Citation

Kahn RL. J. Soc. Iss. 1972; 28(1): 155-175.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1972, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1540-4560.1972.tb00009.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper proposes four functions in terms of which social indicators can be judged successful or unsuccessful: description, explanation, valuation, and utilization. These criteria are applied to the findings of a current nation-wide study on the attitudes of American men toward violence. Two indexes--the level of force that men consider justifiable for social control and the level of force that they consider justifiable for social change--are shown to be essentially uncorrelated and to present very different descriptive patterns. Most men consider injury or property damage to be unnecessary for social change, but are prepared to justify substantial force for social control. The explanation of these attitudes is sought in terms of background and demographic characteristics, and in terms of such psychological characteristics as values, group identification, semantics, and perception of social issues.

Language: en