8/28/07: WEEK 1: ATTITUDE ASSESSMENT: CLASSIC CONSIDERATIONS
Discussion Leader: Rosanna
Overview
Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Chapter 1 “The nature of attitudes” & chapter 2 “The measurement of attitudes” (copies will be handed out in class).
Attitude-Behavior Consistency
Illustrations of Unobtrusive Measurement
Cialdini, R. B., & Baumann, D. J. (1981). Littering: A new unobtrusive measure of attitude. Social Psychology Quarterly, 44, 254-259.
Stern, S. E., & Faber, J. E. (1997). The lost e-mail method: Milgram's lost letter technique in the age of the Internet. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 29, 260-263.
Fazio, R. H., Jackson, J. R., Dunton, B. C., & Williams, C. J. (1995). Variablility in automatic activation as an unobtrusive measure of racial attitudes: A bone fide pipeline? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 1013-1027.
In reading these papers, consider the following questions and be ready to discuss them in class:
1. Of the self-report measures described by Eagly & Chaiken, which do you think is most useful? Why?
2. Are there circumstances under which you would shift your choice from one self-report measure to another? What are they?
3. Which do you consider the most serious threats to validity posed by self-report measures?
4. Which do you consider the most serious drawbacks of unobtrusive measurement?
5. Suppose you were asked to develop a new unobtrusive measure of attitudes on this campus to the legalization of marijuana; what would you suggest?