LEARNING THEORY OF ATTITUDE CHANGE
Psychologists mention three learning theories of attitude change: classical conditioning; operant conditioning; and observational learning. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian biologist, discovered classical conditioning. In an experiment with feeding a dog, he noticed an interesting fact. Whenever food was brought to a dog, its smell made the dog salivate. Here, the smell of the food is called an unconditioned stimulus. It naturally and automatically triggers salivating, and this is known as unconditioned response. Pavlov then began ringing a bell whenever the food was brought to the dog. The sound of the bell is known as the neutral stimulus. In this way, Pavlov associated a neutral stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus (smell of food).Pavlov foundthat the dogbegan to salivate at the sound of the bell even in the absence of food. Conditioning involves pairing a previously neutral stimulus (such as the sound of a bell) with an unconditioned stimulus (the taste of food). The sound of the bell is now known as the conditioned stimulus and salivating in response to the bell is known as the conditionedresponse.
Classical conditioning can be used to create positive emotional reactions to a person, object or event by associating positive feelings with the target object. Commercial advertisements use classical conditioning to create a favourable impression about a product in the minds of readers or viewers. For example, it will show popular cricket stars consuming a particular brand of soda while having fun. It influences the audience by carrying over their favourable feelings about their cricketers to the particular soda brand.
Operant conditioning is another mechanism which leads to attitude formation. Operant conditioning is also known as instrumental conditioning. B.F. Skinner coined the term operant conditioning; it means changing of behaviour by the use of reinforcement which is given after the desired response. Positive reinforcersare favourable events or outcomes that are presented after the behaviour like praise or reward. Negative reinforcers involve the removal of an unfavourable event or outcome after the display of desired behaviour. In these situations, a response is strengthened by the removal of something considered unpleasant. Both these strengthen the likelihood of behaviour in future. Punishment, on the other hand, is the presentation of an adverse event or outcome after behaviour that causes a decrease in that behaviour.
In this method, learning occurs through rewards and punishments for behaviour. Through operantconditioning,an associationis madebetweenbehaviouranda consequenceof thatbehaviour.
Behaviour which is reinforced tends to be repeated (i.e. strengthened); behaviour which is not reinforced tends to die out or be extinguished (i.e. weakened). Skinner’s theory explains how we acquire learned behaviours.
