Using the Implicit Relational Assesment Procedure (IRAP): Implicit Attitudes and Materialism

Lim, Stefan Xien Chien

Using the Implicit Relational Assesment Procedure (IRAP): Implicit Attitudes and Materialism

dc.contributor.advisor	Edwards, Timothy L.
dc.contributor.advisor	Sargisson, Rebecca J.
dc.contributor.author	Lim, Stefan Xien Chien
dc.date.accessioned	2017-02-27T22:35:38Z
dc.date.available	2017-02-27T22:35:38Z
dc.date.issued	2016
dc.date.updated	2016-11-24T01:30:24Z
dc.description.abstract	Advertising may reinforce brief and immediate relational responses (BIRRS) of correspondence between “happiness” and “material wealth.” My research looked into the possibility of changing BIRRs associated with materialism through 10 minutes of training prior to taking the IRAP. I hypothesised that participants can become more or less materialistic through reinforcement of materialistic or anti-materialistic relational responding. Eighty-four participants were assigned to one of three groups, Materialistic, Anti-Materialistic, or Control, and received relevant training followed by an Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) and Materials Value Scale (MVS) survey. The IRAP was used to measure response latencies when individuals responded to pairs of stimuli consistent (e.g., happy/luxury) or inconsistent (e.g., happy/cheap) with materialistic attitudes. The MVS is a survey intended to measure materialism. Results showed that participants were faster to respond materialistically than they were to respond anti-materialistically, regardless of the type of training that they received. Regression analysis showed that participants who completed more Anti-Materialistic training blocks were predicted to score higher on the MVS. I concluded that, 10 minutes of training was not sufficient to affect BIRRs associated with materialism. Moreover, the results indicate that the relational network associated with “being materialistic” is complex and that there is not a clear “opposite” of materialism. Experiment 2 was a focus group, designed to investigate participant’s thoughts regarding the stimuli used in Experiment 1. Participants from Experiment 1 were invited back for focus group sessions. The key findings from the focus group was that the stimuli used in Experiment 1 was not fully reflective of Anti-Materialism and the lack of context during the IRAP compounded into a different interpretation of “Anti-Materialism” for the participants. There is more to Anti-Materialism than the direct opposite of Materialism
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.citation	Lim, S. X. C. (2016). Using the Implicit Relational Assesment Procedure (IRAP): Implicit Attitudes and Materialism (Thesis, Master of Applied Psychology (MAppPsy)). University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10289/10910	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10289/10910
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher	University of Waikato
dc.rights	All items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
dc.subject	IRAP
dc.subject	Materialism
dc.subject	RFT
dc.subject	Mixed Methods
dc.subject	Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure
dc.subject	Implicit Attitudes
dc.subject	Relational Frame Theory
dc.title	Using the Implicit Relational Assesment Procedure (IRAP): Implicit Attitudes and Materialism
dc.type	Thesis
pubs.place-of-publication	Hamilton, New Zealand	en_NZ
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Waikato
thesis.degree.level	Masters
thesis.degree.name	Master of Applied Psychology (MAppPsy)