The Structure of Sociopolitical Attitudes in South Africa

Durrheim, Kevin; Foster, Don

doi:10.1080/00224545.1995.9713967

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Conservatism scale. The 32-item South African Conservatism scale (Durrheim & Foster, 1995) was used. The development and psychometric properties of this scale were discussed above under the Afrikaans University Study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both liberal and conservative items are included in the scale to control for response acquiescence. The reported reliability of the scale is 0.85 using Cronbach's alpha (Durrheim & Foster, 1995).…”

Section: Measures Usedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conservatism scale. Conservatism was measured by means of the South African Conservatism scale (Durrheim & Foster, 1995). This scale consists of 32 items de veloped by Durrheim and Foster using item analysis.…”

Section: Measures Usedmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Validity and Reliability of Measures of Right-Wing Authoritarianism in South Africa

Gray

Durrheim

2006

South African Journal of Psychology

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In this article we examine the findings of three studies of right-wing authoritarianism conducted in South Africa. The main aim of the article is to report on the validity and reliability of measures of right-wing authoritarianism across three samples, namely a group of police officers, a group of students at a historically English university and a group of students at a historically Afrikaans university. Two measures of authoritarianism were used: the 30-item version of Altemeyer's (1981, 1988) Right-wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale and the 14-item version of Altemeyer's RWA scale developed by Duckitt (1993a) for use in South African samples. Participants were also given measures of conservatism, prejudice and political beliefs. These scales were then subjected to analyses of internal consistency, factor analysis and correlational analysis. The findings depart somewhat from previous studies in this area in that they do not show the levels of validity and reliability reported in other contexts, nor do these measures perform as theoretically indicated by Altemeyer (1981, 1988) and Duckitt (1989, 1991a). Across all three samples, low correlations were found with measures of prejudice, conservatism and political party preferences. In addition, the three-component model (authoritarian aggression, authoritarian submission and conventionalism) proposed by these authors did not emerge in factor analysis. These findings cause the authors to question the use of RWA scales in South Africa, with a number of implications for authoritarian research in this context.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Measures Usedmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Validity and Reliability of Measures of Right-Wing Authoritarianism in South Africa

Gray

Durrheim

2006

South African Journal of Psychology

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“…For this reason, a two‐phase research design was employed. In the first phase, participants were recruited from two local police stations and a university and were asked to complete a 30‐item (9‐point) Right‐Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale (Altemeyer, 1981), a conservatism scale (Durrheim & Foster, 1995), a Social Distance questionnaire (MacCrone, 1937), and a self‐ranked liberal‐conservatism scale. In total, 250 questionnaire packs were handed out, of which 167 were returned (61 from police and 106 from students).…”

Section: Data and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Collective Rights and Personal Freedoms: A Discursive Analysis of Participant Accounts of Authoritarianism

Gray

Durrheim²

2012

Political Psychology

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This article presents a discursive analysis of participant accounts of authoritarianism, with the aim of understanding how participants construct accounts about authority, when, and for what purposes. Participants completed a 30‐item Right‐Wing Authoritarianism scale and were then interviewed about how they went about this task. Analyses revealed that, despite an overall consistency when answering items on an authoritarianism scale, participants in this study did not consistently choose to produce authoritarian responses in contrast to the nonauthoritarian alternative. Instead, the construction and expression of authoritarian ideas was found to be directly related to two rhetorical features of conversing about authoritarianism: (1) the ideological dilemma of society versus individual and (2) the mobilization of arguments about social and personal threat that allowed participants to construct accounts about collective rights or personal freedoms. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for current debates about how authoritarianism should be theorized and studied.

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“…Conservatism: (I) Respondents indicated their political opinions along a 7-point scale, ranging from "Very Liberal" to "Very Conservative". Although this method is of questionable validity as an index of a general trait of conservatism (Durrheim & Foster, 1995), it is used frequently to measure political conservatism in surveys. (2) Respondents indicated their political party identification by indicating whether they would "most likely support in the upcoming election" either the African National Congress or the Democratic Alliance.…”

Section: Beliefs and Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

White Opposition to Racial Transformation. Is it Racism?

Durrheim

2003

South African Journal of Psychology

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This article endeavours to investigate predictors of opposition to different categories of policy that aim to bring about racial transformation in South Africa. A sample of 134 white university students was used to investigate the structure of racial attitudes and the predictors of racial policy opinion. Factor analysis showed clear distinctions between opinions towards three categories of policy: competitive affirmative action policy, non-competitive reconstruction and development policy, and legislation to outlaw racial discrimination. On the basis of a review of studies conducted in the USA, three sets of variables were included as predictors of racial policy opinion: (a) "symbolic" and "old-fashioned" racism, (b) political and economic intergroup comparisons, and (c) beliefs and values, including egalitarianism and individualism. Regression analysis showed that each type of policy opinion had a different profile of predictors, but that old-fashioned racism was the strongest predictor in all three instances.

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The Structure of Sociopolitical Attitudes in South Africa

Cited by 4 publications

References 39 publications

The Validity and Reliability of Measures of Right-Wing Authoritarianism in South Africa

The Validity and Reliability of Measures of Right-Wing Authoritarianism in South Africa

Collective Rights and Personal Freedoms: A Discursive Analysis of Participant Accounts of Authoritarianism

White Opposition to Racial Transformation. Is it Racism?

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