Suchergebnisse

The degree of authoritarianism in the United States Army is assessed through secondary analysis of data from a questionnaire administered in 1973/1974 to 1,564 enlisted men. The relationship of authoritarianism to army experience is curvilinear: attitudes become less authoritarian with increases in length of experience up to three years, & then become more authoritarian with increasing length of service. This pattern persists with education controlled for, & with a volunteers-only sample. Careerists are considerably more authoritarian than first-term soldiers. 2 Tables. W. H. Stoddard.

During the early 1970s, the increase in willingness of Americans to vote for a woman for president was directly related to education, & contrasts with the inverse relationship between education & increases in willingness to vote for a black for president. The contrast indicates that on some issues, the relationship between education & "enlightened" opinions is variable, & characterizes mainly the middle stages of such issues' life histories. The strengthening relationship between education & "enlightened" opinion about women was interpreted as reflecting the attention of the better-educated strata to the mass media's increased coverage of women-related topics in the 1970s. Public opinion data on the willingness to elect a woman president were gathered from the American Instit of PO surveys for 1967, 1969, & 1971, & from the National Opinion Research Center surveys for 1972, 1974, & 1976. The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature was used as an indication of mass media content; articles pertaining to women's rights & the Womens' Liberation Movement were catalogued for the years 1965 through 1976. It was found that growing media coverage of women's issues corresponded with greater public willingness to accept a woman as a presidential candidate. It is felt that acceptance of this issue is related not only to broad-mindedness & liberalism, but also to a growing awareness of changes in norms that have been legitimized by laws & court decisions. It is also expected that, over time, the education-relatedness of this issue will decrease as these legitimized attitudes "trickle down" to the less educated. 3 Tables. Modified Author Conclusions.

With one exception, the reliabilities of ascribed social & background characteristics in the (Mich) Survey Research Center's American Panel Study of 1956-58-60 & the panel study of Political Change in Britain of 1963-64-66-70 were markedly higher than those for achieved characteristics. The variables considered (sex, race, age, occupation of father for both countries, state of birth, state where one grew up, size of place where one grew up, & education for the US) ranged in % reliable from 66-74% (occupation of father, education) to 98-99% (sex & race). Since relationships between variables are reduced by random error, unreliable measurement in survey data implies that the predictive power of achieved characteristics (eg, education) is reduced proportionately more than that of ascribed characteristics (eg, sex, race) & suggests a built-in tendency for policy-oriented research to find problems less malleable than actually may be the case. 5 Tables. AA.

Survey Res Center election study data were examined in an attempt to assess the impact of Vietnam dove sentiment on voter turnout & on the outcome of the 1968 Amer presidential election. Although voter turnout outside the South did decline in 1968, the relationship of turnout to opinion on what to do in Vietnam was very slight, although consistent, whether the cross-section, the nonSouth, or nonSouth whites were considered. Similar results were obtained in 1964 for Vietnam & in 1952 for Korea. Among nonSouth white ages 21-30, decreased turnout was related to dovish opinion on Vietnam in 1968, but again, similar relationships appeared in 1964 & in 1952. Among white Democrats & Independents outside the South, H. Humphrey's vote % was lower among those who wanted to take a stronger stand in Vietnam than among those who wanted to pull out; this result suggests that had Humphrey tailored his appeal more to the hawks (rather than toward the doves), he would have improved his chances to win the election. AA.