Before I came to Southwestern, I had many strong attitudes about a huge variety of things, from politics to religion to socially acceptable appearance. Attitudes are the positive or negative direction of opinion or attitude towards another individual or idea (Ajzen, 2001; Albarracin et al., 2005; Crano & Prislin, 2006; Perloff, 2003; Petty & Chaiken, 2004). My relatively sheltered upbringing and strong parental influence greatly shaped my attitudes about different topics and caused me to be noticeably stubborn about certain things. At my high school, my peer group influenced me to value certain appearances and styles, and also shaped my conservative views on social and economic issues. However, after becoming a Southwestern student, I noticed that my conservative attitude began to change. According to Newcomb’s (1943) study at Bennington College, women often become increasingly more liberal during their college experience. I have certainly found that my experience at Southwestern has led me to change my strong reactions to issues to a more liberal attitude. Specifically, I used to perceive women with body piercings as purely trashy. I was strong in my conservative attitude towards body piercings, and did not respect women with any kind of piercing besides one hole in each ear. As I met more individuals at Southwestern who had various piercings and tattoos, I realized that these jewelry and markings did not solely define a person, and that they were certainly not “trashy.” I began to admire certain piercings, as well as respecting individuals who were brave enough to get them done. According to Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior, attitudes toward behavior, social norms, and personal control all influence whether attitudes lead to behavior. As my attitude toward body piercings changed, I felt that the social norms changed as well because of the increasing number of individuals with body piercings at Southwestern. Finally, I my attitude towards piercings and my perception that they were socially acceptable led to my feeling that I could actually go through with getting one for myself. Over fall break I went ahead and let my attitudes toward body piercings influence my behavior, and got my lip pierced. At first I was worried that my parents would be disappointed, and that my peers would not respect me, but I finally decided that my attitude towards piercings was strong enough to support my decision. Unfortunately, the stud hit a blood vessel and there were many complications with the piercing, which led to me taking it out. However, I was very proud of myself for following my newly changed attitude towards body piercings and go through with a decision that was important to me.
References
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179-211.
Ajzen, I. (2001). Nature and operation of attitudes. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 27-58.
Albarracin, D., Johnson, B. T., Zanna, M. P. (Eds.). (2005). The handbook of attitudes. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Crano, W. D., & Prislin, R. (2006). Attitudes and persuasion. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 345-374.
Newcomb, T. M. (1943). Personality and social change: Attitude formation in a student community. Ft. Worth, TX: Dryden Press.
Perloff, R. M. (2003). The dynamics of persuasion: Communication and attitudes in the 21st century. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Petty, R. E., & Chaiken, S. (Eds.). (2004). Key readings in attitudes and persuasion. London: Taylor & Francis.
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3 comments:
I have an uncle who is really Catholic and really conservative, and basically if you're not one of his 5 children, you can't do anything right. I've had my ears double pierced since I was around 8 (with a mole on one ear that makes it look like 3). Being an 8 year old and influence by my own parents' attitudes, I didn't see anything wrong with having two piercings in each ear. I mean, it's not like I had my bellybutton pierced. Also being an 8 year old, I just could not understand why my uncle disapproved of this so much. He said that it was trashy; I said that I was 8. How trashy could I really be? Anyway, now his 14 year old daughter wants to get one of those bars through her ear. I know how this one is going to turn out.
That's so exciting that you were able to change your attitude enough to get to the point where you wanted to get your lip pierced. I think I spend a lot of time thinking about my attitude towards piercings and tattoos also. My Mom disapproves of piercings and tattoos, so when I came to SU, I thought I did as well. But I have many friends here who have non-traditional piercings or tattoos, and I've come to see them as expressions of who my friends are...now I'm just trying to convince my Mom of that! :)
That's really cool you were brave enough to try that, and that your attitudes about something were changed so much by your time and experiences here. I'm sorry it didn't exactly turn out the way you expected in the end though.
It seems so strange to me that people ever feel that way about piercings. My high school principal was so opposed to none traditional piercings that he actually made it a rule that girls could not have more than two piercings and that boys couldn't have ANY! It makes me wonder whether he might change his mind too if he happened to go back to school for even further education. According to the studies you cited it should.
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