Further Validation of a Measure of Individual Modernity

Abstract

Summary: Individual modernity may be defined as a cluster of beliefs and attitudes including progressivism, autonomy, secularism, and a sense of personal efficacy. An 8-item scale to assess this constellation was previously published. The present analysis reports new validational data. Factor analysis showed the scale to be significantly loaded (.74) on a modernity dimension, with minimal loadings (-.14 and -.16) on factors for alienationanemic and authoritarianism. For 60 assessees modernity correlated .35 with criterion u ratings by observers. Interviewers' Q sort and adjectival descriptions of 360 subjects stressed independence and breadth of interests for high-scorers versus conventionality and narrowness of interests for low-scorers. These descriptions also suggested that women ranking high on modernity will be less favorably perceived than men of comparable standing.