Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1989

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Vallacher, Robin R.

Abstract

Action identification theory asserts that people undertake action with a particular identity for what they are doing, and that this identity is resistant to change. Emergence of a new understanding of action occurs when the person thinks about some detail of the action and is then exposed to a new higher level identity for the act. To test the emergence hypothesis with respect to sexual behavior, subjects were asked to think about having sex and list either the high level aspects (i.e., consequences and implications of having sex) or lower level aspects (i.e., details of having sex). Subjects then read an article identifying sex as responsible behavior or physical pleasure. As predicted, subjects induced to think about the act of having sex in terms of its details expressed their cognitive representation of the act in a way which conformed with the target emergent identity (pleasure or responsibility) to which they were exposed.

Extent

44 p.

Comments

Charles E. Schmidt College of Science|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1989.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Charles E. Schmidt College of Science

Identifier

FADT14557

Format

pdf

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