COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN THE ATTITUDE-BEHAVIOR RELATION

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The proposed research has the long-term objective of understanding of how individuals structure and cope with their social environments. The work centers upon the functional value of attitudes and examines the processes by which attitudes serve to simplify the behavior of mentally healthy individuals. Attitudes aid individuals in coping with the multitude and variety of stimuli encountered daily and, thus, contribute to effective daily functioning. A model concerning attitudes and their activation from memory has been proposed. The model centers upon 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. Four projects, one of which involves a large-scale experiment and three of which involve a series of experiments, are proposed as a continuation of the various lines of theoretical and empirical work that have been pursued during the past grant period. Project I centers upon the functional value of accessible attitudes. Such attitudes are thought to simplify the ongoing day-to-day existence of the individual for they permit one to appraise objects easily and quickly without any need for conscious deliberation and, thus relieve the individual from some of the demands and stresses of the social environment. Recent findings from both laboratory experiments and field studies have demonstrated such functionality. Project I involves a continuation of the field research efforts, which examined freshmen's adjustment to college life and obtained correlational evidence of the relevance of accessible attitudes to mental health concerns. An experimental replication of the correlational investigation is planned. Project II focuses upon the methodology that we have used to assess automatic attitude activation; the project continues our efforts to examine the value of the methodology as an unobtrusive measure of attitude. Considerable progress has been made in employing the technique in the domain of racial attitudes. A series of experiments is planned to continue to examine the nonreactivity and predictive validity of this unobtrusive measure. Project III addresses an heretofore unexamined issue, namely, the costs of accessible attitudes. It is suggested that accessible attitudes can leave the individual rather closed-minded and impervious to changes that the attitude object might exhibit over time. Laboratory experiments will examine the impact of accessible attitudes upon, the detection of, as well as individuals' sensitivity to, changes in the attitude object. Finally, Project IV examines an implication of the attitude model for persuasion. The planned series of experiments focuses upon the efficacy of a particular persuasive strategy for modifying attitudes that are highly accessible from memory and, consequently, are typically resistant to counterpersuasion.