Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T23:36:12.488Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Emotional Ambivalence in Risk Behaviors: The Case of Occasional Excessive Use of Alcohol

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2014

Amparo Caballero ,
Pilar Carrera ,
Dolores Muñoz  and
Flor Sánchez
Amparo Caballero*
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Pilar Carrera
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Dolores Muñoz
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Flor Sánchez
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Amparo Caballero, Departamento de Psicología Social y Metodología, Facultad de Psicología, c/ Ivan Pavlov, 6, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Spain. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the differential and complementary role played by the theory of planned behavior (TPB) variables and by participants' emotions when recalling and describing previous experiences of such risk behavior in the prediction of the intention to repeat a risk behavior in the immediate future. We chose the behavior of occasional excessive drinking, a risk behavior characterized by evoking attitudinal ambivalence and eliciting mixed emotions, joy and sadness. The results show that emotional ambivalence is not equivalent to attitudinal ambivalence (whose indexes include that of the affective component), and that this emotional information is relevant for predicting the intention to repeat the risk behavior in the near future, enhancing the prediction of the TPB model.

En este trabajo estudiamos el papel diferencial y complementario que juegan las emociones sentidas cuando se recuerda y describe una experiencia personal pasada en la conducta de riesgo junto con las variables clásicas de la teoría de la conducta planificada en la predicción de la intención de repetir dicha conducta de riesgo en un futuro cercano. Hemos elegido la conducta de beber puntualmente alcohol en exceso, una conducta caracterizada por evocar actitudes ambivalentes y emociones mixtas (alegría y tristeza). Los resultados muestran que la ambivalencia emocional no es equivalente a la ambivalencia actitudinal (cuyos índices incluyen la ambivalencia del componente afectivo de las actitudes), y que esta información emocional es un factor relevante para predecir mejor la intención de repetir la conducta de riesgo en el futuro cercano.

Keywords

attitudinal ambivalenceemotional ambivalencemixed emotionsrisk behaviorambivalencia actitudinalambivalencia emocionalemociones mixtasconducta de riesgo
Type
Articles
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , May 2007 , pp. 151 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ajzen, I. (1988). Attitudes, personality and behavior. Chicago: Dorsey.Google Scholar
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (2000). Attitudes and the attitude-behavior relation: Reasoned and automatic processes. In Stroebe, W. & Hewstone, M. (Eds.), European Review of Social Psychology, 11, (pp. 1–33). Wiley.Google Scholar
Becoña, E. (2000). Los adolescentes y el consumo de drogas. Papeles del Psicólogo, 77, 25–32.Google Scholar
Caballero, A., Carrera, P., Sánchez, F., Muñoz, D., & Blanco, A. (2003). La experiencia emocional como predictor de los comportamientos de riesgo. Psicothema, 15, 427–432.Google Scholar
Caballero, A., Carrera, P., Sánchez, F., Shih, P.C., Muñoz, D., Toro, I., Fuente, I., & Muñoz, A. (2004). Conductas de riesgo en adolescentes. Madrid: Concejalía de Juventud del Ayuntamiento de Tres Cantos.Google Scholar
Carrera, P., & Oceja, L. (2006, May). Emotional patterns involved in the simultaneous mixed emotional experience: Analogical Emocional Scale. Oral presentation in the second European Conference on Emotion. Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, May 18–20.Google Scholar
Carrera, P., & Oceja, L. (2007). Drawing mixed emotions: Sequential or simultaneous experiences. Cognition and Emotion, 21(2), 422–441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carrera, P., Caballero, A., Sánchez, F., & Blanco, A. (2005). Emociones mixtas y conductas de riesgo. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, 37, 119–130.Google Scholar
Chaiken, S., Pomerantz, E.M., & Giner-Sorolla, R. (1995). Structural consistency and attitude strength. In Petty, R.E. & Krosnick, J.A. (Eds.), Attitude strength: Antecedents and consequences (pp. 387–412). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Conner, M.T., & Sparks, P. (2002). Ambivalence and attitudes. In Stroebe, W. & Hewstone, M. (Eds.), European Review of Social Psychology, 12 (pp. 37–70). Wiley.Google Scholar
Conner, M.T., Sherlock, K., & Orbell, S. (1998). Psychosocial determinants of ecstasy use in young people in the UK. British Journal of Health Psychology, 3, 295–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conner, M.T, Sparks, P., Povey, R., James, R., & Shepherd, R. (1998). Interpretations of healthy and unhealthy eating, and implications for dietary change, Health Education Research, 13, 171–183.Google Scholar
Cooke, R., & Sheeran, P. (2004). Moderation of cognition-intention and cognition-behaviour relations: A meta-analysis of properties of variables from the theory of planned behaviour. British Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 159–186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Forgas, J.P. (2001). Feeling and thinking. The role of affect in social cognition. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Giner-Sorolla, R. (1999). Affect in attitude. Immediate and deliberative perspectives. In Chaiken, S. & Trope, Y. (Eds.). Dual process theories in social psychology (pp. 441–461). New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Haddock, G., & Zanna, M. (1998). On the use of open-ended measures to assess attitudinal components. British Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 129–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haddock, G., & Zanna, M.P. (1999). Cognition, affect, and the prediction of social attitudes. In Stroebe, W. & Hewstone, M. (Eds.), European Review of Social Psychology, 10 (pp. 75–99). Wiley.Google Scholar
Hynie, M., MacDonald, T.K., & Marques, S. (2006). Self-conscious emotions and self-regulation in the promotion of condom use. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 1072–1084.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Larsen, J.T., McGraw, A.P., & Cacioppo, J.T. (2001). Can people fell happy and sad at the same time? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 684–696.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, D., Manstead, A.S.R., & Stradling, S.G. (1995). Extending the theory of planned behaviour: The role of personal norm. British Journal of Social Psychology, 34, 127–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richard, R., de Vries, N.K., & van der Plig, J. (1998). Anticipated regret and precautionary sexual behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28, 1411–1428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, M.D., & Clore, G.L. (2002). Belief and feeling: Evidence for an accessibility model of emotional self-report. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 934–960.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenthal, R., & Rosnow, R.L. (1991). Essentials of behavioural research: Method and data analysis (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Russell, J.A., & Carroll, J. M. (1999). On the bipolarity of positive and negative affect. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 3–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sheeran, P., & Orbell, , (1999). Augmenting the theory of planned behavior: Roles for anticipated regret and descriptive norms. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, 2107–2142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sánchez, F., Caballero, A., Carrera, P., Blanco, A., & Pizarro, B. (2001). Sexual risk behaviour and emotional experience. International Review of Social Psychology, 14, 7–20.Google Scholar
Schimmack, U. (2001). Pleasure, displeasure, and mixed feelings: Are semantic opposites mutually exclusive? Cognition & Emotion, 15, 81–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, M.M., Zanna, M.P., & Griffin, D.W. (1995). Let's not be indifferent about attitudinal ambivalence. In Petty, R.E. & Krosnick, J.A. (Eds), Attitude strength: Antecedent and consequences (pp. 361–386). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Trafimow, D. (2004). Problems with change in R2 as applied to theory of reasoned action research. British Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 515–530.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trafimow, D., Sheeran, P., Lombardo, B., Finlay, K.A., Brown, J., & Armitage, C. (2004). Affective and cognitive control of persons and behaviours. British Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 207–224.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed