Item Detail
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19703
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1
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0
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English
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A Four-Dimensional Analysis of Sex Role Attitudes in a Mormon Population : Personal Control, Self-Esteem, Dogmatism, and Religious Affiliation
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California School of Professional Psychology
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Ph.D.
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"Four possible antecedents to sex-role attitudes in a religious population were investigated by comparing Mormons and mainline Protestants on two personality dimensions (personal control and self-esteem) and two cultural dimensions (dogmatism and religious affiliation). Subjects included 88 Mormons and 103 Protestants, single, ranging in age from 18 to 57 years. The sample represented an urban, fairly well educated, upper middle class population, with no significant differences, between groups, on the demographic variables of age, ethnicity, income, and education. All participants had attended church in the greater Los Angeles area at least twice per month for the preceding year. Measures used included locus of control, self-esteem, dogmatism, attitudes toward women, and social desirability scales. Information regarding frequency of church attendance and family stratification was obtained, along with attitudes concerning maternal employment and birth control. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the cultural dimensions of dogmatism and religious affiliation were significantly stronger predictors of sex-role attitudes than the personality variables of personal control and self-esteem. The variables of gender, age, income, education, and frequency of church attendance exerted no significant impact upon sex-role attitudes in this study. Using discriminant function analysis, sex-role attitudes proved to be by far the strongest predictor of membership in the Mormon religious affiliation group. A series of t-tests found that Mormons were significantly more dogmatic and more traditional in their attitudes toward women than were Protestants, but revealed no significant differences between religious groups or between genders on the personal control or self-esteem dimensions. Previous research had shown higher levels of dogmatism and more traditional attitudes toward women to be correlated with lowered self-esteem. As this was not the case in the current study, a qualitative difference was inferred, suggesting that the components of self-esteem were different for the Mormons and the mainline Protestants. An associated test for the homogeneity of variance demonstrated that the women in this study were more variable than the men in their self-esteem. It is possible that age exerts an impact in this area." [Author's abstract]