It is preferable to use self-report measures of attitudes rather than covert measures when

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journal article

Political Methodology

Vol. 7, No. 1 (1981)

, pp. 81-102 (22 pages)

Published By: Cambridge University Press

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25791105

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Abstract

The affective component of social attitudes can be measured in part using psychophysiological measures. Prior work has indicated that lack of interpersonal empathy and acceptance of aggressive social behavior are associated with decreased skin conductance response and with heart rate deceleration. Conversely, more "humane" attitudes are associated with increased SCR activity and heart rate acceleration, as predicted by the Lacey hypothesis. Current research included male and female participants randomly assigned to either "violent" or "nonviolent" treatment using behavior models on videotape. Heart rate (HR) and skin conductance response (SCR) were monitored, and various attitudinal measures with plausible criterial relationship to the treatment stimuli were employed. Correlational analysis indicated that high acceptance of aggressive social behavior was associated with lower SCR response and HR deceleration; however, the relationships were more clear-cut for males, while for females the pattern was mixed and unreliable. Perloe's social values questionnaire proved to be of meager empirical utility, but scales relating to aggression and violence showed better predictive results. Roessler's hypothesis that Ego Strength is associated with increased physiological response was confirmed for males, but the pattern for females was mixed. Accumulating research results point to the usefulness of validating verbal self-report scales with psychophysiological measures, which might, in the extreme case, be used to eliminate scales whose association with a hypothesized physiological/affective substrate is tenuous or non-existent. Last, results suggest an increasingly phenomenological viewpoint, in which individuals' personal meaning structures must be taken into account and measured more directly.

Publisher Information

Cambridge University Press (www.cambridge.org) is the publishing division of the University of Cambridge, one of the world’s leading research institutions and winner of 81 Nobel Prizes. Cambridge University Press is committed by its charter to disseminate knowledge as widely as possible across the globe. It publishes over 2,500 books a year for distribution in more than 200 countries. Cambridge Journals publishes over 250 peer-reviewed academic journals across a wide range of subject areas, in print and online. Many of these journals are the leading academic publications in their fields and together they form one of the most valuable and comprehensive bodies of research available today. For more information, visit http://journals.cambridge.org.

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Political Methodology © 1981 Cambridge University Press
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