The measurement of modernism : a study of values in Brazil and Mexico
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Bibliographic Information
The measurement of modernism : a study of values in Brazil and Mexico
（Latin American monographs / Institute of Latin American Studies, the University of Texas at Austin, no. 12）
Published for the Institute of Latin American Studies by the University of Texas Press, 1974, c1968
- : pbk
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Note
Bibliography: p. [199]-203
Description and Table of Contents
Description
One of the most interesting questions that can be raised about the twentieth century world concerns the degree to which industrialization created a common culture for all peoples. Reported here are the results of an empirical investigation designed to produce instruments to measure those personal values that have been central variables in the theory of modernization of societies.
The purpose of Joseph Kahl's research is primarily methodological: to advance the description and measurement of those value orientations used by men to organize their occupational careers. It seeks to delineate and measure a set of values that represents a "modern" view of work and life.
The working laboratory was Brazil and Mexico, two countries undergoing rapid industrialization. More than six hundred men in Brazil and more than seven hundred in Mexico responded to questionnaires. In addition, over twenty-five men in each country were asked to sit beside a tape recorder and talk freely of their worldviews. The respondents were divided between inhabitants of the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City and those who lived in provincial towns of fewer than ten thousand inhabitants. The samples included manual and nonmanual employees.
The results showed that the main variable predicting whether or not a man would tend toward modernism was his social-class position. Middle-class men were much more modern in outlook than working-class men. Residence in a metropolis rather than in a small town also increased modernism, though to a lesser extent. Differences between Brazil and Mexico (and, indeed, the United States) were found to be surprisingly small, of considerably less weight than position in the social structure in predicting value orientations.
The author addresses himself primarily to sociologists and their students who are themselves studying aspects of socio-economic development. His findings, however, cannot fail to be of interest and benefit to social scientists of various disciplines and to all who are concerned with the process of development-planners at the national and local levels, demographers, and businesspeople.
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter I. The Modernization of Values
Traditional Society versus Modern Society
Causes and Effects
Values and Norms
Career Values
Three Men
From Ideal Types to Variables
The Components of Modernism
Empirical Syndrome of Modernism
Conclusions
Chapter II. The Operational Definition of Modernism
The Questionnaire
The Samples
The Scales
Modernism I
Stability of Modernism I in Subsamples
Rotation of Axes
Modernism II
Conclusions
Chapter III. Who Are the Modern Men?
Component Value Scales
Comparisons between Brazil and Mexico: Modernism III
Comparisons with the United States
Conclusions
Chapter IV. Modern Values, Education, and Occupation
From School to Job
How Much Is an Education Worth?
Why Do Boys Stay in School?
The Prediction of Education by Father's Status and by Size of Town
Values and Education
Conclusions
Chapter V. Modern Values and Fertility Ideals
Fertility Ideals
The Role of Values
Family Structure in Brazil and Mexico
Supporting Evidence on Family Structure
Nonfamily Relationships
A Theory of Causation
Conclusions
Chapter VI. Personal Satisfaction and Political Attitudes
Job and Career Satisfaction
Life Satisfaction
Relations among the Three Indices of Satisfaction
Satisfaction, Occupation, and Location
Time Sequence: Satisfaction Relative to Aspiration
Education, Occupation, and Satisfaction
Income and Satisfaction
Measures of Radical Orientation
Status, Satisfaction, and Radicalism
Mexican Manual Workers
Mexican Nonmanual Workers
The Ambivalent Mexican
Conclusions
Chapter VII. Work Attitudes
The Wide Range of Views
Specific Job Attitudes
Rating by the Boss
Conclusions
Chapter VIII. Conclusions: Modernism and Development
The Value Scales
The Typical Modem Man
Where Is the Modern Man?
Validity of the Tools
Values and Education
Values and Family Size
Satisfaction and Politics
Work Attitudes
Values: Means or Ends?
Values and Economic Development
Appendix A. Socio-Economic Status
Social Stratification
The Respondents' Status Indices
Index of SES
Measures of Parental Status
Social-Class Identification
Deviant Cases
Time Sequence
Multivariate Analysis of Identification
Identification as an Intervening Variable
Clerks versus Skilled Workers
Conclusions
Appendix B. Fathers and Sons: Intergenerational Mobility
Rates of Mobility: Correlation Coefficients
Father's SES, Son's Education, Son's SES
Problems of Matrix Analysis of Occupational Mobility
Matrices for Brazil and Mexico
Education and Mobility
Conclusions
Appendix C. Portuguese Translation of Value Scales
Appendix D. Spanish Translation of Value Scales
Bibliography
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"
