(a) The small children in the class became noisy. The teacher tried to silence them. But they were too excited to listen to her. Then, she promises to give chocolates to students if they remain silent. They soon became silent.
(b) A dog trainer was throwing a ball and asking the dog to retrieve it. Whenever it ran promptly and retrieved the ball, he was patting it affectionately. When it was slack, he gave it cold looks and ignored it. After a long training session, the dog began to sprint immediately as soon as he threw the ball.
What according to you is the method of teaching (or learning) employed in the above examples?
1. These are common practices which teachers and trainers use based on their practical experience.
2. The examples illustrate how rewards can be used as a means of persuading trainees to change their behaviour.
3. The examples show how operant conditioning is used in training.
4. The examples illustrate how classical conditioning is used in training.
The first answer choice generally refers to common practices without identifyingthe actual methods which underlie such practices. It is not a specific answer.
The second choice is nearer to the answer, but it also fails to make a specific mention of the method.
The third answer choice is the correct one. Teachers, parents, psychologists, animal trainers and others use operant conditioning for many purposes. In this method, learning occurs through rewards and punishments for behaviour. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between behaviour and a consequence of that behaviour. Behavior which is reinforced tends to be repeated (i.e. strengthened); behavior which is not reinforced tends to die out or be extinguished (i.e. weakened).
The fourth answer choice is incorrect. As we saw earlier, in classical conditioning, the behaviour is involuntary. Classical conditioning involves making an association between an involuntary response and a stimulus, while operant conditioning is about making an association between a voluntary behavior and a consequence. In operant conditioning, the learner is rewarded with incentives. In classical conditioning, there are no rewards. In classical conditioning, the learner is passive. In operant conditioning, the learner is active and is rewarded or punished.
People form attitudes by observing people around them. People are particularly influenced by the attitudes of those whom they admire. Children observe the attitudes of their parents and imitate their ways including attitudes. Some psychologists believe that observational learning is the source of most of our attitudes.
In many commercial and administrative situations, we want to persuade people to change their attitudes, beliefs and habits. A firm which introduces a new brand of hair highlights would try to wean women away from other brands. A new Australian university may try to persuade students to join it. Governments may try to induce parents in rural areas to enrol their children in primary schools. Theories of persuasion describe the ideal means of persuading people to change their beliefs, attitudes and habits. Theory of persuasion is also known as Elaboration Likelihood theory of attitude.
This theory posits that attitudes of people on any subject can be changed by suitably communicating appropriate information to them. Many aspects are relevant in trying to persuade people to change their attitude on any subject. These are:
(i) object of the attitude i.e. thing, person, group or idea towards which an attitude is directed;
(ii) the message or information;
(iii) the manner in which it is delivered;
(iv) the messenger; and
(v) the target audience i.e. individuals whose attitudes need change.
An advertisement is a simple example of an attempt to persuade consumers to buy a particular brand of product like jeans. It shows all the above mentioned aspects of persuasion. We will now discuss the elaboration likelihood theory in detail.
Success in persuading people depends on the interplay of various aspects we mentioned above.
These are:
(i) characteristics of target audience;
(ii) characteristics of the messenger or the source of the message;
(iii) characteristics of the message; and
(iv) cognitive routes.
To change the attitude of people on any object, they have to be provided with information which they may not possess. In other words, they have to be given a message. Success of a message – which is designed to change attitudes – first of all depends on audience characteristics. It is the audience who has to receive and process the information. Their ability to do this depends on their intelligence. Researchers have studied various characteristics of audience to determine how they influence audience response to the message.
Experiments show that people with higher intelligence are unlikely to be persuaded by one- sided messages. Researchers have also studied the correlation between self-esteem of individuals and their willingness to be persuaded. The conventional view is that it is hard to persuade people with high self-esteem to accept new attitudes. But the relationship between self-esteem and willingness to change one’s attitude seems to be curvilinear, meaning thereby that individuals with average level of self-esteem are more ready to change their attitudes than those with either high self-esteem or low self-esteem. The state of mind and mood of the target audience also influence the manner in which they respond to the message.
These refer to the person who is delivering the message. The variables which determine how effective a person will be in delivering the message are his expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness to audience. The audience, in order to be convinced, have to be assured that the message is authoritative and authentic. One will be more inclined to trust information on any scientific topic if it is found in an article in Nature than if it is aired on a TV talk show. Although this trend generally holds, there can be exceptions. In this connection, psychologists mention the “the sleeper effect”, according to which the effect of telling people about the credible source of information disappears after some time. It is likely that if people know of the source of a message before hearing it, they will not overlook the fact. But “sleeper effect” may operate if they are first given the message and then informed about itssource.
Impressionable audiences are also swayed by the personality or attractiveness of the messenger.