The theory has also been applied in psychotherapeutic settings, as it offers an outline for how self described attitudes and beliefs may be operating during counseling or psychotherapy. Since external pressure for the initial behavior is assumed to be minimal, people infer a positive attitude from their compliant behavior, which in turn guides subsequent action.” As the authors of a paper 3 from The Association of Consumer Research wrote, “it is hypothesized that the foot-in-the-door is effective because people use their own behavior as a cue regarding their attitudinal dispositions. The well known foot-in-the-door technique, where getting a customer to agree to a small request increases the chances of them agreeing to a larger request down the road, has been explained by some researchers as the same process as self perception. Self perception theory has had notable consequences in marketing and consumer research. However, in the case where his attitude was unclear, he presumably relied on the observation of his own behavior to inform his attitude. If we consider the example highlighted earlier, with Dave the carpenter, had Dave had an existing strong belief in work ethic along with an aversion to idleness, his rejection of his friend’s comments around shortened work weeks could be labeled cognitive dissonance, as the information she was presenting was inconsistent with his existing beliefs. 2 The critical difference is that self perception theory relates to situations where an individual’s attitude is ambiguous or weak. “Īlthough self perception theory was initially seen by some as a concept that challenged cognitive dissonance, further research building on Bem’s work has concluded that self perception theory and cognitive dissonance do indeed have different applications, with the two phenomena being complements rather than substitutes. When someone asks what he thinks, he supposes that 40 hours isn’t that much, after all, he tends to work 50. Dave has never heard such talk and doesn’t have any preexisting attitudes towards the concept.
One evening, at the bar with some friends, someone mentions the 35-hour work week in France and an article she read about increased productivity gains at companies who introduced four-day work weeks. Dave has never really stopped to think about how he feels towards standardized work weeks and labor regulations, or work ethic in general. It is a similar process to how we would infer another individual’s inner state by observing their behavior.Ĭonsider Dave, a carpenter who works 50 hours a week. This is the case when internal cues such as sentiment are unclear, and the individual attributes their attitude or belief to some form of self perception around their behavior. This theory argues that people become aware of certain attitudes by observing their own behavior. Self perception theory proposes such a causal link. It can certainly seem backwards to presume working overtime causes a belief in work ethic, rather than work ethic causes hard work. To assume a reversal in the sequence of causation for example, behavior leading to attitude would seem counterintuitive. We might have an attitude towards work ethic, for example, which would translate into some behavior, like working overtime to get the job done. We typically view the interaction between attitudes and behaviors as a causal sequence that progresses linearly from attitude to behavior.
0 kommentar(er)
