Predict human behaviour Essay

Dissonance possible action gives that we have these inconsistencies and fundamentally expresss as humans we strive to smooth out any inconsistencies. This theory is best explained with an example jennet works everyday but today her sister is going shopping and has asked jenny ass if she would like to come. Jenny should go to work and does. Jennys knowledge that she is missing out on the shopping sparkle is known as a dissonant acquaintance, whereas the knowledge that she has come to work and is earning some money is a concurring(a) cognition. Her noise will increase even more(prenominal) if the trip is to an out-of-town shopping Gordian as opposed to the small local centre.Individuals do not want to have dissonant cognition therefore try to reduce it. Jenny can do this in a number of ship focus firstly, she can keep telling herself about the extra money she is earning and perhaps convince herself that she had a agreeable day at work. She could also reduce the dissonant co gnition by telling herself she would have just now spent money on things she cannot afford and doesnt really need. Consonant cognitions justify a psyches elect action and the greater the benefit of something, the greater the justification and the lower the state of dissonance.If however the benefit of the consonant cognition is only small then the dissonance will increase. Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) tested this theory by getting subjects to perform really dull tasks for an hour then asked them to tell the next subjects that the tasks were rather interesting. Subjects were offered either $20 or $1 for cunning. Festinger and Carlsmith were interested in how the subjects felt after telling the lie. According to dissonance theory their feelings should depend on the quantity of money they were paid. Subjects receiving $20 should feel little dissonance because the larger amount of money justifies lying.The subjects who received $1 should feel greater dissonance because the money didnt justify lying and these subjects would try and convince themselves the task was in fact quite enjoyable, in order to reduce dissonance. Festinger and Carlsmith constitute subjects in the $1 condition reported a more favourable attitude towards the task, which is consistent with the cowcatcher predictions. Bem (1967) suggested that a persons demeanor is what shapes their attitude, for example (to quote Bem) since I eat brown staff of life then I must like brown bread.This logic could be linked with Festinger and Carlsmiths study because if the second lot of subjects were told the tasks were interesting then they would take this opinion on board and very find the tasks interesting. Assimilation-Contrast Theory (Sherif and Hovland, 1961), this suggests we people favour their own attitudes and if a person comes across another person with an attitude relatively close to their own then they perceive it to resemble their own attitude more than it actually does (this is the assimi lation part of the theory) and they will evaluate it in a more positive way by seeing it as fair.Basically this suggests people are biased when it comes to their attitudes because people will accept anything that resembles a similar attitude to their own. Attitudes which had less in common with their attitudes would be rejected and seen as cheating(prenominal) (this is the contrast part of the theory). This is mainly because assimilating attitudes is frequently easier than trying to accommodate new attitudes.The theory of reason out behaviour (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) suggests that subjective norms (which are beliefs about what is appropriate behaviour in a situation) and attitude towards the behaviour (based on expectancies and values) suggest a behavioural intention which then predicts behaviour. The definition of attitude and intention in this context is very similar and doesnt define in strong enough terms on the dot what the intentions derived are. All this evidence shows varying approaches towards the attitude-behaviour link, some in support of attitude predicting behaviour and some against it.To say that attitude has three main parts which are highly correlated draws up too more contradictions to conclude it as the best theory, the single model provides more scope to address these contradictions but dissonance theory which suggest we will have inconsistencies and will just strive to balance them is a much more realistic proposal of how attitude links with and predicts behaviour. The evidence shows that there is a link amidst attitude and how it can predict behaviour but it is not to the extent that you can say it predicts a persons behaviour every time in all situations.References* McDougall, W. (1960) an introduction to social psychology 23rd ed. London New York. Methuen, Barnes & Noble.* Mills, J. (1969) experimental social psychology. New York London. MacMillan, Collier-Macmillan* Ajzen, I. (1980) Does understanding a persons attitude divine service us to predict their behaviour?