Attitudinal Object Research Articles

Attitudes toward trilingualism: a survey study of Chinese Mongolian university students

ABSTRACT Trilingualism is a powerful fact of life in many parts of the world, including most autonomous regions inhabited by minority ethnic groups in China. Although much research has been conducted on the language attitudes of stakeholders from minority ethnic groups, the attitudinal object is usually an individual language (e.g. the ethnic language, the national language, or a foreign language). Few empirical studies have investigated ‘trilingualism’ as an attitudinal object. Aiming to narrow this gap, the present study examined the attitudes toward trilingualism of students from four Chinese universities and the influence of selected sociobiographical variables on their attitudes. An exploratory factor analysis showed the ‘trilingualism attitudes’ scale, developed for use in the present study and possibly beyond, to be unidimensional, with sufficient reliability (Cronbach alpha = .83). On this scale, the participants (N = 310) achieved a mean score of 4.52 (out of five), reflecting very favourable attitudes toward trilingualism. Furthermore, regression analyses identified ‘attitudes toward non-ethnic languages (viz. Putonghua and English)’, ‘attitudes toward the ethnic language (viz. Mongolian)’, and gender as statistically significant predictors for attitudes toward trilingualism, respectively explaining 20%, 5.5%, and 1.3% of the trilingualism attitudes variance. Policy and research implications were also discussed.

An Examination of Whether Mindfulness Can Predict the Relationship Between Objective and Subjective Attitudinal Ambivalence.

Ambivalence is a mixed reaction toward an attitudinal object. Ambivalence is often viewed as aversive and people are motivated to reduce it. However, the presence of both strong positive and negative attitudes toward an object (objective ambivalence; OA) does not always lead to consciously experienced conflicted and torn feelings (subjective ambivalence; SA) or psychological discomfort. We hypothesized that the way people think about their inner experience can affect whether ambivalent attitudes lead to increased conflicted feelings. In five studies, we examined whether mindfulness predicts the relationship between objective and subjective ambivalence. We predicted that the acceptance aspect of mindfulness would attenuate the relationship between OA and SA, based on the idea that acceptance makes people more tolerant and less judgmental toward their inner states in general (and OA in particular). Although some findings across five studies were consistent with the prediction showing that acceptance attenuated the OA–SA relationship, other findings were not and even showed that acceptance strengthened the OA–SA relationship. A meta-analysis of the interaction effect across all studies failed to find support for predictions (r = -0.036 and 95% CI [-0.087; 0.022]). We discuss possible reasons for these mixed findings, and the implications of these studies.

Attitude Reports, Cognitive Products, and Attitudinal Objects

In a range of recent and not so recent work (Moltmann 2003a, 2003b, 2004, 2013, 2014, 2016b, 2016d), I have developed a novel semantics of attitude reports on which the notion of an attitudinal object or cognitive product takes center stage, that is, entities such as thoughts claims and decisions. The purpose of this note is to give a brief summary of this account against the background of the standard semantics of attitude reports and to show that the various sorts of criticism that Felappi (2014) recently advanced against it are mistaken.

Are Implicit Self‐Esteem Measures Valid for Assessing Individual and Cultural Differences?

Our research utilized two popular theoretical conceptualizations of implicit self-esteem: 1) implicit self-esteem as a global automatic reaction to the self; and 2) implicit self-esteem as a context/domain specific construct. Under this framework, we present an extensive search for implicit self-esteem measure validity among different cultural groups (Study 1) and under several experimental manipulations (Study 2). In Study 1, Euro-Canadians (N = 107), Asian-Canadians (N = 187), and Japanese (N = 112) completed a battery of implicit self-esteem, explicit self-esteem, and criterion measures. Included implicit self-esteem measures were either popular or provided methodological improvements upon older methods. Criterion measures were sampled from previous research on implicit self-esteem and included self-report and independent ratings. In Study 2, Americans (N = 582) completed a shorter battery of these same types of measures under either a control condition, an explicit prime meant to activate the self-concept in a particular context, or prime meant to activate self-competence related implicit attitudes. Across both studies, explicit self-esteem measures far outperformed implicit self-esteem measures in all cultural groups and under all experimental manipulations. Implicit self-esteem measures are not valid for individual or cross-cultural comparisons. We speculate that individuals may not form implicit associations with the self as an attitudinal object.

Two kinds of first-person-oriented content

In this paper, I will argue that two kinds of first-person-oriented content are distinguished in more ways than usually thought and I propose an account that will shed new light on the distinction. The first kind consists of contents of attitudes de se (in a broad sense); the second kind consists of contents that give rise to intuitions of relative truth. I will present new data concerning the two kinds of first-person-oriented content, together with a novel account of propositional content in general, namely based on the notion of an attitudinal object. That notion solves two major problems with Lewis’s account of contents of attitudes de se and clarifies the difference between contents of attitudes de se and contents that give rise to intuitions of relative truth. I will propose an analysis of contents of the second kind in terms of what I call first-person-based genericity, a form of genericity most explicitly expressed by sentences with generic one. I show how the overall account explains the particular semantic properties of sentences giving rise to intuitions of relative truth that distinguish them from sentences with expressions interpreted de se. I will start by introducing Lewis’s account of attitudes de se and the problems that go along with that account. Introducing the notion of an attitudinal object, I will extend the account by an account of the truth conditions of the content of attitudes de se. I then discuss the second kind of first-person-oriented content, which is associated with intuitions of relative truth, and give an account of such contents on the basis of an analysis of generic one. Again making use of attitudinal objects, I will make clear what exactly distinguishes those contents from first-person-oriented contents of the first sort.

Attitudes Toward Embryo Research, Worldviews, and the Moral Status of the Embryo Frame

Embryo research for obtaining stem cells is an attitudinal object embedded in a complex space of high expectations for reaching desirable goals, and also of strong moral reservations about the utilization and production of human embryos for research ends. An explanatory model of public attitudes to embryo research is offered here, composed of general variables and worldviews (expectations about scientific-technological advances, reservations to science, trust in scientists, religiosity, gender) and highly specific ones (one evaluative, views on “the moral status of the embryo,” and the other of a cognitive nature, “biological literacy”). A key factor in accepting or rejecting this line of research is the current, de facto, competition between biological science and moral and religious creeds in shaping a frame or image of the moral status of the embryo, either as a pure biological entity or, alternatively, as an actual or potential human being entitled to special protection.

The Impact of Short-Term Quality Intergenerational Contact on Children's Attitudes Toward Older Adults

ABSTRACTThis article describes a research study designed to investigate the influence of short term quality intergenerational contact on the attitudes of children toward older adults. Glass and Trent's (1982) Typology of Approaches to change attitudes and Amir's (1969) Contact Hypothesis guided the development of this study. Glass and Trent reported that there are three primary ways that attitudes change: through discussion with others about the attitudinal object, direct experiences with attitudinal objects, and the acquisition of more knowledge about the attitudinal object. If attitudes are a reflection of internal and external influences, then it is assumed they can change.The study revealed that children who participated in the treatment had a more positive attitude toward older adults. Both inclusion in the intergenerational activities and time spent with related older adults were significant in explaining the changes in the children's attitudes toward older adults.

Guilty by mere association: evaluative conditioning and the spreading attitude effect.

Five experiments investigated the phenomenon that attitude formation is not confined to the co-occurrence of an attitudinal object with an evaluated experience. The pairing of a target with a (dis)liked person not only affects the evaluation of the previously neutral person but spreads to other individuals who are (pre)associated with the target (spreading attitude effect). Experiments 1 and 2 provided evidence for the spreading attitude effect in appetitive as well as aversive evaluative conditioning. Experiment 3 showed that the spreading attitude effect is a robust phenomenon resistant to extinction. Experiment 4 demonstrated that attitude spread can be transferred to 2nd-order conditioning. Finally, Experiment 5 supports the notion that the spreading attitude effect is not dependent on cognitive resources. Implications for social as well as applied psychology are discussed.

Item radicality as a measure of quality for attitude scales: a study using sex role beliefs

We examined the relationship between item radicality and item quality or goodness, for attitude scale items measuring sex role beliefs. Item radicality was defined as the obviousness with which an item represented an extreme position toward an attitudinal object. Initially, 70 undergraduates rated 150 sex role belief items resulting in highly reliable judgements of item radicality. Subsequently, we used groups varying in degree of sex role ideology to investigate the relationship between item radicality and item quality. Results demonstrated that high item radicality is associated with high quality items. Findings were interpreted as support for the rational approach to test construction emphasizing the use of clear undisguised item content.

Objects and attitudes.

The concept of an attitudinal object has long been present in psychoanalysis but almost entirely neglected. This omission is integral in the confusion and controversy about the object concept in general. It has left a theoretical gap which the so-called object relations theories have attempted to fill. This paper offers some preliminary suggestions for a psychoanalytic understanding of attitudes as a first level of inference in the study of relationships and their psychological basis.

Misconceptions of homophobia.

Recent studies and analyses of social reactions to homosexuality are examined with the goal of linking them to general theories of deviance in the mainstream of sociology and social psychology. Homosexuality as an attitudinal object is classified as person, trait, and characteristic of collectivities and culture. The assumption of homosexuality as a "master status trait" is questioned. Foci of investigation are categorized as cognitive stereotypes, perceptions of threat to others and to valued aspects of society and culture, and the management of homosexuality. Ego-alien and phobic responses are distinguished. General problems of attitudinal research in the field are identified; chiefly, the overemphasis of cognitive elements and the neglect of affective and behavioral elements. The potential of this imbalance for the reification of homophobia among subjects and for the general public is noted. Other problems include the confounding of cognitive and affective dimensions and the assumption of stability of attitudes in different social settings. The need for concrete observations of responses to homosexuality in varying social settings and for the study of various types and phases of the disclosure process is specified. We call for grounded empirical observations of reactions to homosexuality within a model of the "social construction of reality" in order to place such studies within the mainstream of sociology and social psychology.

La sociolinguistique actuelle : implications psychologiques, idéologiques, épistémologiques

The present paper had three main purposes. The first was to discuss the current trend in sociolinguistics to consider language as the reflection of « something else ». Language is considered either as reflecting the speaker's social class, as reflecting the speaker's physical and psychological characteristics, or as reflecting learning in relation to the speaker's family, school, etc. The second purpose was to emphasize that the result of the current approach is to consider language as an agent without opacity. And thirdly, we outline an approach in which language, considered as an object, can be analyzed both as an agent conveying social speech-markers and as a « stake » that directly regulates the relationships between a speaker and an attitudinal object (language).

The Effect of Employment Status Change on Self-Attitudes

A theoretical model of the effect of status change on selfattitudes is developed. The model predicts that the effect is conditional upon (1) the amount of concomitant change in social role performance, (2) the relative importance of the status change to the individual, and (3) the individual's attribution of cause for the status change. Using data from a national panel survey, a longitudinal analysis of the effect ofjob loss on satisfaction with self produces results consistent with the modeVs predictions. Becoming does lead to greater dissatisfaction with self. This dissatisfaction is accentuated by (1) concomitant change in familial role performance (indicated by level ofhousework activity and relative contribution to family income), (2) the unavailability of alternative roles and prior achievements, and (3) the lack of an external locus of cause to which to attribute job loss (level oflocal area unemployment). Furthermore, with reemployment, the decrement in satisfaction with self initially experienced with unemployment is removed, after taking into account residual effects ofunemployment on familial role performance. An analysis ofthe effect of employment status change on attitudes toward self requires an understanding of the process by which an individual translates a change in his objective environment into a subjective judgment of self-worth. At the center of this process is a change in self-concept, the attitudinal object. Whether this change in self-concept from employed worker to unemployed produces a negative self-attitude depends on several cognitive factors. First, the effect is conditional upon the relative importance of employ? ment status in the individual's selfconcept. Although there is undoubtedly idiosyncratic variation in the importance of employment status among individuals, we may expect systematic differences in the importance of this particular component of the self-concept. Such systematic differences between subgroups of the population result from (1) differences in

Observational learning of attitudes: A behavioral analysis

AbstractAnalyzes observational learning of attitudes within the classical conditioning paradigm after reviewing the relevant theoretical formulations and empirical evidence. In this analysis an attitude is conceived of as a habit between an attitudinal stimulus and an attitudinal response, the attitudinal response being an internal emotional response. Thus vicarious emotional arousal is the basis of observational learning of attitudes. A model's positive or negative emotional behavior should normally lead to an arousal of a similar emotion in an observer because of the latter's conditioning history. Given that the model's emotional behavior is in the context of a particular stimulus situation, this stimulus situation should be able to elicit the relevant emotion in the observer through higher‐order conditioning. Thus the specific stimulus situation, or another similar stimulus situation, comes to be a positive or negative attitudinal object for the observer, depending on the nature of the model's emotional response.

A Technique and a Model for Multi-Dimensional Attitude Scaling

HE MAJORITY of techniques for scaling attitudinal judgments or responses produce scales which are one-dimensional. The scale consists of a single continuum of opinion along which are located a succession of opinion items (or of people). This continuum generally ranges between proand antithe attitudinal object. Examples of such one-dimensional techniques are Thurstone scales1, Likert scales2, paired comparisons scales3, successive intervals scales4, and Guttman scales.5 It is apparent