VALUES AND ATTITUDES OF POLITICAL RESISTERS TO AUTHORITY.
Item
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Title
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VALUES AND ATTITUDES OF POLITICAL RESISTERS TO AUTHORITY.
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Identifier
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AAI8212211
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identifier
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8212211
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Creator
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PRESLEY, SHARON LEE.
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Contributor
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Stanley Milgram
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Date
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1982
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Social
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Abstract
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In an attempt to explore the personal basis of resistance to authority, a study of 183 men and women political resisters who have engaged in civil disobedience or otherwise put themselves under threat of government sanctions was undertaken. Thirty-six anti-nuclear, 12 draft registration, 36 left tax and 21 libertarian tax resisters, as well as 29 communist anarchists and 50 individualist anarchists composed the resister sample. The nonresister comparison groups consisted of 34 liberal and 29 conservative political activists. The measures used were the Defining Issues Test (a test of level of moral judgment) and the Survey of Political Attitudes, a specially designed questionnaire.;As previous literature has suggested, the differences between resisters and nonresisters were found to be in the realm of cognitive beliefs rather than temperament traits. Strong rejection of political and social authority, a belief that individual conscience is a better guide to conduct than what the law says, a professed unwillingness to be in positions of authority over others, a lack of conventional religious affiliations, and a feeling of being different as a child or adolescent are the attitudes and values that differentiate the resister groups from both nonresister groups.;Contrary to the hypotheses, measures of ascription of responsibility and independence/autonomy did not distinguish resisters from nonresisters. However, as expected, personality measures of sociability, need for social support, and gregariousness did not differentiate resisters as a whole from the nonresisters.;The resisters were also found to have levels of moral judgment considerably higher than the average for a general adult population. The differences between the resister groups and the conservatives were significant but the differences from the liberals were on the whole not. An argument contending that a bias in the interpretation of the scoring of the Defining Issues Test adversely affected the scores of the libertarians and anarchists was presented.;Consistent with this high level of moral reasoning, the motivations for political involvement expressed by the resisters included concern with moral principles and social injustice, as well as anger with the political system. However, unlike many of the nonresisters, none of the resisters expressed conventional political motivations.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
