A concise scale for the assessment of attitudes towards institutional authority

Abstract

This report describes the development of a concise scale to assess attitudes toward institutional authorities. The Scale is shown to be highly reliable upon cross-validation, using 100 Australian and 100 British tertiary students. The generality of the Scale is demonstrated through significant inter-correlations between the Scale's four sub-scales, which assess attitudes toward different institutional authorities. Predicted differences between student supporters of “conservative” and left-wing political parties in Australia and Britain provide validity. Further validity is given through comparisons of prison officers, probation officers, persons “on bond” and prisoners. In addition, the Scale and each of the sub-scales are shown to be significantly correlated with a questionnaire measure of “conservatism”. The nature and purpose of the Scale are differentiated from those of existing measures of authoritarianism and conservatism.

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