Social Psychological Perspectives on Human Development

This article focuses on how psychological science can be used to maintain and elicit desirable behaviors. It discusses human motivation, decision-making, attitudinal changes, long-term versus short-term goals, group process, leadership, communication and change process. Attitude change is presented as a three-stage process: unfreezing, moving, and refreezing, and attempts to change an attitude are described in terms of source, message, and receiver characteristics. An attitude change is the result of either central or peripheral processing. Because people's capacity to process information may be limited, attitude change interventions need to incorporate such limitations. In order to change individual attitude and behavior, community leadership, local media, and local social organizations need to be involved, and the evaluation of interventions themselves requires a thorough analysis of organizational psychology. Leadership has two dimensions, one concerning the initiation and maintenance of structure and the other concerning socio-emotional needs. Effective leadership changes as organizations change. When an organization is small, the structure is loose, and personal relationships are the rule. As the organization matures, there is a greater emphasis on structural matters.