Developmental psychology.pdf

556 Psychology and Society
Figure 20.16
Participation and Motivation. y he
amount of employee participation in
decision making is directly related to
production (Coch & French, 1948).
1011 15 20 25
Days of work
35 40
*My father decided it was time
to buy a new car. When he went to
shop he chose the largest and
safest vehicle in the lot. With this in
mind, he came home. A day or so
later the entire family went out to
have a ride in the old car. As usual,
we nad not gone very far when
some of us five kids in the back
seat started fighting and
complaining about not having
enough leg room and about how
small the car was.
Then my father announced that
he was tired of all our complaints
and proceeded to drive to a new
car lot. He told us to stick together
and try every back seat of every
car until we found the one with the
most room. Then we would buy it.
Needless to say, we eventually
came to the big car, and after a
period of trial-and-error decided
that it was the best car for us. He
even questioned each of us
individually in order to make sure.
Then he called over a salesman
and said he wanted to buy it.
My father had already made his
decision, but we were led to believe
that we, the children, chose the car,
and after we had that car we were
much quieter in the back seat. Part
of the reason was that the space
was bigger, but part also, I am
sure, was due to the fact that we
had chosen the car ourselves.
Occasionally, when riding in it one
of us would start bickering again.
Dad would remind us that we chose
the car and that usually ended
further complaints. Even as we
grew more and required more
room, we still did not complain very
much.
In other words, a two-sided presentation, in which the speaker discusses both
the pros and cons of an issue, is the most effective method, useful for attitude formation
and change. It can also provide ideological immunization, meaning protection against
later exposure to opposing viewpoints, in this case viewpoint B. People can be innoculated
against psychological as well as physical conditions. This approach appears
most important with audiences of high intelligence (McGuire, 1964).
Lecture versus Discussion When the United States was faced with World War
II, there was a need for communication of all sorts in order to mobilize fully against
the opposition. There were campaigns for gasoline rationing, the use of certain foods,
reduction in expenditures of electric energy, and so forth; one effort attempted to induce
the public to buy sweetbreads and similar products, in view of the shortage of other
foods. In some of these campaigns the audience listened to lectures. In others, the
audience was involved in group discussions about the problems they might experience
using these foods and how they might overcome them. After a series of such
presentations, the investigators assessed the effectiveness of the two presentations. It
was found that the discussion method was much superior in precipitating a change in
attitude and behavior. Similar findings have been obtained in industrial and school
settings (Lewin, 1947; Coch & French, 1948; Conte, Brandzel, & Whitehead, 1974;
Clark & Powell, 1984; Figure 20.16).*
The superiority of group discussion is attributed to the individual involvement
as compared with the relative passivity of lectures. However, discussion should not
necessarily replace lectures in a classroom, even if it were practical. The lecture method
is considerably more efficient for providing detailed or technical information to large
groups of people.
Perceived Intention Still another issue is related to our first point, the credibility
of the source, but it is somewhat more subtle. It concerns the motive or aim that the
audience imputes to the communicator, known as the perceived intention. What is the
communicator's purpose in presenting the message?
This question can be answered most readily by referring to an example from
the health field again. In this instance, some college students toured a psychology laboratory
and "accidentally" overheard a conversation concerning misconceptions on
smoking. Actually, it was intended that they hear it. Other students listened to the
same recorded conversation as a formal audience, under the conditions of a regular
lecture. Analysis of the subjects' attitudes one week later showed that both communications
were persuasive, but the difference was clearly in favor of the "overheard"