Perceived origins of beliefs as determinants of expectancy for their change

Proposed that expectancy for change is a superordinate belief or dispositional variable which affects the susceptibility to influence of object beliefs and attitudes, and tested the hypotheses that expectancy for change in beliefs attributed to learning will be higher than for those not attributed to learning. Using a questionnaire as the means of determining 130 undergraduates' perceptions of the origins of each of a number of personal and social beliefs and their expectancies for changes in them, statistically significant support was found for the hypothesis for both personal and social beliefs. Implications of findings for a 2-process theory of social influence are discussed and an example of its application in the reformulation of the concept of insight as it is used in psychotherapy is presented.