Predicting contraceptive behavior from attitudes: a comparison of within- versus across-subjects procedures

Within- versus across-subjects procedures for predicting behavior from attitudes were contrasted. Each procedure requires a comparison among attitudes in order to generate a prediction; the comparison is either among the same attitudes held by different people (across subjects) or among different attitudes held by the same person (within subject). It was hypothesized that the within-subject model provides a more adequate explanation of behavior from attitudinal constructs and, hence, more accurate prediction of behavior from attitudes than does the across-subjects model. To test this view, a sample of 349 married couples was administered a questionnaire containing measures of three attitudinal components--affect, cognition, and conation--toward each of four contraceptive methods--oral contraceptives, IUD, diaphragm, and condoms. Contraceptive behavior was assessed 1 year later. In support of the hypothesis, the within-subject predictions bore a significantly stronger relation to the behavioral criteria than did the across-subjects predictions. This effect was consistent for each of the three components of attitude, for the prediction of behavior and behavioral intention, for male and female respondents, and for a variety of contraceptive behaviors. In addition, both the within- and the across-subjects analyses demonstrated a clear rank ordering in the predictive validity of the three attitudinal components: Conation was a better predictor of behavior than was affect, which, in turn, was better than cognition.     

Electrophysiological and behavioral indicants of selective attention to multifeature gratings

The mechanisms underlying selective attention to gratings consisting of a particular conjunction of spatial frequency and orientation were investigated by means of both visual evoked potential (VEP) and behavioral measures. The effects of selective attention upon the VEP indicated two general types of selection processes: one which is specific to the features contained in the relevant gratings and is most pronounced approximately 225 msec post-stimulation, and another which is specific to the conjunction of features defining the relevant grating and is most pronounced 250–375 msec following the presentation of the stimulus. The behavioral responses primarily reflected this latter, or grating-specific, attentional process. The results are discussed in terms of the role of sensory feature channels in mediating selective attention to visual stimuli and are related to various information processing models of visual pattern selection.     

Same-sex imitation of and reported agreement with parents and unfamiliar adults

Children aged 7, 10, and 14 were shown sets of photographs of human figures for each of which they made judgments of age or attractiveness. Randomly determined responses appeared under each set of photographs. Half the children were told the responses represented choices of parents and the other half that they represented choices of unfamiliar adults. After the opportunity to imitate, children were asked whom they thought they agreed with the most. Findings indicated only a small, borderline-significant effect for same-sex imitation, but a large, highly significant effect for reported agreement, particularly in the unfamiliar adult condition (p < .001). Discussion centered on two issues: (1) Same-sex effects appear strongest when the act of choosing between adults and the adults' gender are accentuated; and (2) differences between present and previous findings regarding same-sex effects for parents vs unfamiliar adults may relate to the ages of the children investigated.     

Information Seeking Within Organizations

In this article, both the literature on employee feedback‐seeking behavior and the literature on information seeking by organizational newcomers are reviewed. This review highlights the various motives that affect the decision of whether or not to seek information, shows how the strength of those motives is affected by both characteristics of the individual and characteristics of the organizational context, and reviews evidence that information seeking has beneficial outcomes. The author then offers an integrated model of antecedents, dynamics, forms, and outcomes of employee information seeking and concludes with suggestions for how future research can extend current understanding of employee information seeking.