Klaus Boehnke

Evaluating the structure of human values with confirmatory factor analysis

Abstract This is the first statistical test of a theory of the structure of human values ( Schwartz, 1992 ). The theory postulates that 10 basic values are discriminated in all societies and that these values form a quasi-circumplex structure based on the inherent conflict or compatibility between their motivational goals. Past support for the theory came from subjective judgments of visual plots of the relations among value items in samples from over 60 countries. We formally test the postulated structure and several potential refinements. We employ a specially designed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach with new data from two sets of 23 samples from 27 countries (N=10,857). In both data sets, CFAs confirm the 10 basic values, a modified quasi-circumplex rather than a simple circumplex structure, and the claim that values form a motivational continuum.

Differences between tight and loose cultures: A 33-nation study

The differences across cultures in the enforcement of conformity may reflect their specific histories. With data from 33 nations, we illustrate the differences between cultures that are tight (have many strong norms and a low tolerance of deviant behavior) versus loose (have weak social norms and a high tolerance of deviant behavior). Tightness-looseness is part of a complex, loosely integrated multilevel system that comprises distal ecological and historical threats (e.g., high population density, resource scarcity, a history of territorial conflict, and disease and environmental threats), broad versus narrow socialization in societal institutions (e.g., autocracy, media regulations), the strength of everyday recurring situations, and micro-level psychological affordances (e.g., prevention self-guides, high regulatory strength, need for structure). This research advances knowledge that can foster cross-cultural understanding in a world of increasing global interdependence and has implications for modeling cultural change.

Culture-Level Dimensions of Social Axioms and Their Correlates across 41 Cultures

Leung and colleagues have revealed a five-dimensional structure of social axioms across individuals from five cultural groups. The present research was designed to reveal the culture level factor structure of social axioms and its correlates across 41 nations. An ecological factor analysis on the 60 items of the Social Axioms Survey extracted two factors: Dynamic Externality correlates with value measures tapping collectivism, hierarchy, and conservatism and with national indices indicative of lower social development. Societal Cynicism is less strongly and broadly correlated with previous values measures or other national indices and seems to define a novel cultural syndrome. Its national correlates suggest that it taps the cognitive component of a cultural constellation labeled maleficence, a cultural syndrome associated with a general mistrust of social systems and other people. Discussion focused on the meaning of these national level factors of beliefs and on their relationships with individual level factors of belief derived from the same data set.

Delinquency and Disdain: Social Capital and the Control of Right-Wing Extremism Among East and West Berlin Youth

The authors link the notion of subterranean traditions to the concepts of control theory, anomic aspirations, and social capital to explain right-wing extremism and school delinquency among German Youth. Weakened informal social controls and anomic aspirations lead to delinquent drift and extremist and delinquent involvements. East Berlin youth are uniquely exposed and vulnerable to anomic aspirations and associated right-wing extremism, but their schools and parents play significant roles in suppressing their rightwing attitudes. Schools and families are underappreciated sources of informal social control and resulting social capital that constrain right-wing extremism and related problems of young people during a period of rapid social change in the former East Germany.

Parent-Offspring Value Transmission in a Societal Context Suggestions for a Utopian Research Design— with Empirical Underpinnings

This article attempts to put intrafamilial value transmission into a societal context. It points out that psychological value transmission discourse and sociological/political science discourse about value change are utterly disconnected up to now. Using data from a small value transmission study of 98 university student- parent triads from East Germany as illustration material, the article tries to show why a unified research approach is necessary. All conservation values were more important for the parents’ generation than the off- spring, whereas the reverse was found for hedonism, stimulation, and self-direction values. Intergenerational value stability was found for self-transcendence versus self-enhancement values. Value change and value transmission are interrelated but not strictly parallel processes. Gender effects seem to be stronger than transmission effects. Finally, this article suggests a somewhat utopian research design that may permit a complete disentanglement of societal value change effects from intrafamilial value transmission effects.

The structure and dynamics of worry: theory, measurement, and cross-national replications.

This article presents a comprehensive conceptualization of the structure of worry and the relation of worry to mental health and well-being. It is assumed that worries have two facets, namely, the object of a worry (e.g., self, close others, society, the world) and the domain of a worry (the field of life with which it is concerned). The object of a worry is presumed to be more important than its domain in determining the impact of worries on mental health. Only worries concerned with self and close others (micro worries) are expected to be related to poor mental health, whereas worries about society or the entire world (macro worries) are expected to be positively related to mental health. An instrument is introduced to study worries in accordance with the proposed structure. Its validity is tested by two confirmatory techniques (similarity structure analysis and confirmatory factor analysis) in samples from Israel, West Germany, and (the former) East Germany. Worry scores are also related to five mental health indicators. Results show that across samples micro and macro worries can validly be distinguished. Micro worries are strongly related to poor mental health, whereas macro worries are unrelated to mental health or relate marginally to positive well-being.

What I think and feel—German experience with the revised form of the children's manifest anxiety scale

Abstract A German version of the Revised Childrens Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS-G) was administered to 303 students from German elementary school Grades 2–6. Ratings of anxiety-related classrom behaviors were obtained from their teachers on a Behavior Rating Form (BRF). Both instruments proved psychometrically sound (α = 0.84 and α = 0.87, respectively). The five-factor structure found for the U.S. version of the RCMAS could be replicated. A linear decrease of Anxiety scores was found with no sex differences. The correlation between Anxiety scores and BRF sum scores was weak ( r = 0.21), but items measuring anxious support-seeking in achievement-related classrom situations showed stronger correlations ( r = 0.40).

Developing and Evaluating the Social Axioms Survey in Eleven Countries: Its Relationship With the Five-Factor Model of Personality

Based on a deductive, culturally decentered approach, new items were generated to improve the reliability of the original Social Axioms Survey, which measures individuals’ general beliefs about the world. In Study 1, results from 11 countries support the original five-factor structure and achieve higher reliability for the axiom dimensions as measured by the new scale. Moreover, moderate but meaningful associations between axiom and Big-Five personality dimensions were found. Temporal change of social axioms at the culture level was examined and found to be moderate. In Study 2, additional new items were generated for social complexity and fate control, then assessed in Hong Kong and the United States. Reliability was further improved for both dimensions. Additionally, two subfactors of fate control were identified: fate determinism and fate alterability. Fate determinism, but not fate alterability, related positively to neuroticism. Other relationships between axiom and personality dimensions were similar to those reported in Study 1. The short forms of the axiom dimensions were generally reliable and correlated highly with the long forms. This research thus provides a stronger foundation for applying the construct of social axioms around the world.

Value Differentiation in Adolescence: The Role of Age and Cultural Complexity.

Living in complex social worlds, individuals encounter discordant values across life contexts, potentially resulting in different importance of values across contexts. Value differentiation is defined here as the degree to which values receive different importance depending on the context in which they are considered. Early and mid-adolescents (N = 3,497; M = 11.45 years, SD = 0.87 and M = 16.10 years, SD = 0.84, respectively) from 4 cultural groups (majority and former Soviet Union immigrants in Israel and Germany) rated their values in 3 contexts (family, school, and country). Value differentiation varied across individuals. Early adolescents showed lower value differentiation than mid-adolescents. Immigrant (especially first generation) adolescents, showed higher value differentiation than majority adolescents, reflecting the complex social reality they face while negotiating cultures.

Juvenile Delinquency and Gender Revisited: The Family and Power-Control Theory Reconceived

Cross-cultural evidence on the gender gap in delinquency is presented. Based on power-control theory (PCT), gender differences in aggressive behaviour are analysed. We assume that differences in labour force participation between father and mother lead to differences in parental control behaviour towards boys and girls, which in turn lead to different risk-taking preferences and eventually produce gender differences in aggressive behaviour. A revised PCT acknowledges that dominance ideologies also play a role in the genesis of gender differences in delinquency. This proposition is also tested. Analyses are based on data from 319 families (father, mother and two adolescent opposite-sex siblings) from West Berlin, East Berlin and Toronto. The findings support assumptions of PCT but differ substantially between the three cities. Evidence of the link between structural patriarchy and parental style – postulated in the original PCT – is found in East Berlin, whereas the West Berlin and Toronto results fit a modified version of PCT featuring gender-role attitudes (ideological patriarchy).