The utility of open-ended measures to assess intergroup ambivalence.

Abstract

People who are ambivalent toward a group have attitudes that are based on conflicting positive and negative evaluations of the group (Katz & Hass, 1988;Olson & Zanna, 1993). The purpose of the present study was to demonstrate the utility of open-ended measures for assessing intergroup ambivalence. Forty-two Canadian undergraduates completed open-ended measures of stereotypes (beliefs about characteristics of group members), symbolic beliefs (beliefs that group members promote or threaten cherished values), and emotions, in order to determine their degree of ambivalence toward Native Peoples, French Canadians, Oriental Immigrants, and Canadians. They also completed an attitude measure assessing their overall evaluations of the groups. Examination and comparison of these measures revealed findings consistent with theoretical expectations, thus providing support for the open-ended measure of ambivalence. The advantages of the open-ended measure are discussed.strength: Antecedents and consequences,.Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Impact of Attitudinal Ambivalence on Safety Behaviour in Construction

“…Respondents could be asked directly if they have conflicting beliefs and feelings towards unsafe acts [39], or they could be asked to rate the extent of their positive and negative beliefs and feelings separately, and the response would be calculated to indicate ambivalence [40].…”

Ambivalence and Persuasion: The Processing of Messages about Immigrant Groups

“…1 To test our hypothesis, we measured participants' ambivalence toward Oriental people and then presented them with a strong or weak persuasive message in favor of immigration from Hong Kong. Ambivalence toward Oriental people was measured using Bell, Esses, and Maio's (1996) open-ended measure of ambivalence. This measure asks participants to indicate the emotions elicited by group members, group members' personality traits, and group members' values.…”

Ambivalência atitudinal: Selecção de estímulos alimentares e avaliação de três medidas em quatro índices de ambivalência

“…Propostas por Bell, Esses, e Maio (1996) permitem aos participantes descrever as suas reacções espontâneas face a um objecto atitudinal, quer sejam positivas ou negativas. Bell et al (1996), defendem que as medidas abertas têm a vantagem de se basearem em informação que é acessível e relevante para as atitudes das pessoas face a um objecto específico, uma vez que levam os respondentes a recuperarem crenças e emoções face ao objecto alvo, que lhes vêm com frequência à memória. Contrariamente à medida indirecta fechada (MIF), a medida indirecta aberta (MIA) não separa as dimensões da atitude em escalas unipolares.…”

“…Para calcular a ambivalência intra-componentes, as pontuações positivas da escala são somadas conjuntamente, sendo o mesmo feito com as pontuações negativas, para determinar o grau de positividade ou negatividade nos dois componentes (cognições e afectos). A ambivalência de cada componente é calculada com base na fórmula desenvolvida por Bell et al (1996): P + |N| -2 x |P + N| + 30…”