Related Experiment Videos
Using cognitive dissonance to enhance faculty members' attitudes toward teaching online courses
1General Education Center, National Kaohsiung Hospitality College, No. 1, Sung-Ho Rd., Shiao-Kang, Kaohsiung City, 812, Taiwan. seanchiou@mail.nkhc.edu.tw
Psychological Reports
|December 13, 2006
Summary
Offering rewards can improve college faculty attitudes toward online teaching. Smaller rewards may increase attitude change more, especially for individualist teachers, according to dissonance theory.
Area of Science:
- Educational Psychology
- Organizational Behavior
Background:
- College faculty attitudes toward online teaching are crucial for educational technology adoption.
- Understanding psychological factors influencing faculty adoption of online courses is essential.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of reward strategies on college faculty attitudes toward online teaching.
- To examine the role of individual differences (individualism vs. collectivism) in response to reward incentives.
Main Methods:
- An experimental study was conducted with college faculty.
- Participants were exposed to different reward conditions (low vs. high reward) for teaching online courses.
- Attitude change was measured to assess the effectiveness of the reward strategy.
Main Results:
- Individualist teachers showed significantly greater attitude change under a low reward condition compared to a high reward condition.
- Collectivist teachers did not exhibit a prominent reward effect on their attitude change.
- Dissonance theory principles were supported, particularly for individualist participants.
Conclusions:
- Reward size can influence attitude change towards online teaching, with smaller rewards being more effective for individualists.
- Faculty reward strategies should consider cultural dimensions like individualism and collectivism for optimal effectiveness.
- Findings offer insights for institutions aiming to enhance faculty engagement with online education.
Related Concept Videos
01:38Cognitive Dissonance
Social psychologists have documented that feeling good about ourselves and maintaining positive self-esteem is a powerful motivator of human behavior (Tavris & Aronson, 2008). In the United States, members of the predominant culture typically think very highly of themselves and view themselves as good people who are above average on many desirable traits (Ehrlinger, Gilovich, & Ross, 2005). Often, our behavior, attitudes, and beliefs are affected when we experience a threat to our...
01:12Hindsight Biases
Hindsight bias leads you to believe that the event you just experienced was predictable, even though it really wasn’t. In other words, you knew all along that things would turn out the way they did. Can you relate this to the phrase "Hindsight is 20/20" now?
01:21Cognitive Learning
Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
01:52Persuasion Strategies
Researchers have tested many persuasion strategies, including the foot-in-the door and the door-in-the-face techniques, in a variety of contexts. Ultimately, the principles are effective in selling products and changing people’s attitude, ideas, and behaviors (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004).
01:37Social Loafing
Another way in which a group presence can affect performance is social loafing—the exertion of less effort by a person working together with a group. Social loafing occurs when our individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group. Thus, group performance declines on easy tasks (Karau & Williams, 1993). Essentially individual group members loaf and let other group members pick up the slack. Because each individual’s efforts cannot be evaluated, individuals become less...
01:25Beck's Cognitive Therapy
Cognitive therapy is a psychological approach designed to address distortions in thinking, which can lead to negative emotions and unrealistic beliefs. These cognitive distortions often influence how individuals interpret and respond to situations, exacerbating emotional distress. Below are some prevalent cognitive distortions, their characteristics, and examples of how they manifest in thought processes.
Arbitrary Inference
Arbitrary inference involves making conclusions without sufficient...
Arbitrary Inference
Arbitrary inference involves making conclusions without sufficient...