National Culture and Differences in Attitudes

Inglehart, Ronald, and Wayne Baker. 2000. “Modernization, Cultural Change, and the Persistence of Traditional Values.  American Sociological Review. 65:19-51.

See also: Inglehart, Roland. 1997. Modernization and postmodernization: cultural, economic, and political change in 43 societies. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Magnitude National Differences

·       I found that sub-cultural differences like gender differences are much smaller than differences in national culture.

·       Inglehart’s example of religion: “Differences between the values held by different religions within given societies are much smaller than are cross-national differences”(p.19).

overhead

Traditional / Secular Dimension  

Five Variables

1.  God is very important in respondent’s life.

2.  It is more important for a child to learn obedience  and religious faith than independence and determination.

3.  Abortion is never justifiable.

4.  Respondent has strong sense of national pride.

5.  Respondent favors more respect for authority.

Survival / Self-Expression Dimension

Five Variables

1.  Respondent gives priority to economic and physical security over self-expression and quality-of-life.

2.  Respondent describes self as not very happy.

3.  Respondent has not signed and would not sign a petition.

4.  Homosexuality is never justifiable.

5.  You have to be careful about trusting people.

Chart (p.29). Positive loadings (factor scores) are secular or self-expression.  Negative loadings indicate tradition or survival.Chart (p.29). Positive loadings (factor scores) are secular or self-expression.  Negative loadings indicate tradition or survival.

overhead

 “The United States is not a prototype of cultural modernization for other societies to follow, as some modernization writers of the postwar era naively assumed” (p.31).

 Despite their high development, Americans are still traditional: “The United States is a deviant case, having a much more traditional value system than any other advanced traditional society” (p.31).

Back to the homepage of Dr. Andreas Schneider http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/Schneider/

Disclaimer: The documents linked to other sources on the WWW, others than http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/Schneider/ and its subdirectories, do not necessarily express the views of Texas Tech University or Dr. Andreas Schneider. @Copyright 2000 Andreas Schneider.