COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN THE ATTITUDE-BEHAVIOR RELATION

Ohio State University, Columbus OH

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (adapted from investigator's abstract): The proposed research has the long-term objective of understanding how attitudes aid individuals to structure and cope with their social environments. The work centers on the processes by which attitudes both exert their influence and serve to simplify daily life for mentally healthy individuals. A model of attitudes, and the processes by which they guide behavior, underlies the proposed research. The model focuses on the strength of the association in memory between the attitude object and one's evaluation of the object. Past research has found the strength of this association to determine the accessibility of the attitude from memory --- which, in turn, determines the power and functionality of the attitude. Accessible attitudes contribute to effective daily functioning by permitting individuals to appraise objects easily and quickly, without any need for conscious deliberation, thus, relieving them from some of the demands and stresses of the social environment. Nevertheless, such attitudes also can prompt individuals, under certain circumstances, to behave in a manner that is contrary to their conscious motives. Four projects, each of which involves a series of experiments, are proposed as a continuation of the various lines of theoretical and empirical work that have been pursed in the past. Project I centers on tests of the model of attitude-behavior processes in the domain of racial attitudes and prejudice. The experiments employ a novel methodology that provides a valid, unobtrusive estimate of automatically-activated racial attitudes, and an individual difference measure of motivation to control prejudiced reactions. The influence of these automatic and controlled processes on behavior, and in situations, that vary in the degree to which they provide an opportunity for deliberation and control is examined. The studies proposed as Project II employ the theoretical model and methodological techniques to illuminate some of the origins and consequences of racial attitudes. Project III involves the relation between the recently developed implicit measure of attitudes and two other techniques for measuring attitudes implicitly. Finally, Project IV examines a fundamental associative learning process involved in attitude formation-the development of evaluative associations on the basis of the outcomes that are experienced through interaction with novel objects. The project also concerns the effect of initial prejudices on associative learning and the conditions under which such initial attitudes might be overcome. Together, the four projects will elucidate the functional benefits and costs of attitudes, as well as how attitudes are formed and influence behavior and how they can be measured implicitly.