Generation and Ideological Change: Some Observations

In: Public opinion quarterly: journal of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Band 49, Heft 4, S. 460-473

Abstract

Mail questionnaire data from 1,321 recipients of Woodrow Wilson Graduate Fellowships between 1945 & 1972 on their recollections of significant Cold War events & movement experiences during the 1960s were subjected to a principal component analysis, yielding a cluster of "generational" experiences. This cluster exhibits a moderate curvilinear r with political attitudes, peaking in the 1946 birth cohort, & suggesting that this group was most affected by the turbulent 1960s. However, such cohort-specific influences were consistently overshadowed by the early commitment to activism as a result of family & peer influences. Thus, the data provide only mild support for Karl Mannheim's analysis of ideological change (see "The Problem of Generations" in Kecskemeti, Paul [Ed], Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1952), & are in most other respects consistent with studies of activists. 4 Tables, 26 References. Modified AA