Controversial issues in psychology

Controversial issues in psychology are those that cause the greatest concern within both psychology and within society as a whole. Advertising uses techniques of persuasion to manipulate people's behaviour in the desired direction of the perpetrator of the persuasive message, which uses invasive and exploitative techniques and try to show that social norms and values are not always for the best. Advertisements are a set of shorthand signals about products we are to buy and the circumstances we would use them in.

They are a ready source of stereotypes, sexual, regional and cultural, e. g. families are always happy and adults are always employed. The first advertisement on TV in the UK was for Gibbs SR's toothpaste. The ad has become an icon of the consumer age, and psychologists have become increasingly fascinated by the art of persuading people, despite its controversies. What persuades people to buy or use the advertiser's product or service is how the advert makes them feel, i. e. the meaning we attach to the advert. However the advert is interpreted by the individual, the impact of any advertisement is what it means to us. The author invites us to participate in constructing a meaning for the advert.

O'Barr (1994) suggests that advertisers create an advertisement for us to use as a skeleton to add flesh to and breathe life into. Another area controversy in advertising is that it is difficult to disentangle the impact of advertising from other influences that might be current at that time. Hedges (1982) points out that to the consumers, advertising is just part of their background - advertisements form just one part of the sensory bombardment that we experience every day. We cannot stop to evaluate every piece of sensory input, so for the most part, advertisements are relegated to fairly low levels of consciousness.

Advertisers use many psychological theories to make their work successful, including associating their product with a particular emotion or image. A need for an item must be created, therefore we must be motivated. In the case of pre-existing needs, such as for bread, the motive must be to buy a particular brand (e. g. through price, quality). Where there is no pre-existing need, it must be created, as in the case of children's toys. Neurological research has shown that the left hemisphere of the brain is more concerned with 'practical' functions such as language, where styles of response are, foe example, verbal and analytic.

The right hemisphere is more concerned with spatial, imaginative processing, where responses concern feelings and are, perhaps, unconscious. Lannon and Cooper (1983) suggested that because of this, much advertising is geared towards the right hemisphere. Fast marketing is a relatively new approach, which targets those that have developed brand loyalty and become offensive when they are offered a new alternative. This creates problems for advertisers trying to target new groups, so a blitz of free samples is distributed (fast marketing) so that everyone has a chance of trying out the new product.

Consumers are then more likely to change their attitudes or opinions about the product, and so the advertisers will have succeeded. People are also more easily persuaded to change their minds after witnessing testimonials or adverts which use someone who they think is admirable or attractive, such as sports heroes or actresses (Pratkanis and Aronson, 1992). Advertisers typically pair an attractive person or item (unconditioned stimulus) with their product (conditioned stimulus) to produce a positive attitude towards their product (conditioned response). This helps to give positive attitudes towards the products.