interattitudinal consistency

the extent to which attitudes in an attitude system are evaluatively consistent with one another. High consistency occurs when each attitude implies the other attitudes in the system. Low consistency occurs when some attitudes in the system imply the opposite of others.

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Psychology term of the day

January 30th 2025

subject sophistication

a familiarity with general research procedures that may influence a person’s behavior as a participant in a study. It is an issue of particular concern in deception research, as participants may significantly modify their behavior (e.g., specifically searching for any evidence of deceit in the experimental procedure) as they become increasingly knowledgeable about the nature of deception in experiments. Sources of sophistication include participating in research previously, talking to participants from other studies, and reading about studies in the mass media.