Measuring P o l i t i c a l Ideology and Soc ia l S ta tus : A Comparison of U.S. and European Sca les

Used on the 1983 General Soc ia l Survey

BY

Glenn R. Dempsey

NORC

and

Graduate Student i n P o l i t i c a l Science, The Univers i ty of Chicago

GSS Technical Report No, 45

%his research was done f o r the General S o c i a l Survey p r o j e c t d i r e c t e d by James A, Davis and Tom W. Smith. The p r o j e c t is funded by the Nat ional Seiawce Foundation Grant SES-8118731.

In 1983 the General Soc ia l Survey conducted two experiments t o t e s t

response d i f fe rences between U.S. and European measures of p o l i t i c a l ideology -

and s o c i a l s t a t u s . The primary purpose was t o demonstrate within the context

of a c ross - sec t iona l instrument desiqn whether d i f f e ren t ly - sca led va r i ab les

produce s imi la r r e s u l t s with r e spec t t o t h e i r r e l a t i o n s h i p s with o ther

p e r t i n e n t var iables .

The standard ques t ion used by GSS and the National Elect ion Studies

f o r determining p o l i t i c a l ideology reads,

W e hea r a l o t of talk t hese days about l i b e r a l s and conserva- t i v e s . I ' m going t o show you a seven-point s c a l e on which the p o l i t i c a l views t h a t people might hold a r e arranged from extremely l i b e r a l - p o i n t 1-to extremely conservative-point 7. Where would you place yourself on t h i s s c a l e .

Along with t h a t ques t ion (POLVIEWS) which was asked of h a l f the sample, t he

GSS a l s o asked the o t h e r h a l f of the sample t h i s ques t ion , which is used in

the Eurobarometers:

In p o l i t i c a l ma t t e r s , people t a l k of " the l e f t " and " the r ight ." How would you place your views on this s c a l e ? (Show card K. Do not prompt. I f respondent h e s i t a t e s , ask R t o t r y again. )

The s c a l e f o r t h i s ques t ion (POLVIEWx) runs from 1 ( l e f t ) t o 10 ( r i g h t ) ,

Table 1 i n d i c a t e s the frequency d i s tGibu t ions f o r POLVIEWS and

POLVIEWX i n both t h e i r uncollapsed and col lapsed forms. The d i s t r i b u t i o n s are

q u i t e s i m i l a r between the two measures i n both the uncollapsed and col lapsed

forms, The only d i f f e r e n c e is t h a t POLVIEWX has about twice a s many D K ' s a s

POLVIEWS even though the in te rv iewer is i n s t r u c t e d t o s o l i c i t an answer from

t h e respondent i f he h e s i t a t e s t o answer on t h e POLVIEWX quest ion. This might

sugges t t h a t a g r e a t e r propor t ion of the respondents had d i f f i c u l t y p lac ing

themselves on a Left-Right p o l i t i c a l ideology spectrum than on the Liberal-

Conservative Spectrum. However, t h i s d i f f e r e n c e might be the r e s u l t of

POLVIEWX no t having an e x p l i c i t middle ca tegory l i k e POLVIEWS has. I t might

TABLE 1

- Uncollapsed and Collapsed Frequency Dis t r ibu t ions

f o r POLVIEWS and POLVIEWX, 1983 d

POLVIEWS N % N % POLVIEWX N % N %

-- Uncollapsed Collapsed Uncollapsed Collapsed

Extremely L ibe ra l 16 Left 9 16 2.0

L i b e r a l 67 :::I 181 22.6 2 17 2.2 156 19,9

S l i g h t l y L ibe ra l 98 12.2 3 46 5 -9

Moderate, Middle 4 77 9 0 8 ) of the Road 319 39.8 319 39 - 8

S l i g h t l y Conservative - Conservative

Extremely Conservative

TOTAL 785 9 00

be t h a t some of those who were undecided on POLVIEWS chose the "Moderate,

Middle of the Roadn category, an a l t e r n a t i v e not open t o those who were - undecided on the POLVIEMX quest ion.

To t e s t whether these two va r i ab les measure " p o l i t i c a l i d e o l o g y ' 9 n

the same way, cross- tabula t ions were run on these va r i ab les i n both t h e i r

uncollapsed and col lapsed forms w i t h 45 o t h e r va r i ab les i n the 1983 GSS which

d e a l t with var ious p o l i t i c a l and s o c i a l a t t i t u d e s a s we l l a s o t h e r r e l e v a n t

v a r i a b l e s r e l a t i n g to' one ' s p o l i t i c a l views.

The most notable f ind ing seems to be the lack of s t rong c o r r e l a t i o n s

ac ross t h i s wide range of a t t i t u d e v a r i a b l e s a s seen i n Table 2. Only i n

s e v e r a l ins t ances do the c o r r e l a t i o n s exceed -20, most notably w i t h the p a r t y

i d e n t i f i c a t i o n va r i ab le . One would expect a s t rong c o r r e l a t i o n with p a r t y

i d e n t i f i c a t i o n , of course, s i n c e p a r t y I D is another type of measure of

\ p o l i t i c a l ideology.

Second, the mean gammas f o r the ?-point sca led va r i ab le POLVIEWS a r e

l a r g e r than those of the 10-point sca led v a r i a b l e POLVIEWX f o r 35 of these 45

va r i ab les . This is noteworthy s i n c e one might have expected the more r e f i n e d

10-point s c a l e t o produce h igher gammas. Andrews and Withey i n their work on

s o c i a l i n d i c a t o r s of w e l l being show t h a t seven-point s c a l e s have h igher

c o r r e l a t i o n s than do 3-point s c a l e s with the o t h e r i tems i n their study. They

sugges t t h i s is because the 7-point s c a l e s "provide more s e n s i t i v e i n d i c a t i o n s

of respondents ' f e e l ings than do the 3-point scales ." ( 1976: 86) O t h e r

research i n d i c a t e s t h a t three ca tegory s c a l e s cap tu re 80-90 pe rcen t of the

v a r i a t i o n while seven-category s c a l e s cap tu re n e a r l y 100 percent ( c f . Coehran,

1968; Connor, 1972; Ramsay, 1973).

The mean d i f f e r e n c e i n the gammas is n o t l a r g e i n t h e i r uneollapsed

forms. Only the abor t ion i tems produce a l a r g e d i f f e r e n c e ( .17) . %he o v e r a l l

TABLE 2

A C o m p a r i s o n of POLVIEWS and POLVIEWX W i t h V a r i o u s G r o u p i n g s of Social and P o l i t i c a l M e a s u r e s *

U n c o l l a p s e d C o l l a p s e d

S i g n i f . S i g n i f . P o l v i e w s Polviewx D i f f . D i f f . P o l v i e w s Polviewx D i f f . . D i f f .

HELPBLK, HELPFUL, HELPNOT, HELPPOOR, HELPSICK, EQWLTH 017 e l l 0 06 05 a17 ' -13 .04 .08

ABDEFECT, ABNOMORE, ABHLTH, ABPOOR, ABRAPE, ABSINGLE, ABANY e l 4 - 03 e l 7 .I4 .I5 -.04 e l 9 . I 4

SEXEDUC, P I L L , PORNINF, PORNMORL, GRASS

NAT ITEMS

NAT SCALE

R U S S I A , JAPAN, ENGLAND CHINA, DRAFT, USUN, U S I N T L

CAPPUN, WIRTAP

BUSING

PARTY I D

MEMPOLIT, MEMUNIOM .05 . I 7 0 1 2 .09 o 06 , I 9 o 9 3 o 00

ALL ITEMS .I6 o 1 % e 05 092 .e 16 e l 4 .05 o 80

* 8 a u m b e r s are g a m m a s . See A p p e n d i x for a n explanation of' this tableo .

means fo r POLVIEMS and POLVIEWX a r e .16 and . I 1 i n t h e i r uncollapsed forms,

Thus, while there a r e d i f f e r e n c e s i n how these two measures r e l a t e t o these 45 -

i tems, the d i f fe rences a r e not extremely l a rge .

In t h e i r col lapsed forms the gammas and gamma d i f f e r e n c e s a r e quite

s i m i l a r t o those i n the uncollapsed versions. The means f o r "All Items" fo r

both POLVIEWS and POLVIEWX a r e the same i n the col lapsed vers ions a s i n the

uncollapsed versions. It seems apparent t h a t co l l aps ing the number of

response ca tegor ies by recoding makes l i t t l e d i f f e r e n c e i n the a b i l i t y s f

t h e s e two v a r i a b l e s to measure p o l i t i c a l ideology.

Severa l p o s s i b i l i t i e s may account f o r the higher c o r r e l a t i o n s found /

f o r the 7-point POLVIEWS ques t ion than f o r the 10-point POLVIEWX ques t ion ,

F i r s t , i t i s l i k e l y t h a t U.S. respondents a r e more f a m i l i a r with the terms

l i b e r a l and conservat ive which are p a r t of t h e lexicon of American p%$t ics

than w i t h the terms l e f t and r i g h t which have a s t ronq b a s i s i n European

p o l i t i c s . A second p o s s i b i l i t y is t h a t respondents faced with a l a r g e number

.of response ca tegor ies , most of which have only a numerical d e s c r i p t i o n , are

, l i k e l y to be confused by such a s c a l e and w i l l s e l e c t c a t e g o r i e s w i t h l e s s

p r e c i s i o n than if the re were fewer c a t e g o r i e s t o choose from o r i f a l l the

c a t e g o r i e s had de l inea t ions .

I n o rde r t o determine whether these two ques t ions a r e perceived the

same way by d i f f e r e n t demographic groups, c o r r e l a t i o n s were run on f i v e suck

v a r i a b l e s : age, education, respondent ' s income, family income, and the Hodge-

Siegel-Rossi job p r e s t i g e s c a l e . As seen i n Table 3, t h e age v a r i a b l e has a

l a r g e c o r r e l a t i o n (.20) with POLVIEWS, bu t pnly a .05 c o r r e l a t i o n with

POLVIEWX. This i n d i c a t e s a s i g n i f i c a n t l i n e a r r e l a t i o n s h i p between o n e ' s

p o l i t i c a l views a s measured by a l ibe ra l -conse rva t ive continuum and age--those

who a r e o l d e r a r e more l i k e l y t o be conservat ive . No such r e l a t i o n s h i p e x i s t s

between age and POLVIEWX.

TABLE 3 -

Pearson c o r r e l a t i o n s of POLVIEWS and POLVIEWX with Selec ted Demographic Variables

Aqe FAuca t i o n Rincome Income Pres t i q e -.--.-

POLVIEWS .20* -.01 .08* e 05 .-'

.07* (Libera l - Conservative)

POLVIEWX e05 .09* - a 0 3 e06 . 04 (Lef t-Right)

*S ign i f i can t a t .05 Level.

Another s i m i l a r s c a l i n g experiment on the 1983 GSS was done f o r sscLa%

s t a t u s t e s t i n q whether t h e r e a r e d i f f e r e n c e s be tween the t r a d i t i o n a l U , S

measure, CLASS, and i ts European coun te rpa r t , RANK. The remainder of thiso

paper w i l l address these d i f f e r e n c e s a s w e l l as d i s c u s s whether U-S, and

European measures more c l o s e l y approximate each o t h e r i n t h e realm of p % i t b -

c a l ideology o r s o c i a l s t a t u s ,

Table 4 represents the frequency d i s t r i b u t i o n s f o r CLASS and RANK,

. CLASS is a four value ordinal ly-sca led va r i ab le with values: %,ower, working,

middle, and upper. RANK is measured from l(Top) t o lO(Bottom). The quest ion

CLASS which has been used on the GSS s i n c e 1972, r eads ,

I f you were asked t o u s e one of four names f o r your s o c i a l c l a s s , which would you say you belong i n : the lower c l a s s , the working c l a s s , the middle c l a s s , o r the upper c l a s s ?

and the ques t ion RANK, used by ZUMA, reads ,

Tn our s o c i e t y t h e r e a r e groups which tend t o be towards the t op and those t h a t a r e towards the bottom, Here w e would have a s c a l e t h a t runs from t o p to bottom. Where would you p u t yourself on t h i s s c a l e ?

HAND SCALE AND PENCIL TO RESPONDENT. LET RESPONDENT MARK SCALE, Be s u r e t h a t the mark is wi th in one of the boxes, Record answer below.

A s with the POLVIEWS and POLVIEWX var iab les , these two va r i ab les show

a s u b s t a n t i a l d i f f e rence i n the DK c a t e q o r i e s . while 2.2 percent of r e s p n -

den t s on the va r i ab le RANK answered DK, no one answered DK on t h e CLASS

var i ab le . However; the number of DK's f o r the European measure is substan-

t i a l l y lower than the D K ' s f o r the o t h e r European measure i n t h i s s tudy,

POLVIEWX which had 7.0% D K ' s .

S imi la r t o the a n a l y s i s done i n Table 3, c o r r e l a t i o n s were run on

CLASS and =RANK by s e v e r a l demographic va r i ab les . Table 5 r evea l s t h a t except

f o r age, the d i f fe rences between CLASS and RANK a r e l a r g e r than between

POLVIEWS and POLVIEWX. Only f o r the income v a r i a b l e do CLASS and RANK approx-

imate one another i n the s t r eng th of c o r r e l a t i o n . Also, a l l f i v e of the I

- c o r r e l a t i o n s with CLASS a r e s i g n i f i c a n t whereas only th ree a r e s i g n i f i c a n t

with RANK. Fur ther , f o r each demographic v a r i a b l e the o r r e l a t i o n s a r e h igher

with CLASS than RANK. Table 5 provides ample evidence t h a t CLASS is a b e t t a r '\

i n d i c a t o r of s o c i a l s t a t u s than is RANK s i n c e we would expect high c o r r e l a -

t i o n s f o r these tw s o c i a l s t a t u s measures w i t h s i m i l a r s o c i a l s t a t u s measures

such a s income, education, and job p r e s t i g e .

Table 6 i l l u s t r a t e s t h a t i n t h e i r uncollapsed vers ions CLASS and RANK

have smal ler mean gamma d i f f e r e n c e s ac ross these v a r i a b l e groupings when

compared with the mean d i f f e r e n c e s between POLVIEWS and POLVIEWX. This is

t r u e f o r both the "mean d i f fe rence" and " s i g n i f i c a n t mean d i f fe rence , " The

CLASS v a r i a b l e genera l ly produces s t r o n g e r c o r r e l a t i o n s with these 45 v a r i -

a b l e s than does RANK. For 30 of the v a r i a b l e s , CLASS has a h igher c o r r e l a t i o n

than does RANK. In 12 va r i ab les RANK has a h igher c o r r e l a t i o n and i n 3 v a r i -

a b l e s CLASS and RANK produce the same c o r r e l a t i o n . This is c o n s i s t e n t with

the previous a n a l y s i s of POLVIEWS and POLVIEWX i n which the U.S. measure

r e s u l t e d i n higher c o r r e l a t i o n s f o r most of these 45 items.

GSS: 51

TABLE 4

Frequency D i s t r i b u t i o n s f o r CLASS and RANK, 9983

CLASS N % RANK* N % N %

-

Lower 46 5.8

Working 374 46.8

Middle 349 43..7

UP!?= 30 3.8

TOTAL 799 100

Bottom 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Top 10

DK

TOTAL 784 100

*The o r d e r of the va lues f o r RANK have been i n v e r t e d t o f a c i l i t a t e comparison w i t h CLASS.

TABLE 5

Pearson C o r r e l a t i o n s o f CLASS and RANK With S e l e c t e d Demographic Var i ab l e s

Age Educat ion Rincome Income P r e s t i g e

CLASS .12* e 35* 26* *30* o 37*

RANK -.04 .24* e 07 .26* o2I4

* S i g n i f i c a n t a t .05 Level

Important p o l i t i c a l i s s u e s of contemporary American p o l i t i c s seem t o

produce the g r e a t e s t d i f f e r e n c e s between CLASS and RANK. Businq, with a --

d i f f e r e n c e of .19, the NAT s c a l e of spending i s sues ( . 1 3 ) and RACESCHL ( , I % %

d e a l i n g w i t h the e x t e n t of school i n t e g r a t i o n acceptable t o the respondent are

h i g h l y v i s i b l e i s sues . This is an important determination of whether CLASS --

and RANK a r e s i m i l a r measures s i n c e one would not expect l a r g e d i f fe rences on

low sa l i ence i s s u e s f o r which most people don ' t have f i rm opinions. But on

s a l i e n t i s s u e s such a s busing, school i n t e g r a t i o n and spending on a wide range

of s o c i a l programs one w u l d expect many people to have informed, knowledgab%e

opinions. The f a c t t h a t we f i n d l a r g e d i f fe rences i n c o r r e l a t i o n s between

CLASS and RANK on these s a l i e n t i s s u e s can be a t t r i b u t e d to a fundamental

d i f f e r e n c e i n how the pub l i c understands these two s o c i a l s t a t u s measures,

As mentioned previous ly , l a r g e d i f f e r e n c e s between POLVIEWS and

POLVIEWX were less f requen t , with only abor t ion producing a l a r g e d i f f e r e n c e

1 This is c o n s i s t e n t w i t h the i n t e r p r e t a t i o n j u s t given s ince abor t ion

is perhaps the most v i s i b l e and s a l i e n t p o l i t i c a l i s s u e which d iv ides the

pub l i c along ideo log ica l l i n e s . The f a c t t h a t o the r i s s u e s such as busing do

n o t produce l a rge d i f f e r e n c e s a s w e l l may i n d i c a t e t h a t the d i f f e r e n c e s

between POLVIEWS and POLVIEWX a r e more s u b t l e than between CLASS and RANK.

When RANK i s co l l apsed i n t o a four value v a r i a b l e , the gammas a r e very

s i m i l a r t o those of the uncollapsed gammas across a l l t h e ca tegor ies . Again

t h i s i n d i c a t e s t h a t l a r g e r response ca tegor ies do n o t provide g r e a t e r

measurement accuracy.

GSS: 51

TABLE 6

A C o m p a r i s o n of CLASS and RANK W i t h V a r i o u s G r o u p i n g s of Social and P o l i t i c a l M e a s u r e s *

U n c o l l a p s e d W i t h RANK C o l l a p s e d

' S i g n i f . S i g n i f . CLASS RANK D i f f . D i f f . CLASS RANK D i f f . D i f f .

HELPBLK, HELPFUL, HELPNOT, HELPPOOR, HELPSICK, EQWLTH -12 . I 2 e O .05 -12 . I 4 .O2 04

ABDEFECT, ABNOMORE, ABHLTH, ABPOOR, ABRAPE, ABSINGLE, ABANY - ,20 -. 13 .07 . 1.3 -. 20 -. 14 .06 .13

SEXEDUC, P I L L , PORNINF, PORNMORL, GRASS

NAT ITEMS

NAT SCALE

RACESCHL

R U S S I A , JAPAN, ENGLAND CHINA, DRAFT, USUN, U S I N T L - e l 1 -.08 .03 -01 - 0 9 1 - 0 1 9 0 04 - 0 2

CAPPUN, WIRTAP - e l7 - . I 1 .06 097 -.I7 -.09 8 I. .08 e l 7

BUSING -26 -07 .I9 .26 -26 ,04 . 22 .26

PARTY I D .3 98 , I 7 .c9% , 01 . 08 -22 . 04 ., 84

MEMPOLIT, MEMUMION -009 -, 0 4 .03 .23 --,OD - .o 001 -23

ALL ITEMS . I 5 .11 -041 07 . I 5 . I 2 - 0 3 .08

* N u m b e r s are g a m m a s . See Appendix for an explanat ion ofe this table,

CONCLUSION

The purpose of these two experiments on the 1983 GSS was t o determine

whether U.S, and European s c a l i n g techniques could measure p o l i t i c a l idae%egy

and s o c i a l s t a t u s i n the United S t a t e s i n s i m i l a r ways.

The f indings sugges t t h a t POLVIEWS, the l ibe ra l -conse rva t ive measure, -

tends to have s t ronger c o r r e l a t i o n s with p o l i t i c a l and s o c i a l a t t i t u d e s than

does POLVIEWX. Second, c o l l a p s i n g these two va r i ab les i n t o a smaller number

of ca tegor ies does not change the s t r e n g t h of their r e l a t i o n s h i p s with these

45 va r i ab les . This would i n d i c a t e t h a t p o l i t i c a l ideology measured osith

.extended 7 o r 10-point s c a l e does n o t inc rease measurement p r e c i s i o n for this

var i ab le .

The standard GSS ques t ion , CLASS, a l s o c o r r e l a t e s h igher w i t h morsOsf

these 45 i tems than does its European coun te rpa r t RANK. Col laps ing RANK into

a Pour value va r i ab le does no t produce any s u b s t a n t i a l changes i n the s t r eng th

_sf its r e l a t i o n s h i p with these v a r i a b l e s o r i n the d i f f e rencas between it and

CLASS.

A f i n a l po in t i n the d i f f e r e n c e between these U,S. measures and their

European counterpar ts is that the number of DB's is s u b s t a n t i a l l y higher for

t h e European measures RANK and POLVIEWX than the U,S. measures GLASS and

POEVPEWS. U.S. respondents a r e l e s s f a m i l i a r , it would seem, with these

European measures and thus tend t o p lace themselves i n the DK ca tegory with

more frequency.

APPENDIX

Technical Notes f o r Tables 2 and 6

- The numbers represented i n Tables 2 and 6 a r e mean gammas. The gamma

means wi th in each group were computed'by summing the ind iv idua l gammas taking

i n t o account the s ign of each gamma and d iv id ing the summed gammas by the

number of va r i ab les i n the subgroup.

POLVIEWS and POLVIEWX were co l l apsed according t o the scheme depicted

i n TABLE 1. RANK was col lapsed according t o the scheme depic ted i n Table 4,

The mean d i f fe rence is the d i f f e r e n c e between the mean of POLVIEWS and

POLVIEWX with in each subgroup. The same convention is used f o r CLASS and

The s i g n i f i c a n t mean 'd i f ference is the abso lu te d i f f e r e n c e between

POLVIEWS (CLASS) and POLVIEWX (RANK) f o r each v a r i a b l e in. the subgroup div ided

by the number of va r i ab les i n the subgroup. When a gamma was no t s i g n i f i c a n t

at t he .05 l e v e l the gamma was set t o zero.

The NAT items c o n s i s t of NATSPAC, NATHEAL, NATDRUG, NATARMS, NATCITY,

NATEDUC, NATAID, NATCRIME, NATRACE, NAFFARE, NATENVIR. NATENVIR was excluded

from the a d d i t i v e NAT s c a l e because of its low i n t e r c o r r e l a t i o n w i t h the o the r

NAT i t e m s . The RACESCHL s c a l e c o n s i s t s of RACFE;W, RACHAF and RACMOST.

For some va r i ab les t h e va lues were reversed s o t h a t wi th in each

subgroup a l l t h e va r i ab les m u l d have the same l ibe ra l -conse rva t ive (Lef t -

Right ) expected d i r e c t i o n .

Assistance i n preparing these two t a b l e s was provided by Tom W. Smith

of NORC.

REFERENCES

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