Scaling Chinese Traditional-Modern Attitudes and the GSR Measurement of "Important" Versus "Un-Important" Chinese Concepts

Abstract

This paper is concerned with theoretical and scaling problems involved in the development and research application of the Chinese T-M Scale, used to test the Traditional-Modern consistency theory of attitude change. T-M theory considers that individuals exposed to conflicting traditional and modern cognitions resolve traditional-modern conflict either by the development of compromise attitudes or by alternate modes of inconsistency reduction. The compromise attitudes formed as a result of this process, are held to be more adaptive for the satisfactory adjustment of individuals in situations of rapid biological and social change. A model of susceptibility to T-M attitude change is also presented, together with a GSR experiment designed to test certain aspects of T-M theory in the laboratory. In the GSR experiment it was found as expected that more "important" Chinese traditional-modern concepts elicited a significantly higher level of GSR arousal in response to attitude change in the direction of ieer-group pressure, while a high degree of unresolved attitudinal conflict was also found among these more "important" concepts. These peer-group pressures also resulted in significantly greater change occurring among these more "important" Confucian concepts in a traditional direction, while the "un-important' concupts changed in a modern direction.