asked how confident they were about the horse they bet on directly after placing the bet; the more confident after than before

Cooper and Fazio- conceptual fuzziness

concept of dissonance is confounded by self concept or impression management -activities people engage in to look good to themselves and others

arousal refers to the

consequences associated with deviations from expected behavior - it cause a person to focus more on the source of the behavior than the behavior itself (a.k.a. orienting response) -arousal can be cognitive (awareness of a violation) or physical (e.g., moving away from the source of the violation)

Leon Festinger

creator of cognitive dissonance theory

High levels of uncertainty

decrease the level of intimacy in a relationship (and vice versa)

Similarities between people

decrease uncertainty and dissimilarities increase uncertainty

Increases in uncertainty produce

decreases in how much you like the other person (and vice versa)

Aversive Dissonance is actually a

drive state that possesses arousal properties. A drive state is a situation that causes a reaction-in this case physiological arousal or tension

Judee Burgoon

expectancy violations theory

Deviation from Expectations:

expected behavior reduces the desire to alleviate uncertainty, while unexpected behavior increases it.

Cognitive Dissonance

feeling of imbalance, where we do or say or think things that don't fit (are dissonant) with our established beliefs, opinions or values and we become uncomfortable as a result -in order to lessen the uncomfortable feelings that dissonance produces, we are driven to reduce (or eliminate) dissonance

Anticipation for future Interactions:

greater likelihood of future interactions increases the desire to reduce uncertainty in an initial interaction

High levels of uncertainty produce

high levels of reciprocity (and vice versa)

expectancies drive

human interactions

uncertainty reduction theory

in order to explain how we use communication (both verbal and nonverbal) as a tool to find out information about others in order to feel comfortable in our daily interactions -because we want to be able to anticipate or predict what others do or say in order to understand our interactions with them

Even though the information we process relates in some way to information stored in our minds, it is _________ with the pattern (attitude) we already created

inconsistent

High levels of uncertainty cause

increases in information-seeking behavior (and vice versa)

public territoires

involve no personal affiliations and include those areas that are open to all people

personal space

is the "invisible. variable volume of space surrounding an individual which defines that individual's preferred distance from others

threat threshold

is the distance at which you feel uncomfortable (physically and psychologically) in the presence of someone who has violated your expectations --threats normally occur after arousal (awareness) to/of an expectancy violation and are usually associated with distance expectancy violations

One of the core principles of Cognitive Dissonance Theory

is the inner motivation to eliminate dissonance -can result in behavior and attitude change

Reward valence

is the positive or negative characteristics that an indivudual brings to an interaction -when people deviate from expected behavior, the evaluation of that behavior is adjusted by their reward value value (the perception that someone may reward or punish you in the future because of your behavior)

Doomsday cults

leaders used selective interpretation to justify why their predictions didnt come true in order to reduce the dissonance of followers and reenergize the zeal of followers

Heider's Balance Theory

looks at cognitive elements of relationships (among other things) and the attitudes/evaluations that are attached to these relationships (P) Person or perceiver (O) another person (X) an issue -premise that people prefer a balanced relationship between P, O & X (regardless of whether it is positive or negatively evaluated)

Attitude

manner, disposition, feeling or position one holds with regard to a person or thing; a tendency or orientation, especially of the mind

a behavior performed by a high-reward source may be interpreted as positive, while the same behavior performed by a low-reward source could be considered _________

negative

Cognitive Relationship: Consonant Relationship

our beliefs and behaviors coincide

Cognitive Relationship: Dissonant Relationship

our beliefs do not fit with our behaviors

Axioms (covering laws that are genereliziable) help us

predict what will happen during the uncertainty reduction process

Bern- self perception and CDT

rather than dissonance in cognitions operating to change people, self perception was at work -people draw conclusions about their own attitudes the same way others do by observing their behavior -it is not necessary to speculate about the degree of cognitive dissonance a person feels because people only need to observe what they are doing to calculate what their attitudes must be

Territoriality

refers to a persons ownership of an area or object

affiliation

refers to need to belong to a group

Selective Retention

remembering and learning consonant information more easily than dissonant information ex: couple arguing about vacation remembers details for their idea more than the other

critique of expectancy violation theory

scope and boundaries -wide scope that encompasses a variety of behaviors, but originally grounded in the notion of personal space clarity -concepts can be difficult to distinguish in terms of measurement and testability has practical value in society

Selective exposure

seeking out info that is consonant (consistent) with existing beliefs/attitudes helps us avoid and reduce dissonance

secondary territories

signal some sort of personal connection with an area or object -while they are not exclusive to an individual the person does identify with them

Critical strengths of CDT

some scholars beleie CDt is generally useful and explanatory but need some refinements -Wicklund and Brehm argue that CDT isnt clear enough about the conditions under which dissonance leads to change in attitudes -they believe that choice is missing concept in the theory offers insight into the relationship among attitudes, cognitions affect, and behaviors -littlejohn says most significant theory in social psychology -perloff notes is basis -harmon jones will yiels rich insights in future

Selective interpretation

taking ambiguous information and molding it to fit your needs and increase consonance -Berschedi and Walster -leads most people to interpret close friends attitudes are more congruent with their own than is actually true -Showalter discusses the seeming inconsistency of being a feminist critic while also loving to shop and wear feminine clothing -used to avoid dissonance

Prior Conditions (antecedents)

that often exist as we seek to reduce uncertainty

Prediction is

the ability to foresee our (and others) behavior

Explanation is

the ability to understand these behaviors

Types of uncertainty: behavioral

the level of predictability that we have for potential behaviors in a given situation

As the amount of Verbal Communication Increases,

the level of uncertainty experienced by each participant decreases

Uncertainty occurs when

the number of potential different behaviors is high and there is not enough information to determine how people will act/react in a given situation so anything could happen

violation valence

the positive or negative evaluation of an expectancy violation - violation valences are often hard to judge and occur on a positive/negative continuum - sometimes we use reward valence as a tool to help us decide the violation valence: -if we like the person the violation is evaluated positively, if we don't like the person the violation is evaluated negatively

Proxemics

the use of personal space and distance in conversations in EVT

Consistency Theories

theories that deal with how our mind processes and/or categorizes information (stimuli)

Altman

three types of territories -primary, secondary, public

the only way to reduce uncertainty is

to obtain information through verbal/nonverabl interaction

Retroactive processes

trying to make sense out of episodes that have already occurred -retrospective analysis of a situtation

Types of uncertainty: Cognitive

uncertainty associated with beliefs and attitudes that we (and others) hold

As nonverbal warmth increases

uncertainty decreases (which promotes more nonverbal warmth)

Berger and Calabrese

uncertainty reduction theory

Minimal Justification

using the least amount of effort/incentive to achieve the greatest result -festinger/carlsmith -participants were asked to do a very boring task offered $1 and some $20 to convince next participant it was fun -after it was over those paid $20 admitted how boring it was -those paid $1 expereinced cd and had to convince themselves that it was fun

Expectancies are learned

we learn behaviors from society in general and from individuals we encounter in various social situations - it is important to recognize and understand what we know about others and how we have interacted with these others in the past because it informs our expectations for future interactions