Attitudes, Intentions and Employment

A study of midwives' employment decisions was undertaken to identify whether and how they alter their employment plans at certain times relative to training. The research aimed to provide data which would help midwife managers to control the then widely perceived shortage of midwives, attributable partly to the non-retention of newly-qualified midwives in the maternity services. An attitude scale, devised for this study, is shown to be a valid predictor of midwifery employment.     

The Effects of Auditory Structural Complexity on Attitudes,Attention, Arousal,and Memory

Twenty-five participants listened to 8 radio messages—half of which were greater in auditory structural complexity. Physiological measures were taken during message presentation, and self-report measures after each. Results show that increased auditory structural complexity led to higher self-reported and physiological arousal, better attitudes toward the messages overall and toward their nonclaim components. There were no differences in attitudes toward the claims made in the messages at each level of structural complexity. Structurally complex messages were also freely recalled more often than simple messages. The prediction that messages high in auditory structural complexity would result in greater self-reported attention levels received only moderate support. Furthermore, high levels of auditory structural complexity resulted in unexpectedly higher cardiac activity compared to messages low in structural complexity.     

Effects of Patients' Age,Gender, and Depression on Medical Students' Beliefs,Attitudes, Intentions,and Behavior1

This study examines the effects of patient age, gender, and depression on 88 advanced medical students' beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behavior. Each subject heard an audiotaped patient portrayal. Patient age (32 or 67 years), gender, and depressive symptoms varied in a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial design. All of the patients reported the same symptoms except that half of them also presented symptoms of depression. Questionnaires assessed beliefs about the patient's condition, attitudes toward the patient, treatment intentions, and recall of patient information. Expectations of an age bias were not substantiated. Females were rated less seriously ill, less likely to require laboratory tests, and more likely to receive medication than males. Among depressed patients, counseling and reassurance were more likely for females, and a nonpsychiatric consult was more likely for males. Recall of the symptoms presented was better for depressed patients. The implications for medical practice are discussed.     

Neuromarketing Research Practices: Attitudes,Ethics, and Behavioral Intentions

As a new addition to the marketing research toolbox, neuromarketing science has given rise to a variety of questions relevant to consumer perceptions of this nascent area of investigation. Neuromarketing researchers are dependent on consumer involvement as research participants, and finding means to educate the public about neuromarketing is a priority for professionals working in the field. This article describes the results of two online questionnaire studies focused on the role of personal constructs presumed to underlie perceptions of neuromarketing research. The findings point to neuromarketing research knowledge, attitudes toward science, attitudes toward technology, and ethical ideology as important factors linked to neuromarketing research attitudes, perceptions of the ethicality of neuromarketing research, and willingness to participate in neuromarketing studies. We discuss the implications of our findings for educating the public about neuromarketing research and encouraging research participation, and we conclude by suggesting directions for future research.     

Implementation Intentions and Facilitation of Prospective Memory

Forming detailed implementation intentions for a future behavior can increase the probability that the behavior is actually completed. We investigated whether this intention effect could be used to improve prospective memory in older adults. As expected, participants who formed an implementation intention were more than twice as likely to self-initiate the intended behavior (writing down the day of the week on every sheet of paper received during the experiment) compared with participants who either were merely instructed to do so or actively rehearsed the instruction. Forming an implementation intention, however, did not improve performance on a task that required a response to salient cues. We conclude that detailed implementation intentions facilitate prospective memory on tasks that lack salient cues and require self-initiation.     

Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions toward Vietnamese in Australia

Abstract

Given the anti-Asian sentiment expressed in recent Australian Gallup polls, the present study sought to determine the dynamics of attitudes toward Vietnamese refugees. The respondents included 83 residents from Canberra and 56 residents from Toowoomba, Queensland. Results indicated that, for both samples, educational level and authoritarian attitudes were significantly related to negative racial attitudes and to negative racial behavior. For the Canberra sample, highly authoritarian behavior and high levels of conformity were significantly related to both negative racial attitudes and negative racial behavior. For the Toowoomba sample, only high levels of conformity were associated with negative racial attitudes, whereas perceived economic deprivation was related to negative racial behavior. We concluded that individual levels of authoritarianism may be the best single explanation of racial prejudice.     

Safe and Unsafe Sexual Intentions and Behavior: The Effects of Norms and Attitudes1

A study of 85 heterosexual men, 85 heterosexual women, and 82 homosexual men was undertaken to examine the variables that influence intentions to engage in different sexual practices and actual sexual behavior. On the basis of Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) theory of reasoned action, it was predicted that the strength of intentions would be related to whether behavior was in accord with intentions. Consistent with expectations, the strength of intention to engage in six different sexual practices (e. g., vaginal intercourse, anal intercourse, oral sex) and the three strategies that modify the risk of HIV transmission (sex with an exclusive partner, sex wearing a condom, and looking for a new partner) predicted actual behavior. Second, it was proposed that attitudes toward one's sexual practices and norms would be related to intentions to engage in safe sex. To reflect differential levels in the safety of behavioral intentions, five safety intention groups were formed: (a) nonpenetrative sex, (b) penetrative sex in an exclusive relationship with a condom, (c) penetrative sex in an exclusive relationship without a condom, (d) penetrative sex in a nonexclusive relationship with a condom, and (e) penetrative sex in a nonexclusive relationship without a condom. Norms, rather than attitudes, distinguished the five safety intention groups. the groups intending to engage in safe sex (nonpenetrative sex or penetrative sex with a condom) perceived lower levels of social approval for their sexual practices than the noncondom groups. Additional analyses showed that past behavior had a stabilizing effect on the intention-behavior relationship, but only for the nonpenetrative and noncondom safety intention groups.     

Proximal Intentions,Non-executed Proximal Intentions and Change of Intentions

This paper investigates the conceptual and empirical possibility of non-executed, non-conscious proximal intentions, i.e., non-conscious proximal intentions to act that do not turn into a final act, but perhaps are vetoed or overcome by an alternative action. It constructs a conceptual framework in which such cases are justifiably considered ‘proximal intentions’. This is achieved by combining Alfred Mele’s notion of non-conscious proximal intentions together with the notion of trying or striving taken from Brian O’Shaughnessy’s model of action. With this framework in hand we analyze empirical electroencephalography (EEG) findings regarding ‘change of intention’ scenarios. Prior to EEG development (and other brain imaging techniques), one would never consider non-executed, non-conscious proximal intentions a case of intention at all. However, with technological and interpretable development of EEG, a whole group of so called ‘intentions’ appears, and the main aim of the paper is to justify this expanded usage.     

Thoughts, Feelings and Intentions to Learn: Attitudes by Beginning Teachers Towards Aboriginal Peoples

Given that education plays a key role in the development of social attitudes, intentions to learn about other social groups is a strategic addition to cognitive and affective models of attitudes towards others. This project examined related yet discrete aspects of attitudes towards Australian Aboriginal peoples that are expressed by beginning teachers (N = 266). Cognitive aspects indicate positive and negative stereotyping of the social group. Affective aspects across situations relate positive feelings and negative feelings of guilt, worry and anger. Results suggest differential links from cognitive and affective aspects to intentions for positive and negative actions, and intentions to gain experience with others. The findings implicate broadly defined components of attitudes in situations where individuals have limited experience with people in other social groups.     

Habitual Prospective Memory and Aging: Remembering Intentions and Forgetting Actions

Routine or habitual prospective memory tasks (e.g., taking medication) have the potential for creating confusions regarding whether or not an action has already been performed. We developed a laboratory paradigm for examining the kinds of processes thought to be operating in these kinds of tasks. Younger and older participants were asked to perform an action once and only once on each of 11 trials. The results showed that age and divided attention contributed to both omission and repetition errors. This new paradigm reveals memory failures in a habitual prospective memory task, and the results demonstrate that older adults are particularly susceptible to these memory problems.     

Attitudes Toward Business as a Function of Student Quality and Career Intentions

This study sought to determine student attitudes toward business as a social institution, careers in business, and businessmen, and then to relate these attitudes to measures of career intention and student quality. A random sample of 91 subjects was administered a double pre-tested questionnaire after results of a pilot study were reviewed. Positive and negative attitudes toward business were analyzed following three popular hypotheses: the “values” hypothesis, the “seduction” hypothesis, the “grey flannel suit” hypothesis. A negative relation between student quality and intention to enter business careers was found. The most consistent underlying explanation for this result was found to relate to student values and motivations and not to attitude sources external to the individual.     

Factors Influencing Gay Men's Attitudes,Subjective Norms,and Intentions With Respect to Performing Sexual Behaviors1

In a recent paper (Fishbein et al., 1992) gay men's attitudes and subjective norms were found to be accurate predictors of their intentions to perform a variety of sexual behaviors. In addition, the relative importance of norms as determinants of intention was found to be greater in Seattle (a city with a well organized gay community) than in Albany (a city in which the gay community is not well organized). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the extent to which the men's attitudes, subjective norms, and intentions were influenced by a number of situational and individual difference variables. Three hundred and fourteen self-identified gay or bisexual men from Seattle (134), Denver (78), and Albany (102) completed a questionnaire specifically designed for this study. As expected, type of partner and type of sexual activity significantly influenced attitudes, perceived norms, and intentions. In addition, these dependent variables were also influenced, in part, by city of residence, age, and perceived risk of HIV infection. The findings provide additional justification for developing different interventions for gay men in different cities, age, and perceived risk groups.     

The Prediction of Household Recycling of Newspapers: The Role of Attitudes,Intentions, and Situational Factors1

The present study was designed to examine differences between respondents who recycled during a 2-week observation period and those who did not. Of interest was the ability of factors drawn from Ajzen and Madden's (1986) theory of planned behavior and situational factors such as perceptions of borough councils' recycling programs to predict who would recycle. It was found that, although attitudes and intentions to recycle household newspapers were significant predictors of recycling behavior, factors associated with the inconvenience of recycling and the programs provided by borough councils, as well as respondents' past recycling behavior, were also significant predictors.     

Effects of Social-Comparative Memory Feedback on Eyewitnesses' Identification Confidence,Suggestibility, and Retrospective Memory Reports

In 2 experiments, college students watched a videotaped theft and either recounted it orally or completed an objective memory test about it. Later, some eyewitnesses received either positive or negative feedback about these memory reports, suggesting a cowitness's report agreed or disagreed with theirs or that they had better or worse memory accuracy than most cowitnesses. Feedback influenced a number of subsequent memory-related responses. Witnesses who had received positive (vs. no) memory feedback later evinced heightened suggestibility in terms of accepting misinformation embedded in a memory interview and made identifications more confidently, quickly, and (in one condition) accurately. Witnesses who had received negative memory feedback evinced heightened suggestibility, made identifications less confidently, and recalled the witnessing and identification experience as involving poorer conditions for memory. Feedback appears to influence the overall self-credibility of memory, thereby altering confidence in both the feedback-specific memory and other aspects of memory for the event.     

Intentions,Permissibility, and Choice

T. M. Scanlon has argued that the intentions with which one acts, or more specifically, one’s reasons for acting, are non-derivatively irrelevant to the moral permissibility of one’s actions. According to one of his arguments in favor of that thesis, it can be permissible to act for one reason rather than another only if one can choose to act for a reason but, since that choice is impossible since believing as will is impossible, one can be permitted to act but one cannot be permitted to act for a reason. This paper aims to show that that argument is unsound. It first argues that the assumption that choosing an action is necessary for it being an object of a moral duty or permission cannot be made consistent with Scanlon’s idea that the same does not hold for an action being an object of blame. It then argues that even if direct control over forming beliefs is impossible, it is not impossible to choose one’s reason for action and, therefore, to be permitted or forbidden to act for it.