Tuesday 16th July
Wednesday 17th July
Thursday 18th July
Friday 19th July
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Measuring values in society 2 |
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| Convenor | Mr David Vannette (Stanford University) |
| Coordinator 1 | Professor Yphtach Lelkes (University of Amsterdam) |
Research on political values has spanned several decades in the social sciences (Rokeach, 1968) and has developed into an important area of study for survey researchers. The creation and widespread implementation of Schwartz's (1992) values inventory has been important in directing research on the topic of values, but new techniques and theories have also been constructed and it is important for the broader survey research community to be aware of these developments. The conveners of this session extend an invitation for papers on the topic of measuring values in and across society. Papers in this session may examine methodological challenges or opportunities when assessing values in a population, the development of unique datasets, new approaches to operationalizing values as explanatory variables in analyses, imputation of values from attitudes and opinions, and similar research topics. Submissions incorporating experiments are encouraged as are projects using novel modeling or analysis techniques. Theoretical projects on new ways of conceptualizing values in ways that could ease measurement on surveys are also welcomed, along with work evaluating values measurement instruments and construct validity in comparative contexts. Novel survey measurement approaches are also highly encouraged. Preference will be given to methodologically rigorous proposals that are also firmly grounded in theory and presented in the context of the existing literature. Proposals that are simply descriptive or offer little opportunity to advance the field of research on values are discouraged. Preference may be given to work that is further along in the stages of development.
Questions that assess how important is something for the respondent (importance), or how certain s/he feels about his/her opinion (certainty), measure two of the most frequently occurring strength-related dimensions of attitude in surveys (Petty & Krosnick, 1995; Visser, Bizer, & Krosnick, 2006; Visser, Krosnick, & Simmons, 2003). They are used to evaluate the strength of a key construct, such as a belief or intended behaviour, and they have been a source of information on the psychological processes that underpin response in "outcome" variables. Taking into account limitations of past research (Fabrigar, MacDonald, & Wegener, 2005), this presentation covers the outcomes of an exploratory methodological study. It provides information on the nature of association between the strength-related dimensions of attitude and the key constructs to which they attach properties (i.e., importance, certainty).
In this paper we present, compare and discuss the results of a survey study on the attitudes of Slovenian consumers towards social responsibility in general, and socially responsible behaviour of companies (i.e. corporate social responsibility) in particular. So far, two waves of the study have been carried out: in 2008 (pre-crisis) and in 2012 (deep into the crisis). In our analysis we aim not only to outline the differences in attitudes, but also to account both for the impact of the worsened economic conditions as well as increased media coverage of the topic of (corporate) social responsibility, over the four-year period between the two measurements.
This paper is based on empirical evidence collected in four consecutive years (2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011) by four different sample surveys all aiming at determining the attitudes of Slovenian consumers towards eco products and environment-friendly behaviour. The theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980) is used as a conceptual framework in our attempt to cross-verify the existance of purchase intention determinants for eco products on one, as well as the main factors preventing environment-friendly behaviour on the other hand. Multivariate data analysis techniques are applied on each dataset, followed by a meta analysis combining the results of the four studies with the goal of obtaining a reasonable assessment of the true effect size for each determinant and factor.