Using cognitive dissonance to enhance faculty members' attitudes toward teaching online courses

Psychol Rep. 2006 Oct;99(2):465-71. doi: 10.2466/pr0.99.2.465-471.

Abstract

Adopting a reward strategy for inducing college faculty to teach online courses is expected to cause a positive shift of their attitudes. Based upon dissonance theory, a smaller reward will lead to greater attitude change, and this effect will be more pronounced in individualists. The results of an experimental study showed that individualist teachers exhibited greater attitude change under low reward than under high reward, but the reward effect was not prominent in collectivist teachers. Implications for enhancing college teachers' attitudes toward teaching online courses are discussed.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Attitude to Computers*
  • Computer-Assisted Instruction*
  • Faculty*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Motivation*
  • Online Systems*
  • Reward
  • Taiwan
  • Telecommunications*