Chapter 4: Coping, Loss, & Grief PART TWO ● Remember “bereavement overload” from earlier in the lecture ● Risks of dying ○ People tend to overestimate the risk of death from sensational causes & underestimate the risk of death from more common causes ■ Availability heuristic = sensational or commonly encountered examples stand out in our minds ■ Newspapers have 3 times as many articles about death from homicide than death from disease, yet diseases kill 100 times as many people! ● Leading causes of death ○ 1990 ■ Pneumonia 11.8% ■ Tuberculosis 11.3% ■ Diarrhea/enteritis 8.3% ■ Heart disease 6.2% ○ 2005 ■ Heart disease 26.6% ■ Cancer 22.8% ■ Stroke 5.9% ■ Chronic lower respiratory disease 5.3% ■ Unintentional injuries 4.8% ○ 2020 ■ Heart disease ■ Cancer ■ COVID-19 ■ Accidents (unintentional injuries) ● Causes of death by age ○ 10-14 years old ■ Accidents 25.8% ■ Suicide 17.0% ■ Cancer 12.0% ■ Homicide 8.4% ○ 15-24 years old ■ Accidents 42.2% ■ Homicide 18.1% ■ Suicide 16.9% ■ Cancer 3.6% ○ 25-34 years old ■ Accidents 42.6% ● ● ● ● ● ■ Suicide 11.5% ■ Homicide 9.7% ■ Heart Disease 5.4% ○ 35-44 years old ■ Accidents 29.7% ■ Heart Disease 11.7% ■ Cancer 10.3% ■ Suicide 7.0% Death in perspective ○ 1900: More than 50% of all deaths were children ○ who died early from disease & hunger ○ 1955: Life expectancy was 48 years ○ 1995: Life expectancy was 65 years ○ 2005: Life expectancy was ~78 years ○ 2010: Life expectancy going down for the first time since the Spanish influenza of 1918 (Frazier, 2010) ■ Major culprits = increasing rates of obesity and diabetes Absent grief, chronic grief, common grief and research on widowed individuals (page 134 of the textbook) Awareness of death ○ People in their 20s are the most fearful of death. ○ Older people are less fearful of death than other age groups ○ People in all age groups may be more afraid of the process of dying than death itself ○ Near-death experiences help people to become less fearful of death and more concerned with loving & valuing lif The experience of dying ○ Definition = the sequence of physiological and psychological changes experienced by individuals who are dying ○ Many people have never been in the presence of someone who is dying ■ American culture tends to hide & sterilize death ● Let’s think critically about and discuss funerals & death in American culture (our death system; Kastenbaum, 2001) ■ Funerals are the 4th largest consumer purchase for Americans (after house, car, & wedding) ● We spend $ to sanitize death ○ “The conspiracy of concealment” ■ It is better for medical professionals to be direct and honest with patients about a terminal prognosis (Barnett, 2006) Kubler-Ross Stages (The process of dying) ○ Stage 1: Denial ■ Denial, shock, and disbelief are initial reactions to impending death ■ Few patients maintain denial ○ Stage 2: Anger ■ Patients become nasty, demanding, difficult, and hostile ● Anecdote about my grandmother before her death ■ Asking & resolving “Why me?” can reduce resentment ○ Stage 3: Bargaining ■ Patient wants more time & wants to postpone death ○ Stage 4: Depression ■ Preparatory grief = the sadness of anticipating an impending loss ■ A signal that the acceptance process has really begun ○ Stage 5: Acceptance ■ The patient has stopped fighting the inevitable and is ready to die ■ A feeling that the patient has taken care of unfinished business ■ Patients want to be in the presence of loved ones ● Definitions ○ Bereavement = the process of adjusting to the experience of loss, especially to the death of friends or loved ones ■ The overall experience of loss ○ Grief = the intense emotional suffering that accompanies our experience of loss ○ Mourning = the outward expressions of bereavement and grief ■ In modern society, the bereaved are expected to resume their usual dress and activities as soon as possible ● Bowlby’s Stages (The Grieving Process) ○ Stage 1: Numbness ■ Survivors are dazed and confused ■ Physical reactions ● Nausea, tightness in the chest ■ May last several days or several weeks ○ Stage 2: Yearning ■ Survivors try to recover the lost person ■ Frustration, anger, & guilt ■ Intense feelings of sadness; crying ■ Loss of appetite & insomnia ○ Stage 3: Disorganization & Despair ■ Loss is accepted ■ Feelings of helplessness, despair, & depression ■ Extreme fatigue; hypersomnia (sleeping too much) ○ Stage 4: Reorganization ■ Resume normal routines ■ Feelings are no longer overwhelming ● Grief Work ○ Definition = the healthy (and normal) process of working through the emotions associated with loss, readjusting to life without the person, resuming ordinary activities, & forming new relationships ○ Grief is associated with ↑ health problems and ↑ likelihood of the griever’s own death ○ Most common symptoms of grief: ■ Crying, depressed feelings, lack of appetite, difficulty concentrating ○ Grief work involves reflecting on the person who died & the meanings and anticipated changes for the bereaved ○ It typically takes ~1 year to go through grief work ■ Most intense negative emotions peak by 6 months after the loss ● Tips for Coping With Grief 1. Seek support a. People who live alone have the most difficulty working through grief b. Social support is associated with lower depression & faster recovery (Stroebe et al., 2005; Caserta & Lund, 1992) 2. Care for your own emotional needs while grieving a. Own the fact that you need time & space 3. Care for your own physical needs while grieving a. Make sure you sleep & eat regularly b. Sheer physical activity can be helpful 4. Be aware of and plan for grief triggers a. Anniversaries are particularly difficult ● The Hospice Movement ○ Hospice = A system of care that integrates a physical facility for the terminally ill with the patient’s family and home to enable the patient to die with dignity ○ Hospice movement is likely to expand ■ Rising elderly population (Baby Boomers retiring) ■ Rising costs of hospitalization ○ Physicians typically wait too long before referring patients to hospice programs (Shockett et al., 2005) ■ Median hospice stay = 20 days ○ Health care professionals may be reluctant to discuss end of life issues with families and patients (Parker et al., 2007) ■ Remember “the culture of concealment” Adjusting to Chronic Illness lecture ● The Elderly and Abuse ○ Physical abuse in relationships peaks around age 32 and then starts to decline (Mezey et al., 2002) ○ However, psychological abuse may actually escalate with age (Zink et al., 2006) ○ Psychological abuse may have a stronger impact on health and wellbeing (Lazenblatt et al., 2013) ○ Yon et al. (2017) found that 15.7% of elderly participants in their meta-analysis reported experiencing some form of abuse, with 11.6% reporting psychological abuse ● Gaslighting and DARVO ○ Deny ■ Deny victim’s assertion of hurtful, deceptive, or manipulative behavior ○ Accuse/Attack ■ Accuse the victim of being the aggressor and/or attacking the victim’s character ○ Reverse Victim & Offender ■ Abuser claiming that the victim is the one targeting them ● “Whataboutism” ● The Rising Elderly Population ○ 8.5% of the world’s population is over age 65 For the first time in human history, elderly individuals (65+) outnumber children under 6 years of age ○ Getting old doesn’t have to suck… ■ Older adults tend to be more optimistic than younger adults. ■ Emotional well-being tends to improve as we age (Charles & Carstensen, 2010). ● Overarching messages ○ The importance of finding hope in the face of hopelessness ○ The power of psychological factors when coping with adversity ■ Our subjective construal of adversity determines how we deal with adversity ● Common Elements ● Need for emotional & physical adjustment ○ Coping with feelings surrounding the illness and figuring out a new way to navigate one’s life ● Disruption of family dynamics ○ Elder care is a huge issue in America right now ● Need for continued medical care ○ From one’s family, medical professionals, or both ● Necessity of self-management ○ What can the inflicted person do to minimize impact on his or her quality of life? ● The Impact of Chronic Illness ○ Characteristics of the disease ■ Rapidity of progress (prognosis? amount of time?) ■ Severity of symptoms (impact on functioning?) ○ Characteristics of the individual ■ Dispositional optimism ■ Coping strategies ○ Characteristics of the person’s social environment ■ Level and quality of support (supportive vs. toxic family) ● Impact on the Patient ○ Dealing with symptoms ○ Managing stresses of treatment ○ Living as normal a life as possible (continuing to do things you enjoy) ■ Trying to maintain quality of life ○ Facing the possibility of death ■ Remember Kubler-Ross’s stages ○ Quality of life may be affected less than healthy people realize ■ People report levels of functioning similar to healthy individuals for these conditions: ● Hypertension ● Diabetes ● Asthma ■ People with these conditions report lower quality of life than those with no chronic illness: ● Heart disease ● Cancer ● Rheumatoid arthritis ○ Psychological functioning is most related to quality of life ■ The importance of adaptation & coping ● Using a variety of coping strategies is important ■ Active coping strategies produce better results than passive strategies (in most instances) ■ The helpfulness of support groups (mothers in Stress documentary) & self-care ● Coping With Chronic Illness ○ Avoidance-oriented coping ■ Denial or ignoring the problem ○ Problem-focused strategies ■ Planning & information seeking ● ● ● ● ○ The effectiveness of these strategies depends on CONTROL ■ Avoidance is effective when one lacks control ■ Problem-focused is effective when one has control Emotions & Chronic Illness ○ Physicians report being inadequately prepared to deal with emotional factors ■ Let’s discuss the research on doctors who speak to patients with a hand on a doorknob ○ Two supplements for this: ■ Support groups ● Emotion-focused coping ■ Psychological interventions ● Psychotherapy Impact on the Family ○ Families are adversely affecting by seeing the loved one’s loss of abilities & sense of self ○ Involving families in psychosocial interventions may have benefits for all ■ Not all family-involving interventions are created equal, however ■ Interventions that emphasize communication & health-related interactions provide greater benefits Impact on the Patient Revisited ○ The importance of how one construes the situation & the impact on oneself ■ Re-evaluation of life, relationships, & self-perception ○ Being diagnosed with chronic illness represents a sense of loss ■ Need to engage in a grieving process (for loss of functioning and/or quality of life) ○ Some chronically ill people never move past the grief ○ Others reconstruct the meaning of their lives in positive ways Hope ○ Accepting change brought upon by the illness ■ E.g., my grandfather switching to playing cards when he couldn’t golf anymore ○ The power of positive thinking, optimism, & meaning ■ The search for meaning & other positive thoughts may positively influence the course of HIV infection by affecting the patient’s CD4 count (Ickovics et al., 2006) ■ 59% of HIV/AIDS patients experienced positive changes (Milam, 2004) ■ Over 99% of HIV/AIDS patients recalled positive life experiences ○ Some people experience personal growth through loss & grief ■ Remember meaning-focused coping ○ “A disease that disrupts life does not preclude the experience of joy” ■ Annette Stanton Chapter 13: Career ● Terminology ○ Job = A position of employment ○ Career = One’s purposeful life pattern of work, as seen in the sequence of jobs held throughout one’s life ○ Skill = The ability to perform a task well ■ Skills are the currency of the job world ○ Work Values = What brings you the most enjoyment or satisfaction in a career/job ○ Underemployed = Working beneath your ability or education ○ Somebody with a master’s degree doing a bachelor’s level job, etc. ● Choosing a career ○ We spend about half our waking lives at work ○ You should both enjoy and be proficient at what you do for a living ○ Dr. Wimer’s advice: balance your heart and your wallet ○ Choosing a career involves… ■ Having self-knowledge ■ Having realistic information about potential careers ● Personal characteristics ○ Attachment style ○ Self-efficacy ○ Intelligence ■ Related to the likelihood of entering certain occupations ○ Specific aptitudes ○ Social skills ■ The use of teams is becoming increasingly important in the workplace (Kozlowski & Bell, 2003) ○ Interests ○ Personality ● Education ○ Years of education is a key predictor of occupational status (Arbona, 2005) ○ The benefit of a college degree outweighs the costs (Crosby & Moncarz, 2006) ■ Avg. amount of student loan debt for a Ph.D. program in Psych = $85,000 ■ Having a college degree is not as important as having a higher GPA, however, ■ Higher GPAs are associated with… ● The ability to be trained ● Higher job performance ● Greater frequency of promotions ○ All but one of the 50 highest paying occupations require a college degree or higher ■ Exception = air traffic controller ○ Higher paying jobs go to graduates with better reading, writing, and quantitative skills ■ The ability to write well is a highly marketable skill ● I recommend owning a writing and/or grammar book ■ Oral communication skills are also valued ■ Sometimes employers want someone with a college degree regardless of major ● Important considerations 1) You have the potential for success in a variety of occupations a) Do not have “tunnel vision” with one option 2) Be cautious about making a choice based solely on salary a) Meaning is more related to happiness b) Can lead to boredom, frustration, & unhappiness 3) There are limits to your career options a) Fluctuations in the economy, job market, etc. i) Job markets can wax and wane; I’ll relate the anecdote about my college friends who were speech pathology majors 4) Career choice is a lifelong, developmental process a) Career choice is a series of decisions b) The average person has ~10 jobs in life c) Making occupational choices is not limited to youth i) The popularity of “returning students” ii) I knew a 70-year-old PhD student at Miami U. iii) Read about Donald Super 5) Some career decisions are not easily undone a) Be careful of being “typecast” b) Some paths are a one-way ticket i) If you have a Ph.D. in a field and the requisite loan debt, you’re locked into that path c) Family responsibilities (especially childcare) can make major changes difficult ● Job Searching ○ 80% of available jobs are never advertised and over half of all employees obtain a job through people they know (U.S. Dept. of Labor, 2004) ■ The importance of networking ○ Sources of career info: ■ Occupational Outlook Handbook ■ Professional Organizations such as The American Psychological Association ■ Careers in Psychology ■ Job sites such as Career Builder and Riley Guide ○ A key goal for the job application process = Not being weird! ● Cover Letters ○ Do your best to make each cover letter as individualized and specific for that particular job ad as possible ■ Re-use statements & language from the job ad ○ Be as specific as possible about why you’re qualified for the job, and give examples of things you’ve done ○ First paragraph = introduce yourself ○ Second paragraph (body section) = respond to job ad & describe why you’re qualified ○ Final paragraph = wrap up what you’ve said, express interest, and invite further contact ■ Goal = to get your foot in the door (get an interview) ● Resumes ○ Chronological ■ Much more common ■ Use when you have more experience ■ See example on next page ○ Functional ■ Organized based on skills rather than work history ■ Use when you have less experience but you are qualified in terms of skills ○ Combined (aspects of the two) ○ Targeted – specifically tailored ● Resume tips ○ Make sure your name stands out ○ Make the objective consistent with the job you’re applying for ■ The objective is one thing you can specifically tailor for a particular job ○ Do not lie ○ Only list GPA if it’s higher than 3.0 ○ Use action words ■ E.g.: managed, facilitated, taught, organized ○ Use high quality paper if sending a hard copy ○ Use professional looking font & obviously avoid mistakes & typos ○ Do not include irrelevant information (birthday, etc.) ○ Resumes can be evaluated using the following criteria: ■ Format ■ Conciseness ■ Appearance ■ Completeness ■ Length ■ Accuracy ■ Significance ■ Skills ■ Communication ● Career Counseling ○ Giving client career information from websites such as the Occupational Outlook Handbook ○ Critiquing cover letters & resumes ○ Giving career tests & helping the client to interpret them ■ Increasing client’s self-knowledge, sense of identity, & sense of meaning ○ Being supportive of the client’s career journey ■ Conveying empathy, like with all counseling ○ Applying career theories ○ Brown & Ryan-Krane (2000) ■ Career counseling typically lasts only 4 or 5 sessions ■ It is most effective if… ● clients clarify career and life goals in writing ● counselor provides clients with individualized interpretations and feedback ● counselor gives up to date information on career paths ● counselor conveys effective planning and coping strategies to the client ● counselor helps client develop support network ● John Holland’s Career Theory ○ Realistic (example = auto mechanic or athlete) ○ Investigative (scientist) ○ Artistic (writer, artist, actor, etc.) ○ Social (counselor, teacher, etc.) ○ Enterprising (business, sales) ○ Conventional (accountant, computer programmer, etc.) ○ RIASEC ● Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) ○ Strength of the theory = SCCT considers contextual issues and barriers ○ Key point = Social and economic conditions promote or inhibit certain career choices ○ Economically disadvantaged individuals may fail to develop interests in certain career fields because of a lack or exposure to opportunities & experiences ■ Lower career self-efficacy ■ Counselor’s goal = raising client’s self-efficacy & determining how to transcend barriers ■ E.g., increase a client’s awareness of abilities and aptitudes that they may not realize they possess ● Career Testing ○ Career tests are more about satisfaction than success ○ Results may confirm your existing ideas or spark new ideas ○ Don’t let a career test make a decision for you ■ Tests are not perfect, and it’s okay to disagree with test results ○ Be wary of letting gender stereotypes limit your career options ○ Examples: ■ Strong Interest Inventory (SII; info on next slide) ■ Self-Directed Search (SDS) ■ Personality tests such as the MBTI, 16PF, and the NEO-PI-R ○ The Strong Interest Inventory (SII) ■ The most widely used career test ■ The SII has been demonstrated to be very effective in dealing with the complexities of career interests (Bailey et al., 2008) ■ Note: this version has reliability & validity that are far inferior to the actual version ■ Sections: ● General Occupational Themes (Holland Codes) ● Basic Interest Scales ● Occupational Scales ● Personal Style Scales (not on sample) ● Summary (not on sample) ● Donald Super’s Developmental Model (pages 413 – 414 of the textbook, including figure 13.3; however, you do not need to know the substages in the figure) ● Job Satisfaction ○ Definition = people’s feelings about different aspects of their jobs; how well one likes a given job, depending on factors such as pay & co-workers* ○ A majority of Americans are satisfied with their jobs (USMPB, 2005) ■ However, most people are unsatisfied with some aspects of their jobs ● That’s why you get paid, to deal with the crap ■ Less satisfied workers = *salespeople, people in service jobs, and unskilled laborers ● Anecdote about the moment I knew I didn’t want to follow in my father’s footsteps as a salesman ○ People are more satisfied with work that… ■ involves contact with people ■ is interesting ■ offers the opportunity to learn new skills and do new things ● People do not like jobs in which you do the same thing over and over again ■ allows some independence ○ A major key to job satisfaction = CONTROL ○ Trajectory of satisfaction: ■ Job satisfaction is high when one is new to a job ■ Satisfaction drops sharply when the novelty wears off ■ Satisfaction rises steadily with age and years on the job ● Work Schedules ○ Compressed workweek ■ Decreasing number of days worked in a given cycle by working more hours in a day ● Anecdotes about “ecomotion” at ETS ● Has positive effects on supervisor ratings of employee performance & employee satisfaction (Baltes et al., 1999) ● Not related to actual employee performance, however ○ Flextime ■ Employee choice of when to begin and end work ■ Core time when all employees must be present (e.g. 10am – 2pm) ■ Has positive effects on: ● Employee productivity ● Job satisfaction ● Absenteeism ● Stress levels ● Work-family conflict ■ Not associated with self-rated employee performance, however ○ Shiftwork ■ Regular shift (7am – 3pm) ■ Swing shift (3pm – 11pm) ■ Graveyard shift (11pm – 7am) ■ Rotating shifts disrupt circadian rhythms ■ Backward rotation (nights → evenings → days) is worse ● Circadian rhythm sleep disorder ■ Swing shift has the worst impact on social patterns ■ Graveyard shift is associated with the most health problems ● Workplace trends ○ Technology is changing the nature of work ■ Negatives = Eliminating jobs, the need for more education, the need to constantly upgrade technology skills ■ Positives = Working at home, communicating over long distances ● 47% of organizations use a form of telecommuting ○ Telecommuting is associated with ↓ work-family conflict ○ New work attitudes are required ■ The need to take a more active role in shaping your career ● The career world is more complex and fluid than ever before ■ Keys to job success = self-direction, self-management, up-to-date knowledge & skills, flexibility, and mobility ● Also being adaptable and resilient ■ The need for on-going self-assessment & self-improvement; we never stop learning ○ Lifelong learning is necessary ■ Workers who know “how to learn” will be more able to keep pace with the rapidly changing workplace ○ Independent workers are increasing ■ Temporary employees are becoming more popular ● Lack of benefits ■ Contract employees ● “Free agents” ● Negatives = Stressful, risky, uncertainty ● Positives = Freedom, flexibility, potentially high income ○ The boundaries between work and home are breaking down ■ Disadvantages- The “electronic leash” ■ Day care issues for those with children ● 40% of today’s workers have children under the age of 18 ● Companies that offer on-site daycare are very appealing ○ The highest job growth will occur in professional, technical, & service occupations ■ Jobs in computer & healthcare industries are expected to expand dramatically ● Mental health is part of this ■ Manufacturing jobs will continue to shrink ● Lower SES individuals who don’t have much education have fewer and fewer opportunities, and this further widens the gap between the rich and the poor. ○ Job sharing is becoming more common ■ Definition = each person does the same job 20 hours per week at different times ● A few hours per week may overlap for meetings, etc. ● Fewer than 20% of organizations use job sharing (it’s still rare, but increasing) ● Let’s discuss situations in which job sharing would be a good idea (and vice versa) ● Gender issues ○ Men tend to have continuous career paths ○ Women tend to have discontinuous career paths ■ Partially due to pregnancy and childrearing ○ Married women have less control over their careers than married men ■ After a divorce, a woman’s standard of living drops by 27% (Weitzman, 1996) ■ Poorest demographic in America = divorced mothers ● Anecdote about my mother’s situation ○ The division of household labor and the “second shift” ■ Women currently do ~65% of household labor despite the fact that many women are the primary breadwinner in the household ● Workaholism ○ Workaholics devote nearly all of their time & energy to their careers ■ Lots of overtime, few vacations, frequently bringing work home ■ More common when organizational climate promotes it ● Some people have to be workaholics or they risk losing their jobs ■ Workaholics may have poorer emotional and physical well-being ○ Enthusiastic workaholic = works for the pure joy of it ■ Perform well and are satisfied with work ■ High in work engagement ○ Nonenthusiastic workaholic = feels driven to work but reports low job enjoyment ■ Lower life satisfaction & lower sense of purpose ■ More likely to develop burnout ■ Like an addict who has built up tolerance ● Balance ○ Both types of workaholics feature an imbalance of work & personal time ■ The children of workaholics report lower levels of psychological well-being & self acceptance ● Also experience more physical health problems ○ A satisfying balance of work, relationships, and leisure activities will lead to a more rewarding & healthy life Chapter 7: Attitudes & Persuasion ● General info about attitudes & persuasion ○ We are constantly bombarded with attempts to alter our attitudes through persuasion ■ “Americans live in the age of propaganda” ● Pratkanis & Aronson (2000) ■ The amount of information we’re confronted with can be overwhelming ■ It’s important to filter information mindfully ● Definitions ○ Attitudes = Beliefs & feelings about people, objects, and ideas ■ Beliefs = thoughts and judgments about people, objects, and ideas (cerebral) ■ Feelings = positivity and negativity of one’s emotions about something as well as how strongly one feels (emotional) ○ Attitudes predict behavior ○ Persuasion = The communication of arguments intended to change another person’s attitudes ■ 4 elements… ● Source = The person who sends a communication ● Receiver = Person to whom the message was sent ● Message = Information transmitted by the source ● Channel = Medium through which message is sent ● Fear arousal (page 227 of the textbook) ● Source Factors ○ Persuasion is more successful when the source has… ■ High Credibility ● Expertise ● Trustworthiness ○ Undermined when there is a “conflict of interest” ■ E.g. The Philip Morris Corporation doing research showing that cigarettes are not bad for you ○ Enhanced when people argue against their own interests ○ Persuasion is more successful when the source has… ■ High Likability ● Physical attractiveness ○ Physically attractive students were more successful at getting people to sign a petition (Chaiken, 1979) ● Similarity ■ Companies use these source factors to choose celebrities who endorse their products ● Message Factors ○ Two sided arguments are more persuasive than one sided arguments ■ Simply mentioning that there are two sides to an issue increases credibility (Jones & Brehm, 1970) ■ One sided arguments only work when… ● the receiver is uneducated about the issue ● the receiver already agrees with the source’s point of view ○ Generating positive feelings in the receiver can be effective ■ People attend better to humorous messages (Duncan & Nelson, 1985) ○ This only works if people are nonchalant about an issue ■ Using pleasant music in a TV commercial was only effective at persuading when the topic was trivial (Young & Park, 1986) ● Receiver Factors ○ Need for cognition = the tendency to seek out & enjoy effortful thought, problem-solving activities, and indepth analysis ■ E.g. people who enjoy doing Sudoku or watching intellectual TV shows & movies ○ People high in need for cognition are more likely to be persuaded by high quality arguments ○ Forewarning = expecting to receive a persuasive message ■ For an important topic: ● Being forewarned about a future attempt at persuasion makes persuasion attempts less successful ■ For an unimportant topic: ● Being forewarned causes people to shift their attitudes in favor of the persuasive appeal even before it occurs ○ People don’t want to seem gullible ○ Confirmation bias = People pay attention to messages compatible with their existing attitudes & ignore messages that are incompatible with their existing attitudes ■ People tend to hear what they want to hear and believe what they want to believe ■ E.g., someone who is pro-choice will listen to arguments in favor of pro-choice but will ignore arguments in favor of pro-life (and vice versa) ● The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) ○ Definition = An individual’s thoughts about a persuasive message (rather than the message itself) will determine whether attitude change will occur ■ Rich Petty & John Cacioppo ○ Elaboration vs. automatic processing ■ Elaboration = Processing information carefully ● Mindfulness, systematic judgments ■ Automatic processing = Making quick, sloppy decisions ● Mindlessness, snap judgments ○ Sources attempt to change attitudes via two routes: ■ Central Route ● Successful when the receiver is likely to engage in elaboration ○ More effective, but more difficult. One key is that the receiver must be from a specific, intended target audience. ■ Peripheral Route ● Successful when the receiver is likely to process information automatically ■ Central Route ● The receiver thinks about the logic and merits of the source’s arguments ● Attitude change occurs when the receiver has a favorable reaction after elaborating on the message ○ The receiver must actively think about the substance/content of a message ○ It is more difficult to change attitudes via the central route, but it is more rewarding because… ■ Attitudes formed via the central route are more resistant to future challenges ■ Attitudes formed via the central route are more predictive of future behavior ○ Central Route ■ Two requirements must be met: ● Motivation ○ Receivers must be interested in the issue, find it personally relevant, have a high need for cognition, & have the time and energy for elaboration ○ Sources using the central route usually have a specific target audience in mind ● Ability ○ The message must be comprehensible and receivers must be capable of understanding it ○ If receivers are distracted, tired, in an overly positive mood, or if they find the message uninteresting or irrelevant, then peripheral cues take over ○ Peripheral Route ■ The receiver is not paying attention to the substance of a message, but is aware of the superficial aspects of the message ■ The receiver may be persuaded by peripheral cues such as music, the presence of a likable celebrity, or pleasing visual stimuli ○ Peripheral Route ■ Receivers are more receptive to the peripheral route when… ● they are distracted, tired, or uninterested in the message ● they fail to pay attention to the true merits of the message ● they are in a happy mood (remember that people in a positive mood are less likely to be critical) ■ Persuasion that occurs via the peripheral route is not as strong ● Temporary, easier to change in the future, and less predictive of future behavior ● Words of Wisdom slide ○ We need to be vigilant critical thinkers when people try to persuade us ○ Thinking critically about incoming information will help you navigate the world of information more efficiently & successfully
