Effects of consciousness-raising groups on measures of feminism, self-esteem, and social desirability.

34 female undergraduates in 2 consciousness-raising groups were objectively assessed to determine whether changes relating to self-reported profeminist attitudes and behaviors and relating to self-esteem and social desirability would occur. 22 Ss were randomly assigned to either a 16-hr marathon group format or a 2-hr, 8-wk time-spaced group format. 12 additional Ss who took objective measures at the same time as 1 of the 2 groups acted as no-treatment controls. All experimental Ss significantly shifted toward more self-reported profeminist attitudes and behaviors both at posttesting and at follow-up. Two personality measures did not reveal any lasting changes. When compared with each other, Ss in the 2 time formats did not evidence any significant differences. When compared with control Ss, time-spaced Ss reported significantly more profeminist behavioral changes and an increase in self-esteem. Marathon Ss were significantly different from controls on a profeminist attitude measure (Attitudes Toward Women Scale). The purpose for which consciousness-raising groups have been formed was empirically supported by desired changes reported by Ss in relation to more profeminist attitudes and behaviors. Whether participation in consciousness-raising groups produces increases in self-esteem and decreases in the need for social approval is in need of further assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Presence versus absence of others: The effect on verbally expressed attitudes toward the disabled.

Tested the hypothesis that individuals express more favorable attitudes toward the disabled when in the presence of others than when alone. 36 students in a graduate rehabilitation course completed a 7-point rating scale pretest concerning 5 rehabilitation concepts, and adjective pairs were developed following the semantic differential model of C. E. Osgood et al (1957). Ss then viewed a film about meeting a blind person, following which they heard a presentation by and interacted with a blind model. Ss were randomly assigned to either individual or group conditions. Individual Ss again completed the 7-point rating scale in isolation. Ss in the groups discussed the film and the presentation together for 15 min before completing the posttest. All Ss were retested at 30-day follow-up. Results fail to reveal differences between conditions; however, Ss in both conditions demonstrated a significant shift in their attitudes toward blind persons. It is suggested that while the presence or absence of others did not contribute to an attitude change, the specificity of the attitude change strategy may bring about attitude change. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interethnic attitudes in Canada: Ethnocentrism, consensual hierarchy and reciprocity.

Assessed attitudes toward 14 specific ethnic groups by asking how comfortable 3,325 adult Canadians would feel being around them. The ethnic origin of Ss was also measured by ascertaining the ethnic or cultural group to which their ancestors belonged. Comfort ratings were individually centered within each S by subtracting the mean rating of all groups given by an S from the rating of a particular group by that S. These relative comfort ratings of Ss from the 12 most numerous ethnic origin groups were aggregated. There were 9 groups who were both holders and objects of attitudes. Attitude matrices of attitude holders toward attitude objects were analyzed regarding three issues. First, groups rated themselves more highly than they rated other groups, indicating the existence of ethnocentrism. Second, there was a high degree of consensus among groups with regard to the relative comfort levels for various other groups. Third, the mutual attitudes of pairs of groups were reciprocated. These findings suggest degree of stability in the organization of interethnic attitudes in Canada, despite changes in demography, the groups included in the analysis, and the attitude measures used in the survey. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective-cognitive consistency and the effect of salient behavioral information on the self-perception of attitudes.

85 undergraduates with well or poorly defined prior attitudes toward being an environmentalist/conservationist were identified by assessing the structural consistency between the affective and cognitive components of their attitudes. After Ss completed 1 of 2 versions of a questionnaire designed to make salient either past pro- or anti-ecology behaviors, their final attitudes were assessed. The hypothesis that the self-perception account of attitude expression holds primarily for individuals with poorly defined prior attitudes was supported: Low-consistency Ss, with presumably poorly defined attitudes, expressed postmanipulation environmentalist attitudes that were congruent with the pro- or anti-ecology behaviors made salient by the questionnaire manipulation. The additional finding that high-consistency (vs low-consistency) Ss' beliefs on 5 ecology-related issues were more highly intercorrelated supports the assumption that the consistency construct appropriately indexes the degree to which individuals possess well-defined attitudes. A comparison of theory and research on self-schemata with research on the affective–cognitive consistency variable suggested that the latter may be a useful measure of attitude schematicity. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and attitude-activism correspondence.

Studied personality variables as predictors of activism when the contribution of attitude was partialed out. Critical evaluation of earlier studies suggested 2 methodological improvements. First, a multiple-act criterion of activism was used. Second, sex differences were examined. Additionally, a relatively large (448 Ss) and primarily nonstudent sample was employed. Attitudes and activism regarding abortion constituted the focus of inquiry. Initial analyses indicated high overall levels of relationship between attitudes and reported activism. Women showed a higher attitude–activism correlation than men, and respondents with an anti-abortion attitude showed a higher correlation than those with a pro-abortion attitude. On the personality measures (Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale, California Psychological Inventory, and the Adjective Check List), Ss ranking high in activism after the effects of attitude were partialed out were found to be more dominant, self-confident, energetic, and effective in using their capabilities than Ss who had engaged in less activism than expected from their attitudes. Internal locus of control in the political realm was also related to higher levels of residual activism. The personality correlates of residual activism were similar in males and females and in Ss having favorable and unfavorable attitudes toward abortion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A direct test of and an alternative explanation for judgments of attractiveness of supporters of the women's movement.

Previous studies investigated the possible bias against women who support the women's movement, using a paradigm requiring Ss to sort photographs into 2 categories. Based on these sortings, differential judgments of physical attractiveness were inferred without having the Ss who performed the sorting actually rate the photos. To provide increased confidence in the previous findings, the present authors asked 91 female and 69 male undergraduates to rate photos thought to depict persons with varying positions toward the movement. Additionally, correlational data were gathered to test the explanation of an attitude similarity mediated error that can subsume the previous mixed findings. The results replicated the earlier findings, indicating no general bias against supporters. There were no differences between male and female Ss on their mean ratings of either male or female photographs and no attribution of profeminist attitudes to lower attractiveness ratings for either male or female Ss. However, attractiveness ratings were related to Ss' attitudes. It is concluded that persons erroneously perceive similar others to be more attractive than dissimilar others, rather than perceiving supporters in general to be less attractive. (French abstract) (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual attitudes and experience: Attitude and personality correlates and changes produced by a course in sexuality.

Administered a battery of personality and sexual experience and attitude tests (e.g., the Suppression of Sex scale from the Parental Attitude Research Instrument, M. Zuckerman's Heterosexual and Homosexual Experience scales, I. L. Reiss's Social and Emotional Relationship scales, the Sensation-seeking Scale, the Personality Research Form, and the Personal Orientation Inventory) to 224 male and 331 female undergraduates enrolled in either a human sexuality or a personality psychology course (control). Males were more permissive in attitudes and had experience with a greater number of partners than females. Attitudes and experience were more highly related in females. Ss in the sex course were more permissive and experienced that Ss in the control course. The sexuality course appeared to have changed attitudes in both sexes, but changed behavior only in males, relative to changes in the control group. Religious attitudes and personality correlates of sexual attitudes and experience are reported; in general, sexual permissiveness and expression correlated with self-actualizing tendencies, particularly in females. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of sex role attitudes and similarity on men's rejection of male homosexuals.

Investigated 120 male undergraduates' reactions to homosexuals. Ss preselected on the basis of their profeminist, moderate, or antifeminist scores on the Attitude Toward Feminism Scale were assigned at random to 1 of 4 experimental conditions. Using a standard attraction paradigm design, Ss rated a bogus "partner," who was represented as either homosexual or heterosexual and as having attitudes either similar or dissimilar to theirs. Consistent with prediction, similar partners were liked more than dissimilar partners, and heterosexual partners were liked more than homosexuals. Homosexuals were seen as more dissimilar to the Ss in all conditions. Liberals were more accepting of homosexuals and dissimilar partners than were traditionals. Results are discussed in terms of the relationship between sex role attitudes and tolerance of dissimilarity. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effectiveness of widows' groups in facilitating change.

70 32–74 yr old urban widows participated in 1 of 3 group treatments for a 7-wk period or a waiting list control group. Two therapists each led a self-help group, a "confidant" group, and a women's consciousness–raising group. Personality, attitude, and behavioral measures were obtained at pretest, posttest, and 14-wk follow-up. At posttest, Ss in all conditions had significantly higher self-esteem, experienced a significant increase in intensity of grief, and espoused significantly more negative attitudes toward remarriage. Experimental Ss showed significant improvement in their ratings of future health and became significantly less other-oriented in their attitudes toward women relative to the controls. The therapist variable produced few differences in response to treatment. At follow-up, treatment gains were maintained. Life changes were significantly more positive in the consciousness-raising groups, and posttest evaluations of the program by these Ss were significantly higher. All treatments resulted in high rates of contact among participants in the group. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Shyness and sociability.

Two studies investigated the relationship between shyness (tension and inhibition with others) and sociability (preference for being with others rather than being alone) using 952 undergraduates. A factor analysis of shyness and sociability items revealed 2 distinct factors, indicating that shyness and sociability are distinct personality dispositions. Self-reported shyness showed only a moderate negative correlation with self-reported sociability. Furthermore, the measures of shyness and sociability had different patterns of correlations with other personality scales (e.g., the Public and Private Self-Consciousness scales of the Self-Consciousness Inventory, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the EASI [Emotionality, Activity, Sociability, Impulsivity] Temperament Survey). On the basis of these findings, it is concluded that shyness is not just low sociability. Next, 4 groups of Ss were selected: shy–sociable, shy–unsociable, unshy–sociable, and unshy–unsociable. Pairs of these Ss, matched for both traits, interacted for 5 min. Shy–sociable Ss talked less, averted their gaze more, and engaged in more self-manipulation than did the other 3 groups. In studying social behavior, it should be known whether Ss are shy but also whether they are sociable. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissonance and humor: Evidence for the undifferentiated nature of dissonance arousal.

33 undergraduates were committed to performing a counterattitudinal behavior under conditions of high or low choice. Thereafter, the order of presentation of two potential sources of arousal was manipulated. Some Ss first watched and rated a cartoon and then completed a posttreatment attitude measure. Other Ss first completed the attitude measure and then viewed the cartoon. It was thought that the presentation of the attitude measure first would lead Ss to attribute any arousal they might be experiencing to their counterattitudinal behavior and hence to change their attitudes. Analogously, presentation of the cartoon first was predicted to foster an interpretation of any arousal as a humorous reaction to the cartoon. The attitude and humor ratings of high-choice Ss were more affected by the order manipulation than the ratings of low-choice Ss. It is suggested that the arousal created by an induced compliance manipulation may be a general and undifferentiated state that can be attributed to any plausible source. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do intercultural experiences affect attitudes?

The attitudes and personality traits of 183 secondary school and college students who went to Europe in the summer of 1950 were tested before and after their trip. The principal findings of the study are: (1) S's who establish close personal ties with Europeans are more likely than others to engage in international oriented activities. (2) An unstructured, heterogeneous intercultural experience does not have a significant impact on social attitudes. (3) Knowledge of a S's pre-existing attitudes is a better predictor of response to an intercultural experience than knowledge of the experience itself. (4) There are significant personality differences between world minded and nationalistic S's. (5) Changes in attitude can be measured over a two month interval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accountability and complexity of thought.

Explored the impact of accountability (the need to justify one's views to others) on the complexity of people's thinking on controversial social issues. 48 undergraduates reported their thoughts on 3 issues and then responded to a series of attitude scales relevant to each topic. Ss provided this information under 1 of 4 conditions: expecting their attitudes to be anonymous or expecting to justify their attitudes to an individual with liberal, conservative, or unknown views. Consistent with previous work on strategic attitude shifts, Ss reported more liberal attitudes when they expected to justify their views to a conservative. Accountability also increased the integrative complexity and evaluative inconsistency of the thoughts reported on each issue but only when Ss expected to justify their attitudes to an individual with unknown views. Findings suggest that accountability leads to more complex information processing only when people do not have the cognitively lazy option of simply expressing views similar to those of the individual to whom they feel accountable. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What do attitude scales measure: The problem of social desirability.

It was hypothesized that the tendency to find positive correlations between various measures of personality traits may accrue because of the willingness of S to ascribe to himself either socially desirable or undesirable attitudes on several samples of his self-attitudes. It was found that social desirability did influence the probability of ascribing to oneself items from several kinds of questionnaires, that socially desirable traits on various tests tended to be ascribed to by Ss wishing to describe themselves in socially desirable ways. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GD86T. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalization of dissonance reduction: Decreasing prejudice through induced compliance.

Three studies involving a total of 318 White college students demonstrated that induced compliance can change socially significant attitudes and that the change generalizes to broader beliefs. Ss wrote an essay endorsing a pro-Black policy that was costly to Whites. In Exps 1 and 2, attitudes and general beliefs about Blacks became more favorable in both high- and low-choice conditions, provided publicity of the essay was high. Overall, choice and publicity had additive effects on attitude change. Some high-choice Ss wrote only semipositive (semicompliant) essays and did not change their essay attitudes. Yet their beliefs about Blacks still became more favorable. In Exp 3, racial ambivalence, but not prior attitude, predicted essay compliance. Ambivalent Ss were more likely to comply than were less ambivalent Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Illusory correlation in the perception of group attitudes": Corrections to Spears et al.

Reports an error in "Illusory correlation in the perception of group attitudes" by Russell Spears, Joop van der Pligt and J. Richard Eiser (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1985[Apr], Vol 48[4], 863-875). In the article, several important corrections and additions were not made in the course of the production process. The corrected entries are included in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1985-20035-001.) 126 undergraduates with pro- or anti-attitudes toward nuclear power and 15 local members of a campaign for nuclear disarmament viewed opinion statements supposedly made by residents of 2 towns. One town was larger and statements from it occurred frequently, the other was small and statements from it were infrequent. Statements expressed either pro- or anti-attitudes to the building of a nuclear power station, in which one position was in a majority over the other. Despite the fact that the proportion of pro- and anti-statements was the same for both towns, it was predicted that the most statistically infrequent category, minority position/small town, would appear most distinctive and receive greatest encoding, leading Ss to overrepresent this category. It was also hypothesized that attitude-congruent positions would appear more salient than others because of their self-relevance, resulting in enhanced illusory correlation for minority-congruent attitude holders (distinctiveness plus salience). Futhermore, it was predicted that salience and therefore illusory correlation would increase as a function of attitude extremity for these Ss. All 3 predictions were supported, replicating the findings of D. L. Hamilton and R. K. Gifford (1976) that distinctiveness, operationalized as statistical infrequency, mediated an illusory correlation effect. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Political attitudes as social categories: A new look at selective memory.

Tested the selectivity hypothesis against the bipolar model of memory using 110 undergraduates. The selectivity hypothesis asserts a tendency to remember confirming rather than disconfirming statements about in- and out-group attitude members. The bipolar hypothesis argues that attitude labels serve to organize and enhance memory for both confirming and disconfirming information. Ss, divided into for, against, and neutral on abortion, formed impressions of pro- and antitarget groups by reading favorable, unfavorable, and nonvalence items about them. Ss were later asked to recognize the items and their associated attitude categories. Signal-detection analysis supported the bipolar model: Category members recognized more favorable and unfavorable information than did neutrals. Neutrals' performance was attributable to item-category confusion, not to item inattention. Possible explanations for the absence of selectivity effects are offered. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)