Consistency theories trepte major reference works wiley. Balance theory the art of service, standard requirements. Fritz heider, a social psychologist who developed a theory about situations involving psychological inequality, developed the balance theory, the idea that we want to maintain psychological. Balance theory heider 1958 proposes balance theory as a simple system for describing the way our environment is perceived by us. The development of a scientific specialty as diffusion. Fritz heider, the patriarch of attribution theory, posited that most people without thinking engage in naive or commonsense psychology. Leon festingers cognitive dissonance theory 1957, fritz heiders balance theory 1946, 1958, charles osgood an. Austrian psychologist fritz heider developed attribution theory to explain the process by which we attribute outcomes based on internal behavior and external events. You will learn how balance theory views our psychological comfort level. Balance theorie heider, 1946,1958 sozialpsychologie. This approach is firmly rooted in a socialpsychological theory balance theory, which i will discuss first. Heiders balance theory applied the gestalt principle of unit formation to the realm of sentiments emotions and values and predicted the conditions under which relations among people, and between people and entities, would be perceived as harmonious.
An experimental evaluation of heiders balance theory with. Although tedious to spell out in completeness, the idea is that positive and negative sentiments need to be represented in ways that minimize ambivalence and maximize a simple, straightforward affective representation of the person. Relation to heiders balance theory as described by greenwald et al. An important part of our informationgathering behavior has always been to find out what other people think. The consistency motive is the urge to maintain ones values and beliefs over time. Attitudes and cognitive organization fritz heider 1946. Heider s balance theory applied the gestalt principle of unit formation to the realm of sentiments emotions and values and predicted the conditions under which relations among people, and between people and entities, would be perceived as harmonious. Fritz heiders 1946 1958 balance theory 3 basic elements in. We construct a model based on heiders social balance theory to analyze the. Heiders diagrams contain representations that corre. Balance theory where marketing and psychology meet. Fritz heider 19 february 1896 2 january 1988 was an austrian psychologist whose work was related to the gestalt school. We construct a model based on heiders social balance theory to analyze the interpersonal network among social agents. This lesson will use examples to examine fritz heiders balance theory.
An attitude towards an event can alter the attitude towards the person who caused the event, and, if the attitudes. There is an interesting video animation created by two psychologists, fritz heider and maryann simmel, to illustrate the concept of intentional causality, whatever that is. In the psychology of interpersonal relations, heider elaborated on his balance theory chap. Heider represents the relationships between these three elements with plus or. In 1958 he published the psychology of interpersonal relations, which expanded upon his creations of balance theory and attribution theory. An experimental evaluation of heiders balance theory with respect to situational and predispositional variables.
He says, basically, that we are all amateur scientists, trying to understand other peoples behavior and tying that information into a reasonable explanation he was intrigued by how people. Fritz heiders balance theory explains the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements when a wellliked celebrity uses a product. An experimental study of apparent behavior fritz heider and marianne simmel the american journal of psychology vol. Heider taught social psychology at the university of kansas from 19471966. Cognitive balance theory was devised by heider 1946, 1958 to explain how people resolve inconsistencies in their interpersonal affects. An attitude towards an event can alter the attitude towards the person who caused the event, and, if the attitudes towards a person and an event are similar, the event is easily ascribed to the person. Attitudes towards persons and causal unit formations influence each other. Heiders major role in relation to attribution theory would be the division of potential sources of action into personal and environmental types hewstone m. It conceptualizes the cognitive consistency motive as a. Fritz heider s legacy social psychology vol 39, no 3.
The reinforcement function of friendship ties has been observed in the framework of heiders 1946 balance theory kim 1970. Heiders balance, newcombs symmetry, osgoods congruity. Karan, andrew, ethel, nykole, joreen and xiaojia topic 21 devise an experiment to test heiders balance theory and discuss your findings introduction brief overview of heiders balance theory. Publication date 1958 topics interpersonal relations, relations humaines publisher hillsdale, new jersey. Updating heiders balance theory in consumer behavior. Review of evidence for implicit consistency in social.
Fritz heider department of psychology, smith college, usa. Balance theory is is a psychological concept that describes relationships amongst cognitions the balance theory has been pioneered by fritz heider in 1946. Heiders balance theory heider 1946 depicts relationships among our thoughts like michael jordan and nike shoes in a triangle, with the person or perceiver at the top, the other person on the bottom left, and the attitude object x on the bottom right. Festingers cognitive dissonance theory 1957, fritz heiders balance theory 1946.
X in later work, x could be a person main assumption. Attribution theory in social psychology iresearchnet. Fritz heiders 1958c book the psychology of interpersonal relations and the handful of articles preceding it. The balance theory states that people like balance in their lives and if they have a positive attitude towards a celebrity and they see that celebrity using a certain product or service, then they will likely have a. Attribution theory of fritz heider my wife, jean, served on a jury in a federal case involving conspiracy, racketeering, drug dealing, armed robbery, and extortion. Fritz heider proposed that people will attempt to maintain a psychological balance and form relationships that balance out their likes and dislikes. Balance theory states that the market will tend toward equilibrium. This book presents a widerange analysis of the conceptual framework and the psychological processes that influence human social.
Attribution and balance have historically been considered separate theories, but the authors show how these two ideas, in conjunction with the idea of unit. Theory comm2071 media audiences and consumer behaviour. Heider also argued that perceptual organization follows the rule of psychological balance. Leon festingers cognitive dissonance theory 1957, fritz heider s balance theory 1946, 1958, charles osgood and percy tannenbaums consistency theory 1955, and rosenbergs model of affectivecognitive consistency 1956. Heiders balance theory the heiders balance theory is one of cognitive consistency theory which dominated social psychology in 1960s greenwald et al, 2002. Next i will apply this method to literary criticism in the 1970s. In the psychology of motivation, balance theory is a theory of attitude change, proposed by fritz heider. Balance theory is a motivational theory of attitude change, proposed by fritz heider. Two very influential theories in social psychology, the. It conceptualizes the cognitive consistency motive as a drive toward psychological balance. He says a persons environment is made up of entities people, ideas and events, and relations between these.
Heiders theory of attribution fritz heider developed models of attribution for both object perception and person perception. Furthermore, the balance theory is laid on peoples naive theory of action the conceptual framework by which people interpret, explain, and predict others behavior. F estingers cognitive dissonance theory 1957, fritz heiders balance theory 1946. To predict the outcome of a situation using heiders balance theory, one must weigh the effects of all the potential results, and the one requiring the least amount of effort will be the likely outcome. Fritz heiders 1958c book the psychology of interpersonal relations and the handful of articles preceding it e. Heider proposed that sentiment or liking relationships are balanced if the affect valence in a system multiplies. Balance theory is used to predict the existence of closed triads e. In social psychology, consistency theories constitute a body of four theories. In fritz heiders balance theory, the fundamental paradigm for analyzing relationships is a triangle one variant of the implicit association test measures attitudes toward a single group like just elderly.
Fritz heiders 1946, 1958 balance theory 3 basic elements in a cognitive system the person. Newcombs symmetry theory osgoods congruity theory festingers theory of cognitive dissonance. The hypothesis may be stated in greater detail thus. Heiders balance theory applied to the tiger woodsnike golf advertising appeals perceiver heiders balance theory tiger woods nike golf ads 2000 attempt to find psychological balance in situations drive for consistency which can lead to selfpersuasion strive for balance. For example, according to balance theory, cognitive imbalance occurs when one. The model of social balance theory provides us an interesting tool to see how a social group evolves to the possible balance state. The psychology of interpersonal relations fritz heider on. Learn fritz heider with free interactive flashcards. His theory of object perception first described in heider, 1920, his dissertation is rarely cited today, but it serves as the foundation for his later theory of person perception. Balance theory balance theory fritz heider 1946 people. Introduction we attach and assume meanings to others behavior in our day to day life, and the theory developed by fritz heider based on this attribution is called attribution theory.
Most writers usually credit fritz heider 1946 with the earliest articulation of a consistency theory, although the informal concept can be traced back to earlier work see kiesler et al. For example, if a person p likes another person o, and o likes object x, then p will tend to like x also. For example if person a likes a celebrity and the celebrity likes a product but person a originally disliked the product, then. In general, such triadic relations are balanced when all three relations are. Choose from 2 different sets of fritz heider flashcards on quizlet.
Attitudes and cognitive organization fritz heider 1946 first published in the journal of psychology, 21, 107112. We introduce the balance index that can be used to measure social balance in macro structure level global balance index or in micro structure. According to balance theory, if a potential adopter is friends with a previous adopter, he or she will feel psychological pressure to act in a way that will create balance and also decide to adopt the. Bully triangles and terrified circles the scientist. Fritz heider was born 1896 1988 in vienna, austria and known well as a psychologist. In 1958, fritz heider introduced an early version of attribution theory at a time when behaviorist theories of learning and memory and psychoanalytic theories of unconscious motivation dominated academic psychology. This collection includes early diaries, notes for his autobiography, psychology notebooks, publications and papers, and research.
856 206 511 88 380 1233 1405 53 289 421 547 474 1250 351 1374 687 43 1093 1026 1636 1367 679 879 640 833 956 1055 155 1600 177 917 1105 658 1099 509 600 110 637 1275 854 519