A Factorial Study of Dogmatism, Opinionation, and Related Scales

Abstract

In previous work ( 2 ) the concept of dogmatism, as measured by the Dogmatism Scale, has been shown to represent general authoritarianism, as contrasted with the F Scale, which was shown to represent primarily right authoritarianism. The concept of opinionation, as measured by the Opinionation Scale, was shown to represent primarily .right intolerance. Also, dogmatism, which refers to systems of beliefs resisting change, has been distinguished experimentally ( 5 ) from rigidity, which refers to single beliefs or expectancies resisting change. The above distinctions were further supported in a fa'ctor analytic study (4 ) . The findings indicated, first, that the Dogmatism Scale measures something similar to authoritarianism (the F Scale), but in contrast to the F Scale, is relatively independent of the liberalism-conservatism dimension. Second, dogmatism was factorially discriminable from rigidity and from ethnocentrism. Third, dogmatism was found to have factorial content in common with anxiety. As these findings were based on a college sample from the New York metropolitan area, the major purpose of the present study was to corroborate them on a Midwestern university sample. A secondary purpose was to ascertain the factorial properties of three additional concepts: the Opinionation Scale, the Intellectual Rejection Scale, and the Intellectual Acceptance Scale, described below. SUBJECTS AND ADMINISTRATION A battery of 10 scales was administered to 153 native-born Ss in introductory psychology courses at Michigan State University in January, 1953. Since the E Scale contained items about Jews and Negroes, papers of students with these backgrounds were eliminated. Ss responded anonymously. Items from the scales were interspersed in random order in a single questionnaire and were responded to in terms of a +3 to -3 agreement-disagreement scale with the zero point excluded in order to force responses to the agree and disagree sides.