Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more information

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by de Vries, B.
Right arrow Articles by Walker, L. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by de Vries, B.
Right arrow Articles by Walker, L. J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 13, No. 4, 448-457 (1987)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167287134002
© 1987 Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Conceptual/Integrative Complexity and Attitudes Toward Capital Punishment

Brian de Vries

University of British Columbia

Lawrence J. Walker

University of British Columbia

This study examined two issues relevant to the complexity theory of information processing: (1) the relation between conceptual complexity and its theoretical offshoot, integrative complexity and (2) the relation between the structure (conceptual/integrative complexity) and the content (evaluation) of an attitude (namely, capital punishment). Participants were 36 male and 36female university students, from first-year to graduate studies, who completed several measures that assessed: (1) conceptual complexity (the Paragraph Completion Test), (2) integrative complexity (an essay on capital punishment), and (3) attitudes toward capital punishment (a Likert-type questionnaire). Results indicated that the two measures of complexity were comparable, though not equivalent, assessments of the cognitive structures in information processing. Although there was no relation between conceptual complexity and attitudes toward capital punishment, the predicted curvilinear relation was found between integrative complexity and attitudes-extreme attitudes (both pro and con) characterized cognitive simplicity and moderate attitudes characterized increasing complexity.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?