TOWARD A MESSAGE-CENTERED THEORY OF PERSUASION: THREE EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF LANGUAGE INTENSITY1

Based on accumulated knowledge concerning the effects of language intensity on attitude change, a set of propositions were advanced that provide a skeletal theoretical framework. Based on the propositions, three separate studies were done to extend the predictive power of the formulation. Predicted interactions between sex of the source, situational anxiety, source credibility, and language intensity were obtained. There were also significant person perception changes as a result of the level of language intensity employed in the persuasive message. Discussion centered on the import of the new findings in formulating a message-centered theory of persuasion.     

BASIC PREMISES OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL ATTITUDE CHANGE THEORY: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

Multidimensional attitude change models propose that (1) stimuli defining the domain of attitudes may consist of a multidimensional rather than unidimensional pattern; (2) stimuli associated with each other in the persuasion process will converge with each other in the multidimensional attitude domain. These two propositions receive clear support from three of the hypotheses tested in four-panel cohort data, which analyses show to be multidimensional. The sources of a persuasive message converge on the position they advocate. Multiple sources converge on each other. The findings provided partial support for two other hypotheses on the convergence of self-concept with advocated position and with sources of a persuasive message. A final, somewhat tangential hypothesis also receives clear support: existential associations of concepts are more effective than hortatory associations. These results support further development of multidimensional attitude change models.     

PAUL RICOEUR AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS: NARRATIVE IDENTITY AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY

This article attempts to reconcile the holistically understood and embodied philosophical anthropology indicated by Paul Ricoeur's concept of "narrative identity" with Christian personal eschatology, as realized in the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Narrative identity resonates with spiritual autobiography in the Christian tradition—evinced here by a brief comparison with the confessed self of St Augustine of Hippo—and offers to theology a means of explaining identity in a way which: 1) places care for the other firmly within the construction of one's sense of self; 2) accounts for radical change over time and 3) hints at the possibility of the in-breaking of the infinite into the finite. In this article I will contend that narrative identity provides theology with an exemplary means of framing selfhood which is ultimately congruent with the orthodox Christian belief in the resurrection of the body.     

Item Desirability Effects in Compliance-Gaining Research Seven Studies Documenting Artifacts in the Strategy Selection Procedure

A popular method for assessing compliance-gaming behavior involves having people rate lists of preformulated message strategies for likelihood of use. This “selection procedure” has been employed much more frequently than the alternative “construction procedure,” a method that requires people to generate their own message strategies. The present article argues that the selection procedure is much less sensitive than the construction procedure to the effects of situational and individual-difference variables on compliance-gaining behavior. The article further suggests that the insensitivity of the selection procedure is due to a type of social desirability bias known as the item desirability effect. Seven studies were carried out testing the Marwell and Schmitt (1967) and Wiseman and Schenk-Hamlin (1 981) strategy checklists for the item desirability effect. These studies found that (a) the likelihood of use ratings prouided for the strategies on both checklists could be accurately predicted by the rated social appropriateness of the strategies, (b) likelihood of use ratingsfor preforrnulated strategies haue relatively poor reliability, and (c) the construction procedure is much less susceptible to social desirability biases than the selection procedure. On the basis of these and related findings, it is recommended that researchers eschew the use of strategy checklists in future research.     

Television Viewing and Public Perceptions of Attorneys

This investigation examines the way prime-time network television programming depicts attorneys, and the influence of these images on the public's perceptions of attorneys. In addition, the study examines some of the theoretical and methodological controversies identified with the cultivation explanation of the way television shapes perceptions of social reality. The results reveal that network prime-time television programming depictions of attorneys affect public perceptions of attorneys, particularly in terms of front region behaviors. The results involving attorneys’back region behaviors are mixed. In addition, the results indicate that content-specific viewing is a more reliable predictor than total viewing or select viewer sociodemographic variables of the public's tendency to perceive attorneys in the same way they are portrayed in prime-time television programming.