Schema Theory
Schemas provide ways of organizing information about the social world and
provide guides for understanding and interaction.
A schema begins whenever a person comes in contact with a new situation or
idea.
Schemas help to predict future interactions.
Attribution Theory
Looks for causal reasons that could be used to explain observed behavior.
An internal attribution locates the cause of a particular behavior within the person
and an external attribution locates the cause of the behavior in the situation.
Narrative Paradigm
Sees storytelling as the most basic and universal of all human activities.
The world is a set of stories from which we choose and constantly re-create our
lives.
Dramatism
Life is often played out in the dramatic tension of guilt and redemption cycles.
Constructivism
There is a creative emergent process of the social reconstruction of reality as
involving an interplay of individual processes and socially and historically
constituted processes and contexts.
Constructivists are most interested in how people think about other people and
relationships.
Berger’s Theory of Planning
When persons derive plans to meet goals, their first priority is to access long-term
memory to determine whether an already-formulated plan is available for use.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Examines the relationship between attitude and behavior, the link between what
you think about an issue and how you behave regarding that issue.
We often maintain consistency in our attitudes by exposing ourselves only to
messages that are consistent with our attitudes.
Elaboration Likelihood Model
Individuals are motivated (for social reasons) to hold “correct” attitudes.
Attempts to explain different ways of processing messages, why different
processing modes will be used, and the results of those processing modes on
attitude change.
Inoculation Theory
