In the last decades value research has produced a vast number of theoretical concepts. However, it is unclear how the different value theories relate to each other. This study makes a first step toward a systematic comparison of value theories. It focuses on the individual level of the two approaches that are, at present, probably the most prominent in international research -the theory of basic human values of Shalom Schwartz and the postmodernization theory of Ronald Inglehart. Using data from the World Value Survey and the European Social Survey for West Germany we assess both the internal and the external validity of the two accounts. The results indicate that both value theories have different strengths and weaknesses. Whereas the Inglehart account has lower internal and weaker construct validity, the Schwartz account is somewhat less consistent in its predications. Nevertheless, both value conceptions are able to explain a substantial share of variation in specific attitudes and behavior. AbstractIn the last decades value research has produced a vast number of theoretical concepts.However, it is unclear how the different value theories relate to each other. This study makes a first step toward a systematic comparison of value theories. It focuses on the individual level of the two approaches that are, at present, probably the most prominent in international research -the theory of basic human values of Shalom Schwartz and the postmodernization theory of Ronald Inglehart. Using data from the World Value Survey and the European Social Survey for West Germany we assess both the internal and the external validity of the two accounts. The results indicate that both value theories have different strengths and weaknesses. Whereas the Inglehart account has lower internal and weaker construct validity, the Schwartz account is somewhat less consistent in its predications. Nevertheless, both value conceptions are able to explain a substantial share of variation in specific attitudes and behavior.

Happiness, Subjective wellbeing, Life satisfaction, Asia, Europe, Culture, Multi-level-analysis,

It has often been observed in experimental studies that the reliability of items increases if the same questions are asked of the same respondents more than once. This phenomenon, called the “Socratic effect,” also occurs in nonexperimental, short-wave panel studies. In the first section of this article a number of hypotheses presumed to underlie the “Socratic effect” are presented. It is argued that a distinction must be made between consistency processes at the structural level (latent attitudes) and the observational level (respondent behavior). Given this distinction, the hypotheses are tested within a LISREL framework that takes this differentiation into account. The hypotheses are then evaluated using four items to measure respondents' attitudes toward guestworkers in West Germany. By and large the central hypotheses are confirmed. It is also shown that two different models can be fit to the observed data equally well, and therefore a nonstatistical criterion has to be invoked to decide which model to use as the basic model for describing the stability and reliability of the attitude.

This chapter investigates statistical evidence regarding the fall‐off in church membership and attendance, which has taken place across Western Europe since World War II, and analyses variations between countries. It tentatively concludes that the pace of the process of church disengagement is linked to rationalization of society and the advance of Protestantism, which has led to a relegation of religion as an à la carte set of options, weakening its traditional guidelines on political questions. With religiously inspired deference fading away, political leaders may have more difficulty mustering support for the institutions of government.

In two recent articles, Inglehart (1981, 1982) arrives at the conclusion that the decline of materialism in postwar Japan is the result of generational change and period effects. Aging effects cannot be demonstrated empirically. This article challenges his views. It will be shown that a life-cycle explanation can claim as much empirical evidence as a generational explanation, as long as the overall goodness of fit and the sign and strength of the age effects and cohort effects are the only criteria the decision is based upon. Particularly, a two-dimensional age-period model fits the data nearly as well as the cohort-period model that Inglehart proposes. Theoretical considerations, however, plead for a three-dimensional solution that includes some cohort effects beside period and aging effects for those generations that grew up in the postwar era. Such a model can also be established empirically.

No abstract

No abstract

This article focuses on three main points: (1) Because a short-wave panel study such as the ALLBUS-Retest Study 1984 is suited optimally for reliability estimations, the quality of a larger number of items concerning attitudes about the welfare state and inequality and toward a minority group in West Germany (“guestworkers”) is investigated; (2) we show that most of the items are more reliable in the subgroup with high political interest than in the low-interest group; and (3) because we cannot rely on multiple indicators in most of the cases, methods and statistical models for the analysis of single indicators in multiple-wave panels are discussed. Because we can assume that the latent attitudes are continuous and the observed variables have ordered categories (at least), we confine our analyses to metric variable models. We show that (a) the assumptions underlying the classical models proposed by Heise (1969) and by Wiley and Wiley (1970, 1974) will often be violated if the times between the panel waves are very short; (b) frequently, models of parallel or tau-equivalent measurement, or some modifications of these models lead to parameter estimates that are more plausible from a theoretical point of view; (c) the ML- and ULS-estimators for these models can be easily calculated; (d) the use of polychoric correlation coefficients for these models is more appropriate if the observed variables have a badly skewed distribution and a small number of categories.