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Foundations of Communication 3. Psychology and sociopsychology approachesS

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Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC Professor of Public Communication

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57022 Foundations of Communication

Recap from Week 2

 Rhetoric was one of the first traditions of communication. Starting in ancient Greece, evolved to include contemporary use

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evolved to include contemporary use  Focus on the rhetor as skilled in persuasion

 Little focus on audiences, society, culture, etc

 Growth of science saw a ‘scientific’ view of human communication – Shannon & Weaver’s information model and growth of cybernetics  Brought a disciplined view to communication

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57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

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 Evolved to embrace bio and neuro systems and networks, some elements of psychology and social networks

 But largely ignores human cognition and socio-cultural influences

3/8/2012

Traditions of Communication Theory

 Rhetorical – the art of speaking and persuasion  Systems/cybernetic – information transmission

including feedback loops noise networks

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including feedback loops, noise, networks  Sociopsychological – individual cognition,

behaviour and information processing  Semiotic – signs and symbols making meaning  Phenomenological – experience interpreted  Sociocultural – social interaction, context, the

social construction of reality

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D social construction of reality  Critical – power, domination, hegemony

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Video: Chris Cunningham. Music: Bjork

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjAoBKagWQA

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

Psychology

 Focus on the individual – largely internal  Sees the individual human mind as the locus for

processing and understanding information

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processing and understanding information

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57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Psychology

 A ‘social science’  Grounded in Modernism, ‘scientific approach’

 Freud (psychoanalysis) and Freudian thought

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 Freud (psychoanalysis) and Freudian thought  The unconscious

 Instinctual impulses

 Also draws on studies of  Human needs (Maslow 1943, 1954)

 Experiments in stimulus-response

B li f h bj i i i l h

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D  Belief that objective empirical research can understand and even predict human behaviour

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

Social psychology

 “Study of behaviour in social contexts” (Craig & Muller 2007, p. 313)

 Origin – experimental social psychology in early

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 Origin – experimental social psychology in early 20th century

 Aim to develop a “science of communication”  Two branches or ‘schools’ of thought

 Psychological – individual standpoint

 Sociological – society standpoint

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57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Key focus of sociopsychology

 Information processing  Learning and

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 Persuasion for  Attitude change and  Behavioural effects

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57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

Communication relevance

 Extensively applied in advertising  Behavioural psychologist, J. B. Watson, appointed VP

of J. Walter Thompson in the US in 1922

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 JWT employed two psychologists in Australia in 1927  Sociopsychological approaches to analysing and

segmenting audiences influenced advertising for the next 75 years (Balnaves, Donald & Shoesmith 2009, p. 276).

 Foundation of many government education campaigns (eg. health)

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D  Used by social scientists concerned about media effects  Violence  Pornography  Education

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Sociopsychological tradition

 Three main branches:

1 B h i l ti li  t l b h

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1. Behavioural – stimuli  response to learn, behave

2. Cognitive – how humans process information, think

3. Biological – brain function, neurochemistry, psychobiology

(Littlejohn & Foss 2008 (p. 43)

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(Littlejohn & Foss 2008 (p. 43)

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

Key theories of sociopsychology

 Trait theory – psychological predispositions  Trait factor models

 Genetic predisposition

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 Genetic predisposition

 Extraversion, neuroticism

 Cognition and information processing  Attribution Theory (Fritz Heider)

 Social Judgement Theory (Muzafer Sherif)

 Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Leon Festinger)

 Elaboration Likelihood Theory (Petty & Cacioppo)

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D  Elaboration Likelihood Theory (Petty & Cacioppo)

Part II, Chapter 4 Littlejohn & Foss 2008 (pp. 66-74)

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Core concepts

 Schema / schemata (pl.)  Mental schemata – categories for grouping

information mental templates

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information, mental templates (Wrench, McCroskey & Richmond 2008, p. 130-3)

 Relational schemata (Littlejohn & Foss, p. 199)

 Constructs – constructivism (Jesse Delia 1982)  Humans construct conceptual categories and ‘ways of

seeing’

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57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

ConstructIVISM ConstructIONISM

Often used interchangeably and seen by some as the same. But others cite some distinct differences.

Psychological theory of k l d

Sociological theory of k l d

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knowledge knowledge

Individual meaning making in a social context

Humans construct ‘reality’ through social interaction Social Construction of Reality (Peter Berger & Thomas Luckmann 1966)

Internal constructs to learn and understand (categorising)

External world/realities are socially constructed

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Applied largely to education and learning – two streams: Jean Piaget’s constructivist learning Seymour Papert’s constructionist learning?

Gender, family, work ethic, etc are social constructions Links to phenomenology (interpretation)

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Attribution theory

 Why we and others do things  Heider saw human behaviour attributed to a

range of factors and “perceptual styles”:

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range of factors and “perceptual styles”:  Situational  Personal effects / influence  Ability  Effort  Desire  Sentiment (feeling like it)

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( g )  Belonging  Obligation  Permission

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

Attribution theory

 We make quick personal judgements on causes of behaviour:  “I couldn’t help it” (situational)

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I couldn t help it (situational)

 “He/she made me do it” (influence)

 “I felt I had to” (obligation, influence)

 “It seemed to be the thing to do” (obligation)

 “I just wanted to fit in – I went along” (belonging)

 “I can’t do that” (permission)

 “I’m not good at that” (ability)

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 “I really wanted to” (desire)

 “I did my best” (effort, ability)

 Not always conscious or logical  “I don’t know why I did that.”

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Attribution theory

 In judging others – he/she …  Is just plain lazy

 Doesn’t care

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Doesn t care

 It’s easy for her/him

 They were just lucky

 In judging communication …  I’m a good driver

 I can hold my drink

 I’m not overweight – I’m just big-boned

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ot o e e g t just b g bo ed

 I can’t help my weight – it’s my glands

 The journalist is just biased

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

Fundamental attribution error

Type of Situation

Considering ourselves

Considering others

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Positive outcome Attribute to personal qualities

Attribute to situation / circumstances

Negative outcome Attribute to situation/ circumstances

Attribute to personal qualitities

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57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Attribution theory

 Initial judgements (attributed causes) are often  Illogical

 Biased

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 Biased

 Don’t weigh all factors

 Follow schemata

 Hard to dislodge

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57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

Social judgement theory

 How we make judgements about what we hear and don’t experience personally (Sherif 1961)

 Use reference points something you know to

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 Use reference points, something you know to be true – Sherif calls them “anchors”  Trusted sources

 Track record

 Prior experiences

 Are brands ‘anchors’?

 Also ego involvement is key does it affect me

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D  Also ego involvement is key – does it affect me

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Cognitive dissonance

 Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger 1957)  “The distressing mental state in which people find

themselves doing things which don’t fit with what they

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themselves doing things which don t fit with what they know, or having opinions that don’t fit with other opinions they hold”

 A basic need is to avoid dissonance – we strive for consonance, consistency, congruity

 Communication theories based on this:  Heider’s Balance Theory (1946)

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y ( )

 Newcomb’s Symmetry Model (1953)

 Osgood’s Congruity Theory (1957)

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

Cognitive dissonance

 Joseph Klapper (1960) found reinforcement of existing attitudes the most common outcome of communication

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communication  Examples of dissonance

 Give up smoking v put on weight

 Post-decision dissonance after ‘close call’ decisions or major purchases (eg. new house, car, job)

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57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Dealing with cognitive dissonance

 Humans always seek consonance  When confronted with dissonance, humans:

Ch ttit d b h i t t h t

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 Change attitude or behaviour to match new contrary information, OR

 Try to ignore new information (flight)

 Interpret new information to support existing attitudes or behaviour (fight)

 Cognitive dissonance can be a:  Blockage to communication OR

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D Blockage to communication, OR

 A technique to use (e.g. to jolt others into change)

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

Elaboration Likelihood Theory

 Petty and Cacioppo (1986) saw two routes of information processing  Central route (active information processing/cognition)

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( p g g )  Peripheral route (passive)

 Central processing  “the extent to which a person carefully thinks about

issue-relevant information” – i.e. elaborately/in detail

 Peripheral processing  Simple instinctive thinking based on schemata,

heuristics and other mental shortcuts

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D heuristics and other mental shortcuts

 Elaboration likelihood = the probability that someone will evaluate and process information elaborately (thinking deeply about it)

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Heuristics – mental shortcuts

 Credibility/authority (e.g. source credibility)  Liking

Att ti l f i d t

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 Attractive people, friends, etc

 Consensus – trust in the majority  “Everyone’s says ... doing ... ”

 Habit  Voting party ticket  Astrology!

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st o ogy

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

Heuristic Systematic Theory

 Also a two-route cognitive processing approach  Systematic analytical consideration, OR

 Heuristic processing relying on heuristics

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 Heuristic processing relying on heuristics

 Key heuristics  Source credibility

 Liking

 Consensus

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57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Elaboration Likelihood Theory

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57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

Sociopsychology and messages

 Action-assembly theory  How we organise knowledge to form messages

 Strategy choice models

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 Strategy choice models  Message design models  Semantic meaning theory

Part II, Chapter 5 Littlejohn & Foss 2008 (pp. 119-132)

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57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Sociopsychology and conversations

 Managing uncertainty and anxiety  Uncertainty reduction theory (Berger et al.)

 Anxiety uncertainty management

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 Anxiety-uncertainty management

 Accommodation and adaption  Accommodation theory

 Interaction-adaption theory

 Expectancy –violations theory

 Interpersonal deception theory

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Part II, Chapter 6 Littlejohn & Foss 2008 (pp. 149-159)

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

Information processing

 W. J. McGuire (1984) developed a multi- stepped model of communication  Six stages initially

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 Six stages initially

Presentation Attention Comprehension Acceptance Retention Change/Action

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57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

McGuire’s 13 stages of communication

 Exposure  Attention  Liking

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 Comprehension  Cognition  Acquiring skills/knowledge  Attitude change  Storing information (retention)  Retrieving information  Deciding to act in accordance with information

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Deciding to act in accordance with information  Action / behaviour  Cognitive integration of behaviour  Encouraging others to behave similarly (McGuire 2001)

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

Sociopsychological approach

 Framed by both early scientific thinking and emerging ‘social sciences’  Modernism late 19th and early 20th century

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 Modernism – late 19th and early 20th century

 Continuation of the Enlightenment project

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57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Problematising this approach?

 Usefully focuses on human traits, predispositions, cognitive processes, etc

 Reveals hidden internal factors influencing

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 Reveals hidden internal factors influencing communication

 But largely ignores:  The persuasive power of rhetoric through “artful

symbolism”, emotion, credibility, etc  Language and signs (text and visual)  Experience (other than briefly looking at how past

experience shapes attitudes)

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D experience shapes attitudes)  Structural issues – eg. institutions, systems of power  Broader social and cultural influences

• “Excessive individualism, inattention to macro-social forces (Craig & Muller 2007, p. 84)

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

Problematising this approach

 Early psychology and social psychology approaches accused of “mechanistic determinism” – e.g. B. F. Skinner

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g  Saw the human mind as a machine

 “Like behaviourists, most cognitive psychologists believe that the fundamental laws of the physical world determine human behaviour completely” (Barsalou 1992)  Rely on ‘scientific’ largely positivist research

 Bargh (1997) updated mechanistic determinism

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D  Bargh (1997) updated mechanistic determinism saying that social psychology included situational factors – but still saw ‘automatic’ processes governing human thinking

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

TV commercial – approach?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1EG10yWv6A

3/8/2012

TV commercial – approach?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibAe8ArmvwY

References Balnaves, M. Donald, S. & Shoesmith, B. 2009, Media Theories and

Approaches: A Global Perspective, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK. Bargh, J. 1997, ‘The automaticity of everyday life’, in R. Wyer (ed.),

Advances in Social Cognition, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 1-61.

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Barsalou, L. 1992, Cognitive Psychology: An Overview for Cognitive Scientists, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.

Chaiken, S. Liberman, A. & Eagly, A. 1989, ‘Heuristic and systematic information within the beyond the persuasion context’, in J. Uleman & J. Bargh (eds), Unintended Thought, Guildford Press, New York, pp. 212- 52.

Craig, R. & Muller, H. (eds) 2007, Theorising Communication: Readings Across Traditions, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Delia, J. O’Keefe, B. & O’Keefe, D. 1982,’’The constructivist approach to communication’, in F. Dance (ed.), Human Communication Theory:

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communication , in F. Dance (ed.), Human Communication Theory: Comparative Essays, Harper & Row, New York, pp. 147-91.

Festinger, L. 1957, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Stanford University Press, Standford, CA.

Heider, F. 1946, xxx Klapper, J. 1960, The Effects of Mass Communication, Free Press, New

York.

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

3/8/2012

References Littlejohn, S. & Foss, K. 2008, Theories of Human Communciation (9th edn),

Thomson-Wadsworth, Belmont, CA. Maslow, A. 1943, ‘A theory of human motivation’, Psychological Review

50(4), pp. 370-96. Maslow A 1954 Motivation and Personality Harper New York

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Maslow, A. 1954, Motivation and Personality, Harper, New York. McGuire, W. 1984, ‘Attitudes and attitude change’, in G. Lindzey, L. Gardner

& E. Aronson, The Handbook of Social Psychology Vol II, 3rd edn, Random House, New York.

McGuire, W. 2001. ‘Input and output variables currently promising for constructing persuasive communications’, in R. Rice & C. Atkin (eds), Public communication campaigns, 3rd edn, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA pp. 22-48.

Petty, R. & Cacioppo, J. 1986, Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change Springer-Verlag New York

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D Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change, Springer Verlag, New York. Severin, J. & Tankard, J. 2001, Communication Theories: Origins, Methods,

and Uses in the Mass Media, Addison Wesley Longman, New York. Wrench, J. McCroskey, J. & Richmond, V. 2008, Human Communication in

Everyday Life, Pearson Education, Boston, MA.

57022 – Foundations of Communication Professor Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC