A comparative investigation of seven indirect attitude measures

We compared the psychometric qualities of seven indirect attitude measures across three attitude domains (race, politics, and self-esteem) with a large sample (N?=?23,413). We compared the measures on internal consistency, sensitivity to known effects, relationships with indirect and direct measures of the same topic, the reliability and validity of single-category attitude measurement, their ability to detect meaningful variance among people with nonextreme attitudes, and their robustness to the exclusion of misbehaving or well-behaving participants. All seven indirect measures correlated with each other and with direct measures of the same topic. These relations were always weak for self-esteem, moderate for race, and strong for politics. This pattern suggests that some of the sources of variation in the reliability and predictive validity of the indirect measures is a function of the concepts rather than the methods. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) and Brief IAT (BIAT) showed the best overall psychometric quality, followed by the Go–No-Go association task, Single-Target IAT (ST-IAT), Affective Misattribution Procedure (AMP), Sorting Paired Features task, and Evaluative Priming. The AMP showed a steep decline in its psychometric qualities when people with extreme attitude scores were removed. Single-category attitude scores computed for the IAT and BIAT showed good relationships with other attitude measures but no evidence of discriminant validity between paired categories. The other measures, especially the AMP and ST-IAT, showed better evidence for discriminant validity. These results inform us on the validity of the measures as attitude assessments, but do not speak to the implicitness of the measured constructs.     

Reflections during a study on family therapy with drug addicts

This article presents ideas and reflections emerging during a project on family therapy with drug abusers. Initially inspired by the writings of Stanton and Todd on the subject, the project developed into a recursive and self-reflective process, characterized by increasing doubts about the usefulness of categorization of families, of pre-planning therapy, and of the therapist as an "expert." The limitations of approaches that emphasize the importance of understanding the family structure as the basis for changing it are discussed, particularly with respect to how they decrease therapist flexibility and may block the family's finding their own solution. Alternative approaches to practice and research are also discussed, bearing on ideas particularly formulated by theoreticians and practitioners inspired by second-order cybernetics.     

Reflections on a prognosis

Pastoral Psychology -     

Reflections on a Vision

An incident in the normal routine of seminary life opens the writer to an experience of the timeless reality of creation itself.     

Reflections on the state of polish-Jewish historical study

An earlier version of this paper was presented in July 1987 at a seminar of the University of Michigan's Center for Russian and East European Studies. This version was prepared during my tenure as a visitor at the university's history department. I would like to express my gratitude to the center, the department, and the university for their hospitality.     

Misconceptions about the Fishbein model: Reflections on a study by Songer-Nocks

Songer-Nocks has questioned the generality and sufficiency of Fishbein's model of intentions. It is shown that her conclusions reflect a basic misunderstanding of the model and its implications. Several misconceptions are identified and an attempt is made to clarify some of the theoretical and methodological issues involved.     

元认知:态度与说服研究的新视角

态度元认知指个体对所持态度的主观判断(如态度是否正确、重要与否等),是态度强度的重要维度,并能在态度说服过程中发挥关键作用。首先介绍态度元认知的主要成分(态度确定性、重要性及矛盾性),然后重点阐述新近对态度说服元认知过程的解释模型:认知加工精细程度模型(ELM),内隐-外显双过程模型(APE)和元认知模型(MCM),并从来源属性(来源可信度)、受众属性(情绪及身体动作)、信息属性(信息与受众的匹配程度)和情景四个方面阐释了影响说服元认知过程的因素。未来可以在态度元认知成分及其影响、说服元认知过程的心理机制、态度元认知神经机制等方面展开进一步研究。     

Reflections on a psychiatric placement

Abstract

During a seminar last year, I was teaching a group of counselling students on the subject of depression. One of the students asked me what I thought of referring a depressed client to a psychiatrist. I replied that in my opinion it was better to keep a person out of the psychiatric services as much as possible. This was an opinion I began to reconsider over the course of a six-month psychiatric placement, undertaken as part of an analytic psychotherapy training.     

Anxiety in eating disorders: a comparative study

Scientific literature shows that anxiety is an important factor in eating disorders. The aim of this case-control study was to compare the anxiety manifestations obtained by means of the Anxiety Situations and Responses Inventory of in a clinical sample of 74 females (46, anorexia nervosa; 28, bulimia) to those obtained by a control group (130 girls without disorders). The between-group ANOVA results showed higher anxiety scores in the clinical group with a medium effect size for the anxiety trait, finding a flat profile (within-group ANOVA) for the three response systems (cognitive, physiological and motor) and the four specific anxiety traits (test, interpersonal, phobic, and daily life situations). Moreover, high scores in anxiety involved a greater risk of being diagnosed with an eating disorder in the 8 bivariate comparisons. The estimations were more precise for cognitive anxiety and for the specific interpersonal anxiety trait.     

Foot-in-the-door and door-in-the-face: a comparative meta-analytic study

The so-called foot-in-the-door and door-in-the-face techniques have been generally considered as procedures which may consistently influence others' behavior. This study compared efficiency (in terms of compliance rates with various target requests) of both techniques using meta-analysis. It is based on the accumulated studies directly comparing foot-in-the-door (n=22, subjects= 1581) and door-in-the-face (n=22, subjects= 1611) under a similar target request. Analysis indicated no significant differences in efficiency between the paradigms.     

Manifest needs of prospective counselors: a comparative study

Mean performances of 81 prospective counselors on each of the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS; Edwards, 1959) needs were analyzed and statistically compared with performances of elementary school counselors, other school counselors, urban college students, professional women, Roman Catholic sisters, and the 1959 EPPS norm samples. Performances of the men and women in the prospective counselor group were similar. Men had a significantly higher need for achievement and dominance, but the significance did not reach .01. Two EPPS needs, intraception and nurturance, consistently differentiated the prospective counselor group. Comparisons across samples indicated that prospective counselors were most similar to the two counseling samples and, for the female subgroup of prospective counselors, to the sample of professional women. Largest across-sample differences were found between the female prospective counselors and the Roman Catholic sisters, between the female prospective counselors and norm samples of female college students and female adults, and between the male prospective counselors and the male adult norm sample.