The theory of structuration by Anthony Giddens is one of the most influential perspectives of the late twentieth century in the communication discipline. Its main argument is that communication in social systems is not simply a matter of individual action or social structure but a joint product of both these moments: social action, including communication
Institutional theory is a theoretical framework for analyzing social (particularly organizational) phenomena, which views the social world as significantly comprised of institutions – enduring rules, practices, and structures that set conditions on action. Institutions are fundamental in explaining the social world because they are built into the social order, and direct the flow of social
Anne Roe (1904—1991) was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. Upon graduating from the University of Denver, she attended Columbia University, following the recommendation of Thomas Garth. At Columbia, Roe worked in the office of Edward Lee Thorndike, graduating with her Ph.D. in experimental psychology under the supervision of Robert S. Woodworth. The publication of
The origin of John L. Holland’s theory of vocational personalities can be traced back to his 1966 publication Psychology of Vocational Choice, which was followed by four subsequent editions of Making Vocational Choices. With each edition, Holland built a more comprehensive theory of career counseling and tackled new issues arising from the complex relationship between
The theory of vocational choice developed by John L. Holland is one of the most widely researched and applied theories of career development. Based on the premise that personality factors underlie career choices, his theory postulates that people project self-and world-of-work views onto occupational titles and make career decisions that satisfy their preferred personal orientations.
The priming effect refers to media-induced changes in voters’ reliance on particular issues as criteria for evaluating government officials. The more prominent any given issue in the news, the greater the impact of voters’ opinions about that issue on their evaluations of government. The priming effect creates volatility in public opinion, especially during election campaigns.
Action theory is based on a school of thought in philosophy, social and cognitive psychology, neurology, and organizational behavior as well as in counseling and career development. This school of thought addresses the intentional, goal-directed nature of human behavior. It has historical roots in the works of George Herbert Mead, Talcott Parsons, and Lev Vygotsky
Attachment theory provides a useful theoretical framework for understanding how relationships function to facilitate or hinder developmental progress, such as progress in career development. A central tenet of this theory concerns the central role of attachments as enduring emotional bonds of substantial intensity that influence healthy development and participation in satisfying relationships. Regularities in interactions
The evening news on TV presents extensive coverage of an oil spill just off the Spanish coast. The audience sees the sinking of an oil tanker in a severe storm, learns that it has leaked tens of thousands of tons of heavy fuel oil, and watches pictures of birds fighting a hopeless fight for survival
Catharsis theory has played an important role in the discussion about the effects of violence in the mass media for many years. The term “catharsis” is derived from the Greek katharsis which means cleansing, purging, or purification. In the form the theory is used in communication research, it implies that the execution of an aggressive
The Minnesota Theory of Work Adjustment (MTWA), developed by Rene Dawis and Lloyd Lofquist, provides a way of conceptualizing the fit between an individual and a job or organization. It was initially influenced by research into the job placement problems of the physically disabled, which was the focus of a consultancy undertaken at the University
A central puzzle that people face is how to make possible communication that is otherwise difficult, impossible, or unimagined. Communication design is a response to this puzzle. It happens when there is an intervention into some ongoing activity through the invention of techniques, devices, or procedures. Such interventions redesign interactivity and thus shape the possibilities
Politeness theory is a sociolinguistic theory in the pragmatic tradition that was developed by Brown and Levinson, who extended Goffman’s dramaturgical approach. Using Durkheim’s work on social rituals, Goffman examined how people manage their public identities, which he labeled face. When in the presence of others, one’s face is always on display and others will
Reinforcement theory is the basis for the prediction and control of human behavior through the use of contingent rewards that strengthens the behavior and increases its subsequent frequency. Reinforcement theory explains learning through the linkages or connections that are made between behavior and environmental contingencies. It emphasizes the importance of observable, measurable behavior. Environmental contingencies
Erik Erikson set forth a theory of ego identity development to account for the interactions between psychological, social, historical, and developmental factors in the formation of personality. Perhaps no single theoretician has had a greater impact on the way we perceive adolescent identity development than E. H. Erikson. His writing seems timeless, and ideas from
The theory of planned behavior (TPB) is one of a class of related theories of behavior change. The theory was developed by Icek Ajzen (1985, 1991) as an extension of the theory of reasoned action (TRA; Fishbein & Ajzen 1975), itself a model of behavior change. The TRA originated as a solution to the problem
In the typical demonstration of dual coding, a list consisting of an equal number of pictures and words is presented to study participants. On encountering an item in the list, the study participant is asked to read the word or name the picture. Later, when the items are recalled, twice as many pictures than words
Transportation into a narrative world refers to the feeling of being lost in the world of a narrative, of being completely immersed in a story and leaving the real world behind. This experience is a key mechanism underlying the influence of stories or narratives on individuals’ attitudes and beliefs, and is also associated with media
Film theory is a form of speculative thought that aims to make visible the underlying structures and absent causes that confer order and intelligibility upon films. These structures and causes, while not observable in themselves, are made visible by theory. The ultimate objective of film theory is to construct models of film’s nonobservable underlying structures.
While social sciences of the twentieth century could be characterized by endeavors to “debiologize” human nature, evolutionary thinking has become increasingly presentable in scientific rationale. The most influential approach utilizing evolutionary theory to answer questions in respect of communication is evolutionary psychology (EP). EP (or Darwinian psychology) is focused on how evolution has shaped human
The excellence theory is a general theory of public relations that resulted from a 15-year study of best practices in communication management funded by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation. Three books were published from the research (J. E. Grunig 1992; Dozier et al. 1995; L. A. Grunig et al. 2002). This
Empathy is a social emotion. It comes in response to bearing witness to the emotions of others, usually persons but also other beings thought capable of experiencing emotions. Prototypically, an empathic reaction is evoked by the immediate observation of others’ acute emotions, and it manifests itself in an emotional experience that the witness believes to
Family theory consists of sets of propositions that attempt to explain some aspect of family life. Theorizing involves making general statements about some phenomenon, and an important characteristic of family theory, therefore, is that it involves a degree of abstraction from reality. Theoretical statements are abstract statements employing concepts that refer to things in the
Positioning is an essential concept in communication management, public relations, and marketing communication. The process of positioning includes identifying, defining, and managing the perception relevant audiences have of a particular organization, product, person, or idea. Three lines of thought relevant to communication theory have emerged during the last decades: strategic positioning, positioning strategies, and discursive
Stakeholder theory has provoked controversy for more than 70 years, even though the term “stakeholder” is itself of more recent origin. The theory raises a highly contentious question: in whose interests should a business corporation or other type of organization be run? Opponents stress the primacy of shareholder rights. Supporters claim corporations have wider responsibilities
Sethi (1975) defined a “legitimacy gap” as an expectancy gap indicating a discrepancy between an organization’s actions and society’s expectations of this organization. Legitimacy gaps can threaten an organization’s image and reputation, and ultimately its existence as a legitimate member of the business community and society (Bridges 2004). Hence, legitimacy theory asserts that organizations avoid
Even after they formally become independent, many developing countries still depend on the industrialized world for many resources, including technology, financing, models, and even media content, such as films or television programs. This is a structural legacy of imperialism, with which many countries with former colonies have struggled. Only a few countries have completely overcome
The emergence of postcolonial theory as an academic tradition, particularly in the United States, can be traced to the late 1970s with the publication of Edward Said’s book Orientalism (1978). According to Said, Orientalism is a powerful body of knowledge – power/knowledge in Michel Foucault’s sense – produced by texts and institutional practices of western
The word “system” is widely used. We speak of planetary systems, transportation systems, nervous systems, number systems, filing systems, political systems, systems of checks and balances, systems of grammatical rules, systems of weights and measures, and so on as if they shared the same reality. Their common denominator is a multitude of component parts, depending
Despite acknowledgments of sport as a legitimate focus of sociological analysis from early thinkers such as Spencer, Simmel, Weber, Scheler, and Mead (Luschen 1980), the lack of development in social theory and sport studies has been well documented (Frey & Eitzen 1991), although there appears to be increased movement toward the generation and integration of
Medium theory stands apart from more generic “media theory” in its exploration of the influences of communication technologies in addition to, and distinct from, the specific content (messages) they convey. Medium theorists argue that media are not simply channels for transmitting information between two or more environments, but are themselves distinct social-psychological settings or environments
For those who are familiar with anthropology, the themes of chaos and complexity might seem intuitively related to the field. Immersion in unfamiliar cultures is understood to produce disorientation, confusion, and perceptions of the foreign culture as “chaotic.” Consequently, the relevance of chaos theory and complexity theory to anthropology might not require a detailed justification.
Chaos theory describes the motion of certain dynamical, nonlinear systems under specific conditions. Chaotic motion is not the same as random motion. It is especially likely to emerge in systems that are described by at least three nonlinear equations, though it may also arise in other settings under specific conditions. All of these systems are
In psychology, psychometric tests are standardized data collection methods. To provide significant and interpretable results in an empirical study, a test must meet specific requirements that are laid down by test theory. Only if these preconditions are given can reliable and valid conclusions be drawn with respect to the “real” value of a person’s trait
The phrase “critical theory” was first promoted by the German philosopher and sociologist, Max Horkheimer, in a 1937 essay, “Critical and traditional theory.” An astute academic entrepreneur, he devised it to promote the approach to studying society and culture that he and his colleagues had been developing at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt
Cultivation theory, developed by George Gerbner and his colleagues, proposes that television viewing makes an independent contribution to audience members’ conceptions of social reality. The central hypothesis guiding cultivation research is that the more time people spend watching television, the more their beliefs and assumptions about life and society will be congruent with the most
Communication theory is heir to classic issues in the history of ideas. If philosophy has traditionally asked how human knowledge of reality may be possible, communication theory addresses the media, modalities, and messages by which humans exchange, reflect on, and enact different perspectives on reality. Revisiting a number of key epistemological, ethical, and political issues
Thinking about measurement brings to mind an old adage, “If it exists, it is measurable.” However, in research, we tend to go beyond that adage, saying “If it exists, it must be measurable” (Leedy 1997). Most researchers will likely agree that measurement is a pillar of social and behavioral sciences research (Guilford 1954). What Is
The theory of reasoned action (TRA) is a general theory of behavior that was first introduced in 1967 by Martin Fishbein, and was extended by Fishbein and Icek Ajzen (e.g., Fishbein & Ajzen 1975; Ajzen & Fishbein 1980). Developed largely in response to the repeated failure of traditional attitude measures to predict specific behaviors, the
In its original sense “grounded theory” stands for a methodology, research program, and method of qualitative research. In a narrower but also more practical sense the term describes a qualitative technique of text analysis comparable to qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis. Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss introduced grounded theory as a general research program
Throughout the ages, most people believed that the cosmos had existed for all eternity in an unchanging or static condition, neither expanding nor contracting. One reason individuals held this belief was an absence of scientific data, coupled with the inability to answer questions about the universe through measurement and observation. Another reason was that most
Introduction Importance Of The Theory Why do consumers purchase health insurance? To purchase anything, the consumer must give up something, and in the case of health insurance, that ‘something’ is the premium payment. Although the nature of the premium payment is clear (to both consumers and economists), what is not clear is the nature of
Rhetorical theory can help public relations to account for the symbolic aspects of communication, which arguably are the heart of public relations activity. Although some fleeting mentions were made of the term in the early public relations literature, it is often said that the rhetorical approach originated around 1980, when Robert L. Heath proposed rhetoric
Studies under the heading of determination theory focus on the question of how media content is produced. The main assumption is that news releases and other public relations material play a critical role in news-gathering activities. Public relations (PR) as a source of media content has been analyzed in communication studies since the 1970s (Sigal
As the science of humankind, anthropology strives to give a comprehensive and coherent view of our own species within material nature, organic evolution, and sociocultural development. Facts, concepts, and perspectives converge into a sweeping and detailed picture of human beings within earth history in general and the primate world in particular. To give meaning and
The terms fact, theory, and hypothesis are sometimes treated as though they had clear meanings and clear relations with one another, but their histories and uses are more complex and diverse than might be expected. The usual sense of these words places them in a relationship of increasing uncertainty. A fact is usually thought of
Introduction In recent years there has been an increased interest in the notion of the health ‘system,’ the ultimate goal of which is to protect and improve the health of its population. The definition of the health system is contested, but a frequently invoked starting point is the World Health Report in 2000, which ‘‘…
Claude Fischer’s (1975, 1995) subcultural theory of urbanism is designed to explain how and why social relationships vary by size of population in settlements. According to the theory, urban life is bifurcated into public and private domains. In the public domain social relationships are typically superficial because people are usually interacting with others whom they
Compositional theory of urbanism asserts that urban unconventionality and urban–rural differences are due mainly to the social characteristics (i.e., class, race/ethnicity, age) of city dwellers. The density and heterogeneity that define the urban environment do not affect how people relate to one another or cause people to deviate. In other words, there are no independent
Chris Argyris and Donald Schon’s theory of action is a descriptive and normative framework that explains and prescribes behavior at the individual, group, and organizational levels. The intellectual roots of the theory of action are John Dewey’s theory of inquiry and Kurt Lewin’s formulations of action research. In particular, the theory of action aspires to
Hedonic theory, or theory of psychological hedonism, is the idea that human behavior is motivated by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain (or, more accurately, displeasure). Its origins can be traced to the beginnings of Western philosophy. Although its prominence within psychology waned during the 20th century, updated versions of hedonic theory
In sport, and sport coaching more specifically, the connection between coach and athlete is instrumental for optimal functioning, be it physical, psychological, mental, or social. In fact, there is strong evidence to suggest that success in sport is the product of the combined interrelating between the coach and the athlete. Athletes are unlikely to produce
What is leadership? Is it leaders’ behavior or our image of it? For example, if you are a female manager, how often has an outsider taken you for your own secretary? How often does that happen to your male colleague? This is what research on implicit leadership theories (ILT) focuses on. What are our ideas
The operant conditioning or reinforcement theory of B. F. Skinner is one of the major psychological theories concerned with motivation at work. Unique in the social sciences, it identifies two of its major concepts according to the time at which they occur: (1) antecedents, such as communicating company policy, providing training, and setting goals, which
The path-goal theory of leadership is a situational theory of leadership and is closely aligned with expectancy theory. The theory holds that the major function of the leader is to enhance subordinates’ instrumentalities, for example, perceived degree of relationship between behavior and outcome; expectancies, such as perceived relationship between effort and behavior; and valences including
Whether out of envy or admiration, people have long been fascinated by the extraordinary skills of champion athletes such as Roger Federer (tennis), Michael Phelps (swimming), and Lionel Messi (soccer). Building on this interest, recent years have witnessed increasing collaboration among researchers from cognitive psychology, sport psychology, and cognitive neuroscience in studying the mental and
Ecological theory is a global perspective or meta-theory, because the broad heading represents several scientific approaches that view human behavior as the result of the relationship between individuals and their environments. Ernest Haeckel, German zoologist and evolutionist, coined the term oekology in 1866 to define a field of study that examined organisms in their living
Why do some individuals participate intensely in sport activities over many years while others never get actively involved in sport or exercise? What influences initial participation in sport or exercise? What influences continued participation? What influences the intensity of participation? How do we explain drop-out from sport and exercise engagement? How do we explain both
Attributions are explanations about why particular performances or behaviors have occurred. When faced with important, negative, novel, or unexpected events, individuals search for meaningful explanations for the causes of those events. In this regard, it is widely acknowledged that attributions are an area of importance in the field of applied psychology because of their implications
The aim of attachment theory has largely been to explain how relationships with parents in childhood have such a persistent effect on personality development. The focus of attachment theory has subsequently been extended from child to adolescent and adult development and social relationships within the context of both contemporary personality and social psychology. Attachment has
Action theory represents a general model of work-related cognition and behavior with implications for a wide range of topics in industrial/organizational psychology. Inspired by Lewin’s field theory, American cybernetic models, and Russian and Polish approaches, German work psychologists initiated the development of action theory in the late 1960s. As the core concept of the theory
Among the most influential theories of work motivation to appear during the second half of the 20th century in Western psychology and organizational behavior was, in fact, a body of theories that were all variants of an expected-value formulation. In a nutshell, these theories held in common the premise that the motivational force a person
An employee’s performance is a function of ability as well as motivation. Ability refers to a person’s knowledge and skill. Knowledge and skill alone do not lead to action. Motivation is the choice to exert effort and to persist, drawing on knowledge and skill, until a desired goal is attained. A typology for understanding motivation
The primary objectives of job characteristics theory (JCT) are to explain how properties of the organizational tasks people perform affect their work attitudes and behavior, and to identify the conditions under which these effects are likely to be strongest. The most recent version of the theory is shown in Figure 1. As shown in the
The study of work motivation centers on why employees initiate, terminate, or persist in specific work behaviors in organizations. Most traditional theories of work motivation are built on the premise that individuals act in ways that maximize the value of exchange with the organization. However, the nature of an individual’s work motivation may also involve
The term self-regulation refers to a complex and dynamic set of processes involved in setting and pursuing goals. It is commonly used to refer to a broad set of theories that seek to describe, explain, and predict these goal-directed processes. Although many theories of self-regulation exist, each proposing some unique characteristics, researchers generally agree on
The theory of work adjustment (TWA) describes how and explains why workers adjust to their work environments. It depicts adjustment as the interaction of person (P) with environment (E). Interaction refers to P and E acting on as well as reacting to each other. P and E interact because, to begin with, each has requirements
Before the mid- to late 1950s, it always made sense to most people who thought about it that the opposite of employee job satisfaction was job dissatisfaction and that the opposite of job dissatisfaction was job satisfaction. The more a person had one of these on the job, the less he or she had of
Concepts from control theory date back to the early 1900s; however, the origination of control theory is usually ascribed to the publication of Norbert Wiener’s 1948 acclaimed work, Cybernetics: Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. To describe control theory simply, one could generalize that it is premised in understanding and describing self-regulating
Achievement goals refer to the aim, purpose, or focus of a person’s achievement behavior. These goals are dynamic cognitive entities representing future-based possibilities that respond to changes in the person as well as the situation. They do not refer strictly to the level of aspired performance (as in the goal-setting literature) but, rather, to how
Every waking moment we face an important selection problem. How do we pick some information for further processing while ignoring almost everything else? This problem is not easy to solve given the brevity and fragility of our working memory (the mental system that regulates our conscious awareness) and the all but unlimited array of information
The theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behavior have been influential cognitive models for understanding and predicting social behavior across a variety of domains. Both focus on the question of how to determine the likelihood that an individual will engage in a specific behavior. The theory of reasoned action exam-ines determinants of volitional
Item response theory (IRT), also called latent trait theory, is a psychometric theory that was created to better understand how individuals respond to individual items on psychological and educational tests. The underlying theory is built around a series of mathematical formulas that have parameters that need to be estimated using complex statistical algorithms. These parameters
Measurement is the process of quantifying the characteristics of a person or object. Theories of measurement help to explain measurement results (i.e., scores), thereby providing a rationale for how they are interpreted and treated mathematically and statistically. Classical test theory (CTT) is a measurement theory used primarily in psychology, education, and related fields. It was
Equity theory is a conceptualization that focuses on the causes and consequences of people’s perceptions of equity and inequity in their relationships with others. First proposed by J. Stacy Adams in 1963 and fully developed in a chapter published 2 years later, equity theory draws on earlier social psychological concepts inspired by Fritz Heider’s balance
Drive Theory Definition Drive refers to increased arousal and internal motivation to reach a particular goal. Psychologists differentiate between primary and secondary drives. Primary drives are directly related to survival and include the need for food, water, and oxygen. Secondary or acquired drives are those that are culturally determined or learned, such as the drive
Carol Gilligan was born on November 28, 1936, in New York City. She graduated from Swarthmore College in 1958, majoring in literature. She received her Masters in clinical psychology in 1960 from Radcliffe University and her PhD in social psychology from Harvard University in 1964. She began teaching at Harvard in 1967, becoming a full
David Valentine Tiedeman received his B.A. in psychology at Union College in 1941. Tiedeman would receive a master’s from the University of Rochester in 1943 and go on to Harvard to complete degrees in educational measurement both his Ed.M. in 1948 and an Ed.D. in 1949. While at Harvard, Tiedeman was mentored by the renowned
The origin of John L. Holland’s theory of vocational personalities can be traced back to his 1966 publication Psychology of Vocational Choice, which was followed by four subsequent editions of Making Vocational Choices. With each edition, Holland built a more comprehensive theory of career counseling and tackled new issues arising from the complex relationship between
There have been many different approaches to explaining development, but one especially has tried to deal with the importance of the environment without ignoring the uniqueness of the individual. Urie Bronfenbrenner, and more recently along with Pamela Morris, has developed what is called an experimental ecology of human development or an ecological theory of human
Orthogonal cultural identification theory argues that in a pluralistic environment, individuals may identify with more than one culture without necessarily sacrificing one cultural identity for another. The central element of this theory is that identification with any one culture is independent from identification with other cultures. Cultural identification can be distinguished from ethnic self-labels, or
The Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA) is a person-environment fit (P-E fit) theory that elaborated the P-E fit theories of Frank Parsons, Donald G. Paterson, and John G. Darley into a dynamic model of vocational adjustment. The TWA postulates that optimal vocational outcomes occur when (a) the individual’s abilities match the skills required for success
Beginning with the first documented vocational counseling attempts of Frank Parsons in 1909, vocational counseling and research focused for nearly half a century on vocational choice—not on how or why one made a particular vocational decision, but rather on what that decision was. Donald Super’s theory of vocational development was therefore unique in being one
Although dual-process theories have become popular over the last few decades, ideas about mental division have existed for centuries. Significant philosophers and psychologists, such as Plato and Sigmund Freud, believed that the mind was partitioned, and the early work in this area has contributed much to modern dual-process theories. These theories, which have recently become
In 1975, Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson published Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, wherein he outlined a framework for investigating the biological basis of social behavior. As a branch of evolutionary biology, sociobiological theory aims to use demographic parameters (e.g., growth and mortality rates, gender and age distributions) and the genetic structure of populations to predict
Theory of Mind Definition Theory of mind (ToM) refers to humans’ everyday mind reading. It is the commonsense ability to attribute mental states (such as beliefs, desires, and intentions) to one’s self and to other people as a way of making sense of and predicting behavior. For example, your thought that “John thinks I ate
Theory of Planned Behavior Definition Developed by Icek Ajzen in 1985, the theory of planned behavior (TPB) is today perhaps the most popular social-psychological model for the prediction of behavior. It has its roots in Martin Fishbein and Ajzen’s theory of reasoned action, which was developed in response to observed lack of correspondence between general
Triangular Theory of Love Definition The triangular theory of love characterizes love in terms of three underlying components: intimacy, passion, and commitment. People love each other to the extent they show these three components, and different combinations of the components yield different kinds of love. The Three Components The three components of love are each
Action theory is based on a school of thought in philosophy, social and cognitive psychology, neurology, and organizational behavior as well as in counseling and career development. This school of thought addresses the intentional, goal-directed nature of human behavior. It has historical roots in the works of George Herbert Mead, Talcott Parsons, and Lev Vygotsky
Attachment theory provides a useful theoretical framework for understanding how relationships function to facilitate or hinder developmental progress, such as progress in career development. A central tenet of this theory concerns the central role of attachments as enduring emotional bonds of substantial intensity that influence healthy development and participation in satisfying relationships. Regularities in interactions
The influence of postmodernism’s challenge of the “objectivist” position in psychology has been central in the evolution of constructivist therapies. The abandonment of the certainty of modernist positions for the tentative, constructed meanings in the postmodern world has given rise to a number of therapeutic approaches that eschew well-established, contemporary icons in psychology. Objective assessment
Attribution theory is a prominent and widely researched theory of motivation that was developed by Bernard Weiner and colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles, in the 1970s and 1980s. The focal point of attribution theory is the general human tendency to ask “why” an outcome occurred, especially outcomes that are negative, unusual, or
Critical race theory (CRT), initially created as a body of legal theory, is an organizing framework useful in understanding human behavior and social processes relevant to racial group categorizations and racial stratification. Critical race theory examines the oppressive dynamics of society to inform individual, group, and social transformation. Rather than embracing a colorblind perspective, CRT
Careful observers of humans and other organisms noticed long ago that certain variables that should vary as environmental conditions change actually do not vary much within the organism. For example, store shelves remain stocked despite customers buying products. Control theory arose as one explanation for the mechanism that keeps variables stable. Industrial and organizational psychologists
The theory of planned behavior, developed by Icek Ajzen, is a social cognitive theory that has guided a large majority of theory-based research on physical activity. The theory of planned behavior is an extension of the theory of reasoned action developed by Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen in 1975. Since its introduction over 25 years
Attachment Theory Definition An attachment refers to the strong emotional bond that exists between an infant and his or her caretaker. The attachment theory is designed to explain the evolution of that bond, its development, and its implications for human experience and relationships across the life course. Although attachment theory has primarily been a theory
Attribution Theory Definition Attribution theory—or rather, a family of attribution theories—is concerned with the question of how ordinary people explain human behavior. One type of attribution theory emphasizes people’s use of folk psychology to detect and understand internal states such as goals, desires, or intentions. People then use these inferred states to explain the behavior
Balance Theory Definition Balance theory describes the structure of people’s opinions about other individuals and objects as well as the perceived relation between them. The central notion of balance theory is that certain structures between individuals and objects are balanced, whereas other structures are imbalanced, and that balanced structures are generally preferred over imbalanced structures.
The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions was developed to explain why people experience positive emotions. What purpose might be served by fleeting feelings of joy, gratitude, serenity, or love? Did such pleasant states confer adaptive value over the course of human evolution? Within prior theories of emotions, positive emotions posed a puzzle. This was because
Equity Theory Definition Equity theory posits that when it comes to relationships, two concerns stand out: (1) How rewarding are their societal, family, and work relationships? (2) How fair and equitable are those relationships? According to equity theory, people feel most comfortable when they are getting exactly what they deserve from their relationships—no more and
Escape Theory Definition Escape theory refers to the tendency for people to engage in behaviors to avoid an unpleasant psychological reaction. Whereas the common use of the term escape suggests physically removing oneself from a physical location (such as escaping from prison), escape theory is used to describe behaviors that enable a person to flee
Ever heard of overreacting? Such as when lovers, after yelling their heads off arguing, make up and experience unusually strong sexual pleasures? Or when a disagreement escalates from silly to serious, prompts an exchange of insults, and ends with bloody noses? Or when the girl who went along to a horror movie is so terrified
Inoculation Theory Definition Inoculation theory was devised by William McGuire in the early 1960s as a strategy to protect attitudes from change—to confer resistance to counterattitudinal influences, whether such influences take the form of direct attacks or sustained pressures. Nature of Inoculation Theory Inoculation theory consists of two elements: threat and refutational preemption. The threat
Interdependence Theory Definition Interdependence theory describes the structural properties that characterize interactions and the implications of such structure for human psychology. Whereas most psychological theories focus on the individual, suggesting that people behave as they do because of their unique experiences or cognitions or personalities, interdependence theory regards the relationships between people as important as
Learning Theory Definition The meaning of this term seems simple: Learning theory is the theory about how learning is achieved. Unfortunately, things are not that simple. A fundamental problem is that the term learning theory seems to suggest that there is a single, true theory of learning. Although one cannot exclude the possibility that such
Objectification Theory Definition Objectification theory is a framework for understanding the experience of being female in a culture that sexually objectifies the female body. The theory proposes that girls and women, more so than boys and men, are socialized to internalize an observer’s perspective as their primary view of their physical selves. This perspective is
Prospect Theory Definition Prospect theory is a psychological account that describes how people make decisions under conditions of uncertainty. These may involve decisions about nearly anything where the outcome of the decision is somewhat risky or uncertain, from deciding whether to buy a lottery ticket, to marry one’s current romantic partner, to undergo chemotherapy treatment
Human actions are the fundamental phenomena that all theories of knowing, learning, and development aspire to explain. However, most theories do not explain concrete individual actions, but provide probabilistic estimates for central tendencies. Most theories also consider actions as expressions and causal consequences of underlying, hidden social or psychological phenomena. Activity theory, on the other
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”: With these lines from As You Like It, William Shakespeare succinctly captured the essence of role theory. In short, people’s behavior stems from the parts they play in life. In social psychology, a role is defined as the collection of expectations that
Scapegoat Theory Definition Scapegoat theory refers to the tendency to blame someone else for one’s own problems, a process that often results in feelings of prejudice toward the person or group that one is blaming. Scapegoating serves as an opportunity to explain failure or misdeeds, while maintaining one’s positive self-image. If a person who is
Self-Affirmation Theory Definition The self-affirmation theory posits that people have a fundamental motivation to maintain self-integrity, a perception of themselves as good, virtuous, and able to predict and control important outcomes. In virtually all cultures and historical periods, there are socially shared conceptions of what it means to be a person of self-integrity. Having self-integrity
Self-categorization theory addresses the problem of the psychological group. Are there such things as psychological groups? How do they form? How is a collection of individuals able to act, think, and feel as a group, collectively, as if, in the extreme, the group members shared a common mind? It is taken for granted that human
The self-determination theory (SDT), formulated by Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan, is a broad theory of human motivation for which the concept of basic or universal psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and self-determination and the differentiation of types of motivation (autonomous, controlled) are central and defining features. SDT posits that the type, rather
Self-discrepancy theory was developed in an attempt to answer the following question: Why is it that when people are emotionally overwhelmed by tragedies or serious setbacks in their lives—such as the death of their child, the loss of their jobs, or the break-up of their marriages—some suffer from depression whereas others suffer from anxiety? Even
Self-Expansion Theory Definition Close relationships open up new worlds to people. As you interact with roommates, close friends, and relationship partners in college, you will probably start to notice small parts of yourself changing to become a little more like them and vice versa. For example, you might notice that you start taking more interest
In everyday life, people observe other people’s actions and behaviors and make inferences about others’ attitudes based on what they observe. When people see how another person acts in a particular situation, they often attribute the behavior to the person’s traits and attitudes. For example, if you view someone in a park recycling a plastic
The self-verification theory proposes that people want others to see them as they see themselves. For example, just as those who see themselves as relatively extraverted want others to see them as extraverted, so too do those who see themselves as relatively introverted want others to recognize them as introverts. The theory grew out of
Historiography refers to the philosophy and methods of doing history. Psychology is certainly guided by underlying philosophies and a diversity of research methods. A behaviorist, for example, has certain assumptions about the influence of previous experience, in terms of a history of punishment and reinforcement, on current behavior. And the methods of study take those
As a conceptual extension of social identity theory, John Turner and his colleagues developed self-categorization theory. Self-categorization theory seeks to understand and explain the processes by which people form cognitive representations of themselves and others in relation to different social groups. The underlying premise behind this theory is that people place themselves and others into
Self-determination theory (SDT) is a metatheory of human motivation and personality that addresses autonomous behaviors and the conditions and processes that support such high-quality forms of volitional engagement. In the past decade, there has been a burgeoning growth of basic, experimental, and applied research within sport and exercise settings designed to test the theoretical tenets