Socio-psychological Mechanisms of the Minimizing Principle of Educational Influence or the Application of Newton’s Third Law in Pedagogy
Socio-psychological Mechanisms of the Minimizing Principle of Educational Influence or the Application of Newton’s Third Law in Pedagogy

Summary/Abstract: We tend to believe that our behavior comes from our attitudes and beliefs. However, social psychologists have experimentally proved a possible reverse dependence: our purposes, views can be a consequence of our behavior. People usually advocate what they believe in, but they also believe in what they stand for. Based on scientifically proven psychological mechanisms of the development of the motivational-value sphere of the individual, we will try to find out why the principle does not work in the upbringing – “the more, the stronger, the better”, and the opposite principle is operating – to minimize the educational effect, that is, the weaker and less noticeable the educational stimulus is used by the educator, the more strongly the views, settings, beliefs of the pupils change. Both from the point of view of the theory of dissonance and from the point of view of the theory of self-attribution, the effect of “less means more” has one additional consequence. Sometimes “more” can mean “less”. In the presence of very strong motives, changes in settings may be less significant than those that would have occurred under the influence of moderate incentives.

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