This study focused on the relationship of behef systems as a configural construct and conservabsm-hberalism to atbtudes toward the death penalty and other punishments for ofiFenses of varying seventy Extrapersonalists, the most concretely functioning of the four conceptual or belief systems posited by Harvey, Hunt, and Schroder (1961), were most in favor of the death penalty They also endorsed the most severe punishment for a vanety of cnmes, to a parbcularly greater extent than did representatives of either of the two more abstractly funcboning systemsThe behef dimensions of Openness, Evaluativeness, and Complexity, as well as the frequency of church attendance, correlated more highly and consistently with atbtudes toward punishment than did either Conservabsm-Liberalism or gender Both ofthe latter vanables failed to correlate with a number ofthe outcome vanables and related at only low levels to the others The greater predicbve power ofa configural concepbon of personality or behef systems over a unidimensional conception seems to have been demonstrated Configural concepts may additionally be generally superior to mulbdimensional concepts treated linearly Ofthe personological vanables that should relate to atbtudes toward capital punishment, mulbdimensional ones should relate more strongly than unidimensional ones Further, a construct that combines structure, amtent, and valence mto diflFerent pattems or configurations should be a more powerful predictor than constructs that include only one of these belief or personality dimensions, or even more than one if they are treated m a linear fashion In hne with this, Wiederanders and Harvey (1977) found that belief systems, treated as tndimensional configurations, differentiated more finely, and presumably more accurately, aiiM)!^ behaviors relatmg to persistence than did the smgle dimension of conceptual complexity (Stuempfig & Maher, 1970) The mam purpose ofthe present study was a companson ofthe jwedicbve abdibes of belief systems, three of their subsidiary dimensions Requests for repints should be sent to O J Harvey,
