Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more information

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Etzioni, A.
Right arrow Articles by Diprete, T. A
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The Decline in Confidence in Amenrca: The Prime Factor, a Research Note

Amitai Etzioni

Center of Policy Research; Columbia University

Thomas A Diprete

Center for Policy Research, University of Chicago

Over the past two decades Americans have been losing confidence in a variety of institutions, including business, government, medicine, and education. However, a statistical analysis shows that two-thirds of variance is not due to specific institutional attributes-but shared by all those studied. Also, as expressions of great confidence in institutions decline, the percentages of individuals scoring high on an alienation index, which reflects general rather than specific attitudes towards society and its leaders, increase. Thus, declining confidence is, to a large extent, not institution specific, but reflects disaffection with American society as a whole. Efforts to restore confidence, therefore, must focus on this comprehensive disaffection. They should uproot alienation by encouraging a firm sense of identification with social purposes and a strong commitment to fulfilling them. This dual sense of purpose and commitment will not be effective if it is the product solely of national elites, but will have a comprehensive impact only insofar as it results from widespread individual and group action directed at increasing the overall responsiveness of society to its citizens.

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 15, No. 4, 520-526 (1979)
DOI: 10.1177/002188637901500406
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Journal of Applied Behavioral ScienceHome page
J. M. Kouzes and P. R. Mico
Response to Mr. Markowich
Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, April 1, 1980; 16(2): 256 - 256.
[PDF]