Contrasting Trait Adjectives as Distinct Psychological Entities

Abstract

It commonly is assumed that a positive instrumental value and its negative counterpart (antonym) constitute a single bipolar instrumental value. However, an alternative possibility, which has had Little testing, is that positive instrumental values and their negative counterparts (antonyms) may function as different psychological entities. To compare these alternatives the hypotheses that subjects will score the relative importance of many positive values differently from that of their negative antonyms and will rank positive values and their antonyms differently in importance were tested. Effects of 77 college students' desire for consistency and of ordering were controlled by comparing their scoring of both positive values and their antonyms at two different times at least four weeks apart. Results suggest that positive values and their antonyms may function as different psychological entities.