Operative and meta-psychological strength-related attitude features: A study of knowledge volume, ambivalence, and accessibility

Psychological constructs have been measured in a variety of ways that differ in the extent to which they rely on people's subjective reports of their psychological experiences. Two categories of measurements that have been considered in the context of assessing strength-related attitude features are meta-psychological and operative measures. These two types of measures were examined for three features of attitudes: (1) knowledge volume about the attitude object, or the amount of information a person has about the object, (2) ambivalence about the attitude object, or conflict in reactions to the object, and (3) the accessibility of the attitude, or the ease with which it can be brought to mind. Relations between meta-psychological and operative measures of a strength-related attitude feature were tested to determine if these two types of measures assess the same construct. Relations between these measures and people's thoughts and behaviors were also tested. Meta-psychological and operative measures of these features were found to assess separate constructs with distinct, meaningful consequences for thoughts and behaviors. Thus, meta-psychological and operative measures do not simply assess the same construct through different means, but appear to tap different constructs. This finding has consequences for theory building and the interpretation of findings in the study of attitude strength as well as for understanding distinction between meta-psychological and more broadly operative measures and subjective perceptions of psychological states.