On-line and memory-based aspects of individual and group target judgments.

Ss were given instruction sets to induce either on-line or memory-based processing while reading behavioral statements about individual and group targets. Impression-set instructions induced on-line judgments, and comprehensibility-set (comp) instructions induced memory-based judgments regardless of target type. More important, with nondirective instructions (memory set), natural differences in processing information about individuals and groups were observed, with more on-line judgments for individuals. As expected, illusory correlations between minority targets and infrequent behaviors (a memory-based product) emerged with comp instructions (which induced memory-based judgments for both target types) and in the memory-set condition for group targets only. These data provide insights into the differences in impression formation for groups and individuals and furnish direct evidence of the processes responsible for illusory correlations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of attitudes in memory-based decision making.

Frequently, considerable knowledge of the attributes of decision alternatives is available in memory so as to permit a thoughtful and deliberate choice. However, in many instances, individuals neglect to use such knowledge and instead rely on "attitude-based" strategy to make a memory-based decision. The findings from two experiments suggest that as the motivation to make a correct decision or the opportunity to use the available attribute knowledge decreases, the likelihood that attitudes will guide a memory-based decision increases. The findings illustrate the functional role attitudes play in guiding decisions and behavior. By providing a ready means of evaluating choice alternatives, attitudes enable an individual to make a decision relatively quickly and effortlessly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of work attitudes.

The motivator-hygiene theory of work attitudes assumes 2 independent sets of variables (motivator and hygiene) important to employee job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The applicability of this assumption to the job attitudes of 117 blue-collar workers was determined through factor analyses of a 40-item work attitude survey. The job attitudes of blue-collar workers could be separated into 2 relatively independent sets of variables, comparable to motivator or hygiene variables. However both sets of variables were found to be positively related to job satisfaction, contrary to predictions from the theory. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological correspondence of possessions, attitudes, and values.

Three studies were conducted to investigate individual consistency in the psychological functions of possessions, attitudes, and values. In the first study, participants listed favorite possessions, which other subjects classified by their similarity in source of value. The similarity data were analyzed using multidimensional scaling. In Study 2, new subjects rated each possession on four scales that represented subjective interpretations of the scaling dimensions, and mean scale ratings of objects were regressed over the scaling solution. The primary dimension distinguished symbolic or self-expressive objects (e.g., family heirlooms) from instrumental objects (e.g., a stereo). In Study 3, individual consistency in orientation toward symbolic or instrumental possessions, attitudes, and values was examined. The same subjects who listed possessions in Study 1 indicated their favorability toward symbolic and instrumental appeals and values. On the basis of the locations of their possessions in the scaling solution, individuals were classified into symbolic and instrumental possession groups, and attitudes and values of the two groups were compared. Results indicate that the self-expressive function of possessions, attitudes, and values is consistent within individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of conformity and attitude change.

"College males varying in affiliative motivation were subjected to a group-influence situation where their previously measured attitudes toward divorce was either unanimously opposed, or opposed with the exception of one supporter. The subject's public reaction (conformity) was measured, and also his private response (attitude change). The results indicated conformity to be a joint function of affiliative motivation and conditions of social support, with roughly similar but less significant results for attitude change." 19 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Receptivity and planned change: Community attitudes and deinstitutionalization.

An expectancy-value model was used to measure and explain receptivity attitudes (i.e., change climate) toward the implementation of deinstitutionalization programs. Questionnaires measuring values, expectancies, and behavioral intentions were mailed to community leaders and to members of community groups believed to be important in setting opinions and making decisions. Responses from 599 persons revealed that (a) the size of a proposed group home affected neither attitudes nor intentions of support, (b) group homes for mental health clients were viewed with less favorable attitudes and intentions than those for the retarded or the elderly, (c) members of various community groups held significantly different attitudes and intentions toward the programs, and (d) attitudes and intentions toward deinstitutionalization were more favorable than toward institutionalization. The application of this approach for assessing the implementation climate for planned change was discussed. (55 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correlates of managers' attitudes toward change.

Correlated a measure of a general readiness to accept change and a measure of attitudes toward change in a specific area (promotions policy) with age, education, managerial rank, frustration-contentment, level of self-confidence, and extraversion and neuroticism (Maudsley Personality Inventory) in 258 managers. Older managers were more conservative than the younger managers, and the confident were more radical than the unconfident. Stable introverts and emotional extraverts tended to support innovation, while emotional introverts and stable extraverts did not. The relation between readiness to accept change and managerial status, education, and contentment depended on the type of change and was not always linear. Results support the notion of a general readiness for change underlying attitudes toward change in a specific area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inductive problem solving: Schema inducement and memory-based transfer.

Studies of delayed transfer have been infrequent in contemporary work (M. L. Gick and K. J. Holyoak, 1987). Studies of immediate transfer by G. D. Phye (1986, 1987; see also PA, Vol 77:3557) have identified a general schema and a procedural schema as the basis for the transfer of analogical reasoning skills. This study addresses the question of memory-based processing when transfer is delayed. Ss were 183 college students. The training-for-transfer paradigm used to study immediate transfer was employed. Results indicate the use of both a general and a specific schema for retrieval when memory-based processing is required in order to demonstrate transfer within a problem domain. These data replicate and extend Phye's previous findings identifying induced schemata as a part of the architectural basis for cognitive transfer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-concept change in behavior modification.

Studied changes in self-concept as a function of behavioral treatment for test anxiety. 72 test-anxious (Alpert-Haber Achievement Anxiety Test) undergraduates were randomly assigned to systematic desensitization (SD) relaxation-training only, or no-treatment control conditions. Levels of test anxiety, self-esteem, and self-ideal-self discrepancy are assessed prior to and following treatment. The SD and relaxation treatments were both effective in reducing test anxiety. Ss' ratings of satisfaction with treatment were equivalent in the 2 treatment conditions. SD Ss showed improvement in self-esteem and significant reductions in self-ideal-self discrepancies; however, Ss who received relaxation training only, or no treatment, did not change significantly. This differential effectiveness of the SD and relaxation procedures is discussed in terms of the beneficial effects of imagined successful coping. Comparisons of Ss' changes in test anxiety and in self-concept suggest that an explanation of change based on simple generalization of treatment effects would be sufficient. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reducing stigmatizing attitudes held by future health professionals: The person is the message.

This study represents a continuation of our efforts to identify a cost-effective, doable, practical intervention that, when added to the curriculum of future health professionals, results in the reduction of stigmatizing attitudes toward people living with mental illness. The authors reasoned that a personal presentation from a recovering person would, unlike previous educational efforts described, encompass the elements of personal relevance and inspiration and thus be effective. Measures of stigma, as well as of courtesy stigma, were used. The results support the hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-range experimental modification of values, attitudes, and behavior.

Attempted to determine the effects of induced feelings of self-dissatisfaction on long-range changes in values, attitudes, and behavior. By feedback of information about one's own and others' values, attitudes, and behavior, 197 experimental ss were made aware that they held incompatible values concerning equality and freedom, or held values concerning equality and freedom that were incompatible with certain of their attitudes or behavior. Measures were obtained for experimental ss before they were dismissed concerning their satisfaction with what they had learned about themselves as a result of the experiment. Posttest measures of values, attitudes, and behavior were obtained 3 wk., and 3-5, 15-17, and 21 mo. After the experimental session. The main behavioral measures included joining the national association for the advancement of colored people (naacp) and majoring in an "ethnic core" curriculum. Pretest measures of values and attitudes showed no significant differences between experimental groups given feedback and controls (n = 169) not given feedback. Posttest measures showed significant changes in the values of experimental groups, but not of controls, that were evident 15-17 mo. After the experimental session. Moreover, experimental ss subsequently joined naacp and enrolled in the ethnic core curriculum significantly more often than controls. Finally, experimental ss who were dissatisfied with themselves at the end of the experimental session showed significantly greater changes in their values 3 wk., and 3-5 and 15-17 mo. Afterwards than did experimental ss who were satisfied with themselves. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relational properties and memory-based category construction.

Although many experiments have investigated factors that constrain perceptual category construction, there have been no investigations of factors that constrain memory-based (MB) category construction. Six experiments examined the extent to which perceptual and MB sorting were influenced by correlated dimensions, family resemblance principles, and conceptual knowledge. Sensitivity to many types of relational information (e.g., correlated features, causal relations, interactive properties of objects, and family resemblance relations) was observed with perceptual sorting, but these properties were rarely used to organize information in MB sorting conditions. Instead, there was a clear preference to organize categories around single dimensions. Even when perfectly correlated features were causally related, Ss in memory conditions did not use correlations to construct categories. The strengths and limitations of MB analyses and categorizations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of message framing on breast self-examination attitudes, intentions, and behavior.

In this study we tested the framing hypothesis that a pamphlet stressing the negative consequences of not performing breast self-examination (BSE) would be more persuasive than a pamphlet emphasizing BSE's positive consequences. College-aged female subjects were exposed to a loss-frame pamphlet, a gain-frame pamphlet, or a no-arguments pamphlet, or they received no pamphlet describing the importance of and the techniques for performing BSE. Attitudes toward BSE and intentions to perform BSE were assessed immediately after this intervention and again 4 months later. The follow-up also assessed subjects' postexperimental BSE behavior. Consistent with predictions, subjects who read a pamphlet with arguments framed in loss language manifested more positive BSE attitudes, intentions, and behaviors than did subjects in the other three conditions. The greater impact of the loss pamphlet could not be attributed to greater fear arousal, better memory for pamphlet content, greater perceived susceptibility to breast cancer, or stronger beliefs in BSE's efficacy on the part of the loss subjects. Only measures of perceived self-efficacy in performing BSE were differentially affected by the framing manipulation, with loss subjects reporting the greatest levels of self-confidence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Persistence of induced opinion change and retention of the inducing message contents.

Induced opinion change shows a strong positive relationship to recall of the contents of the persuasive message 1 week after receipt of the communication but tends, over time, to become functionally autonomous of recall of at least some aspects of the contents of the inducing message. Induced opinion change was found to decay rectilinearly over a 6-week period, while recall of contents showed a negatively accelerated decay trend. Opinion change and recall of the message topic were positively related 1 week after the communication, but negatively related 6 weeks later. Recall of the side taken and of the specific arguments used were positively related to opinion change both 1 week and 6 weeks after the communication. Recall of source was complexly related to opinion change. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitude change through modification of attitude structure.

183 experimental Ss were tested regarding their attitudes toward allowing Negroes to move into white neighborhoods, toward 25 values in terms of expected satisfaction from each, and toward the 25 values in terms of "allowing Negroes to move into white neighborhoods" would lead to or block attainment of the values both before and after a change procedure designed to increase the S's awareness that nonsegregation would lead to the attainment of four important values. The experimental procedure changed perceptions and attitudes toward Negro housing segregation in S's with moderate initial attitude on the issue. Little attitude change was produced in extremely prejudiced and extremely nonprejudiced S's (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A rose by any other name . . . : Labelling bias and attitudes toward behavior modification.

Investigated the effect of presentation labels upon Ss' evaluation of behavior modification in 2 experiments with a total of 194 college students. In Exp I, 2 groups of undergraduates were shown identical videotapes of a teacher using reinforcement methods. In the 1st group the videotape was described as illustrative of "behavior modification," whereas the tape was labeled as "humanistic education" in the 2nd group. A questionnaire that required the Ss to evaluate the teacher and the lesson was then administered. Identical procedures were repeated in Exp II, which studied graduate students. For both samples, when the events on the videotape were described as illustrative of humanistic education, (a) the teacher received significantly more favorable ratings and (b) the teaching method was seen as significantly more likely to promote academic learning and emotional growth. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Non-immediacy between communicator and object of communication in a verbal message: Application to the inference of attitudes.

Nonimmediacy is a measure of the attenuation of directness and intensity of interaction between a communicator and the object of his communication in a verbal message. In this paper, the categories of nonimmediacy are presented and are specifically applied to the inference of communicator attitudes towards the object(s) he communicates about. In 3 experiments it is found that experimentally induced, or long-standing attitudes may be discriminated on the basis of nonimmediacy measures. Communications about affectively or evaluatively negative events or people are found to contain greater nonimmediacy than communications about positive events or people. Possible applications of nonimmediacy measures in clinical settings or experimental investigations of psychotherapeutic activity are briefly noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A memory-based account of retrospective revaluation.

We adapt an instance model of human memory, Minerva 2, to simulate retrospective revaluation. In the account, memory preserves the events of individual trials in separate traces. A probe presented to memory contacts all traces in parallel and causes each to become active. The information retrieved from memory is the sum of the activated traces. Learning is modelled as a process of cued-recall; encoding is modelled as a process of differential encoding of unexpected features in the probe (i.e., expectancy-encoding). The model captures three examples of retrospective revaluation: backward blocking, recovery from blocking, and backward conditioned inhibition. The work integrates an understanding of human memory and complex associative learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Opening the mind to close it: Considering a message in light of important values increases message processing and later resistance to change.

Past research showed that considering a persuasive message in light of important rather than unimportant values creates attitudes that resist later attack. The traditional explanation is that the attitudes come to express the value or that a cognitive link between the value and attitude enhances resistance. However, the current research showed that another explanation is plausible. Similar to other sources of involvement, considering important rather than unimportant values increases processing of the message considered in light of those values. This occurs when the values are identified as normatively high or low in importance and when the perceived importance differs across participants for the same values. The increase in processing creates resistance to later attacks, and unlike past research, individual-level measures of initial amount of processing mediate value importance effects on later resistance to change. Important values motivate processing because they increase personal involvement with the issue, rather than creating attitudes that represent or express core values. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of Canadian attitudes toward immigration: More than just racism?

Analyzed Canadian surveys between 1975 and 1995 (N?=?7,222) to evaluate the opposition to immigration. Contrary to the symbolic racism hypothesis, opposition to immigration was highly correlated with the unemployment rate, while a more traditional intolerance measure showed relative immunity to economic conditions. The most prejudiced groups were not the strongest immigration opponents (e.g., older respondents were the most intolerant but younger respondents were the most opposed to immigration). A 1989 survey suggests several factors determine support for immigration and that concerns vary logically in their impact (e.g., unemployment concerns matter most to unemployed Canadians and least to retirees, and crime concerns matter more to urban than rural residents). Comparing unemployed to other respondents suggests that becoming unemployed will foster the belief that immigrants take jobs from other Canadians, as well as increase this issue's importance as a determinant of the attitude toward the level of immigration. Overall, the results suggest that opposition to immigration is not simply racism in disguise but a complex attitude resulting from an interplay between various concerns and moderating beliefs about immigration's consequences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)