Social Psychology Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 5

Social Psychology - Assignment Example Truly, what we think can build a great difference in what the reality is. This is exactly what Robert J. Trotter contends. In his own words Trotter (1987) elucidates, â€Å"The way we explain the things that happen to us may be more important than what actually happens†. His thesis is heavily laid open the theory proposed by Martin Seligman who explained that the depression occurred as a result of what came be to known as â€Å"learned helplessness†. Primarily, his chance encounter in an experiment on dogs conducted in the University of Pennsylvania changed Seligman’s thoughts. The dogs which in an earlier experiment had learnt that they would get a shock did not try to escape this time, for they learnt how to expect that they would have no control over it. â€Å"They sat there as if they were helpless† (Trotter, 1987). The same principle is applied to human beings. Indeed, much of what we are, how we think and behave and how we react over certain situations get constructed as a result of our expectation of what we had learnt earlier. One fails in an examination once. He sits for another examination expecting nothing but failure and submits to his thought that he can not escape failure. Trotter agrees with Seligman’s thesis that this ‘learnt helplessness’ is directly proportional to human depression. In other words, the extent to which a human experiences depression is determined by the extent to which we have learnt how to be helpless. However, ‘learned helplessness’ theory was not without limitation. Seligman’s students argued with him that not all the uncontrollable bad events produce helplessness and depression. Also, they questioned why would depressed people always lose self-esteem or blame themselves. In order to counter these arguments, he revised the theory to explain the phenomena of ‘explanatory style’. The way we explain things impacts the way we behave. He argued

Coca Cola Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Coca Cola Company - Essay Example Many consequences arose as a result of this move. The first consequence and a positive one is the fact that people accepted the move because they saw it as a way of environmental conservation. The negative consequences are seen it terms of the confusion it created. People could not differentiate the diet coke from the regular coke. Secondly, people were loyal to the red can and therefore changing to white was like playing with their minds and this made it difficult for them to even buy the drink (abc). The case of coca cola confirms the view that people buy products to satisfy their need. They attach a certain meaning to a give product and develop a relationship with the brand. They therefore become loyal to the brand and changing any aspect of it may anger consumers and the consequences may be dire for a company. People identify with their brands and in so doing develop a relationship with the brand to the extent that their beliefs and attitudes towards the product become permanent. A slight change becomes costly to the company (Helm). As discussed above, consumers often build relationships with products over time. These relationships are as a result of the beliefs and attitudes that they hold about a particular product or service. These attitudes and beliefs shape their perceptions about the product and its perceived value. The perceived value the customers attach to a product is as a result of the benefits that they get as a result of using the product. The product may perform relatively high above the performance of other competitive products or it may offer better service to them or even it may be of superior quality than competitive products. The difference may be small but this generates customer loyalty to the product and thus subsequent purchase of the product is guaranteed (Mullins and Walker 13-16). Product perception can be defined as the individual’s mental impression of a stimulus object in this case a product. People have different percept ions about products and no two people think alike about the same product. Perception is selective, is organized, and depends on personal and stimulus factors (Helm). It is important that companies build a brand and work on maintaining the brand and its associated images and product designs. A change in this creates conflict within the customer’s minds altering their beliefs and attitudes towards the product (Mullins and Walker 18). Some customers take time to adjust to the change will others fear change and therefore prefer to stick with what they know about their product. This was the case for Coca Cola and the white cans. The introduction of the white cans violated the expectations of the consumers and thus creating the confusion and this led to subsequent rejection of the white cans. This process of rejection of the white cans can be explained by the cognitive dissonance theory. According to this theory, there is always a tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their cognitions that is their beliefs, opinions, attitudes etc. when there is an inconsistency between the attitudes or behaviors often referred to as dissonance, then something must change to eliminate the dissonance. In the case of a discrepancy between attitudes and behavior, it is most likely that the attitude will change to accommodate the behavior (Blythe 161-162). Two factors affect the