| The zeitgeist in attitude research within social psychology centers on the claim that implicitly measured attitudes are independent from the context in which they are measured, unlike explicitly measured attitudes. In contrast to this perspective, the current thesis advances the argument that implicitly measured attitudes exhibit both cognitive and motivational fluidity. In particular, such attitudes are influenced by which object-relevant memories are activated at the time of measurement (i.e., cognitive fluidity) as well as which chronic and recently learned goals are activated at the time of measurement (i.e., motivational fluidity). The associated underlying theoretical assumptions concerning the attitude construct in memory with respect to the claim of contextual independence versus dependence are identified. The implications of the present argument for various issues in attitude research are discussed. |
