Developmental psychology.pdf

Social Behavior 491
Figure 18.3
Pupil Size and Attitude. When
choosing between these, most
people select the photo showing the
smile and dilated pupils, both
suggesting that the woman has a
positive attitude toward the viewer.
The Consistency Principle
A person's attitudes are generally consistent with one another, despite Ralph Waldo
Emerson's remark that consistency is "the hobgoblin of little minds." According to the
consistency principle, most of us develop and maintain attitudes that are in agreement
with one another, and several theories of attitude formation and change have been
based on this principle.
The authoritarian personality offers one such example. Archie Bunker's hardheadedness,
prejudice, cynicism, and concern with power are consistent with one another.
This cluster of attitudes is not compatible with intraception, which is the desire
for self-awareness and broad consciousness. Archie's personality is characterized instead
by an anti-intraceptive attitude, which is an attitude against subjectivity, imagination,
and "tender-minded" phenomena. Such awareness is presumably threatening
to the authoritarian outlook.
Early Viewpoints Among the theories of attitude consistency, the earliest is called
balance theory because it stresses that individuals seek a balanced or harmonious state
among their attitudes. If the man with the briefcase and the woman with frosted hair
are beginning to like each other and both are liberals politically, there are positive
relationships all around, and a balanced state exists. If they are developing a fondness
for each other and neither one wants gun control laws, a balanced state still exists, for
they like each other and dislike the same thing (Figure 18.4).
UberafQolltics.
Gun control
Figure 18.4
Attitude Balance. The man and
woman like each other, are liberal in
politics, and favor gun control.
Wbttian
Man
Woman •:•". • +