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British attitudes towards Europe: An exploration of their inner structure
Author(s) -
Wober Mallory
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1981.tb00530.x
Subject(s) - dimension (graph theory) , politics , context (archaeology) , variety (cybernetics) , set (abstract data type) , unitary state , identity (music) , state (computer science) , social psychology , european union , political science , political economy , sociology , positive economics , psychology , law , economics , geography , physics , mathematics , archaeology , algorithm , artificial intelligence , computer science , acoustics , pure mathematics , economic policy , programming language
Political scientists and communications researchers have recently studied the question of whether the European Common Market will develop from being a primarily economic entity, towards a possible future as a federal European State. At the same time, regional movements have shown a resurgence in several European countries; so politically centripetal forces are opposed in some areas by centrifugal tendencies. Existing nation states are thus challenged as foci for providing identity for their populations, and the leadership elites are set great problems of constitutional design. Psychologists should see this context as an important one in which to make a contribution that can be both analytic, and empirical. As a start, a representative British sample has been surveyed with a set of questions covering attitudes towards Europe. The underlying factorial structure of these attitudes has been shown not to be unitary, but multiple. There is not just one ‘attitude towards Europe’ dimension, but at least three. Individuals' standing on each of these dimensions has been shown to relate differently to a variety of cultural and behavioural variables. These findings raise important questions for planning acceptable and effective policies in the political and administrative fields.