The Relationship between Attitudes about Abortion and Cognitive Complexity

Attitudes about abortion have been studied in relation to many variables. This study seeks to discover the relationship between abortion attitudes and cognitive complexity. Cognitive complexity is a measure of an individual’s ability to see situations as multifaceted. Sixty-three unmarried and childless undergraduate females were given an attitude about abortion scale which included ten items as well as a test of cognitive complexity modified from Hunt, Bulter, Noy and Rosser’s Assessing Conceptual Level by the Paragraph Completion Method (1978). The results were expected to be an inverse u-shaped with those scoring high on cognitive complexity scoring in the mid-range on the attitudes about abortion scale while those scoring low on the measure of cognitive complexity scoring on one of the extreme ends of the attitudes about abortion scale. This result was expected because the intermediate range on abortion attitudes may mean that those individuals are willing to look at each situation individually instead of just on the basis of a strong pro-life or pro-choice attitude. In contrast to expectations, the results show no relationship between the two variables; however, there were significant differences in responses to the items about abortion, dependent on the type of scenario.