Festinger

Question 1

Which group of participants in Festinger & Carlsmith’s (1959) forced compliance experiment enjoyed the peg-turning task the most?

Answer 1

Low payment group (£1)

Question 2

What was Festingers PHd in?

Answer 2

child behaviour

Question 3

Was Festinger originally interested in SOCIAL psychology?

Answer 3

no

Question 4

What did Festinger initially work on?

Answer 4

• Initially works on quantitative model of decision making, statistical questions, lab work with rats

Question 5

What is the propinquity effect?

Answer 5

closer you live, more likely you are to be friends

Question 6

Festinger noticed uniformity of opinions in friendship groups . What theories is this?

Answer 6

1. Social comparison theory

2. Cognitive dissonance theory

Question 7

What did Festinger suggest a subjective reality is?

Answer 7

Festinger suggested that a person’s subjective reality is dependent on the mental representations of everything around them

Question 8

What are the strategies to reduce dissonance?

Answer 8

1. Add consonant cognitions and/or make them more important
2. Subtract dissonant cognitions and/or make them less important
3. Change attitudes/behaviour
4. Avoid dissonant cognitions

Question 9

What did Festigner find dissonance with?

Answer 9

Cognition 1: The prophecy will come true

Cognition 2: The prophecy failed

Question 10

what were Festingers hypotheses?

Answer 10

1) The publicly stated belief in the prophecy will be held on to, and will increase in importance
 This will be expressed in proselytizing and recruitment of new members
2) The fact that the prophecy failed will be downplayed and “explained away”

Question 11

What was the method?

Answer 11

Festinger and colleagues decided to study the Seekers through participant observation, infiltrating the group by pretending to be new converts
Group leader: Dorothy Martin
• Festinger gave her the pseudonym Marian Keech in his publication

Question 12

how did the group react to not being lifted

Answer 12

4am- crying

4:45- Mrs Keech receiveda another message saying their faith saved the world

Question 13

What did the group do next

Answer 13

proselytize

Question 14

what does proselytize mean?

Answer 14

recruit new members

Question 15

when did the group fail

Answer 15

when recruitment failed

Question 16

What was study two on Induced Compliance

Answer 16

1) When behaviour openly contradicts a private attitude, the attitude will be changed (as it is easier to do so)
2) The need to change the attitude depends on the relevance of the behaviour-based cognition:
To the extent that the behaviour-based cognition can be explained by other factors, the need to change the attitude-based cognition is reduced

Question 17

What is the cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 17

The stronger an incentive to show counter-attitudinal behaviour, the weaker the attitude change (see Hypothesis 2)

Question 18

Reinforcement theory

Answer 18

The more a behaviour is rewarded by an incentive, the stronger the change in behaviour and attitudes.

Question 19

What was the inconsistent attitudes condition

Answer 19

Cognition 1: “This task is boring”
Participants were given an extremely tedious task. They were provided with a rectangular board with 48 wooden pieces in rows

Cognition 2: “I just told someone this is a fun and exciting task”
The experimenter tells participants that they are in the “control group” of an experiment about the effect of expectations on performance. The “experimental” group is supposedly told that the task is fun by a confederate.

Question 20

What were the rewards for the second study

Answer 20

Low reward: $1

High reward: $20

Question 21

Who investigated replicability?

Answer 21

Hardyck & Braden (1962)

Question 22

What did Hardyck and Braden find?

Answer 22

Prophecy of nuclear devastation, with specific prophecy of event in 1962
• 29 families (135 people) built shelters and stayed underground for 42 days
In response to the failed prophecy:
• They changed the meaning of the prophecy to accommodate reality
• But: They did not proselytize. Why?

Question 23

What did follow up research find about the drive-like state?

Answer 23

• Physiological changes (e.g., EEG, SCR) and psychological discomfort produced by counter-attitudinal statements can be measured
• It is possible to increase (or decrease) dissonance through drugs that increase (or decrease) arousal (Cooper et al., 1978)
• Dissonance-produced attitude change can be eliminated by getting people to misattribute their arousal (Zanna & Cooper, 1974)

Question 24

what are the necessary conditions for attitudes to change after counter-attitudinal behaviour:

Answer 24

1. People need to believe they had the choice to engage in the counter-attitudinal behaviour (Linder et al., 1987)
2. The behaviour needs to have consequences (e.g., Cooper & Worchel, 1970)

Question 25

what did Aronson conclude?

Answer 25

• Dissonance occurs when one’s self-esteem has been threatened by inconsistent cognitions

Question 26

how did festinger impact effort justification?

Answer 26

• Aronson & Mills (1959) found that people like a group more the more they suffer to join it (e.g., hazing, initiation rites)
 Application in Therapy
Effort expenditure predicts therapeutic change

Question 27

how did festinger impact post-decision dissonance?

Answer 27

• Brehm (1956) gave a group of women free choice of what appliance to take home as a gift – the one chosen was evaluated higher and those not chosen evaluated lower compared with the pre-choice evaluation
 Application in Marketing
Providing customers with consonant information and helping them to undermine dissonant information can increase purchase satisfaction

Question 28

how did festinger impact forbidden toy paradigm>

Answer 28

• Aronson & Carlsmith (1962) found that children devalued an attractive toy if they refrained from playing with it after receiving a low threat vs a high threat of punishment for playing with that toy
 Application in Education
Mild punishment can be more effective than harsh punishment