Persuasion Theories: Amanda Ngcanga; Phozisa Bloko; Sasha Burger, Sinethemba Clay; Namhla Sibene; Siphokazi Nono; Sibusiso Nightingale.
R. Petty, J. Cacioppo & Associates: The Elaboration Likelihood Theory.
2 Routes to Persuasion
Peripheral: It occurs when a receiver does not think clearly about the ideas in a message.
This process will happen when the listener lacks the ability or motivation to engage in a indepth thought of the message.
Central: Consists of thoughtful consideration of the arguments in a message that happens when a listener acquires motivation and the ability to think about the message and its content.
Many thoughts are produced in the duration of central processing.
It depicts the following: Individuals are motivated to hold appropriate attitudes. They want to feel rational and at ease about things that matter to them. This allows an evaluation of a message.
It is the concentrated thinking that receivers engage in about a message.
Ivan Pavlov & B.F Skinner: Learning Theories
Social Learning Theory: Views humans as participants in the process of persuasion as explained by Albert Bandura.
We perceive that behaviour that is not socially rewarding could lead to social punishment.
We learn to behave in our social interactions through observation, experience and self-regulation.
Suggest that there is continuous interaction between the persons internal state and social reinforcement that grows from a persons behaviour with others.
Can be stated as follows: People create goals that have positive rewards. People behave in ways that will have the potential for achieving their goals. People can interpret consequences as rewards or punishment. Past success or failure can affect the choices people make. this means behaviour is shaped by interacting between external conditions and internal cognitive process.
Skinnerian Behaviourism: It revolves around the prediction that behavioural change is a response to one's environment. behaviour relates to external rather than internal factors. Central idea-behaviour is determined in the 1st place by its consequence. Stimulus is less important in this theory.
Classical Conditioning: Behavioural change can be explained through stimulus. The robot is as more than a robot receiving external stimuli. With negative/positive association, behavioural patterns can be established or learnt. Persuasion involves influencing a person to respond to an object or a word.
M. Sherif: Social Judgment-Involvement Theory.
The greater the balance between these variables, the more susceptible the recipient is to persuasion.
This theory involves 2 important concepts which are both internally based in the recipients: Anchor points and Ego involvement.
Ego involvement or social affiliation is an attitude about which recipients feel strongly and which they incorporate as part of themselves.
Anchor points: refers to the internal information you already know about the product/service, meaning that any form of persuasion , you will reference with what you already know about the product/service.
F. Heider, T. Newcomb, C. Osgood, P. Tannenbaum, L. Festinger & M. Rokeach: Consistency Theories.
Belief-Hierarchy Theory suggests that attitudes, beliefs and values are interwoven and ranked in various hierarchies or layers into a single belief system that recipients bring to the persuasive situation.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory means the feeling of discomfort caused by conflicts or inconsistencies between a persons attitudes and/or behaviour.
Dissonance is a motivating factor - a source of psychological discomfort that the individual must seek to relieve.
The Congruency Theory, proposed by Charles Osgood and Percy Tannenbaum, con involve 2 persons, 2 concepts/2sets of information whereby a judgment needs to be made by a single observer.
This theory comes into play when considering ones merits in a sports team, where the strong and weak points of the player requires one to make judgment as to whether the player will make it into the national team.
If the 2 are congruent/similar, there is no problem. If not, the recipient receives pressure to change their judgment on one of them.
The Balance Theory, proposed by Fritz Heider & adapted by Theodore Newcomb to interpersonal communication.
Thus an unstable state is produced, that would either be resolved by the recipient changing their attitude/behaviour towards either the communicator or the topic.
The communicator must communicate a relationship towards a single topic different from the one held by the recipient.
This theory involves 2 persons and one topic, where the recipient must be positively oriented to the communicator.
these theories predict behavioural change as a result of inconsistency perceived by the recipient.
These theories rest on assumptions that humans do not like inconsistencies that may arise from 2 different sets of messages; difference between a persons existing attitudes & their behaviour; difference between ones behaviour and behaviour expected of one by another in a given situation.
Carl Hovland: Attitude-Change Theory
Attitude changes do not lead to behavioural changes in other words, persuasion cannot be regarded nearly as a linear process.
Attitude change depended on the persuade viewing it as potentially rewarding and must find the change environment or circumstances favourable.
It revolves around the hypothesis that the behaviour of potential persuader is constrained or controlled by attitudes that recipients have towards the various aspects of the issues, the candidate, product or service under construction.
This theory was developed by Yale Communication & Attitude Change Programme, headed by Carl Hovland.
