Mutual influence of implicit and explicit attitudes

Research and theory distinguish two types of attitude: automatic evaluative reactions and deliberate evaluative judgments, referred to as implicit and explicit attitudes, respectively. Although these attitudes are distinct, they may influence each other. Four studies tested whether implicit and explicit attitudes are both influenced by propositional and associative learning. We also tested whether changes in one kind of attitude mediate changes in the other. Study 1 found that propositional learning about novel individuals directly influenced explicit attitudes and indirectly influenced implicit attitudes through changes in explicit attitudes. Studies 2 and 3 replicated this finding and extended it by simultaneously demonstrating that associative learning through Evaluative Conditioning directly influences implicit attitudes and indirectly influences explicit attitudes through changes in implicit attitudes. Study 4 replicated these effects for attitudes toward familiar, rather than novel, targets. These results suggest that implicit and explicit attitudes can share common antecedents and influence each other.     

Global Aging: Challenges for Community Psychology

Older persons are among the major marginalized, disenfranchised citizens worldwide, yet this group has generally been ignored in the community psychology literature. In this paper, we trace the demographic trends in aging worldwide, and draw the field’s attention to the United Nations Program on Aging, which structures its policy recommendations in terms of concepts that are familiar to community psychologists. A central theme of the paper is that community psychology can have a role in producing the conceptual shifts needed to change societal attitudes now dominated by negative age stereotypes.     

计划行为理论述评

计划行为理论是社会心理学中最著名的态度行为关系理论,该理论认为行为意向是影响行为最直接的因素,行为意向反过来受态度、主观规范和知觉行为控制的影响。计划行为理论在国外已被广泛应用于多个行为领域的研究,并被证实能显著提高研究对行为的解释力和预测力。文章对这一理论进行了全面概述,包括理论的提出、内涵、测量方法以及理论研究的新进展,并指出了理论仍存在的问题和今后的研究方向     

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) in the New Millenium: A Cross-Cultural Approach

This paper reviews and discusses the results of five cross-cultural studies in Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Spain, and USA, using 2 (college students vs. their parents) × 2 (males vs. females) MANOVA match group designs with the Attitudes and Beliefs Inventory subscales as dependent variables, two multicultural studies investigating the relationship between some demographic variables (Pan American Health Organization's Index of Violence, and Acculturation) and people's Irrationality, and two multidisciplinary studies on the relationship between some medical conditions (skin diseases, and severity of symptoms during menopause) and Irrational Beliefs.     

Relating individual differences in Attitude toward Ambiguity to risky choices

Subjects (76 adult Italians of varying ages) completed a two‐part procedure. One part used an Ellsberg‐type task which allowed for both aggregate and individual level analysis of Attitude toward Ambiguity. The other part used an expanded risky choice task to assess the same subjects' Attitude toward Risk. While there was an overall tendency for subjects to be slightly ambiguity‐averse, there was a positive correlation between Attitude toward Ambiguity and Attitude toward Risk. This relation was particularly strong when the risky choice was to avoid a loss rather than to achieve a gain. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Making of Female Presidents and Prime Ministers: The Impact of Birth Order, Sex, of Siblings, and Father-Daughter Dynamics

Although research into the factors that may affect male achievement of political leadership is relatively robust, very few studies on the making of female presidents and prime ministers exist. This paper examines the literature on birth order, sex of siblings, and parent-daughter dynamics to see whether the findings for male political leaders—that first-born individuals will be overrepresented as compared with later-born siblings—also hold for female ones. Two other hypotheses were tested concerning differences in birth order and sex of siblings between female political leaders and a larger sample of women. A review of the literature on parent-daughter dynamics suggests that this may be another important variable for future research into explanations for the success of women who achieve senior-level positions of power. The findings suggest that first-born women, like first-born men, are overrepresented among political leaders; that first-born women are overrepresented among female political leaders as compared with their numbers in a larger sample population; and that fewer female political leaders have an older brother than would be expected to occur in a larger sample population. The last finding applies only for women who come to power in the period 1960–1989, not those who gained office more recently.     

THE EARLIEST CHRISTIAN WAR: Second‐ and Third‐Century Martyrdom and the Creation of Cosmic Warriors

Many Christian historians and theologians hold the opinion that the early church condemned wholesale an active involvement in bloodshed. However, in light of evidence drawn from early Christian texts, most notably literature dealing with martyrdom, one finds that stance overly simplified. In fact, forms of early Christianity not only glorified war and violence in certain contexts but actively sought it out. This article enters into this conversation by applying a theory championed by Mark Juergensmeyer's Terror in the Mind of God. While this theory deals with modern examples of religious cultures of violence, his “stages of symbolic empowerment” apply surprisingly well to certain communities within the early orthodox church. The cosmic war complex that leads to nefarious figures such as the fanatic suicide bomber can be seen at work within the nascent matrix of the Church, which produced victims and warriors in the form of the voluntary martyrs.     

Predicting employee attitudes to workplace diversity from personality,values, and cognitive ability

The current study assessed the predictive validity of broad and narrow measures of personality, values, and cognitive ability on employee attitudes to workplace diversity. Australian working adults (N = 731; 66% female; mean age = 43, SD = 12) completed the 200-item HEXACO Personality Inventory, Schwartz's Portrait Values Questionnaire, ACER measures of numeric, verbal, and abstract reasoning ability, the Attitudes Toward Diversity Scale, and four scales measuring prejudice towards female workers, ethnic workers, older workers, and workers with a disability. Results showed that Honesty–Humility, Extraversion, Openness, and cognitive ability (especially verbal) predicted more positive attitudes to workplace diversity. Valuing power, security, and tradition more, and valuing universalism less was associated with more negative attitudes to workplace diversity.     

An empirical investigation of the specificity and sensitivity of the automatic thoughts questionnaire and dysfunctional attitudes scale

Cognitive assessment of depression is not well advanced and the evidence for the validity and reliability of measures is incomplete. This study examined two cognitive assessments of depression-the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ) and the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS). There were two major objectives of this study. The first objective was to examine the ability of these two measures of cognitions to discriminate depressive symptomatology within a variety of sample populations-university undergraduate students, medical and psychiatric outpatients, and acute psychiatric inpatients. The second objective was to examine the ability of the ATQ and DAS succesfully to classify depressed and nondepressed patients. The results of this study suggest that the ATQ is a sensitive and specific measure of depression. Nonspecificity to the ATQ, however, was demonstrated in the substance abuse disorder group and the personality disorder group. In contrast, the DAS, although correlated with depressive symptomatology, was not found to be specific to depression.Part of this project is supported by a Special Project Grant from the University of Queensland to Dr. Oei.     

Better communication between engineers and managers

This article is concerned with ways better communication between engineers and their managers might help prevent engineers being faced with some of the ethical problems that make up the typical course in engineering ethics. Beginning with observations concerning the Challenger disaster, the article moves on to report results of empirical research on the way technical communication breaks down, or doesn’t break down, between engineers and managers. The article concludes with nine recommendations for organizational change to help prevent communications breakdown. The author holds a National Science Foundation grant to integrate ethics into technical courses. Among his recent publications are: To Make the Punishment Fit the Crime (Westview, 1992), AIDS: Crisis in Professional Ethics (Temple, 1994), and Justice in the Shadow of Death (Rowman and Littlefield, 1996).