Browsing by Subject "Attitude (Psychology)"
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Item Open Access Reward magnitude and liking for instrumental activity(1962) Leventhal, Gerald S. (Gerald Seymour), 1936-It is commonly assumed that the more an object facilitates attainment of important goals, the more it is liked. Dissonance theory yields an opposite prediction. A two process conception of the relation between reward and attitude which reconciles these views is presented. A V-curve relation between reward magnitude and liking for activity instrumental to reward attainment is hypothesized. At the point where the relative number of dissonant cognitions is psychologically insignificant or zero, a direct satisfaction process supplants the dissonance process. The slope of the reward-attitude curve shifts from negative to positive at this transition point. In an experiment designed to test this hypothesis students were offered 2, 4, or 3 experimental credit points for committing themselves to three hours of work at a highly repetitious task. Experimental credit points contribute to students' final course grades and are therefore highly valued by subjects. The instructions were varied such that both the task and the subject’s part in the experiment were placed in either a neutral or a negative light (Neutral or Negative Instructions conditions). Regardless of the Instructions used, 8 Credit groups expressed greater liking for the activity and more pleasure with participating than 4 Credit groups. Contrary to expectation. Affect scores for 2 Credit Neutral subjects were similar to those of 4 Credit Neutral subjects and significantly lower than those of 8 Credit Neutral subjects. Several possible explanations of the lack of difference between 2 and 4 Credit Neutral groups are discussed. It is suggested that the reward-attitude function is U-shaped rather than V-shaped and that these two groups both He in a relatively flat region of the curve in which dissonance and direct satisfaction effects operate simultaneously to increase attitudinal positivity. Though Negative Instructions (administered to one 4 Credit and one 8 Credit group) were expected to produce an inverse relation between reward and liking, they simply resulted in a uniform drop in Affect Scale scores. The Instructions variable had no impact on Desired Frequency of Rest Period, a less direct index of attitude. For the reward manipulation an opposite trend occurred. Varying the number of credit points had a relatively stronger effect on Desired Frequency of Rest scores and a relatively weaker (though still significant) effect on the Affect Scales. This result suggests that the Instructions variable actually failed to alter activity attractiveness. The effects of Negative Instructions on Affect Scale ratings could have been produced either by subjects* tendency to conform to the experimenter's apparent expectations or by the decrease of inter-personal situational restraints against public expression of dislike for the experiment in the experimenter's presence. Neither acceptance nor rejection of the general two-process hypothesis of attitude formation is warranted by these data. Nevertheless, the experiment clearly demonstrates that reward magnitude and attitudes toward activities instrumental in securing the regard are positively related under certain conditions, a finding which suggests an important restriction on the generality of Festinger’s dissonance theory.Item Open Access The effects of attitude and commitment on retention(1976) George, James M.The literature pertaining to the effects of attitude on the learning and retention of controversial information was reviewed, and other variables which were thought to interact with attitude in its effect on memory were examined. No firm conclusions could be drawn because of the inconsistent results in past studies. The variable of commitment was singled out as a likely candidate for further study because of its possible crucial role in determining whether subjects would be open-minded in processing new information or whether they would react defensively to inconsistent material. Using Kiesler's (1971) work as a point of departure, it was hypothesized that the higher the subject's degree of commitment to a stand, the more difficult it would be for him to retain inconsistent information as compared to consistent material. Furthermore, it was expected that this effect would grow in strength as the retention interval increased in length. A final hypothesis predicted a positive correlation between the amount of inconsistent material retained and the degree of attitude change toward the position advocated in a counter -attitudinal speech. An attempt was made to develop new ways of examining more than just the quantity of a subject's recall. Accordingly, objective measures were developed of the types and amount of distortion present in recall and of the importance of the ideas recalled. The experimental design involved variation of three factors; degree of commitment (three levels), consistency of information with the subject's own position (two levels), and time of recall (two levels). Subjects were recruited from the Duke University subject pool, and a total of 120 subjects (10 per condition x 12 conditions) were used in the final analysis. Only subjects who indicated a stand definitely for or against capital punishment in a survey prior to the experiment were recruited. Commitment was manipulated by varying the public nature of a speech which subjects thought they would have to tape-record. Subjects in both the high and low commitment condition were given their choice of reading a speech either supporting or opposing capital punishment. Any subject who did not pick the side corresponding to his pre -measured attitude was dropped from the experiment. High commitment subjects thought that the tape recording would be made public and they would be identified as the speaker, while low commitment subjects thought that they would remain anonymous. A control condition, or no commitment condition, was created by offering some subjects the choice of reading one of two speeches unrelated to capital punishment. All subjects heard a speech either for or against capital punishment which was either consistent or inconsistent with their own beliefs on the issue ^ Half the subjects were tested for recall immediately after hearing the speech, and the other half were tested only after a delay of one week. Measures were also taken of subjects' recall ability, the degree of commitment they felt, and their attitude change. The results of the study showed that the commitment manipulation was executed successfully, but that none of the hypotheses were supported by the data. Higher degrees of commitment did not differentially affect subjects' recall of consistent and inconsistent information. Furthermore, the hypothesized positive relationship of attitude change to retention was rendered untenable because a significant correlation in the opposite direction was found. Two further hypotheses were developed to explain this negative correlation. A significant interaction between degree of commitment and time of recall was obtained for the amount of material recalled. This complex interaction was interpreted as the result of a combination of different anxiety levels and different amounts of rehearsal between conditions. Several small effects of dubious reliability involving the newly developed recall variables were found, but these findings need to be replicated because of the large number of significance tests conducted.