Changing Concepts of Morality: 1948-69

Abstract

Quantitative content analysis of selected issues of the Ladies Home Journal revealed shifts in value orientations-most notably from future to present and from doing to being. A qualitative analysis relates these findings to behavior changes and life-style as portrayed in these same issues and places particular emphasis on concepts of morality. Several trends are noted: (1) morality as a rather permanent inflexible set of standards becomes a more fluid concept which each defines for himself; (2) the use of psychological explanation for understanding behaviors becomes increasingly used to justify behaviors; (3) the importance of mental health for the good of family and society gives way to concern with psychological adjustments to meet the needs of the individual; (4) a not altogether clear relationship appears between the housewife's need to turn outward beyond home and family responsibility and her changing attitudes toward marriage. The study of values presents a challenge to those who seek to base research on substantive quantifiable data and to obtain results that are readily replicated. The late Clyde Kluckhohn (1958:149) noted this problem in his review of the literature on American values and value changes up to 1958. Kluckhohn found rather consistent agreement among the authors as to which values were dominant and general agreement on those values which were undergoing change. He noted however, that the great majority of these useful studies were impressionistic in nature rather than based upon rigorous empirical study. Robin Williams, (1967:30-32) in discussing the search for indicators of American values also refers to the elusive nature of values and suggests that a most fruitful source of evidence on attitudes and value orientations is to be found in the output of the mass media. He suggests that content analysis can provide a relatively objective measurable method for the analysis of values and he cites a number of studies which have successfully used this approach. This paper reports on the use of both quantitative and qualitative content analysis of a mass circulation periodical to detect change in value orientations. It covers the result of a study which, through the use of quantitative content analysis of selected issues (117) of the Ladies Home Journal over the period 1948-69 detected discernible shifts in the expression of certain value orientations. A qualitative analysis of these same issues supported the quantitative findings and provided descriptions of the behavior changes which accompanied the observed value-orientation shifts.' The study was based upon the assumption that the mass media is a valid source for indicators of values. Admittedly, this assumption is subject to debate, but there is a growing body of literature to suggest that the media not only reflect but affect public values and attitudes (Peterson et al., 1965; Selltiz, 1959). Berelson and Janowitz (1966:2-3) suggest that the weaknesses of the early studies which were the cause of the severest criticisms stemmed in large part from the tendency to seek relatively straightforward cause and effect relationships. They suggest that more recent studies point the way to a more successful ap*This article is based upon material collected for a M.A. thesis entitled Value Orientation, Behavior and Technoeconomic Shifts and Changing Roles for Women, at the University of Massachusetts under the direction of Dr. Oriol PiSunyer. 1 The material presented in this paper is part of a larger study which supported the hypothesis that content analysis of a popular woman's periodical could detect changes in the value orientations, attitudes, and behavior of the housewife toward work and leisure in a period during which technoeconomic changes affected the character of the homemaker's work and her working day.