Attitudes, Conflict, and Social Change

1st Edition - January 1, 1972
Editors: Bert T. King, Elliott McGinnies
Language: English
eBook ISBN:
9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 3 2 - 6 6 2 3 - 7

Attitudes, Conflict, and Social Change is based on a symposium on attitudes, social change, and intergroup conflict conducted on the University of Maryland campus. The book focuses… Read more

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Attitudes, Conflict, and Social Change is based on a symposium on attitudes, social change, and intergroup conflict conducted on the University of Maryland campus. The book focuses on the following interrelated topics and issues: (1) The concepts of "attitude" and "attitude change" as they are used in psychological, sociological, and political science research. (2) How people change their attitudes and behavior in response to technological change and broad social currents as well as to specific persuasive communications delivered via the mass media or within an organization or a small group. (3) The role of attitudes and their modification in social change. (4) The role of attitudes in the genesis, the processes, and the outcomes of intergroup conflict at the level of the organization, at different societal levels, and at the international level. (5) The perplexing problems involved in determining how attitudes and overt behavior relate to each other. (6) Relationships between theories of attitude change and action programs designed to change attitudes in various social, cultural, ethnic, and national groups. (7) Relationships between laboratory experiments and field research involving attitude change. (8) The directions that future attitude research might take in order to be most productive with respect to both theory development and applications.

List of Contributors

Acknowledgments

1. Overview: Social Contexts and Issues for Contemporary Attitude Change Research

The Current World Scene

Modernization

Attitudes toward Work and Leisure

International Attitudes and Behavior

Student Attitudes and Unrest

Racial Conflict, Attitudes, and Economic Opportunity

Differences among Disciplines

Some Theoretical Considerations

References

Part One The Concept and Role of Attitudes

2. Are Attitudes Necessary?

References

3. Stress, Self-Esteem, and Attitudes

Psychological Stress

Self-Esteem and Stress

Stress and Attitude Change

Communicator Credibility

A Note on Research Strategy

References

Part Two Conformity and Conflict in Organizational Contexts

4. Conflict and Change in the Universities

Current Analyses of Student Unrest

Toward a Heuristic Analysis of Student Unrest

References

5. The Tactics and Ethics of Persuasion

Persuading for New Politics

Machiavellian Strategies

Making Machiavelli Work for Peace

Postscript

References

6. Conflict Strategies Related to Organizational Theories and Management Systems

Progress in Recent Centuries

Progress Usually Starts in One Area of Human Activity

The Nature of a Society is Reflected in Its Management of Conflict

Quantitative Research Accelerates Development of Improved Social Systems

A General Theory Based on Principles of the Best Managers

Human Organizations Can Be Described Quantitatively

Relation of Interaction-Influence Networks to Conflict Management

Conflict Managed Best in Most Highly Developed Social System

Obsolete Social Systems Used in Attempts to Resolve Conflict

Effective Interaction-Influence Networks Absent in Communist China-United States Relationships

Black-White Relationships Lack Effective Interaction-Influence Networks

Large Universities Lack Effective Interaction-Influence Networks

References

Part Three Racial Attitudes and Social Change

7. The Impact of Social Change on Attitudes

References

8. Mass Media and Social Change

General Functions of the Media

Nation Building

Rising Aspirations and Deferred Gratification

Personal Channels

Modernized Areas

Mirror versus Molder

The Media and the Black Social Revolution

Commentary

References

9. Contextual Models of School Desegregation

Previous Relevant Ecological Research

The Texas Ecological Model

Attitude and School Desegregation

Ecology, Attitudes, and Southern Desegregation

Summary and Implications

References

Part Four Attitudes and International Social Change

10. The Shuttle Box of Subsistence Attitudes

The Philippine Setting

Observed Behavior Patterns

Peasants and Poverty

Peasant Attitudes

Some Attitudes of Rural Filipinos

Changes in Attitudes

An Interpretation

Avoidance Learning

References

11. The Pro-Us Illusion and the Black-Top Image

American Perception of the Soviet People

Our Perception of the Cuban People

Our Perception of the South Vietnamese People

Reasons for the Pro-Us Illusion

The Black-Top Image

Reasons for the Combination

References

Author Index

Subject Index