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This is one of a series of excerpts from older articles put online by John Ray as a public service. The articles concerned are in general otherwise available only by special request to a University or other major library.

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Journal of Social Psychology, 1970, 81, 73-77.

INTERNAL INCONSISTENCY IN THE STEREOPATHY--ACQUIESCENCE SCALES: A WARNING NOTE



Stuart Oskamp & Genevieve Thompson

Claremont Graduate School


..... Though the stereopathy and nonstereopathy sections should have high negative correlations, in every case they were correlated positively...


D. SUMMARY

Inconsistent results were obtained in a correlational study of 91 undergraduates which used the Stereopathy-Acquiescence (S-A) scales as a measure of authoritarianism. Analysis of these results and other data on this new test led to the following conclusions: (a) the ideological and personality forms (Forms I and P) are not equivalent forms, (b) the nonstereopathic sections of the scales are not the reverse of the stereopathic sections, and therefore the acquiescence effect has not been eliminated, (c) it is doubtful that a unitary trait of authoritarianism is being measured, (d) the manner of construction of the scales has led to haphazard selection of content and a questionable classification of some items.

REFERENCES

STERN, G., CHRISTIE, R., LANE, H., SANFORD, N., & WEBSTER, H. Authoritarianism workshop, Raquette Lake, New York. Dittoed manuscript, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, 1959.

---------------. Stereopathy-acquiescence workshop, Stanford, California. Mimeoed manuscript, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, 1960.



COMMENT BY JOHN RAY:

The usual reference for the Stereopathy scale is as follows:

STERN, G. G., STEIN, M. L, & BLOOM, B. S. Methods in Personality Assessment. Glencoe, Ill: Free Press, 1956.

Note that the short Stereopathy Scale by Lee and Warr (1969) appears to have a satisfactory pos-neg correlation, but it features direct political and religious items, making its distinction from a conservatism scale rather tenuous and clearly introduces an artifact into any study involving political variables. The alternative short Stereopathy scale by Athanasiou (1968) has shown a pos-neg correlation as low as -.18.

References:

ATHANASIOU, R. Technique without mystique: A study of authoritarianism in engineering students. Educ. Psychol. Meas., 1968, 28, 1181-1188.

LEE, R. E., III, & WARR, P. B. The development and standardization of a balanced F-scale. J. Gen. Psychol., 1969, 81, 109-129.




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