Quantifying Anomia: Development of a Scale
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ABSTRACT QUANTIFYING ANOMIA: DEVELOPMENT OF A SCALE Anomie refers to a weakening of cultural values and social norms. One interpretation is that anomie exists because of moral deregulation when normative rules begin deteriorating, while another suggests that it is a product of insufficient means to reach goals, forcing individuals to seek deviant modalities and paths (Agnew, 1980). While multiple scales have been developed in an attempt to measure the construct, the purpose of this study was to build upon and combine scales from 1956 to 2011 to produce an instrument that quantifies anomie/anomia using factor analyses. Four scales of anomia were compiled and administered to 416 Fresno State undergraduate students. The findings suggest that the final anomia scale has good internal consistency and correlates with materialism, happiness, and social desirability. However, no expected significant differences were found across gender, age, income, marital status, and race/ethnicity. Anthony Yang August 2015 QUANTIFYING ANOMIA: DEVELOPMENT OF A SCALE by Anthony Yang A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology in the College of Science and Mathematics California State University, Fresno August 2015 APPROVED For the Department of Psychology: We, the undersigned, certify that the thesis of the following student meets the required standards of scholarship, format, and style of the university and the student's graduate degree program for the awarding of the master's degree. Anthony Yang Thesis Author Robert Levine (Chair) Psychology Constance Jones Psychology Deborah Helsel Sociology For the University Graduate Committee: Dean, Division of Graduate Studies AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRODUCTION OF MASTER’S THESIS X I grant permission for the reproduction of this thesis in part or in its entirety without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction absorbs the cost and provides proper acknowledgment of authorship. Permission to reproduce this thesis in part or in its entirety must be obtained from me. Signature of thesis author: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis committee: Dr. Robert Levine, for his patience, support, and for pushing me to fine-tune the skills necessary to conduct my research. His honesty led me to finding a voice through writing – outside of my thesis and program. Dr. Constance Jones for her insightful feedback and guidance through my statistical analyses. Her personality and clear direction were significant factors that contributed to the completion of my thesis and the purposeful use of statistics and various research methods. And Dr. Deborah Helsel for jumping on board with such short notice and willingness to throw hard questions. Her perspective, expertise, and knowledge in sociological theory is appreciated and what I needed to begin framing my study coherently. I want to thank my professors along the way who supported me since the beginning of my program and those who continue to stimulate my learning: Dr. Vincent Biondo, Dr. Christine Edmondson, Dr. Jason Immekus, Dr. Matthew Jendian, Dr. Lorin Lachs, Dr. Don Simmons, and Andre Yang. Also I thank my many friends who allowed me to share and storm my ideas. In specific, I want to thank Connie Vang for committing the time to hear me talk about my thesis and showcase the very little knowledge I know about the world. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family: my parents Cher Her and Toua Yang and sister Lada Yang, for being the fuel that continues to light my passion to always learn, to see the larger ideas, and to always find ways to leverage the platform of people like me and those who are less fortunate. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................. vii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1 History of Anomie ............................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................. 9 Srole’s Anomia Scale ...................................................................................... 10 McClosky and Schaar’s Anomia Scale ........................................................... 12 Travis’s Alienation Scale ................................................................................ 14 Heydari, Davoudi, and Teymoori’s Anomia Scale ......................................... 16 Validity Analysis ............................................................................................. 19 The Present Study ........................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER 3: METHODS ..................................................................................... 24 Participants ...................................................................................................... 24 Instruments ...................................................................................................... 25 Design and Procedure ..................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS ....................................................................................... 29 Exploratory Factor Analysis ........................................................................... 30 Confirmatory Factor Analysis ......................................................................... 33 Anomia and Demographic Markers ................................................................ 39 Anomia, Materialism, Happiness, and Social Desirability ............................. 40 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION ................................................................................. 43 Limitations ...................................................................................................... 45 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 47 vi vi Page APPENDIX A: ANOMIA SCALE (WITH DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY) .......... 52 APPENDIX B: RICHINS AND DAWSON (1992) MATERIALISM SCALE .... 56 APPENDIX C: FORDYCE (1988) EMOTION QUESTIONNAIRE ................... 58 APPENDIX D: MARLOWE AND CROWNE (1960) SOCIAL DESIRABILITY SCALE ............................................................................ 60 LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1 Srole’s Anomia Scale ............................................................................... 11 Table 2 McClosky and Schaar’s Anomia Scale..................................................... 14 Table 3 Travis’s MOS Alienation Scale ................................................................ 16 Table 4 Heydari, Davoudi, and Teymoori’s Anomia Scale ................................... 17 Table 5 Richins and Dawson (1992) Materialism Scale ....................................... 21 Table 6 Fordyce (1988) Emotion Questionnaire .................................................. 21 Table 7 Marlowe and Crowne (1960) Social Desirability Scale .......................... 22 Table 8 Scales Used to Measure Anomia .............................................................. 23 Table 9 Income Distribution .................................................................................. 24 Table 10 Race/Ethnicity Distribution .................................................................... 24 Table 11 Marital Status Distribution .................................................................... 25 Table 12 Religion Distribution .............................................................................. 25 Table 13 Anomia Scale .......................................................................................... 27 Table 14 Factor Correlation Matrix ..................................................................... 30 Table 15 Two Factor EFA Solution ...................................................................... 32 Table 16 One-Factor Item Loadings ..................................................................... 37 Table 17 Correlation Matrix Between Anomia and Happiness ............................. 41 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1. Interaction between the anomic state and actor according to Durkheim. ................................................................................................. 6 Figure 2. Interaction between the anomic state and actor according to Merton. ..... 6 Figure 3. Heydari, Davoudi, and Teymoori’s model of anomia. ........................... 18 Figure 4. Revised model of anomia according to the literature. ............................ 18 Figure 5. Anomia scree plot with eigenvalues. ...................................................... 31 Figure 6. Two-factor structural model. .................................................................. 34 Figure 7. Two-factor structural model with covarying error terms. ...................... 35 Figure 8. One-factor structural model of anomia. .................................................. 38 Figure 9. Scatterplot of anomia and materialism. .................................................. 40 Figure 10. Scatterplot of anomia and social desirability. ...................................... 42 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION History of Anomie Anomie