Alienation and activism in today's college-age youth: Socialization patterns and current family relationships.

Abstract

Compared 56 student activists to 151 Ss of a nonstudent subculture (consisting of nonconformist youth who are neither formally registered university Ss nor members of the conventional work force). Then each was compared to a random sample of students at the same institution. The activists and the nonstudents scored high on anomie; and the nonstudents were estranged from their families, the activists were not. Differences in socialization patterns, current attitudes, and values were reported and discussed in terms of their relevance to the question of whether societal rejection takes the form of active confrontation or passive withdrawal. (17 ref.)

Personality characteristics associated with activism and disaffiliation in today's college-age youth.

“…No appreciable differences were obtained on scales of Defensiveness, Number of Favorable or Unfavorable Adjectives Checked, Self-Confidence, and Counseling Readiness. The nonstudents also scored higher than the students on the OPI Scale of Autonomy and lower on social-emotional adjustment, as indicated by a combination of OPI scales (see Whittaker & Watts, 1969), thus offering some validation for these Adjective Check List findings.…”

“…When compared to the student body, both the cited students and the nonstudents evinced a propensity toward nonconformity by their high scores on Autonomy, Change, and Lability and their low scores on Order, Self-Control and, to some extent, Endurance, although this latter comparison did not quite reach significance for the cited student versus student contrast, probably because of the latter's small N. This profile suggests a disposition toward nonconforming behavior. Earlier investigations (e.g., Heist, 1966;Whittaker & Watts, 1969) have found that both types of alienated youth are at least as high, if not higher, on intellectual disposition as measured by a combination of scales included in the OPI (see the Manual, Heist & Yonge, 1968) than the student body at even a rather elite institution such as the University of California, Berkeley. Hence, they would likely be more sensitive than the average student to problems and inequities in our society and they would feel less restrained by social conventions against the questionning of pernicious aspects of society.…”

Families of Animal Rights Activists as a Basis of Support for Ideological Delinquency—A Phenomenological Study

“…It seems that a family may provide an animal rights activist with "tailwind" for his activities, as well as denounce him. Studies concerning social activists, inclusive of animal rights, indicate that in families within which a person receives understanding and support, he feels legitimization and even motivation to confront society as a way of social change (Watts et al, 1969). On the other hand, the literature points at the complexities expressed by animal rights activists ties with their nuclear or extended family: activists who by choice or necessity, severing family or friendship relationships and low survival of partnership between animal rights activists and their non-active spouses.…”

Alienation under the rainbow : a survey of Oregon graduate students

“…Moreover, a few sociologists have dealt with alienation in organizations (Perlin, 1962;Seeman, 1963;Seeman and Evans, 1962). In contrast, psychologists have tended to study alienation as a personality trait (Trent and Graise, 1967;Watts et al, 1969;Kenniston, 1971). …”