Measurement of Broad Spectrum Social Attitudes: Liberalism-Conservatism

Abstract

The present investigation studied the structure of the liberalism-conservatism system of social attitudes and constructed a scale to measure the domain. Items were prepared that expressed ideas relating to such basic social considerations as the nature of man, the nature of social order, and the need for tradition or social change. The scale was constructed using a methodology which combined a Likert procedure with a series of item-discrimination procedures using known-affiliation groups as external criteria. The scale was also subjected to a series of factor analyses employing data generated by three independent samples. Two forms of the instrument are presented along with evidence bearing on reliability and validity. Consideration is given to the stability of the instrument's factor structure over samples of varying composition.

Lesbian Identities: An Examination of Sexual Behavior and Sex Role Attribution as Related to Age of Initial Same-Sex Sexual Encounter

“…Their present social attitudes tended to be "middle of the road" (M = 136.72, 3.d. = 17.63) as measured by the Social Attitudes Scale (Rambo, 1972(Rambo, , 1973; Liberal = 44, Conservative = 220). They endorsed feminist ideologies (M = 65.91, s.d.…”

“…Each subject completed a structured interview, a child sexual behavior questionnaire (revised from Green, 1984), the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI; Bern, 1974), the Social Attitudes Scale (SAS; Rambo, 1972Rambo, , 1973, and the short version of the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS; Spence 8c Helmreich, 1972). The interview focused on the process involved in the formation of a lesbian identity, childhood fantasies and sex-role behaviors, and the history of oppositeand same-sex relationships with special emphasis on initial sexual experiences with either sex.…”