The epidemiology of suicide in Israel: international and intranational comparisons

A comparison of overall rates of completed suicide is made between Israel and selected European and North American countries. Rates for Israel are generally lower. A second comparison is made among different national-religious groups in Israel. Rates are higher for Jews than for the Muslim minority. An explanation is attempted for both sets of findings.     

Feminists and traditionalists: An attitudinal comparison

Comparisons are made between self-identified feminists and traditionalists on an attitudinal inventory scale. Feminists are found to display a more consistent sex-role ideology as measured by inter-item consistency. Traditionalists believe in labor and political equality, but differ from feminists in regard to relations with men and notions of domestic roles. The findings suggest that a more consistent sex-role ideology among women should occur with increased feminist identification. However, stereotypes and misunderstandings concerning feminism may prevent this development among many women.This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the Alpha Kappa Delta Research Symposium, Richmond, Virginia, February 1978.     

Job Embeddedness: A new attitudinal measure

Job embeddedness is a relatively new concept that offers the potential to improve our ability to explain why people stay in their jobs. This article outlines the development and testing of new measures of on‐ and off‐the‐job embeddedness. Analyses of survey data show the measures demonstrate adequate psychometric properties across samples (three military and one nonmilitary organization) and across different organizational levels, genders, and tenure, as well as discriminant validity over other turnover‐relevant constructs and appropriate convergent validity with a number of further constructs identified in the literature.     

Sex-role stereotypes: Issues of attitudinal changes

Systematic study of current sex-role beliefs has been aided by the development of the Sex Role Stereotype Questionnaire. This inquiry explored the assumption that the sex-role stereotypes of school counselors, tested seven years after the development of the questionnaire, would differ substantially from the norming samples. The data analysis revealed that the majority (three-quarters) of the behavioral characteristics viewed as stereotypic by the original samples were not seen by male and female school counselors or by either the male or female counselor independently as differentiating men and women.     

Attitudes toward computers: a new attitudinal dimension.

The present study examined the reliability and the construct validity of a questionnaire designed to measure the attitudes toward computers in everyday life. A total of 2,050 participants responded to the questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis suggests that attitudes toward computers are composed of three dimensions: sense of benefit, sense of dependence, and sense of harm.     

Equivalence of Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test--Revised, forms L and M for children with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)

The purpose of this preliminary investigation was to assess the equivalence of Forms L and M of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test--Revised for a sample of 15 Hispanic and 12 black children diagnosed as having Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The children (15 boys, 12 girls) were administered PPVT-R Forms L and M in counterbalanced order and in immediate succession. The coefficient of equivalence, r, was .77 and significant. Influential factors, such as the behavioral manifestations of AIDS, are discussed. Limitations of the study are included. Research should focus on the long- and short-term stability of the test for these children as they are evaluated repetitively.     

Self-esteem and reactance: Further evidence of attitudinal and motivational consequences

The present experiments were designed to explore further the relationship between self-esteem and reactance within the domains of achievement and persuasion. Previous research in the achievement context has shown that self-esteem and reactance are positively related. Experiment 1 sought to extend this relationship into the persuasion setting. As predicted, a positive self-esteem/reactance relationship was obtained. The second experiment was designed to identify a factor that might moderate the relationship between self-esteem and reactance: degree of freedom threat. Previous research in the persuasion context has shown that the aforementioned self-esteem/reactance relationship is attenuated or even reversed when freedom threat is low rather than high. Experiment 2 sought to extend this relationship into the achievement context. As predicted, the positive self-esteem/reactance relationship was considerably weakened in the low-threat environment of Experiment 2, especially in comparison to previous research in which freedom threat was considerably higher. Taken together, the present and previous studies show consistent relationships between self-esteem and reactance across achievement and persuasion domains, suggesting that the essence of reactance is similar in these two domains. Practical implications are also discussed.     

Muscularity concerns among men: development of attitudinal and perceptual measures

The current study reports the development and psychometrics of a figure rating scale with leanness and muscularity dimensions and a 13-item questionnaire assessing symptoms associated with muscle dysmorphia (MD). Three separate samples of men and women completed the muscle dysmorphic disorder inventory (MDDI), the bodybuilder image grid (BIG) or both to measure 1-week test–retest reliability, internal consistency, convergent and divergent validity and valid placement of BIG figures along interval scales of body fat and lean muscle mass. The MDDI and MDDI subscales (drive for size, appearance intolerance, and functional impairment) had good reliability, internal consistency, convergent and divergent validity. The BIG had good to excellent test–retest reliability, good convergent and divergent validity and validity as an interval scale. Implications for characterizing body image disturbance in men and benefits and limitations of the measures are discussed.     

Social comparisons and pay evaluations: Preferences for same-sex and same-job wage comparisons

This research examined women's and men's social comparison preferences when evaluating the fairness of pay. Subjects were assigned randomly to work on a job described as masculine, feminine, or sex neutral and were told that they would be paid for their work. After working on the job and privately receiving identical payment, subjects rank ordered their preference for seeing the average male, average female, and average combined-sex wage paid in each of the three jobs. Despite the availability of the combined-sex wage, subjects preferred to maximize similarity in their wage comparisons, with the majority choosing to see the pay of a same-sex and same-job group first. Regardless of the sex linkage of their job assignment, subjects selected a same-job comparison first. Sex linkage of job did affect same-sex preferences; whereas subjects in sex-appropriate and sex-neutral jobs showed a significant preference for seeing the pay of same-sex others first, subjects in sex-inappropriate jobs did not. Results also indicated that both men and women assigned to the feminine job expected somewhat less pay and thought their obtained pay was more fair than did those assigned to the masculine job. Furthermore, women thought they deserved less pay for their work than did men, regardless of their job assignment. Implications of these results for gender differences in outcome evaluations are discussed.     

Agape and Karuna: Some comparisons

Agape in Western Christianity and Karuna in Mahayana Buddhism are central concepts which serve as a basis for comparing the views of the “self”; and its altruistic concern for the “other”; in the two traditions. The Bodhisattva Vow is compared with the emphasis on disinterested love in some teachings of Christianity, and attitudes towards enemies are examined. The foundations in religious practice and world views are examined by comparing such terms as grace and prajna.     

Implicit shopping: attitudinal determinants of the purchasing of healthy and unhealthy foods

Implicit attitudes, evaluations that can occur without effort, quickly and without conscious intent, have been shown to predict self-reported diets and objectively measured food choices within the laboratory. We present two studies which extend the literature by demonstrating that implicit attitudes predict objective purchasing of healthy and unhealthy foods. Both Study 1 (N=40) and Study 2 (N=36) utilised an online shopping paradigm and concerned purchasing of fruit and chocolate. In both studies, implicit attitudes predicted purchases. Explicit attitudes towards buying or eating fruit versus chocolate did not predict purchase behaviour. These studies represent an original test of whether implicit attitudes predict healthy consumer behaviour, which involves participants paying for products. This research provides the strongest evidence yet that implicit attitudes play a role in predicting health food purchases. A comprehensive model of health behaviour should take into account the role of implicit attitudes.     

Elaboration and consequences of anchored estimates: An attitudinal perspective on numerical anchoring

In the standard numerical anchoring paradigm, the influence of externally provided anchors on judgment is typically explained as a result of elaborate thinking (i.e., confirmatory hypothesis testing that selectively activates anchor-consistent information in memory). In contrast, theories of attitude change suggest that the same judgments can result from relatively thoughtful or non-thoughtful processes, with more thoughtful processes resulting in judgments that last longer over time and better resist future attempts at change. Guided by an attitudinal approach to anchoring, four studies manipulated participants’ level of cognitive load to produce relatively high versus low levels of thinking. These studies show that, although anchoring can occur under both high and low thought conditions, anchoring based on a higher level of thinking involves greater use of judgment-relevant background knowledge, persists longer over time, is more resistant to subsequent attempts at social influence, and is less likely to result from direct numeric priming.     

Political polarization projection: social projection of partisan attitude extremity and attitudinal processes

What influences perceptions of political polarization? The authors examine the polarization of people's own political attitudes as a source of perceived polarization: Individuals with more extreme partisan attitudes perceive greater polarization than individuals with less extreme partisan attitudes. This "polarization projection" was demonstrated in 3 studies in which people estimated the distribution of others' political attitudes: one study with a nationally representative sample concerning the 2008 presidential election, and 2 studies concerning university students evaluating a policy regarding scarce resource allocation. These studies demonstrate that polarization projection occurs simultaneously with and independently of simple projection, the tendency to assume that others share one's partisan political attitudes. Polarization projection may occur partly because people assume that others engage in similar attitudinal processes as the self, such as extensive thought and emotional arousal. The projection of various attitudinal processes was demonstrated in a study concerning health care reform policies. Further supporting this explanation, polarization projection increased when people introspected about their own attitudinal processes, which increased the accessibility of those processes. Implications for perceptions of partisanship, social judgment, and civic behavior are discussed.