Persuasion: Changing Attitudes
The concept of an individual basing decisions on the word and trustworthiness of others, due to the prominence and social status of that figure, without even knowing them personally, is fascinating. This of course stems from the lack of need for cognition, essentially making any logic and context given the situation irrelevant to them. (American Psychological Association, 2015)
This ties perfectly into one of the fundamental concepts of social psychology,
attitude (that being opinions and views regarding various views, social matters, concepts, and ideas), as it shows how easily and effectively it can be influenced by outside sources; an individual simply holding weight socially or being seen as “reputable” can completely change the way someone views a certain matter. There is no need for you to know the person in any way beyond what they display to the public eye, their opinion still holds immense worth. Of course, this only applies on a case by case basis, but it is still interesting to think about the true impact complete strangers have on the day to day decisions and beliefs of millions of individuals. (American Psychological Association, 2007)
Social Psychology at its very core relies on the research of how each individual varies regarding their behavior and attitude, and how drastically it changes based on their situation or outside influences. This plays into the concept of persuasion of attitudes as it relates to the worth and impact of outside influences and stimuli, which researchers wish to investigate. These situations of an individual's attitude being swayed by outside influences could provide valuable insight into the why behind these outside influences holding such weight. (American Psychological Association, 2009)
___________________________________________ First Memory
The majority of my early life was spent in the US, before I had moved to The Bahamas where I currently live. Looking back, there are only a handful of memories that I can recall, all of them occurring around the same timeframe (at least I think so). The furthest I can remember brings me back to a time when my parents were still together, living with myself and my two brothers.
I remember that next to our house my father had built, there was an abandoned unfinished house which we were discouraged from going in. At the time I liked to skateboard with my brothers, so we snuck into the old house to ride around, which of course was breaking our parents rules. It was a night when our parents must have gone out, so we took our opportunity to have some fun. There was no feeling of fear or danger, we were just trying to have some fun. The exact timeframe and atmosphere at the time of the memory is lost to me, but I remember specifically it being my brothers and I having a blast for hours over there that night.
At the time, I had no true concept of why it was wrong of us to be skateboarding in somebody's unfinished house, but we knew it was wrong (as it was going against our parents wishes). This is likely the core reason why I remember this event; my brothers and I were going against our parents' wishes to have some fun (which we rarely did besides this one time), which is why it is so significant. Us acting in defiance stood out as an outlier when considering the relationship with my parents as a child, thus causing it to have more weight when attempting to recall memories.
Another likely reason behind the recollection and storing of this memory could simply be the pure joy I experienced at that time. There was nothing more in the world I enjoyed at the time than skateboarding and having fun with my brothers; thus, I’d likely remember such a joyous and happy experience I had doing the thing that I loved. This in combination with the fact that we were acting in defiance to our parents' rules, are the main factors in the WHY behind the encoding and storage of this memory.