Assessing the Validity of the Postmaterialism Index

Bibliographic Data

ID7586038
AuthorsDarren W Davis (0000-0001-6407-9430, Michigan State University), Christian Davenport (0000-0001-5652-2914, University of Maryland, College Park)
Year1999
Volume93
Issue3
Pages649-664
Publication date1999-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2585580
OpenAlexW2079332645
LanguageEN
Citations received93
References cited27

Inglehart's postmaterialism thesis describes an individual-level process of value change. Little attention has been devoted to validating the responses to his postmaterialist-materialist index. The aggregate-level distributions may appear to reflect a postmaterialist-materialist dimension, even if at the individual level responses on the questions making up the index are random. The logic of the survey questions used for the index defines a baseline against which the actual distribution of responses can be compared. Using such a standard, we find that individual responses are not constrained by an underlying value dimension, in the sense that the observed patterns of responses increasingly do not differ from what one would expect by chance. Furthermore, as one would expect for a random variable, index scores are virtually unexplainable as a dependent variable, and they cannot be used to predict support for various political and social issues, said to flow from attitudes measured by the index

Aggregate (composite · Dimension (graph theory · Econometrics · Epistemology · Index (typography · Materialism · Mathematical analysis · Statistics · Value (mathematics · Variable (mathematics · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Mathematics · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Capital and Networks · Social Psychology

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