Marion Steininger

DOGMATISM AND ATTITUDES

Dogmatism was related to several attitudes for male and female college students. Political conservatism and reported church attendance were positively related to dogmatism for both sexes. Attitude toward marijuana, characteristics attributed to a “good professor,” reasons for attending college, and test anxiety were only partly related to dogmatism, or for only one sex. Hypotheses are offered about some of the unexpected data. The complexity of the data suggests that dogmatism should be related to several variables, rather than one or two, in future samples studied.

DOGMATISM, DOGMATISM FACTORS, AND LIBERALISM-CONSERVATISM

Dogmatism scores, dogmatism factor scores, and two indices of liberalism-conservatism were interrelated for 78 male students, 89 female students, 108 of their fathers, and 138 of their mothers. The six major dogmatism factors found in the literature were belief in one truth, belief in a cause, alienation, virtuous self-denial, self-proselytization, and authoritarianism; the content of the items measuring the factor usually called “alienation” suggests that it may instead measure “derogation of others.” The two indices of liberalism-conservatism were scores on a questionnaire and preference in the 1972 presidential election; neither was related to dogmatism in any of the samples, but Nixon supporters had more conservative attitudes than McGovern supporters in all four samples. Both indices of liberalism-conservatism were related to belief in one truth among the students; among the parents only the questionnaire scores were, and less than among the students. This difference between the groups of parents and students suggests that attitudes toward social issues may be more normative among the parent groups, mote personal among the student groups. In all four samples, the six dogmatism factors tended to have low positive intercorrelations, and every factor correlated significantly with total dogmatism. Total scores on the 15 items measuring the six factors correlated approximately .90 with total dogmatism in all four samples; these items may therefore be a theoretically meaningful brief dogmatism scale.

ATTITUDES TOWARD CHEATING: GENERAL AND SPECIFIC

College freshmen were given one of two questionnaires, which asked how justified cheating would be in each of 32 situations. In one questionnaire, the situational variables were the interest level of the course, the meaningfulness of the tests, their difficulty, the teaching of the professor, and whether he leaves or stays during tests. In the other questionnaire, the variables were the warmth of the professor, the frequency with which he discovers cheating, the meaningfulness of the tests, whether they are essay or objective, and the students grade in the course. The extent to which a student said cheating was justified was hypothesized to be a compromise between a negative attitude toward cheating in general and the need to defend it because situational pressures result in the temptation to cheat. The data showed the predicted J-curve of conformity for “good” situations, as well as the predicted deviation from this curve for “bad” situations. In contrast to previous data, it was found that the women said cheating was justified as often as and to the same degree as the men.

On Different Relationships between Dogmatism and Machiavellianism among Male and Female College Students

A brief dogmatism scale and the Kiddie Machiavellianism Scale were answered by 112 male and 83 female students. The mens Mach scores were higher than the womens. The correlation between dogmatism and Mach— was not significant in either sex; in contrast, the correlation between dogmatism and Mach+ was significant for both sexes, r being significantly greater for the women than for the men. Agreement response set therefore seemed to be involved in the correlations between these scales for both sexes, though more for the women than the men. Factor by factor correlations indicated that for the men, the main other overlap between these two scales was an unflattering view of people, as hypothesized by Christie and Geis; for the women, however, the overlap between the scales was more extensive. The interpretation of this sex difference suggested the possibility that women may be more Machiavellian than their scores suggest and may even be more Machiavellian than men. though their scores typically suggest the opposite.

Correlates of Attitudes about “The Right to Die” among 1973 and 1976 High School and College Students

Attitudes about “the right to die” were studied among high school and college students at three recent points in time. A general item about the right to decide between life and death, and a specific one about that right for the terminally ill were accepted by more than half the students; both were more accepted than an item rejecting life after death. All three items were related to beliefs about religion, abortion, teenage birth control, and the worth of current ideas. The “right to die” items were positively correlated in all groups; the more conservative the students, the likelier they were to disagree with them. Agreement was related to belief in self-determination in moral/social matters. The item rejecting life after death was generally unrelated to the “right to die” items and to liberalism-conservatism, but its acceptance was greater among the more dogmatic college students, and among those derogating ideas and people. Possible reasons for the combined personality and time period effects were discussed; they suggest a potential backlash after more legislation such as the California law is passed, as is currently happening in the area of abortion.

Order Effects and Individual Differences in Impression Formation

Summary Order effects in impression formation were studied among 195 male and female college students. Half read descriptions of a man or woman being kind first, nasty later, while the other half read these descriptions in the reverse order. The students rated the person on the same 18 traits after each episode; they also responded to brief dogmatism and Machiavellianism scales. The first ratings for the good description were more favorable than those for the first bad one, especially on the traits most related to the episode described. The second ratings showed a recency effect. For both sequences, the womens ratings changed more than the mens. None of the ratings was systematically correlated with dogmatism or Machiavellianism. Possible reasons for the recency effect were discussed.

In Defense of Measuring Attitudes

Summary To investigate the validity of personality measures, a 43-item liberalism-conservatism scale was administered to 86 college students and 40 noncollege adults. In both samples, scores were related to presidential preferences, fundamentalism, and church attendance; among the students, scores were also related to the wearing of jeans. It was not possible to determine why some items were better than others. It was argued that the data cannot be understood without a concept like “liberalism-conservatism,” and that the scale turned out to be valid because it sampled widely from the domain of the construct, and because respondents did not fear the consequences of their answers, either in terms of self-image or in terms of the possible subsequent actions of someone in power.

Dogmatism and Sex as Factors in the Recall of Words and Nonsense Syllables

Summary Introductory Psychology students (120 men and 90 women) learned three CVC lists (16 words, eight easier nonsense syllables, eight harder nonsense syllables); after each list, retention was tested by free recall. The students also answered dogmatism, liberalism-conservatism, and task anxiety questions. For all groups, recall was lowest for the words, highest for the easier nonsense syllables. Students were divided into high, medium, and low dogmatism groups. Within each list, high dogmatic women recalled significantly fewer items than did any other group, all of which had similar recall scores. For both sexes, liberalism-conservatism was uncorrelated with recall, while dogmatism and task anxiety were positively correlated. For the women, both dogmatism and anxiety were negatively correlated with recall on all three lists. For the men, dogmatism was negatively correlated only with recall on the easier nonsense list; the correlations with anxiety were nonsignificantly positive, but significantly diff...

SEX DIFFERENCES IN OPEN-ENDED RESPONSES TO DOGMATISM SCALE ITEMS

The open-ended responses of male and female college students to 11 items of the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale were content analyzed. Three statistically reliable sex differences were found. Since these could have occurred by chance, the Dogmatism Scale is hypothesized to measure the same factors in both sexes.

On the Appeal of Rizzo and Longstreth

To investigate the construct “liberalism-conservatism” on several issues and in two samples, student and middle-aged Rizzo and Longstreth supporters were asked to answer a questionnaire about the college environment. On at least 15 of 16 questions and in both samples, the Longstreth supporters answered more “liberally” than the Rizzo supporters. The Longstreth supporters also were more “liberal” than the Rizzo supporters in their presidential preferences in 1968 and 1972. The students were more “liberal” about the college environment than the adults, both among the Rizzo and Longstreth supporters. These data support the interpretation of “liberalism-conservatism” as a personal orientation toward social and political issues.