Respond in one or more of the following ways:

• Ask a probing question.
• Share an insight from having read your colleague’s posting.
• Offer and support an opinion.
• Validate an idea with your own experience.
• Make a suggestion.
• Expand on your colleague’s posting.

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Please include at least one references in the response.

📍 Post 1 (Write a 50-100 words response)

💎 Social Issues, Social Change Implications, and Applications of Attitude and Attitude Change Research

For this discussion I have chosen the social issue of racial bias. The United States is a very diverse country composed of individuals of various races and nationalities. Some portions of the United States are very excepting of these various races, while there are other portions of the United States that are more biased and seem to discriminate and degrade individuals belonging to different races and nationalities than that of their own. This issue is something that definitely needs attention because we are all created equal and deserve the same level of respect as one another.

To address the issue of racial bias, one theory within attitude change that I would try to use would be the Self-Perception Theory. The Self- Perception Theory essentially says that individuals create attitudes based on their preexisting behaviors (David, 2015, para. 1). With that being said, individuals that have no preexisting positive or negative attitude toward racial bias may obtain an attitude after acknowledging how they behave when in contact with individuals belonging to a race or nationality different than their own. In this instance, it would be beneficial to use this information to encourage individuals to create positive relationships with members of different races and nationalities so that these individuals would therefore obtain a positive and accepting attitude towards individuals of differing race and nationality.

Cognitive Dissonance is another theory that I feel would be beneficial to eliminating racial bias. Cognitive dissonance occurs when an individual experiences an imbalance in their attitudes and behaviors (McLeod, 2018, para. 1). For example, if an individual holds a negative preexisting attitude towards individuals of differing race and nationality, and are placed in a situation where they must treat individuals of differing races with respect, this may cause the individual to experience cognitive dissonance and incline them to change their negative attitude towards racial bias to becoming a more positive attitude, thus allowing them to continue practicing respect towards people of various races and nationalities out of free will.

I feel that as a prospective Social Psychologist I could use my knowledge of attitude change as far as persuasion, cognitive dissonance, and self-perception to encourage others to change any negative attitudes towards racial bias into becoming more positive attitudes and therefore making the United States a better, more peaceful, place for everyone to live.

David, L. (2015). Self-perception theory (Bem). Learning Theories. Retrieved from http://www.learning-theories.com/self-perception-theory-bem.html

McLeod, S. (2018). Cognitive dissonance. SimplyPsychology. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissona…

📍 Post 2 (Write a 50-100 words response)
💎Categorical Data Analysis

Case Processing Summary
	Cases
	Valid		Missing		Total
	N	Percent	N	Percent	N	Percent
POLITICAL PARTY AFFILIATION * SHOULD MARIJUANA BE MADE LEGAL	1556	61.3%	982	38.7%	2538	100.0%

POLITICAL PARTY AFFILIATION * SHOULD MARIJUANA BE MADE LEGAL Crosstabulation
Count
		SHOULD MARIJUANA BE MADE LEGAL		Total
		LEGAL	NOT LEGAL
POLITICAL PARTY AFFILIATION	STRONG DEMOCRAT	169	80	249
	NOT STR DEMOCRAT	151	109	260
	IND,NEAR DEM	135	82	217
	INDEPENDENT	173	137	310
	IND,NEAR REP	80	75	155
	NOT STR REPUBLICAN	84	99	183
	STRONG REPUBLICAN	49	100	149
	OTHER PARTY	21	12	33
Total		862	694	1556

Chi-Square Tests
	Value	df	Asymptotic Significance (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square	59.579a	7	.000
Likelihood Ratio	60.125	7	.000
Linear-by-Linear Association	41.790	1	.000
N of Valid Cases	1556
a. 0 cells (0.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 14.72.

Symmetric Measures
		Value	Approximate Significance
Nominal by Nominal	Phi	.196	.000
	Cramer's V	.196	.000
N of Valid Cases		1556

Summary

What is your research question? Do party affiliation influence beliefs relate to the legalization of marijuana?

What is the null hypothesis for your question? There is no affect of affiliation on belief

What dependent variable was used and how is it measured? Party Affiliation

What independent variable is used and how is it measured? Belief of Legalization

If you found significance, what is the strength of the effect? What our data shows is the stronger affiliation with democratic party a more supported belief that marijuana should be legal.

What we produced was a case processing summary of the comparison of political party affiliation and position of whether marijuana should be legalized. Then from that out pup we generated data drawing on crosstabs, Chi-Square and Phi and Cramer’s V. The Chi-Square just indicates if a relationship is present, the Phi and Cramer’s V indicate strength of the relationship. As a result of these two tests we found, that a total of 862 Dems and Reps believe it should be legal and 694 believe it should not. Of that number most voters for legalization are Democrats. The Chi-Square test showed we can reject the null and say there is a relationship, we also see from the Phi Cramer’s a rated .196 value of strength indicated a strong relationship between party affiliation and position on legalization, (Laureate. 2016a).

References

Laureate Education (Producer). (2016a). Bivariate categorical tests [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.