Personality Variables Predict Strength-Related Attitude Dimensions Across Objects

ABSTRACT We examined personality predictors of different attitude strength-related dimensions across objects. Participants responded to questions regarding 11 attitude objects that assessed the overall evaluation of the object and the strength-related dimensions of importance, certainty, and relevance. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a 4-factor solution underlying the self-report and extremity dimensions across the 11 attitude objects, with importance and relevance and certainty and extremity loading on 2 second-order factors. The need to evaluate, need for affect, sense of coherence, dogmatism, and personal fear of invalidity were all related at the bivariate level to at least one strength-related dimension. The need to evaluate and the need for affect independently predicted variance in certainty/extremity across the attitude objects and sense of coherence and dogmatism predicted unique variance in importance/relevance across objects. Discussion focuses on the possible processes by which personality variables predict strength-related dimensions across objects.     

Extremity shifts,risk shifts and attitude shifts after group discussion

Moscovici and Zavalloni (1969) suggest that both risk shifts and attitude shifts after group discussion are examples of a general group tendency to polarize opinions. In the present experiment, using both attitude and risk items, group discussion did not make individual opinions more extreme; only the group average became more extreme. This group extremity increase was not simply a more general way of conceptualizing the directional shifts in attitude and risk; group extremity increase appeared to be an effect of discussion that was independent of the risk and attitude shifts. Also, subjects in the co-working pretest of the standard risk-shift paradigm were found to be less extreme and more ‘agreeing’ than pretest subjects who were truly alone. This co-working/alone difference persisted after discussion and was not related to group extremity increase. On both attitude and risk items, group extremity increase was strongly correlated with group opinion convergence. It is argued from this correlation that group extremity increase may be an effect of some aspect of conformity influence.     

The role of situational involvement in consumers' attitude polarization

This investigation examines the effect of consumers' situational involvement on attitude polarization. The level of involvement of subjects with well-developed restaurant schemas was manipulated, and evaluations of a group of restaurants were obtained on three different occasions under conditions favorable to attitude polarization. Contrary to expectations, the evaluations exhibited no tendency toward greater extremity, even when situational involvement was high. Although inconsistent with some previous findings about attitude polarization, the results are explained in terms of schema complexity and structure. Managerial implications are discussed.     

Attitude stability and attitude strength: one is enough to make it stable

The temporal stability of attitudes toward socially relevant and irrelevant issues was examined as a function of different dimensions of attitude strength. Attitude strength was found to be a three-dimensional structure consisting of Generalized Attitude Strength (defined by amount of experience with the attitude object, certainty, importance, vested interest, frequency of thinking about the attitude object, self-reported and working knowledge); Internal Consistency (defined by evaluative-cognitive and evaluative-affective consistency); and Extremity (defined by affective and evaluative extremity). The temporal stability of an attitude was moderated by only one dimension of attitude strength. The specific dimension that moderated stability was different for different issues. Generalized Strength appeared to contribute to temporal stability of an attitude by supporting its cognitive component.     

On the Relationship Between Attitude Involvement and Attitude Accessibility: Toward a Cognitive-Motivational Model of Political Information Processing

A model of the relationship between attitude involvement and attitude accessibilitywas developed and tested. The model specifies that attitude involvement leads to selective(biased) issue-related information-gathering strategies, which in turn produce extreme andunivalent (unambivalent) attitudes. Finally, attitudes associated with univalent and extremeunderlying structures should occasion relatively little decision conflict and thus should be highlyaccessible. Questionnaire response data gathered in a national telephone survey and from twosamples of undergraduates revealed that both attitude extremity and attitude ambivalence onselected political issues mediated the relationship between attitude involvement and attitudeaccessibility. Some findings indicated that selective processing mediated the relationshipbetween attitude involvement and attitude extremity and ambivalence. Discussion focuses on theprocesses linking involvement to accessibility, the factors that moderate theambivalence-accessibility relationship, and the relevance of the model to media-based primingeffects and tothe nature of public opinion and the survey response.     

Are Conservatives Really More Simple‐Minded than Liberals? The Domain Specificity of Complex Thinking

Prior research suggests that liberals are more complex than conservatives. However, it may be that liberals are not more complex in general, but rather only more complex on certain topic domains (while conservatives are more complex in other domains). Four studies (comprised of over 2,500 participants) evaluated this idea. Study 1 involves the domain specificity of a self‐report questionnaire related to complexity (dogmatism). By making only small adjustments to a popularly used dogmatism scale, results show that liberals can be significantly more dogmatic if a liberal domain is made salient. Studies 2–4 involve the domain specificity of integrative complexity. A large number of open‐ended responses from college students (Studies 2 and 3) and candidates in the 2004 Presidential election (Study 4) across an array of topic domains reveals little or no main effect of political ideology on integrative complexity, but rather topic domain by ideology interactions. Liberals are higher in complexity on some topics, but conservatives are higher on others. Overall, this large dataset calls into question the typical interpretation that conservatives are less complex than liberals in a domain‐general way.     

Pay attention! Attention to the primes increases attitude assessment accuracy

We demonstrate that an oft-used indirect attitude assessment technique—the attitude activation paradigm—accurately assesses attitudes only when participants attend to the prime stimuli during the attitude activation task. Attitude activation attitudes toward obviously valenced words (e.g., torture, liberty) were more sensitive to attitude valence and extremity when participants were required to attend to the prime words than when they attended to a competing stimulus. As a result, we observed a significantly stronger correlation between attitude activation attitudes and a direct, self-report attitude measure when participants attended to the primes than when they ignored them. We conclude that failing to require participants to attend to the primes during the attitude activation task results in a flawed measurement, which could lead researchers to underestimate relations between the attitude activation measure and direct, self-report attitude measures.     

Attitude change following persuasive communication: Integrating Social Judgment Theory and the Elaboration Likelihood Model

An experiment was conducted to examine the influence of the perceived extremity of a message and motivation to elaborate upon the process of persuasion. The first goal was to test a model of attitude change relating Social Judgment Theory to the Elaboration Likelihood Model. The second objective was to develop an instrument to measure attitude structure (latitudes of acceptance, non-commitment, and rejection) that allowed for a more refined assessment of the discrepancy between the position advocated in a message and the recipient's initial attitude. The main dependent variable was the attitude towards the use of automobiles in relation to environmental issues. Subjects were confronted with a message located in their own latitude of acceptance, rejection or non-commitment. Shortly after, a second measurement of attitude took place. The results showed that messages within the latitudes of non-commitment gave rise to the greatest attitude change. The data support the susceptibility hypothesis that subjects elaborate messages mainly in the latitude of non-commitment.     

The effects of daily newspapers on their readers—Exemplary presentation of a study and its results

Investigated in a long term study the effects of daily newspapers. A field experiment was carried out in which newspapers with different political standpoints were allocated to the 760 subjects (male students). The effect criteria measured were both specific and general political attitudes, images of politicians, and judgmental tendencies. The analysis of media effect extended to both differential and general effects. Clear attitude changes consistent with the opinions presented in the newspapers could be established in attitude spheres where the arguments presented were of a more controversial nature. Analogous effects could only partially be observed as regards the image of well known politicians. If features of the subjects' judgmental process are taken as effect criteria (use of dimensions), no newspaper related effects can be observed. In spite of considerable devaluation of one newspaper by the subjects, there were no boomerang effects. This ties in with the fact that practically no differential attitude changes (e.g. relating to dogmatism or political interest) could be established. Taking into account the historical background to our study, we conclude that the effect of the daily newspapers examined here was more or less confined to attitudes towards more salient issues. Finally, we have outlined general hypotheses which can be the starting point for the analysis of long term cumulative media effects.     

态度研究的新进展——双重态度模型

态度一直是社会心理学领域一个极为重要的研究课题,一直以来研究只关注有意识状态下人们的外显态度,对于无意识状态下的内隐态度最近才引起人们的意识。双重态度模型理论认为,人们对同一态度客体可能同时拥有两种不同的态度－－外显态度和内隐态度,这一理论对传统的态度概念及测量技术都提出了新的挑战。该对双重态度模型的理论来源、基本观点、双重态度类型及相关的研究证据作了详细介绍,最后探讨了双重态度模型理论对态度改变、态度测量及态度与行为一致性等未来研究方向的意义与启示。     

Therapist attitudes and countertransference as predictors of professional quality of life and burnout among psychotherapists

This study aimed to examine the role of attitudes towards psychotherapy and countertransference dimensions as predictors of professional quality of life and burnout among psychotherapists in Iran. Participants were 259 psychotherapists who worked in mental health centres in Tehran (Iran), and they completed the Professional Quality of Life questionnaire, the Therapist Response Questionnaire and the Therapist Attitudes Scale. Professional quality of life was associated with countertransference dimensions and attitude towards psychotherapy. This study concludes that psychotherapists can benefit from working on their specific countertransference issues and re-evaluating their basic attitudes towards psychotherapy to achieve the highest levels of professional satisfaction. Culture may play a role in a specific therapist's attitude and difficulties in addressing certain aspects of countertransference.     

Relationship of personal-social variables to belief in paternalism in parent caregiving situations

Paternalism in family caregiving may jeopardize the older persons' autonomy; it needs to be better understood. Study objectives were to determine the relationship of belief in paternalism to personal-social characteristics and to determine the relative importance of these variables as predictors of belief in paternalism. Forty-six pairs of daughters (age 49.7) and mothers (age 77.7) were measured on belief in paternalism, dogmatism, attitude toward elders, affective feelings toward the other, and background and caregiving variables. Among both mothers and daughters, dogmatism and attitude toward elders were related to belief in paternalism; daughters' affective feelings was also related. Caregiving variables were unrelated, and demographic background was important only for daughters. Attitude toward elders was the strongest predictor. Results were interpreted in terms of a traditional family ideology.     

Religious intellectual humility,attitude change,and closeness following religious disagreement

Abstract

This study explored the role of intellectual humility (IH) in promoting attitude change and relationship closeness in the context of religious disagreement. Participants (N = 174) completed a preliminary survey that assessed their attitude on several contentious religious issues (e.g. gay marriage, abortion). Participants who disagreed about a contentious religious issue were then paired and engaged in a 10-min discussion. After the discussion, participants completed a series of questionnaires. The greatest degree of attitude change was seen in pairs with mutually high levels of IH, in which the participant self-reported high levels of IH and also perceived the discussion partner to have high levels of IH. Higher perceptions of the IH levels of the discussion partner predicted higher levels of closeness and trust. We discuss limitations, areas for future research, and practical implications.     

The Relationship of Television Viewing with Attitude Strength and Extremity: Implications for the Cultivation Effect

The relationship of television viewing level with attitude strength and attitude extremity was investigated. Attitude accessibility was used as an indicator of attitude strength and was operationalized as the response latencies associated with the attitude judgments. Fifty-one students who were either very heavy soap opera viewers (> 4 hrs. per week) or very light soap opera viewers (< 1 hr. per week) provided attitude judgments pertaining to marital problems, owning expensive products, and distrust of people. Regression analyses indicated that heavy viewers showed significantly more distrust and a greater likelihood that they would experience marital problems than did light viewers, consistent with a cultivation effect (Gerbner & Gross, 1976). Over and above the effects of attitude extremity, heavy viewers also exhibited stronger attitudes than light viewers, as evidenced by significantly shorter latencies for all three attitude measures. Both the effects of attitude strength and extremity held in the presence of multiple statistical controls. These results suggest that television may serve to bolster and reinforce attitudes consistent with the television message.     

Reliability and construct validity of a Swedish social attitude scale for children

The aim was to construct a social attitude scale for children and to assess its reliability and construct validity, employing a sample of 226 children, aged 8–15, from schools within metropolitan Stockholm. The results showed the precision, test-retest reliability and internal consistency for the total scale to be moderate among younger subjects (8, 10 and 12 years) and acceptable among older ones (14 and 15 years). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed different factor structures for the various age groups. Only two factors were identified for the 8 year olds, while three, four, and five factors were obtained for the 10, 12, 14, and 15 year old subjects, respectively. The factors were, in consecutive order of appearance, Religion, Punitiveness, Ethnocentrism, Political-economic conservatism, and Environmental issues. Implications for attitude measurement among children and directions for further research on structural aspects of attitudes are discussed.     

A six-month follow-up of adolescents' sexual risk-taking,HIV/AIDS knowledge,and attitudes to condoms

A follow-up study was conducted to investigate change in sexual behaviour, knowledge about HIV/AIDS transmission, and attitudes to condoms over a 6-month period in a sample of late-adolescent students. The study also obtained subjective reports of HIV/AIDS-relevant change. Overall there was a decrease in sexual risk-taking behaviour with casual partners but no change occurred in sexual behaviour with regular partners, knowledge about HIV/AIDS, attitude towards condoms, or intention to use a condom on next sexual encounter. Examination of individual data revealed that, for some adolescents where behavioural change had occurred, this was in the direction of less safe sex. There were few self-reports of change in sexual behaviour, intention to take precautions against HIV/AIDS, or concern about HIV/AIDS over the preceding 6 months. Subjective reports of behaviour change did not correspond with reports of actual behaviour. Low rates of behaviour change are attributed to the failure of adolescents to personalize the threat of AIDS and to their trust in the safety of sex with a regular partner as well as to the lack of relevance of HIV/AIDS education campaigns to this group.     

Balancing and positivity effects in social recall

Three experiments were conducted, in each of which subjects first rated an issue using the evaluation scales of the semantic differential and subsequently wrote sets of arguments concerning the issue They their rated each argument for strength of then-agreement or disagreement with it The results in all studies showed that subjects wrote a greater number of attitude-consistent arguments than attitude-inconsistent arguments (a balancing effect) The preponderance of attitude-consistent arguments increased as attitude became more extreme In all studies strength of agreement with either pro or con arguments was a function of attitude, but strength of disagreement was not Subjects wrote more arguments with which they agreed than arguments with which they disagreed (a positivity effect), but this effect only occurred when subjects were not specifically instructed to partition arguments into those they agreed with and those they disagreed with. Level of dogmatism or intolerance of ambiguity did not affect the number of attitude-consistent versus attitude-inconsistent arguments written or strength of agreement/disagreement with them. Results were discussed in terms of a balance model of information processing and the effects of the social situation on the recall process     

Skin cancer: Assessing perceived risk and behavioural attitudes

Abstract

Measures of attitude concerning exposure to the sun, and judgements of risk and other beliefs concerning skin cancer and four other problems (stomach cancer, deafness, AIDS and sunstroke) were obtained from a questionnaire completed by 176 university students. Subjects also estimated the incidence of each problem using one of three response formats. The highest incidence estimates were obtained when subjects were asked to guess at an absolute number, and the lowest when they used a scale which differentiated between lower frequencies, while grouping higher frequencies into a single response category. The effect of the response scale format, however, did not generalize to other ratings of personal risk. Subjects' ratings of their personal risk, compared with their peers, showed an optimistic bias over the five problems as a whole, particularly for AIDS, but not reliably so in the case of skin cancer. Optimism was inversely related to the amount of thought given to each problem. Men and women did not differ overall in their optimism regarding their own risk of skin cancer. However, differences as a function of gender and optimism were found on various behavioural attitudes. The results are discussed in relation to a tendency of disregard base-rates in subjective risk judgements, unrealistic optimism, and implications for health education.     

Personality and strength-related attitude dimensions: Between and within-person relationships

Examined personality variables as predictors and moderators of strength-related attitude dimensions (SRAD) using multilevel modeling. Results revealed significant person-level variation in attitude importance, extremity, and ambivalence across attitude objects. Study 1 found the personality variable of need to evaluate (NE) predicted extremity across attitude objects, and finding meaning in life (ML) was predictive of importance across objects. Study 2 revealed that neuroticism and state anxiety were significant predictors of ambivalence across attitude objects. Finally, the NE, the Need for Cognition, and Openness to Experience each moderated the within-person relationship between extremity and ambivalence across objects, with higher values on the individual difference variables being related to stronger within-person relationships. Implications for research on attitude strength and the relationships between personality variables and attitudes are discussed.