Between-person methods provide limited insight about within-person belief systems
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6202970 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mark J Brandt (0000-0002-7185-7031), G Scott Morgan (0000-0002-5043-1613, Institute of Psychology) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 123 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 621-635 |
| Publication date | 2022-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037/pspp0000404 |
| PMID | 35025598 |
| OpenAlex | W4205231744 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 27 |
Belief systems are individual-level phenomena that describe the interrelationships of the political attitudes of a person. However, the modal study of the structure of political ideologies and beliefs uses cross-sectional survey data to estimate what is central to the belief system or the dimensionality of the belief system, aggregating across many people. Cross-sectional data, however, are ill-suited to the task of studying individual-level phenomena because they contain an unobservable mixture of within-person and between-person variation. In this project, we use longitudinal datasets from the Netherlands (representative) and the United States (convenience), spanning between 6 months and 10 years, to we ask whether between-subjects methods can help us understand the within-person structure of belief systems. First, we use Bayesian STARTS models (Lüdtke et al., 2018) to assess what type of variance cross-sectional studies are likely tapping into. We find that variability in measures of ideology and political beliefs is primarily due to stable between-person differences, with relatively smaller amounts of variation due to within-person differences. Second, we estimate between-person, within-person, and cross-sectional correlations between all items in our study and find that between-person correlations are larger and in some cases differ in their direction from within-person correlations. Furthermore, cross-sectional correlations are most similar to between-person correlations. Taken together, these findings indicate that the modal study may help describe differences between people, but is ill-suited to tell us about the structure of individuals' belief systems. New methods are necessary for a complete understanding of political belief systems that clarify both between- and within-person processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
Cognitive psychology · Econometrics · Ideology · Person–environment fit · Politics · Unobservable · Variation (astronomy) · Behavioral Health and Interventions · COVID-19 epidemiological studies · Mental Health Research Topics · Psychology · Social Psychology
Subjective financial insecurity and support for European unification
How perceived polarization predicts attitude moralization (and vice versa)
Not Your Mama’s Ideology (But Close)
Consolidation and change
Educational belief systems among American parents
Temporal associations between depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and satisfaction with family life
Testing the underlying structure of unfounded beliefs about Covid-19 around the world
Striking the Right Notes
Intraindividual Changes in Political Identity Strength (But Not Direction) Are Associated With Political Animosity in the United States and the Netherlands
Ideology Strength Versus Party Identity Strength
Testing Theories of Threat, Individual Difference, and Ideology
New threat of culture wars? The religious roots of public opinion polarization on morality issues in Europe
The impacts of within-task and between-task personal Internet usage on employee creative performance
Holidays abroad of Dutch citizens do not increase their appetite for greater European integration
No evidence of longitudinal association between religiosity and psychological well-being
The Curious Case of the Cross-Sectional Correlation
Beyond Belief Change
From cognitive coherence to political polarization
Inter‐attitude centrality does not appear to reduce persuasion for political attitudes
People Are Not Points in Space
Ideology shapes evaluation of history within the general population
The role of change in the relationships among decent work, political cynicism and voter turnout
Hurt on Both Sides
Honor Values as Identity Content
Class experiences and the long-term evolution of economic values
Peer Networks and Ideological Consistency
Inequality Belief Systems
| Unique citing works | 27 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6,75 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 25 |