Background Readings

Rather than assign a different background reading for each topic, I have assigned several "generic" background readings that bridge the topics. Chapters from Fishbein and Ajzen provide background for topics of attitude measurement and formation; Petty and Wegener's HSP chapter provides the bulk of the background for persuasion. Eagly and Chaiken's HSP chapter contains most of the rest. Prior to discussion of a topic, you are expected to have read the pertinent sections. If you feel oppressed by the length of the HSP chapters, I would encourage you to evaluate your attitude after an examination of the 1996 weekly background readings (also on the Web).

Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1998). Attitude structure and function. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.) The handbook of social psychology (Vol. 1; 4th ed) (pp. 269-322) New York: McGraw-Hill

Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior. USA: Addison-Wesley. Chapters 3 & 6

Petty, R. E., & Wegener, D. T. (1998). Attitude change. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.) The handbook of social psychology (Vol. 1; 4th ed)

Attitudes: Formation & Measurement

01/20 Attitude Measurement: Verbal, Direct Measures

Schwarz, N. (1999). Self-reports: How the questions shape the answers. American Psychologist, 54, 93-105.

Lavine, H., Huff, J. W., & Wagner, S. H. (1998). The moderating influence of attitude strength on the susceptibility to context effects in attitude surveys. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 359-373.

01/27 Attitude Measurement: Nonverbal, Indirect Measures

Ito, T. A., Larsen, J. T., Smith, N. K., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1998). Negative information weighs more heavily on the brain: The negativity bias in evaluative categorizations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 887-900

Yzerbyt, V. Y., Leyens, J. -P., & Corneille, O. (1998). The role of naive theories of judgment in impression formation. Social Cognition, 16, 56-77.

02/10 Attitude Formation

Chen, M., & Bargh, J. A. (1999). Consequences of automatic evaluation: Immediate behavioral predispositions to approach or avoid the stimulus. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 215-224.

Sjoeberg, L., & Montgomery, H. (1999). Double denial in attitude formation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, 606-621.

Attitude Structure: Organization, Consistency, and the A-->B Relation

02/17 Attitude Organization & Structure

Simons, J., & Carey, K. B. (1998). A structural analysis of attitudes toward alcohol and marijuana use. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 727-735

Trafimow, D., & Sheeran, P. (1998). Some tests of the distinction between cognitive and affective beliefs. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 34, 378-397.

02/24 Consistency and the Prediction of Behavior

Fabrigar, L. R., Priester, J. R., Petty, R. E., & Wegener, D. T. (1998). The impact of attitude accessibility on elaboration of persuasive messages. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 339-352

Ybarra, O., & Trafimow, D. (1998). How priming the private self or collective self affects the relative weights of attitudes and subjective norms. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 362-370

Persuasion: Cognitive Theories and the Legacy of Hovland

03/02 Legacy of the Hovland School & the ELM/HSM: Source Characteristics

Petty, R. E., Fleming, M. A., & White, P. H. (1999). Stigmatized sources and persuasion: Prejudice as a determinant of argument scrutiny. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 19-34.

Darke, P. R., Chaiken, S., Bohner, G., Einwiller, S., Erb, H. -P., & Hazlewood, J. D. (1998). Accuracy motivation, consensus information, and the law of large numbers: Effects on attitude judgment in the absence of argumentation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 1205-1215.

03/16 Legacy of the Hovland School: Message Characteristics

Ottati, V., Rhoads, S., & Graesser, A. C. (1999). The effect of metaphor on processing style in a persuasion task: A motivational resonance model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 688-697.

Rothman, A. J., Martino, S. C., Bedell, B. T., Detweiler, J. B., & Salovey, P. (1999). The systematic influence of gain- and loss-framed messages on interest in and use of different types of health behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 1355-1369.

03/23. Legacy of the Hovland School: Audience Characteristics and Context

Petty, R. E., & Wegener, D. T. (1998). Matching versus mismatching attitude functions: Implications of scrutiny of persuasive messages. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 227-240

Keller, P. A. (1999). Converting the unconverted: The effect of inclination and opportunity to discount health-related fear appeals. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 403-415.

Biased Persuasion: Dissonance, Motivated Thought, and Overthinking

03/30. Motivated Processing: Hovland and Festinger in the 90s

Killeya, L. A., & Johnson, B. T. (1998). Experimental induction of biased systematic processing: The directed-thought technique. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 17-33

Lundgren, S. R., & Prislin, R. (1998). Motivated cognitive processing and attitude change. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 715-726

04/06 Unintentional Bias and The Costs of Thinking Too Much

Hodges, S. D. (1998). Reasons for the referent: Reducing direction of comparison effects. Social Cognition, 16, 367-390.

Wilson, T. D., Houston, C. E., & Meyers, J. M. (1998). Choose your poison: Lay beliefs and unintended attitude change. Social Cognition, 16, 114-132

04/13. Dissonance Theory

McGregor, H. A., Lieberman, J. D., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J., Simon, L., & Pyszczynski, T. (1998). Terror management and aggression: Evidence that mortality salience motivates aggression against worldview-threatening others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 590-605.

Shultz, T. R., Leveille, E., & Lepper, M. R. (1999). Free choice and cognitive dissonance revisited: Choosing "lesser evils" versus "greater goods." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 4048.