Participatory democratic theorists have long claimed that political participation improves citizens & integrates them into the political community. The effects of campaign participation on the attitudes & opinions of 57 college students in NY, particularly attitudes of alienation, were examined through the use of pre- & postcampaign Q sorts. By comparing the results with those of a control group, it was determined that campaign participation does result in greater attitudinal shift for participants than for nonparticipants; however, the changes that occurred resulted not only in shifts away from alienation (as democratic theorists predicted), but also in shifts toward greater alienation (contrary to predictions). 1 Table, 39 References. Adapted from the source document.
Do voters for different parties have distinct climate attitudes because of their positions on other issues? With European Social Survey (ESS) data, we find that in Western (but not Central and Eastern) Europe there is a linkage between left-right self-placement and climate attitudes that cannot be accounted for by economic egalitarianism or liberal cultural attitudes. That linkage partly but not fully accounts for why voters for different party families have different beliefs and worries about climate change. Green party voters are more climate conscious than other voters with similar left-wing identities and political values. Not only Populist-Right but also mainstream Conservative party-family voters are less worried about climate change than their left-right orientations and other political values suggest. While Western European countries nearly all follow the same pattern, there is no consistent structure in Central and Eastern European countries. Across Europe non-voters are less worried about climate change than voters.
The purpose of this study was to examine parents' perceived social change and its relations with adolescents' reports of childrearing attitudes in urban and rural China. The participants were high school students and their parents in a Northern region of China. Parents completed a measure of perceived social change, and the adolescents completed a measure of childrearing attitudes including parental warmth, control, and encouragement of independence. The results indicated that urban parents had higher scores than rural parents on major dimensions of perceived social change including work-related opportunities, self-improvement in work, and high-tech experiences. Urban adolescents reported lower parental control and higher parental encouragement of independence than rural adolescents. In addition, parents' reports of opportunities and prospects were positively associated with adolescents' reports of parental warmth and encouragement of independence in childrearing across the urban and rural groups, suggesting that parents who perceived more challenges and opportunities to pursue self-advancement and personal career goals were more likely to support the use of warm and sensitive parenting and to encourage their children to develop independent behaviors. The results indicated the implications of social change for socialization and adolescent development in Chinese context.
AbstractThis paper uses original Canadian survey data to compare support for and opposition to five energy‐related climate policies. Results show that Canadians were very concerned about climate change and supportive of the policies. Variation in support and opposition was investigated using logistic regression. We tested models that associate climate policy support with a combination of one's ecological worldview, climate change attitudes, personal capabilities, contextual influences, and ascription of responsibility to take action on climate change, applying elements of Stern's (2000) theory of environmentally‐significant behaviour and Patchen's (2010) model of climate change behaviour. We found that the more abstract policies attracted a different set of predictors than the more concrete policies. Females and parents showed increased support for the more abstract policies. Having an ecological worldview was a significant predictor of support for all policies but was obscured by other factors in a combined model.Cet article utilise des données d'enquête canadiennes originales pour comparer le soutien et l'opposition à cinq politiques climatiques liées à l'énergie. Les résultats montrent que les Canadiens étaient très préoccupés par le changement climatique et appuyaient les politiques. La variation du soutien et de l'opposition a été étudiée à l'aide de la régression logistique. Nous avons testé des modèles qui associent le soutien à la politique climatique à une combinaison de vision du monde écologique, d'attitudes face au changement climatique, de capacités personnelles, d'influences contextuelles et d'attribution de la responsabilité d'agir sur le changement climatique, en appliquant des éléments de la théorie de Stern (2000) sur le comportement significatif pour l'environnement et le modèle de comportement face au changement climatique de Patchen (2010). Nous avons constaté que les politiques plus abstraites attiraient un ensemble différent de prédicteurs que les politiques plus concrètes. Les femmes et les parents ont montré un soutien accru pour les politiques plus abstraites. Avoir une vision du monde écologique était un prédicteur significatif du soutien à toutes les politiques, mais était obscurci par d'autres facteurs dans un modèle combiné.
Negative attitudes are a major barrier to the equality of people with disabilities. Governments and other organisations have implemented numerous programs to change attitudes towards people with disabilities. We analyse published evidence about the effectiveness of such programs using a framework of the interrelationship between three levels of policy intervention to change attitudes: personal level – directed at changing the attitudes of individuals; organisational level – concerning attitudinal barriers in domains such as employment, education and health; and government level – legally mandating behaviour change. The analysis finds that the following policy types can be effective if used together: policies that involve direct contact with people with disability; information and awareness campaigns; education and training about disability; and antidiscrimination enforcement. Policy characteristics that contribute to effectiveness include: a positive program experience for participants; multi-faceted and prolonged interventions; and adequate program resources. Policy effectiveness to change attitudes relies on corresponding reinforcement at all three policy levels.
This investigation sought to determine the correlates of attitudes towards the new ANC-dominated government in South Africa among two groups of White university students. To a large extent, the research replicates an earlier project conducted in 1986 which investigated the predictors of attitudes towards the ANC at a time when it was banned as were its leaders who were either imprisoned or in exile. Results indicate that conformity to group norms was of importance in the Afrikaans-speaking sample as was patriotism, authoritarian behavior and prejudiced attitudes. Conversely, attitudes in the English-speaking group seemed to be held less strongly and attitudes towards the ANC-led government appeared no longer to be related to such factors as prejudice, authoritarianism, patriotism or self-esteem. Results are understood in terms of long-standing sociopolitical differences between White English-speaking and Afrikaner groups in South Africa.
A revised version of a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society, Miami Beach, Fla, Nov 1973. While aging is often said to be associated with increasingly conservative social & political attitudes, very few studies have employed appropriate methodological procedures to study long term change. Examination is made of Stouffer's hypothesis (COMMUNISM, CONFORMITY, AND CIVIL LIBERTIES, New York, NY: John Wiley, 1955) that aging is associated with decreasing tolerance of ideological nonconformity. The analysis is based on 9 items common to the 1954 Stouffer Cross Section Survey (N=4,903) & the 1972 NORC General Social Survey (N=947), both of which are national samples. The dependent variables include 3-item Guttman scales measuring tolerance of the civil liberties of atheists, socialists, & Communists, & a 9-item Guttman scale measuring general tolerance of ideological nonconformity. A cross-sequential design is used which compares the dependent variable scores for each of 5 cohorts in 1954 (ages 21-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, & 60+) with the dependent variable scores for each cohort in 1972 (ages 39-47, 48-57, 58-67, 68-77, & 78+). Cohort differences exist in 1954 & in 1972. Older cohorts are less tolerant than younger cohorts in both surveys on the 4 dependent variables. The pattern of intracohort changes over the 18 year period however, indicates clearly that all cohorts have higher tolerance scores in 1972 than in 1954. While absolute increases in tolerance characterize all cohorts, the degree of change varies: younger cohorts exhibit greater change than older cohorts. These findings show that growing older is not invariably accompained by more conservative political attitudes in an absolute sense. However, because the older cohorts appear to be more likely to adhere to their earlier attitudes, this differential propensity for change leads to a widening gap between the cohorts. It is only in this relative sense that growing old would appear to be accompanied by increasing conservatism. 3 Tables. Modified AA.
Inspired by the work of Tolman and others, this longitudinal qualitative study was designed to explore how women feel about sexual intimacy in the first year of college and how these feelings change over time. In‐depth interviews with 14 young women were conducted over a period of 2 years. Findings suggest that the valence of sexual intimacy shifts by the end of women's sophomore year, but this shift in valence is not necessarily accompanied by a stronger sense of sexual agency, given that terms of the sexual and relational landscape to which women must adjust seem to primarily benefit cultural constructions of masculinity.
Although scholars have established that voters have unstable preferences (e.g., Converse, 1964; Zaller, 1992) and that they are not accurate when recalling past preferences (e.g., Markus, 1986; Niemi, Katz, & Newman, 1980; Smith, 1984), existing research has not systematically explored whether voters can accurately predict the changing nature of their own opinions. The question of whether whether people recognize the instability of their political preferences was explored in a random sample of Pennsylvania registered voters who were surveyed in August and October 1996, during the presidential election campaign. The first survey elicited respondents' positions on two political issues (welfare reform and the environment) and on the two major candidates, and also asked them to estimate the likelihood that each of these positions would change during the next 2 months. The second survey elicited positions at that time and also asked voters to recall their prior positions. Measured both by expectations and recall, respondents tended to underestimate the degree to which their own positions would change or had changed over time. This research has implications for the use of public opinion polling and more broadly for the practice of democratic politics.
ObjectiveThis article compares the effects of various climate change issue frames (deontological‐moral, empirical‐scientific, and economic) on support for climate change mitigation policies.MethodsUsing an issue‐framing survey experiment conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk, we assess framing effects on climate change policy support using ordinary least squares regression.ResultsWe find mixed evidence regarding frame effectiveness. Religious moral frames and economic efficiency frames are ineffective, whereas scientific frames, secular moral frames, and economic equity frames are effective at increasing overall policy support. Additionally, the positive science frame and economic equity frame reduce the ideological divide in climate policy support.ConclusionThe effects of issue framing on climate policy support are mixed. Frames that we expected conservatives to be responsive to (religious morality; economic efficiency) fail to change support for climate policy. Frames that emphasize science, secular morality, and economy equity have the potential to increase public support for climate change policies.
