news.newenergytimes.net
1) Attribution theory (Weiner, 1985)
2) Black feminist thought (Collins, 1990)
3) Linguistic relativity (Sapir&Whorf, 2010)
4) Yale attitude change (Hovland, 1953)
5) Two-step flow communication (Katz,
1) Attribution Theory (Weiner, 1985)
withfriendship.com
Summary
• Attribution theory is concerned with how individuals interpret events and how
this relates to their thinking and behavior. Attribution theory assumes that people
try to determine why people do what they do. A person seeking to understand
why another person did something may attribute one or more causes to that
behavior. According to Heider a person can make two attributions
1) Internal attribution, the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way
because of something about the person, such as attitude, character or
personality.
2) External attribution, the inference that a person is behaving a certain way
because of something about the situation he or she is in.
Example
A runner had already been expending high effort, but had failed to
reach a race final, then encouraging him to attribute the failure to lack
of effort might simply demoralize him (Robinson, 1990).
If the qualifying standard were simply too difficult to meet, then
encouraging attributions to lack of effort might serve little purpose,
because increasing effort would probably do little to improve
outcomes. If the wrong race strategy were used, then increasing effort
would not logically lead to improved outcomes, if the same strategy
were used in future.
2) Black feminist thought (Collins,1990)
destinyhowell91.wordpress.com
Summary
Black feminist thought demonstrates Black women's emerging powers
as agents of knowledge. By portraying African-American women as selfdefined, self-reliant individuals confronting race, gender, and class
oppression, Afrocentric feminist thought speaks to the importance that
oppression, Afrocentric feminist thought speaks to the importance that
knowledge plays in empowering oppressed people. One distinguishing
feature of Black feminist thought is its insistence that both the changed
consciousness of individuals and the social transformation of political
and economic institutions constitute essential ingredients for social
change. New knowledge is important for both dimensions to
change.( UnwinHyman, 1990, pp. 221-238.)
Example
Black women's insistence on self-definition, self-valuation, and the
necessity for a Black female-centered analysis is significant for two
reasons. First, defining and valuing one's consciousness of one's own
self-defined standpoint in the face of images that foster a selfdefinition as the objectified "other" is an important way of resisting the
dehumanization essential to systems of domination.
3) Linguistic relativity (Sapir&Whorf, 2010)
www.ohio.edu
Summary
Whorf’s own statements of his theory look little like the caricature that
opens the NYT article and much more like the position that Deutscher
himself offers as reasonable and compelling. Far from holding that “the
inventory of ready-made words” in a language “forbids” speakers to
think specific thoughts, Whorf argued that patterns of grammatical
structures, often the most covert ones at that, give rise not to a
language prison but to a “provisional analysis of reality” and habits of
mind, very much as Deutscher concludes. This is a view that many in
linguistic anthropology continue to find compelling, in varying ways.
Example
In English, time & object counted, talked about in same way,
time objectified like a physical quantity.
4) Yale attitude change (Hovland, 1953)
www.schooldevelopmentprogram.org
Summary
Says what (nature of communication):
Messages should not appear to be designed to persuade.
Present two-sided arguments (refuting the ‘wrong’ argument, of course).
If two people are speaking one after the other, it is best to go first (primacy effect).
If two people are speaking with a delay between them, it is best to go last (recency
effect).
To whom (the nature of the audience)
Distract them during the persuasion
Lower intelligence and moderate self-esteem helps.
The best age range is 18-25.
Example
Watch politicians. They do this wonderfully well. They look great. They
talk through the other side's argument, making it first seem reasonable
then highlighting all their problems. It all seems to be just common
sense spoken by a really nice person...
5) Two-step flow communication (Katz,1944)
commons.wikimedia.org
Summary
The hypothesis that “ideas often flow from radio and print to opinion leaders
and from these to the less active sections of the population” has been tested
in several successive studies. Each study has attempted a different solution
to the problem of how to take account of interpersonal relations in the
traditional design of survey research. As a result, the original hypothesis is
largely corroborated and considerably refined.(Affiliations, 1957)
Example
The Two Step Flow Theory suggests that opinion leaders pay close
attention to the mass media and pass on their interpretation of media
messages to others. Unlike the Hypodermic Needle Theory, The Two
Step Flow Theory maintains that audiences are active participants in
the communication process.
References
• changing minds (1957). Yale Attitude Change Approach. [online] Retrieved from:
http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/yale_attitude_change.htm [Accessed: 10 Dec 2013].
• university twenti (2013). Atrribution theory. [online] Retrieved from:
http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/theory%20clusters/interpersonal%20communication%20and%20relations
/attribution_theory/ [Accessed: 10 Dec 2013].
• Unknown. (2013). Untitled. [online] Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Feminist_Thought [Accessed: 10
Dec 2013].
• Woolard, K. (2010). Society for Linguistic Anthropology Official Homepage of the SLA. [online] Retrieved from:
http://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2010/09/01/linguistic-relativity-whorf-linguistic-anthropology/ [Accessed: 10 Dec
2013].
• The Two Step Flow Theory (2012). The Two Step Flow Theory. [online] Retrieved from: http://lessonbucket.com/media-inminutes/the-two-step-flow-theory/ [Accessed: 10 Dec 2013].