Using the implicit association test to measure self-esteem and self-concept

The benefits of being present: mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being

Mindfulness is an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. This research provides a theoretical and empirical examination of the role of mindfulness in psychological well-being. The development and psychometric properties of the dispositional Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) are described. Correlational, quasi-experimental, and laboratory studies then show that the MAAS measures a unique quality of consciousness that is related to a variety of well-being constructs, that differentiates mindfulness practitioners from others, and that is associated with enhanced self-awareness. An experience-sampling study shows that both dispositional and state mindfulness predict self-regulated behavior and positive emotional states. Finally, a clinical intervention study with cancer patients demonstrates that increases in mindfulness over time relate to declines in mood disturbance and stress.

The Extrinsic Affective Simon Task

Abstract. A modified version of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) is described that is based on a comparison of performance on trials within a single task rather than on a comparison of performance on different tasks. In two experiments, participants saw white words that needed to be classified on the basis of stimulus valence and colored words that were to be classified on the basis of color. On trials where the colored word referred to a positive target concept (e.g., “flowers,” “self”), performance was superior when the correct response was the response that was also assigned to positive white words. The reverse was true on trials where the colored word represented a negative target concept (e.g., “insect”). This variant of the IAT is less susceptible to nonassociative effects of task recoding and can be used to assess single and multiple attitudes.

Implicit Association Test: Separating Transsituationally Stable and Variable Components of Attitudes toward Gay Men

Implicit attitudes are conceived of as formed in childhood, suggesting extreme stability. At the same time, it has been shown that implicit attitudes are influenced by situational factors, suggesting variability by the moment. In the present article, using structural equation modeling, we decomposed implicit attitudes towards gay men into a person factor and a situational factor. The Implicit Association Test ( Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998 ), introduced as an instrument with which individual differences in implicit attitudes can be measured, was used. Measurement was repeated after one week (Experiment 1) or immediately (Experiment 2). Explicit attitudes towards gay men as assessed by way of questionnaires were positive and stable across situations. Implicit attitudes were relatively negative instead. Internal consistency of the implicit attitude assessment was exemplary. However, the within-situation consistency was accompanied by considerable unexplained between-situation variability. Consequently, it may not be adequate to interpret an individual implicit attitude measured at a given point in time as a person-related, trait-like factor.

Method-Specific Variance in the Implicit Association Test

The Implicit Association Test (IAT; A. G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee, & J. L. K. Schwartz, 1998) can be used to assess interindividual differences in the strength of associative links between representational structures such as attitude objects and evaluations. Four experiments are reported that explore the extent of method-specific variance in the IAT. The most important findings are that conventionally scored IAT effects contain reliable interindividual differences that are method specific but independent of the measures' content, and that IAT effects can be obtained in the absence of a preexisting association between the response categories. Several techniques to decrease the impact of method-specific variance are evaluated. The best results were obtained with the D measures recently proposed by A. G. Greenwald, B. A. Nosek, and M. R. Banaji (2003).

Secure and Defensive High Self-Esteem

Long-standing theories have suggested high self-esteem (SE) can assume qualitatively different forms that are related to defensiveness. The authors explored whether some high-SE individuals are particularly defensive because they harbor negative self-feelings at less conscious levels, indicated by low implicit SE. In Study 1, participants high in explicit SE but low in implicit SE showed the highest levels of narcissism--an indicator of defensiveness. In Studies 2 and 3, the correspondence between implicit and explicit SE predicted defensive behavior (in-group bias in Study 2 and dissonance reduction in Study 3), such that for high explicit-SE participants, those with relatively low implicit SE behaved more defensively. These results are consistent with the idea that high SE can be relatively secure or defensive.

Defensive Zeal and the Uncertain Self: What Makes You So Sure?

In Studies 1-3, undergraduates with high self-esteem (HSEs) reacted to personal uncertainty-threats with compensatory conviction about unrelated issues and aspects of the self. In Study 1 HSEs reacted to salience of personal dilemmas with increased implicit conviction about self-definition. In Study 2 they reacted to the same uncertainty-threat with increased explicit conviction about social issues. In Study 3, HSEs (particularly defensive HSEs, i.e., with low implicit self-esteem; C. H. Jordan, S. J. Spencer, & M. P. Zanna, 2003) reacted to uncertainty about a personal relationship with compensatory conviction about social issues. For HSEs in Study 4, expressing convictions about social issues decreased subjective salience of dilemma-related uncertainties that were not related to the social issues. Compensatory conviction is viewed as a mode of repression, akin to reaction formation, that helps keep unwanted thoughts out of awareness.

The self-importance of moral identity

Recent theorizing in moral psychology extends rationalist models by calling attention to social and cultural influences (J. Haidt, 2001). Six studies using adolescents, university students, and adults measured the associations among the self-importance of moral identity, moral cognitions, and behavior. The psychometric properties of the measure were assessed through an examination of the underlying factor structure (Study 1) and convergent, nomological, and discriminant validity analyses (Studies 2 and 3). The predictive validity of the instrument was assessed by examinations of the relationships among the self-importance of moral identity, various psychological outcomes, and behavior (Studies 4, 5, and 6). The results are discussed in terms of models of moral behavior, social identity measurement, and the need to consider moral self-conceptions in explaining moral conduct.

Affective habituation: subliminal exposure to extreme stimuli decreases their extremity

Following a functional perspective on evaluation, the authors hypothesized that subliminal exposure to extreme stimuli (e.g., extremely negative or positive words) would lead these stimuli to be perceived as less extreme. This process--affective habituation--was tested in 4 experiments. In Experiment 1, participants were subliminally exposed to extremely positive and extremely negative words. In a subsequent explicit-judgment task, these words were rated as less extreme than extreme words that had not been presented. In Experiment 2, these results were replicated with an implicit evaluation measure. In Experiments 3 and 4, subliminal exposure to extreme positive and negative words made the words "behave" as words that are only moderately positive or negative. Several implications are discussed.

Attentional mechanisms linking rejection to hostile reactivity: the role of "hot" versus "cool" focus

Drawing on the hot-cool systems analysis of self-regulation, we examined whether attentionalfocus mediates the negativity of cognitive-affective reactions to interpersonal rejection. The hypothesis was that whereas a hot, arousing focus to representing rejection experiences should increase anger-hostility, accessing the cool system through distraction and distancing should attenuate such responses. Participants imagined an autobiographical rejection experience, focusing either on their physiological and emotional reactions (hot focus) or on the physical setting of the experience (cool focus). Participants in a third condition received no specific attentional instructions. Both implicit and explicit measures showed that hostile thoughts and feelings were attenuated in the cool-focus compared with the hot-focus condition. The findings support the adaptive value of activating a cooling strategy under hot, arousing conditions that otherwise elicit automatic, hot-system responses.

The Implicit Association Test as a tool for studying dysfunctional associations in psychopathology: strengths and limitations

Dysfunctional beliefs and associations are assumed to play a crucial role in various forms of psychopathology. Recently, it has been suggested that the Implicit Association Test (IAT) provides a better way to assess those associations than traditional self-report measures. During the IAT, participants classify items as belonging to one of four concepts. Results show that performance is superior when associated concepts are assigned to the same response than when associated concepts are assigned to different responses. I present an overview of the available literature on the IAT and evaluate the usefulness of this task as a tool for clinically oriented research.

Using the implicit association test to measure age differences in implicit social cognitions

Two studies investigated the use of the Implicit Association Test (IAT; A. G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee, & J. L. K. Schwartz, 1998) to study age differences in implicit social cognitions. Study I collected IAT (implicit) and explicit (self-report) measures of age attitudes, age identity, and self-esteem from young, young-old, and old-old participants. Study 2 collected IAT and explicit measures of attitudes toward flowers versus insects from young and old participants. Results show that the IAT provided theoretically meaningful insights into age differences in social cognitions that the explicit measures did not, supporting the value of the IAT in aging research. Results also illustrate that age-related slowing must be considered in analysis and interpretation of IAT measures.

A unified theory of implicit attitudes, stereotypes, self-esteem, and self-concept

This theoretical integration of social psychology's main cognitive and affective constructs was shaped by 3 influences: (a) recent widespread interest in automatic and implicit cognition, (b) development of the Implicit Association Test (IAT; A. G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee, & J. L. K. Schwartz. 1998), and (c) social psychology's consistency theories of the 1950s, especially F. Heider's (1958) balance theory. The balanced identity design is introduced as a method to test correlational predictions of the theory. Data obtained with this method revealed that predicted consistency patterns were strongly apparent in the data for implicit (IAT) measures but not in those for parallel explicit (self-report) measures. Two additional not-yet-tested predictions of the theory are described.

Cognitive-processing bias in chronic pain: a review and integration

Do patients with chronic pain selectively process pain- and illness-related stimuli? The evidence with regard to attention, interpretation, and recall biases is critically reviewed. A model is proposed to account for the findings in which it is suggested that biases in information processing in chronic pain are the result of overlap between 3 schemas: pain, illness, and self. With frequent repeated or continued experience of pain, the pain schema becomes enmeshed with illness and self-schemas. The extent of the enmeshment and the salient content of the schema determine the bias. A fundamental assumption is that all patients with pain selectively process sensory-intensity information. A clinical implication of the results is that processing biases that extend beyond this healthy and adaptive process to enmesh the self-schema with pain and illness schemas could maintain and exacerbate distress and illness behavior in patients with chronic pain.

Health of the Implicit Association Test at age 3

Since its first publication in 1998, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) has been used repeatedly to measure implicit attitudes and other automatic associations. Although there have also been a few studies critical of the IAT, there now exists substantial evidence for the IAT's convergent and discriminant validity, including new evidence reported in several of the articles in this special issue. IAT attitude measures have often correlated only weakly with explicit (self-report) measures of the same associations. It therefore seems appropriate to conclude that the IAT assesses constructs that are often (but not always) distinct from the corresponding constructs measured by self-report.