Assessing Comparability of Measurement in Cross-National Research: Authoritarian-Conservatism in Different Sociocultural Settings

This paper explores various analytic criteria for assessing comparability of measurement in cross-national survey research. The analysis focuses on the construct validity of items thought to capture authoritarian-conservatism in the United States and Poland. Although we may assume that set of attitu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social psychology quarterly 1981-09, Vol.44 (3), p.178-191
Main Authors: Miller, Joanne, Slomczynski, Kazimierz M., Schoenberg, Ronald J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Authoritarian/Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism
Comparison/Comparisons/Comparative/Comparability
Conservatism
Conservative/Conservatives/Conservatism
Construct validity
Correlations
Countries
Factor analysis
Measure/Measures/Measuring/ Measurement
Modeling
Poland/Poles/Polish
Psychometrics
Research/Researcher/Researchers
Social psychology
Statistical significance
Survey/Surveys
United States/US
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Summary:This paper explores various analytic criteria for assessing comparability of measurement in cross-national survey research. The analysis focuses on the construct validity of items thought to capture authoritarian-conservatism in the United States and Poland. Although we may assume that set of attitudes designed to measure the construct can be under varying circumstances, what can be identified as an authoritarian world view may, in fact, depend upon the particular sociocultural setting of the observation. We examine the validity of the indicators within each country, identifying which indicators are common to both countries and which are nation-specific. Then, using confirmatory factor analysis, we test whether there is sufficient structural similarity in the pattern of responses to establish conceptual equivalence.
ISSN:0190-2725
1939-8999
DOI:10.2307/3033832