Anticipatory Attitude Research Articles

Anticipatory attitude change as a function of self-esteem and issue familiarity.

Anticipatory attitude change as a function of self-esteem and issue familiarity.

Variations in warning, information preference, and anticipatory attitude change.

Variations in warning, information preference, and anticipatory attitude change.

Effects of expected effort on attitude change prior to exposure

The present experiments were both designed to test the following hypothesis: If an individual commits himself to be exposed to a counterattitudinal communication, positive attitude change prior to exposure will occur in direct proportion to the amount of effort he expects to exert in order to hear the communication. In the first experiment expectation of effort was manipulated through variation of the length of delay subjects expected before hearing a counterattitudinal communication. In the second experiment effort was manipulated by leading subjects to believe that they would have to run while standing in place (high effort) or sit quietly (low effort). The dependent measure of attitude was administered immediately after subjects had been informed of the effort required and the attitudinal position to be advocated in the communication. The hypothesis was supported, and the results were interpreted in terms of effort justification through anticipatory attitude change.

Influence of Anticipatory Attitudes on the Resolution of Transference

Influence of Anticipatory Attitudes on the Resolution of Transference

Improving instruction through point tests

It is a well-known fact that pupils enter the classroom in an anticipatory attitude. What will the teacher ask us to-day? rests perpetually within the subconscious. Accordingly, preparation is made to answer the type of question that the teacher usually asks. This it is not difficult to do; for, at the most, teachers confine themselves to two or three types of questions. The students know that they will be called upon to discuss a topic, or to give their opinion of the content under discussion. Usually such types of questions are labeled thought questions; but, in fact, since the student is in an anticipatory frame of mind, they are no more than memory questions. The usual procedure on a test is to ask six or eight discussion questions, evaluate them at 16 2-3 or 12 1-2 per cent each, and make up the student's grade on the basis of 100 per cent. In instances there is no parity in the real value of the questions. Practically every member of the class may fail to answer one question, and every one may answer correctly another question; yet no differentiation in values is made by an undiscriminating teacher. The grading cannot be otherwise than subjective. Ten graders would more than likely give ten different rankings to each question answered by the student. Very often the question is graded from the standpoint of quantity instead of accuracy. If the writer is on the subject and writes two or three pages, the teacher is subjectively inclined to give full value for the answer, when, in fact, if an objective evaluation could be arrived at, the answer would be only one-third or one-fourth correct. The student knew in advance what he was expected to say, for he knew the habits of his instructor, and proceeded to memorize, even without understanding, what would be called for. In such an instance it cannot be said that brain processes are stimulated. The teacher certainly is far from directing mental activity on the part of the pupil. The results of teaching are not likely to be measured, even though the instructor is striving to attain educational objectives. Dr. Buckingham says that most of the trouble is that teachers do not know how to induce thinking on the part of pupils.' In instances questions are asked for the purpose of grading pupils, not

THE DIAGNOSIS OF SMALLPOX.

During epidemics of smallpox the anticipatory attitude of the physician's mind will often lead him to suspect as variola diseases which bear only a superficial resemblance to it. Contrariwise, in the absence of epidemic prevalence of smallpox, mild cases are apt to be overlooked. The latter error is much the more serious in its consequences, although the former may itself lead to embarrassing complications. The detection of smallpox in its pustular stage, particularly in well-marked eruptions, is a facile matter even for the merest tyro in medicine. The picture of a profuse pustular variola can scarcely be mistaken for anything else. The diagnosis of the disease, however, in the first or second day of the eruption in mild cases, and especially in the absence of an epidemic, may present perplexities. Before the appearance of the eruption the diagnosis is difficult and often impossible. It may be surmised, but it is