Skip Navigation



European Sociological Review Advance Access published online on August 6, 2009
European Sociological Review, doi:10.1093/esr/jcp040
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
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 My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Tranter, B.
Right arrow Articles by Western, M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Overstating Value Change: Question Ordering in the Postmaterial Values Index

Bruce Tranter and Mark Western

Correspondence: Bruce Tranter, School of Sociology and Social Work, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia. Email: Bruce.Tranter{at}utas.edu.au

Correspondence: Mark Western, The University of Queensland, Institute for Social Science Research, Brisbane, Australia. Email: m.western{at}uq.edu.au

In much of his research on intergenerational value change, Inglehart uses a four-item index to calculate levels of postmaterial and material value orientations. Latter waves of the World Values Surveys administer a 12-item values index in which the original four-item index is embedded. In some of his research, Inglehart compares values estimated from stand-alone and embedded indices. Using a split sample design, we administered two versions of the longer values index to national probability samples of Australian adults and detected question-ordering effects. Proportions of postmaterialists relative to materialists were inflated when the four-item index was embedded in the longer values index. Comparing estimates of postmaterial values from stand-alone indices with indices embedded in the longer values measure is an unreliable method of assessing change in value orientations, as it overestimates the magnitude of value change over time.

Manuscript received: June 1, 2008.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.