Herbert C. Kelman

Compliance, identification, and internalization three processes of attitude change:

1 An earlier draft of this paper was written while the author was with the Laboratory of Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health, and was read at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Chicago on August 30, 1956. The experiment reported here was conducted while the author was at Johns Hopkins University as a Public Health Service Research Fellow of the National Institute of Mental Health. Additional financial support was received from the Yale Communication Research Program, which is under the direction of Carl I. Hovland and which is operating under a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. The author is particularly grateful to James Owings for his help in running the experiment; to Ramon J. Rhine and Janet Baldwin Barclay for their help in analysis of the data; and to Roger K. Williams, Chairman of the Psychology Department at Morgan State College, for the many ways in which he facilitated collection of the data. nication produce public conformity without private acceptance, or did it produce public conformity coupled with private acceptance? (Cf. 1, 4.) Only if we know something about the nature and depth of changes can we make meaningful predictions about the way in which attitude changes will be reflected in subsequent actions and reactions to events.

PROCESSES OF OPINION CHANGE

Attitude and opinion data provide a basis for inferring the meaning of opinions held by individuals and groups and also for predictions about their future behavior. Such inferences and predictions, if they are to be made effectively, require a theoretical foundation which explains the processes by which people adopt and express particular opinions. Here is a theory of three processes by which persons respond to social influence. Herbert C. Kelman is Lecturer on Social Psychology at Harvard University. Currently, he is spending the year at the Institute for Social Research in Oslo and devoting part of his time to a further study of the effects of a years sojourn in the United States on the self-images of Scandinavian students. His theoretical and experimental work during the past eight years on the problems reported in this article will be published in a forthcoming book, an early draft of which was awarded the Socio-Psychological Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1956.

The interdependence of Israeli and Palestinian national identities: The role of the other in existential conflicts

The interactions between identity groups engaged in a protracted conflict lack the conditions postulated by Gordon Allport in The Nature of Prejudice (1954) as necessary if contact is to reduce intergroup prejudice. The article examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from this perspective. After summarizing the history of the conflict, it proposes that a long-term resolution of the conflict requires development of a transcendent identity for the two peoples that does not threaten the particularistic identity of each. The nature of the conflict, however, impedes the development of a transcendent identity by creating a state of negative interdependence between the two identities such that asserting one groups identity requires negating the identity of the other. The resulting threat to each groups identity is further exacerbated by the fact that each side perceives the other as a source of some of its own negative identity elements, especially a view of the self as victim and as victimizer. The article concludes with a discussion of ways of over-coming the negative interdependence of the two identities by drawing on some of the positive elements in the relationship, most notably the positive interdependence between the two groups that exists in reality. Problem-solving workshops represent one setting for equal-status interactions that provide the parties the opportunity to “negotiate” their identities and to find ways of accommodating the identity of the other in their own identity.

Social-Psychological Dimensions of International Conflict (2007)

Social-psychological concepts and findings have entered the mainstream of theory and research in international relations. Explorations of the social-psychological dimensions of international politics go back at least to the early 1930s.

The political psychology of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: How can we overcome the barriers to a negotiated solution?

Six political-psychological assumptions are presented as the basis for this papers argument that direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are necessary and possible and for its delineation of the requirements of such negotiations. The last of these assumptionsthat neither party will enter negotiations that leave its right to national existence in doubtis linked to the psychological core of the conflict: its perception by the parties as a zero-sum conflict around national identity and existence. This view has led to a mutual denial of each others identity and right to exist and systematic efforts to delegitimize the other. Such efforts have undermined the steps toward negotiation that leaders on both sides have in fact taken because each defines the negotiating framework in ways that are profoundly threatening to the other. Negotiations are possible only in a framework of mutual recognition, which makes it clear that recognition of the others rights represents assertion, rather than abandonment, of ones own rights. Such negotiations can be facilitated through a prenegotiation process conducive to differentiation of the enemy image, including a breakdown of the monolithic view of the enemy camp, a distinction between the enemys ideological dreams and operational programs, and a differentiation between negative and positive components of the others ideology and symbols of legitimacy.

Informal Mediation by the Scholar/Practitioner

For some years, I have been actively engaged in the development and application of an approach to the resolution of international conflicts for which I use the term ‘interactive problem solving’. The fullest — indeed, the paradigmatic — application of the approach is represented by problem-solving workshops,2 although it involves a variety of other activities as well. In fact, I have increasingly come to see interactive problem solving as an approach to the macro-processes of international conflict resolution, in which problem-solving workshops and similar micro-level activities are integrally related to official diplomacy. The approach derives most directly from the work of John Burton.3 While my work follows the general principles laid out by Burton, it has evolved in its own directions, in keeping with my own disciplinary background, my particular style, and the cases on which I have focused my attention. My work has concentrated since 1974 on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and particularly on the Israeli-Palestinian component of that conflict. I have also done some work, however, on the Cyprus conflict and have maintained an active interest in several other intense, protracted identity conflicts at the international or intercommunal level.

Group processes in the resolution of international conflicts: Experiences from the Israeli-Palestinian case

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long been cited as a typical case of a protracted, intractable conflict.

On the nature of national involvement: a preliminary study

The core referent of the concept of nationalism appears to be an individual’s emotional attachment to his nation or country which leads him to desire more power for it. The concept thus refers to one form of involvement of an individual in his country’s affairs and to the ideology associated with it. However, it has weaknesses as an adequate concept for two reasons. First, the term is subject to value-laden interpretations, based on the popularly perceived desirability of patriotism on the one hand and the undesirability of chauvinism and jingoism on the other. Second, it is apparent that nationalism is only one aspect of the broader problem of how individuals relate to the nation-state, how they are integrated into it, and how this integration affects their attitudes, values, and behavior.

Interactive Problem-Solving: a Social-psychological Approach to Conflict Resolution

Throughout my professional career, one of my main areas of interest has been the social psychology of international relations. This interest has led, in recent years, to intensive involvement in an action research program on the resolution of international conflicts. My primary and nearly all-consuming emphasis has been on the Arab-Israeli conflict, although I have also done some work on other international and intercommunal conflicts, particularly the Cyprus conflict.

Applying a Human Needs Perspective to the Practice of Conflict Resolution: The Israeli—Palestinian Case

How can a human needs perspective inform the practice of conflict resolution? This chapter attempts to answer this question on the basis of my own experience with “interactive problem-solving,” an approach to the resolution of international conflicts that finds its fullest expression in the problem-solving workshop.2 This approach derives from the work of John Burton’ and follows the general principles that he has laid out. My own work has concentrated heavily (though not exclusively) on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and I will draw most of my illustrations from that arena.