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Prior research on personality and politics has largely investigated relationships using national samples from North America and Europe. In contrast, we used multigroup path analysis to assess how Big Five personality, ideological attitudes ( RWA, SDO), and group identities (National and Ethnic Identification) predicted right versus left Political Behavior (party support, past voting, present voting intention) across majority and minority ethnic groups in a New Zealand national sample ( N = 6,333). The effects of personality on ideological attitudes and group identities were mostly invariant across ethnic groups and consistent with prior findings. In contrast, the effects of ideological attitudes on Political Behavior varied across ethnic groups being moderately strong for the European majority but nonsignificant for the minorities. Group identities had little effect on Political Behavior. We discuss cultural and contextual factors that might account for this disconnect between ideology and politics among the minority ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally Right-Wing Authoritarianism ( RWA) has been seen as a unidimensional construct. Recently, however, researchers have begun to measure three distinct RWA dimensions ( Feldman, 2003; Funke, 2005; Van Hiel, Cornelis, Roets, & De Clercq, 2006). One of these new multidimensional RWA approaches has conceptualized these three dimensions as Authoritarianism, Conservatism, and Traditionalism ( ACT), which are viewed as expressions of basic social values or motivational goals that represent different, though related, strategies for attaining collective security at the expense of individual autonomy. Findings are reported from two studies to assess the validity and predictive utility of the multidimensional ACT approach. First, a direct cross-national comparison showed that the three ACT dimensions were reliable and factorially distinct and demonstrated the measurement invariance of the three latent constructs across Serbian and NZ ( New Zealand) samples. The three ACT dimensions predicted self-reported behavior differentially in both samples, and a comparison of latent means showed the Serbian sample higher than the NZ sample on the ACT dimensions of Authoritarianism and Traditionalism but markedly lower on Conservatism. Second, a reanalysis of previously collected NZ data showed that the three ACT scales differentially predicted three dimensions of generalized prejudice in a theoretically meaningful manner. These findings underline the importance of studying ideological attitudes, such as RWA, multidimensionally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research took a person × situation approach to predicting prejudice by looking at how social worldviews interact with real-world environmental factors to predict how people respond to immigrants within their local area. Taking a Dual Process Motivational approach, we hypothesized that a higher proportion of immigrants in the local community would be associated with negative attitudes toward immigration for respondents high in dangerous world beliefs. Conversely, we hypothesized that living in a highly affluent (as opposed to socioeconomically deprived) community would be associated with negative attitudes toward immigration for respondents high in competitive world beliefs. Both hypotheses were supported using regional information derived from national census data combined with representative survey data from a large telephone sample conducted in New Zealand ( N = 6,489). These findings support the proposition that individual differences interact with specific features of the environment to predict people's levels of prejudice in distinct ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested the pathways between personality, social worldviews, and ideology, predicted by the Dual Process Model (DPM) of ideology and prejudice. These paths were tested using a full cross-lagged panel design administered to a New Zealand community sample in early 2008 (before the effects of the global financial crisis reached New Zealand) and again in 2009 (when the crisis was near its peak;n = 247). As hypothesized, low openness to experience predicted residualized change in dangerous worldview, which in turn predicted right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Low agreeableness predicted competitive worldview, which in turn predicted social dominance orientation (SDO). RWA and SDO also exerted unexpected reciprocal effects on worldviews. This study provides the most comprehensive longitudinal test of the DPM to date, and was conducted during a period of systemic instability when the causal effects predicted by the DPM should be, and were, readily apparent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents studies on the relationship between right wing authoritarianism (RWA) and threat. Correlational studies have revealed that people with higher levels of perceived threat have higher RWA levels. Experimental studies where levels of threat are manipulated have revealed that increased threat leads to higher RWA. Longitudinal studies at the national level have found that higher level in societal threat is related to elevated indicators of RWA.

Most theories addressing the topic have proposed that threat and fear underlie right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and many empirical findings have been consistent with this proposition. Important questions, however, remain unanswered, such as whether RWA is associated with fear and threat in general or only specific kinds of fear and threat. Theories of RWA generate markedly different predictions on this issue, particularly with respect to social or personal fears, and whether the association would also hold for the closely related construct of social dominance orientation (SDO). We investigated the issue by asking 463 undergraduate students to rate their feelings of fear, concern, and anxiety to a comprehensive 93-item list of potential fears and threats, which were formulated as either personal or social. Exploratory factors analysis identified five distinct fear–threat factors: Harm to Self, Child, or Country; Personal and Relationship Failures; Environmental and Economic Fears; Political and Personal Uncertainties; and Threats to Ingroup. All the fear–threat factors were correlated with RWA, with the strongest correlations being for Threats to Ingroup, and with stronger effects for social than for personal fears. None of the fear factors correlated with SDO. These relationships were not affected by controlling for Social Desirability or Emotional Stability (EMS). When the intercorrelations between fear factors and EMS were controlled using ridge regression, only Threats to Ingroup predicted RWA. Structural equation modeling indicated good fit for a model in which low levels of EMS had a significant path to Threats to Ingroup, which in turn had a significant path to RWA, and EMS having a significant though weak indirect (fully mediated) inverse effect on RWA. Implications of these findings for theories of authoritarianism and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conceptual analysis has not been systematically implemented in psychology, and many concepts have often been defined in different and contradictory ways. This article focuses on a conceptual clarification of ethnocentrism. It points out the conceptual confusion surrounding the term, reviews numerous definitions and operationalizations, and attempts to clarify it. Ethnocentrism is reconceptualized as a strong sense of ethnic group self-centeredness, which involves intergroup expressions of ethnic group preference, superiority, purity, and exploitativeness, and intragroup expressions of ethnic group cohesion and devotion. It is conceptually and empirically distinguished from other concepts, such as outgroup negativity and mere ingroup positivity. The article presents a theoretical framework and related empirical analyses supporting the usefulness of reconceptualized ethnocentrism. It also details important and unique implications of reconceptualized ethnocentrism for political phenomena. It is expected that reliance on the clarified reconceptualization should enable researchers to systematically study ethnocentrism, its origins, and consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early theorists assumed that sociopolitical or ideological attitudes were organized along a single left-right dimension and directly expressed a basic personality dimension. Empirical findings, however, did not support this and suggested that there seem to be 2 distinct ideological attitude dimensions, best captured by the constructs of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, which express 2 distinct sets of motivational goals or values. We outline a dual-process motivational (DPM) model of how these 2 dimensions originate from particular personality dispositions and socialized worldview beliefs and how and why their different underlying motivational goals or values generate their wide-ranging effects on social outcomes, such as prejudice and politics. We then review new research bearing on the model and conclude by noting promising directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to ) cognitive hierarchy model, values indirectly influence behavior through attitudes. The model posits that the influence theoretically flows from more abstract cognitions to mid-range cognitions to specific behaviors. This paper tests the cross-cultural validity of the model across samples from Brazil, New Zealand, and South Africa. The paper specifically tests whether environmental attitudes would completely mediate the influence of both altruistic and self-enhancement values on ecological behavior. This study also extended the model by including perceived threats from environmental problems. Supporting the expanded model, environmental attitudes fully mediated the influence of both values and perceived environmental threat on ecological behavior. This article provides empirical support for using the cognitive hierarchy model across cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that two individual difference dimensions, Right-Wing authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), consistently predict prejudice. Traditionally it has been assumed that RWA and SDO both index generalized dispositions to dislike outgroups and those who differ, and therefore predict prejudice similarly. An alternative approach suggests that RWA and SDO express different motivational bases for prejudice that differentially interact with intergroup conditions to predict prejudice. This was tested by investigating students' reactions to varying descriptions of a bogus immigrant group. As hypothesized, the degree to which RWA and SDO predicted opposition to the immigrants was differentially contingent on the degree to which the immigrants were described as economically competitive, socially threatening (deviant) and socio-economically disadvantaged. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) has been conceptualized and measured as a unidimensional personality construct comprising the covariation of the three traits of authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, and conventionalism. However, new approaches have criticized this conceptualization and instead viewed these three “traits” as three distinct, though related, social attitude dimensions. Here we extend this approach providing clear definitions of these three dimensions as ideological attitude constructs of Authoritarianism, Conservatism, and Traditionalism. These dimensions are seen as attitudinal expressions of basic social values or motivational goals that represent different, though related, strategies for attaining collective security at the expense of individual autonomy. We report data from five samples and three different countries showing that these three dimensions could be reliably measured and were factorially distinct. The three dimensions also differentially predicted interpersonal behaviour, social policy support, and political party support. It is argued that conceptualizing and measuring RWA as a set of three related ideological attitude dimensions may better explain complex sociopolitical phenomena than the currently dominant unidimensional personality based model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cross-lagged effects of the Big-Five personality dimensions on Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) were examined over 1 year (N = 112). Consistent with the Dual Process Cognitive-Motivational Model, SDO and RWA exhibited markedly different personality bases. Low Agreeableness and unexpectedly high Extraversion predicted change in the motivational goal for group-based dominance and superiority (SDO), whereas Openness to Experience predicted change in the motivational goal for social cohesion and collective security (RWA). Neuroticism and Conscientiousness did not predict change in SDO or RWA over time. These findings extend previous cross-sectional (correlational) research and indicate that key dimensions of personality (primarily Agreeableness and Openness to Experience) are an important temporal antecedent of the group-based motivational goals underlying individual differences in prejudice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four studies examined whether members of the dominant group (New Zealand Europeans) who were high in Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) employed ideologies of equality-as-meritocracy to legitimate opposition toward policy-based resource allocations that favor disadvantaged groups. We tested this model, derived from Social Dominance Theory, using cross-sectional (Study 1; N = 338) and longitudinal data (Studies 2–4) collected in New Zealand. As predicted, SDO (but not Right-Wing Authoritarianism) exerted a cross-lagged effect on Equality Positioning and not vice-versa (Study 2; 1 year, N = 81); Equality Positioning exerted a cross-lagged effect on attitudes toward resource-specific social policies but not vice-versa (Study 3; 4 months, N = 132); and the cross-lagged effect of SDO on attitudes toward resource-specific policy was mediated longitudinally by Equality Positioning (Study 4; 1 year, N = 47). These findings indicate that the ideological positioning of equality is (at least partially) driven by individual differences in the motivation for group-based social dominance, and this in turn determines support for social and political policies that govern the group-based allocation of resources within society and thus systemic inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation tests a reconceptualization of ethnocentrism based primarily on Sumner's definitions. Ethnocentrism is reconceptualized as ethnic group self-centeredness, with four intergroup expressions of ingroup preference, superiority, purity, and exploitativeness, and two intragroup expressions of group cohesion and devotion. The reconceptualization was supported in Study 1 among 350 New Zealand participants and in Study 2 among 212 US, 208 Serbian, and 279 French participants. Ethnocentrism in each country consisted of two correlated second-order factors representing intergroup and intragroup ethnocentrism and six first-order factors representing the six primary expressions. Analyses in Study 2 supported the measurement invariance of the scale and a third-order factor model, with one ethnocentrism factor at the broadest level of generalization. Ethnocentrism was empirically distinct from outgroup negativity and mere ingroup positivity. Intragroup ethnocentrism appeared primarily based on ethnic insecurity, personal self-transcendence, and ethnic identification, whereas intergroup ethnocentrism appeared primarily based on self-aggrandizement, warlikeness, and generally chauvinistic attitudes. Accordingly, although related, the two kinds of ethnocentrism tend to have quite differential implications for group attitudes and behaviors. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This article was published online on 31 December 2008. Errors were subsequently identified. This notice is included in the online and print versions to indicate that both have been corrected [date to be added later]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we extended the Dual Process Model of Ideology and Prejudice by incorporating the Five-Factor Model of Personality (N = 924). Disagreeable people tended to view the social world as competitive, which in turn predicted heightened motivations for group-based dominance and superiority (Social Dominance Orientation or SDO), whereas people low in Openness to Experience and high in Conscientiousness directly expressed heightened security-cohesion motivations (Right-Wing Authoritarianism or RWA). Other personality dimensions were weakly associated with RWA, and these effects were mediated by dangerous worldview. Multiple distinct aspects of personality predict SDO and RWA both directly and indirectly through worldviews, but we found little evidence for the possibility that personality alters the extent to which worldviews (once formed) predict SDO and RWA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe and test a collective security model of authoritarianism. This model sees Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) as directly caused by collective security motivation (CSM), which is in turn influenced jointly by personality (with its effects mediated through group identification and dangerous world beliefs) and social threat (with its effects mediated through dangerous world beliefs). Two studies tested this model using student samples—one was correlational ( N = 218), while the other included an experimental manipulation of threat using future scenarios ( N = 136). Structural equation analyses partially supported the model suggesting that CSM fully mediated the effects of threat and group identification on RWA, but only partially mediated the effect of personality, which also had important direct effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's comments on differential prediction of political attitudes and the complexity of political cognition. The author says that a dual process approach to politics results in the translation of basic psychological processes into specific socio-political attitudes. The author also focuses on whether different political orientations would be inherently associated with complex thinking about political issues.

There have been two broad approaches to how sociopolitical or ideological attitudes are structured. The more traditional unidimensional approach sees ideological attitudes as organized along a single left-to-right dimension, and influenced by a single coherent set of social and psychological causes, but has not been well supported empirically. During the past 2 decades evidence has increasingly suggested that there are two distinct dimensions of ideological attitudes, which seem best captured by the constructs of Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). These dimensions may sometimes be strongly related, but often are not, and seem to express quite different basic values or motivational goals. This has been formalized in a dual-process motivational model of ideological attitudes, which sees RWA and SDO as originating in different social worldview beliefs, personality trait dimensions, and social environmental influences, and as influencing socio-political and intergroup behavior and outcomes in different ways and through different mechanisms. New research supporting these propositions is reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the meta-analysis of investigating relationships among Big Five dimensions of personality, Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and prejudice. Under the investigations, RWA was predicted by low openness to experience but also conscientiousness, whereas SDO was predicted by low Agreeableness and also weakly by low openness to experience. Meanwhile, prejudice has a consistent with a dual process of motivational model of ideology.

Ethnocentrism can be seen as an expression of narcissism at the group level. However, the relationship between ethnocentrism and narcissism has rarely been studied, and there is little agreement about what this relationship might be. Both have also been treated as simple, unidimensional constructs, whereas research indicates they are better viewed as complex and multidimensional. New research using multidimensional measures of both constructs was therefore conducted in a sample of 264 undergraduates. Narcissism, primarily its covert form, related positively to intergroup expressions of ethnocentrism, but negatively to intragroup expressions. In addition, both intergroup expressions of ethnocentrism and covert narcissism were related to disliking others. The findings suggest that intergroup expressions of ethnocentrism are based on personal self-aggrandizement, whereas intragroup expressions are based on personal self-transcendence. In addition, they suggest that narcissistic people have generally selfish and exploitative attitudes, even towards their own groups. They also emphasize the importance of investigating both ethnocentrism and narcissism as complex multidimensional constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation tests relationships between three kinds of group self-centeredness and their relationship with negativity towards specific outgroups. A questionnaire study with 270 undergraduates focused on three prominent kinds of group self-centeredness: ethnocentrism, fundamentalism, and anthropocentrism. Although overall ethnocentrism, fundamentalism, and anthropocentrism were positively intercorrelated, fundamentalism was positively associated with one ethnocentrism dimension (intragroup) and negatively with the other (intergroup). A path analysis showed that each kind of group self-centeredness was related only to negativity to specific and relevant outgroups and not to other outgroups. Implications of the research, particularly for the study of religiosity and prejudice, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research suggests that individuals' prejudiced attitudes form a single generalized dimension predicted by Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). A dual process approach, however, expects different domains of generalized prejudice that relate differentially to RWA and SDO. To test this, 212 participants rated attitudes to 24 typically disliked groups. Factor analysis revealed three distinct generalized prejudice dimensions. Hierarchical Linear Modelling indicated that attitudes towards a ‘dangerous’ groups domain was significantly related only with RWA, attitudes toward a second ‘derogated’ groups domain was related only to SDO, and attitudes toward a third, ‘dissident’ groups, domain was significantly related to both, but powerfully with RWA and weakly with SDO. These findings have implications for explaining and reducing prejudice. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental concern can be driven by biospheric, egoistic or altruistic motives. Few studies, however, have compared these three environmental motive concerns across cultural groups. This study investigated differences between European New Zealanders and Asian New Zealanders in environmental motive concerns and their implications for proenvironmental behaviors. The results demonstrated that the tripartite model of environmental concerns provided good fit in both samples. They also indicated that Asian New Zealanders were significantly higher than European New Zealanders on egoistic concern, whereas European New Zealanders were significantly higher on biospheric concern. For European New Zealanders, biospheric concern predicted proenvironmental behavior positively, whereas egoistic concern predicted it negatively. For Asian New Zealanders, in contrast, both biospheric and altruistic concerns predicted proenvironmental behavior positively. The implications of these findings for environmental education campaigns are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sumner's (1906) ethnocentrism hypothesis suggested that group identification would be inversely correlated with out-group attitudes, but empirical studies have reported widely varying relations. In this research, we investigated the relationship between 3 dimensions of ethnocultural group identification and attitudes to ethnic out-groups in four New Zealand ethnic samples (Asian, Maori, Pacific Islanders, Pakeha\European). The findings indicated that Ethnocultural Involvement and Attachment had no or little independent association with out-group attitudes, whereas Ethnocultural Evaluation (in-group attitude) was most consistently associated with out-group attitudes, but the association could be positive, negative, or zero. The pattern of in-group and out-group attitude relations seemed consistent with theories of intergroup competition, similarity-dissimilarity, or superordinate categorization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the consensus and diversity in basic values between generations and genders in South Korea. Use of principal components analysis; Basic value dimensions evaluated; Reasons and social implications of the generation and gender diversity in basic values.

The issue of personality and prejudice has been largely investigated in terms of authoritarianism and social dominance orientation. However, these seem more appropriately conceptualized as ideological attitudes than as personality dimensions. The authors describe a causal model linking dual dimensions of personality, social world view, ideological attitudes, and intergroup attitudes. Structural equation modeling with data from American and White Afrikaner students supported the model, suggesting that social conformity and belief in a dangerous world influence authoritarian attitudes, whereas tough-mindedness and belief in a competitive jungle world influence social dominance attitudes, and these two ideological attitude dimensions influence intergroup attitudes. The model implies that dual motivational and cognitive processes, which may be activated by different kinds of situational and intergroup dynamics, may underlie 2 distinct dimensions of prejudice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While psychological theories have long linked prejudice and psychopathology, research findings have been weak and inconsistent. Three possible reasons for this were remedied in this study: social desirability was controlled, the participants (N = 110; South African adults) had clinically diagnosable psychopathology, and a validated multidimensional measure of psychopathology, the MMCI-II, was used. Analyses of the Millon personality and symptom scales, and principal component factors derived from each set, with measures of authoritarian attitudes and anti-Black prejudice indicated two significant paths linking psychopathology and prejudice. First, a Compulsive-Dependent personality factor was significantly related to authoritarian attitudes, which mediated an indirect effect of this personality disorder on prejudice. Second, a Negative Affectivity symptom factor was directly associated with prejudice, and also mediated indirect effects of an Avoidant-Negativistic personality factor on prejudice. The findings are discussed in terms of authoritarian personality theory and theories linking symptoms of psychopathology and prejudice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study that assessed the validity of early experience theory's and cultural socialization theory's accounts of the development of color bias and racial preference in children. Information on the tool used in assessing the validity of the said theories; Method of the study; Results and discussions.

Social identity theory (SIT) and realistic conflict theory (RCT) suggest that group identification and out-group negativity will be correlated when intergroup relations involve competition and perceived threat, but the theories differ in their predictions about the direction of causality. The authors assessed Black African students' ethnic group identification and their attitudes toward English Whites, Afrikaans Whites, and Whites in general before and after South Africa's transitional election in April 1994. As predicted, Black African identification was significantly related only to attitudes toward Afrikaans Whites. Longitudinal analyses, however, suggested causal impacts from attitudes to identification and not the reverse, contradicting the SIT prediction. The authors discuss evidence for the existence of two distinct modes of group identification with different implications for intergroup behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a historical analysis of theories about the nature of prejudice and discusses its implications for the development of an integrative framework for explaining prejudice. Historical analysis; Race psychology up to the 1920s; Race prejudice in the 1920s and 1930s; Psychodynamic processes in the 1930s and 1940s; The prejudiced personality of the 1950s; Culture and society of the 1960s and 1970s; Psychological fundamentals of the 1980s; An integrative framework; More.

Discusses the relationship between conformity to social pressure and racial prejudice among white South Africans. Measurement of social pressure; Conformity effects on prejudice; Interactions of social pressure and authoritarianism; Correlations of conformity with deviation in prejudice.

The anti-Black prejudice, ethnocentric ingroup preference, and affinity for right-wing politics and ideology of White right-wing authoritarians in South Africa suggest that they should be particularly opposed to political intolerance and infringements on civil liberties by a future Black, left-wing, majority rule government. In this study, conducted in August 1992 with 79 White South African students, the Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale (Altemeyer, 1981) showed a strong positive correlation with anti-Black racial prejudice and a negative correlation with anti-White attitudes. However, the RWA scores were negatively associated with support for political tolerance by a new majority-rule government, despite indications that the intolerance would be directed against conservatives opposing the new state. This finding is consistent with a previous finding that right-wing authoritarians were more ready to persecute not only left-wing but also right-wing groups proscribed by governmental authorities, and it suggests that political intolerance, rather than ethnocentrism, ingroup loyalty, or right-wing politics, is fundamental to the authoritarian syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tomkins's polarity theory and the Polarity Scale derived from it constitute a promising but relatively neglected approach to researching the relationship between personality and ideology. We investigated the psychometric properties of the Polarity Scale with a sample of White South African students (N = 79). Although adequate reliabilities were obtained for various scorings of the Polarity Scale, and previous research has shown that scores on the scale relate to personality and affective differences, in this study the scale failed to show correlations with political party preference, liberalism/conservatism self-rating, or anti-Black prejudice. Only the Humanist subscale had a significant, though not very strong, correlation with acceptance of parental religion. Scores on the Polarity Scale were also significantly, though weakly, related to right-wing authoritarianism. These findings suggest that items in the Polarity Scale did not relate strongly enough to indicators of ideological orientation to indicate that they play a primary causal role as the underlying organizing psychological dimension determining ideological orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the psychometric properties and correlates of the Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) Scale using a sample of white South African students. Although item analysis has often been used to assess the degree to which a scale is unidimensional, this procedure is highly unsatisfactory and can lead to extremely deceptive results. For example, an item analysis would suggest unidimensionality whenever two or more approximately equal item subsets comprising independent factors are contained within a single scale (Mclver & Carmines, 1981, pp. 30-31). For this reason, it has been recommended that factor analysis be used to ascertain whether scales are adequately unidimensional before item analyses are conducted to assess reliability. Overall, the RWA Scale was adequately unidirnensional and highly reliable. The evidence for the RWA Scale's construct validity was impressive, with the validity coefficients not merely highly statistically significant, but also indicating powerful effects in all cases. The strong correlation between the RWA Scale and prejudice in South Africa suggests that psychological factors are no less important in determining preju- dice in very highly prejudiced settings such as South Africa, where there seem to be powerful normative conformity pressures to hold prejudiced attitudes, than they are in other settings.

Research has shown that higher levels of formal education are associated with lower authoritarianism. However, some evidence suggests that this association may be severely attenuated or even eliminated in sociocultural contexts in which education is highly authoritarian. This was tested in the study by comparing the relationship between education and authoritarianism among 678 English- and Afrikaans-speaking White South African adults-two sociocultural groups whose educational institutions tend to differ markedly in authoritarianism. The results indicated a much stronger relationship between education and authoritarianism for English speakers. Among Afrikaners, authoritarianism did not show any tendency to decline with increasing education until the higher levels of tertiary education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Megargee (1966, 1973) has predicted a number of concomitant social, behavioral, and psychological differences between chronically undercontrolled and chronically overcontrolled violent individuals. Attempts to validate his theory, however, have resulted in seriously inconsistent findings, possibly because of the use of a measure to classify violent subjects that is of seemingly dubious validity--the Overcontrolled Hostility (OH) Scale (Megargee, Cook, & Mendelsohn, 1967). The present study used a different strategy--the classification of subjects by expert raters on the basis of extensive case history information--to compare overcontrolled violent, undercontrolled violent, and nonviolent criminal offenders on a number of psychometric measures (16PF, Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire, Picture Situation Test, and the OH Scale). The findings were broadly consistent with predictions derived from Megargee's theory. Contrary to expectation, however, the nonviolent group did not obtain scores intermediate to the other two groups, but was statistically indistinguishable from the undercontrolled group, leaving a question as to the appropriateness of conceptualizing the typology in terms of over- and under-control of hostility and suggesting the necessity for some revision of the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been surprisingly little research on possible differences between homosexual and heterosexual personalities, although the few studies that have been conducted suggest some interesting differences. We devised two hypothesis that may account for these differences. First, differences appear to reflect generalized social nonconformity and alienation due to the social stigmatization of the homosexual. Second, these differences seem to express a more specific tendency to deviation from socially normative sex roles. The two hypotheses imply a number of predictions concerning specific personality traits, which were tested by comparing the 16PF (Cattell, Eber, & Tatsuoka, 1970) personality profiles of a group of male (N = 34) and female (N = 31) homosexuals with those obtained from the two large student samples (male, N = 899 and female, N = 912) whose scores are commonly used as norms for the South African version of the 16PF. The findings suggested reasonably good support for the two hypotheses, particularly considering the limitations of the study with respect to the adequacy of the comparison groups used and the relative heterogeneity of the 16PF scale content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Van der Spuy and Shamley (1978) have assembled evidence suggesting chronically elevated levels of neurotic symptomatology among both white and black South Africans. They have argued that these elevated levels could be attributed to the experience of racial discrimination and prejudice. New data obtained from a reasonably representative national sample of white South Africans (N = 782) did reveal symptom scores substantially and significantly higher than scores previously reported for a large community sample in the United States. On the other hand, partial correlational analyses did not indicate any consistent pattern of association between antiblack prejudice and symptom scores among white South Africans. Therefore, intergroup conflict in a sharply stratified society may affect symptomatic levels in individuals by influencing the general quality of social life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discrimination against black minority children was originally viewed as causing them to evaluate their own-group negatively and the white out-group positively, resulting in impaired self-esteem. Research, however, has produced inconsistent findings, poss ibly because of social change and the black consciousness movement. The present study investigated this issue among black South African children, a social group that has experienced particularly severe racial discrimination. As expected, the findings indicated that self-esteem, own-group racial pride, and overall ethnocentrism were significantly higher amongst older (n = 37; 10 to 12-years old) than among younger black children (n = 41 ; 6 to 8-years old). The younger children showed a slight though non-significant tendency to out-group favouritism, while the pattern for the older children was non-preference. However, the correlations of self-esteem with in-group pride, out-group prejudice, and overall ethnocentrism were non-significant suggesting that the own-group and out-group attitudes of minority children do not necessarily effect their self-attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assesses the reliability and factorial validity of the Psychiatric Symptom Index (PSI) through cross validation using a white South African sample. Findings support reliability and validity; Measurement of psychological distress; Intercorrelation between depression and anxiety.

The article presents a study that sets out to attempt to identify personality traits, as measured by 16PF, that might influence the relationship between perceived social support and psychological distress. Results of the study indicate significant main effects for two personality factors, Anxiety and Extraversion, on the Langner index. However, because the Langner index can be viewed as largely measuring symptoms of anxiety and because the 16PF anxiety dimension tends to be situationally reactive, the strong relationship between these two variables may be attributed quite substantially to the conceptual overlap between them. In all six regression models the addition of the social support term resulted in a significant increase in the multiple correlations.

The U.S. is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse societies in the world. Americans have often viewed this diversity as one of the great strengths of their society; yet it has also been the source of one of its most serious and enduring weaknesses. In the 1920's, social scientists first turned their attention seriously to the issue of race relations in the U.S., and during the 1930's it became seen as increasingly problematic, at least among the intellectual elite. Finally, with World War II the issue of race relations was recognized by policy makers as well as being one of the central social problems of the time. Subsequently, the "American dilemma" has gone through several critical transitions; first the problem of institutionalized racism and segregation in the South, which gradually phased into the problem of the sprawling ghettos and underclass of the great northern cities. Although the issue of racial and ethnic relations in the U.S. has been the focus of much social scientific attention, social scientists have not thus far had major and systematic impacts on the development of policy.

This article reports on a study using the short balanced F (BF) scale and several indices of self-perceived deprivations, strains, and threats in important life areas. In one study, sociologists used archival data to show that social manifestations of authoritarian behavior in the U.S. appeared to increase in historical periods of high threat as opposed to low threat. The short BF scale and several indices of self-perceived deprivations, strains, and threats in important life areas were used in this study. Controlling for social desirability and the sociodemographic variables of age, marital status, sex, education, income, occupational status, language group, and urbanicity did not alter any of the correlations materially, nor did analyses using these sociodemographic variables reveal any subgroup for which threat was significantly related to authoritarianism. The results suggest that previous findings on the subject should not be uncritically accepted until they can be satisfactorily replicated and clarified.

Responds the Gideon de Bruin's commentary on the author's article `Die faktoriale geldigheid van die Psychiatric Symptom Index,' published in the periodical `South African Journal of Psychology, volume 24, 1994. Reliability and factorial validity of the Psychiatric Symptom Index (PSI); Choice of principal component analysis; Ambiguity of factor structure of PSI.

Responds to an article written by J.J. Ray in which he examined works by the author that focused on subtle racism and authoritarianism in South Africa. Author's support and defense of his writings; Reiterates evidence which his writings were based on; Rebuts criticisms by Ray.

Abstract: A meta-analysis of 46 studies (N =12,939) examined the cross-sectional associations between dangerous worldview and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), and between competitive worldview and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). These dual associations were asymmetric; the dangerous worldview-RWA partial-correlation was moderate (r =.37), whereas the competitive worldview-SDO partial-correlation was stronger in size (r =.53). The results support a dual-process model perspective and indicate that RWA and SDO are consistently linked with distinct social schemas of the social world as dangerous and threatening (versus safe and secure), and competitive and cut-throat (versus co-operative and characterized by mutually beneficial exchange). We present a refined competitive worldview scale that reduces content overlap and provides a more accurate estimate of the worldview-SDO association. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We compare and contrast existing broad-bandwidth and frequency-specific worldview measures in the prediction of Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). As expected, broad-bandwidth and frequency-specific measures of dangerous worldview predicted common variance in RWA, and competitive worldview measures predicted common variance in SDO. Only the broad-bandwidth measures retained a unique concurrent association with RWA and SDO (n =347 New Zealand undergraduates). We argue that these alternative worldview measures share a common component reflecting schematic beliefs about the level of danger and threat in the social world (a descriptive belief component). The broad-bandwidth measure should be better suited for assessing a mixture of descriptive and prescriptive beliefs about how the social world ought to be, whereas the newer frequency-specific index is better suited for isolating the descriptive component of social worldview schemas. Directions for research examining heuristic biases that shape descriptive components of social worldview schemas are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]