W1 Readings: B&B Ch. 1, 4 Flashcards
Cicero wrote several books on:
rhetoric or persuasion
“persuader”
source who creates short persuasive messages
“audience”
target of the messages from the other person; the group of people who can help us achieve our goal
“apathy”
ignoring your wants, needs, and desires and hoping that someone else will notice what you secretly want and spontaneously do it. Usually counter-productive
“coercion”
using force, violence, or threats to get your own way
“persuasion”
a process in which a source (persuader) uses a message to achieve a goal by creating, changing, or reinforcing the attitudes of others (the audience).
4 components of persuasion
1) goal-directed
2) is a process
3) involves people
4) can create, change, or reinforce attitudes
“attitude”
a cognition (thought/mental construct) which is developed through experience, is evaluative, and influences our behavior. They influence our behavior
“belief”
a description of the world and of the people, places, things, and relationships in it
“values”
judgments of worth. Are subjective and are neither true nor false
T or F: when you change someone’s attitude, you can try to change either the belief or the value but not both
T
T or F: most attitudes are made up of a collection of belief/value pairs
T
the more a person knows about an attitude….
the more difficult it is to create a substantial change in their attitude
3 possible purposes of persuasive messages:
1) reinforce the audience’s attitudes and/or behavior
2) create audience attitudes and/or behavior
3) change the audience’s attitude and/or behavior
“resistance”
a form of reinforcement in which you attempt to strengthen existing attitudes so that they will resist persuasive messages from others which try to change those attitudes.
Inoculation Theory
(McGuire) discusses how messages which refute opposing ideas and arguments can inoculate an audience being “infected” with a contrary persuasive message
the fundamental assumption of persuasion
if a message changes your attitudes, your new attitudes in turn will influence your behavior
the more relevant an attitude appears to the behavior, the more/less likely that attitude will influence or predict the behavior
more
“high self-monitor”
person highly aware of social norms and believe it is important to comply with them whenever possible.
“low self-monitor”
do what they want, regardless of what others expect or how they might act. Aka “non-conformist”
volitional control refers to
the extent to which a behavior is “voluntary” in the sense of being controlled by one’s will; the ability to control our behavior
audience standards
a situational factor which influences ethical judgments about the context by assessing the expectations or norms which govern a particular situation
audience’s goals and values
in the situational perspective, this is an aspect of the situation which describes the important objectives and ideals in making ethical judgments
degree of audience awareness
an aspect of the situation which can influence ethical judgments and describe an audience’s knowledge of persuasive strategies and of the topic
degree of urgency
in the situational perspective, a sense of the immediacy for action is an aspect of the context that can influence ethical judgments
dialogical perspective on ethics
an ethical perspective with indicates that decisions or actions should involve the characteristics of a dialogue, for instance mutual control and allowing the participants to realize their potential
ethical issues
situations in which an ethical questions about what ought to be done will occur
ethics of justice
the position that ethics is determined by equality and fairness
ethics of care
the position that ethics is determined by compassion, situation, and inter-dependence of individuals
ethics
the study of laws, rules, and guidelines that establish the right and wrong human behavior
human nature perspective ethics
an ethical perspective which indicates that decisions or actions that enhance the essence of being human are ethical
ideal dialogue
an honest, confirming, supportive, and empathetic active interaction with another person; require the full concentration of the participants and equality
legal perspective on ethics
an ethical perspective which determines whether a given action or decision is ethical by assessing whether it meets legal rules and principles
role of the communicator
in the situational perspective, this is a situational factor which can influence ethical judgments and describes the part of character assumed by the communicator
situational perspective on ethics
an ethical perspective which indicates that an action or decision is ethical by considering the relevant aspects of the situation; aka “relativism” because whether an action is ethical is relative to the situation
utilitarian perspective on ethics
an ethical perspective which assesses the rightness or wrongness of an action by examining the consequences of the behavior; outcomes for majority are valued; harm is not minimized for those in the minority
ethical perspectives most relevant for persuasion
the human nature, dialogical, the utilitarian, the situational the legal, and the feminist
mutual control
persuasion process is not passive; the persuader is willing to be persuaded
5 factors that influence ethical judgments
1) role of communicator
2) audience standards for ethical communication
3) degree of audience awareness
4) degree of urgency
5) audience goals and values
major criticism of situational perspective on ethics
it endorses an individualized ethics “I’ll do what’s best for me, you do what’s best for you”
feminist perspective on ethics
there are 2 different and valuable voices in the moral development of adults in our society: male and female voice
male voice
reflects ethics of justice. Rule-centered, rational
female voice
reflects ethics of care. Relationships, interdependence, compassion, sense of nurture
