In the last decades value research has produced a vast number of theoretical concepts. However, it is unclear how the different value theories relate to each other. This study makes a first step toward a systematic comparison of value theories. It focuses on the individual level of the two approaches that are, at present, probably the most prominent in international research -the theory of basic human values of Shalom Schwartz and the postmodernization theory of Ronald Inglehart. Using data from the World Value Survey and the European Social Survey for West Germany we assess both the internal and the external validity of the two accounts. The results indicate that both value theories have different strengths and weaknesses. Whereas the Inglehart account has lower internal and weaker construct validity, the Schwartz account is somewhat less consistent in its predications. Nevertheless, both value conceptions are able to explain a substantial share of variation in specific attitudes and behavior. AbstractIn the last decades value research has produced a vast number of theoretical concepts.However, it is unclear how the different value theories relate to each other. This study makes a first step toward a systematic comparison of value theories. It focuses on the individual level of the two approaches that are, at present, probably the most prominent in international research -the theory of basic human values of Shalom Schwartz and the postmodernization theory of Ronald Inglehart. Using data from the World Value Survey and the European Social Survey for West Germany we assess both the internal and the external validity of the two accounts. The results indicate that both value theories have different strengths and weaknesses. Whereas the Inglehart account has lower internal and weaker construct validity, the Schwartz account is somewhat less consistent in its predications. Nevertheless, both value conceptions are able to explain a substantial share of variation in specific attitudes and behavior.

Happiness, Subjective wellbeing, Life satisfaction, Asia, Europe, Culture, Multi-level-analysis,

It has often been observed in experimental studies that the reliability of items increases if the same questions are asked of the same respondents more than once. This phenomenon, called the “Socratic effect,” also occurs in nonexperimental, short-wave panel studies. In the first section of this article a number of hypotheses presumed to underlie the “Socratic effect” are presented. It is argued that a distinction must be made between consistency processes at the structural level (latent attitudes) and the observational level (respondent behavior). Given this distinction, the hypotheses are tested within a LISREL framework that takes this differentiation into account. The hypotheses are then evaluated using four items to measure respondents' attitudes toward guestworkers in West Germany. By and large the central hypotheses are confirmed. It is also shown that two different models can be fit to the observed data equally well, and therefore a nonstatistical criterion has to be invoked to decide which model to use as the basic model for describing the stability and reliability of the attitude.

This chapter investigates statistical evidence regarding the fall‐off in church membership and attendance, which has taken place across Western Europe since World War II, and analyses variations between countries. It tentatively concludes that the pace of the process of church disengagement is linked to rationalization of society and the advance of Protestantism, which has led to a relegation of religion as an à la carte set of options, weakening its traditional guidelines on political questions. With religiously inspired deference fading away, political leaders may have more difficulty mustering support for the institutions of government.

In two recent articles, Inglehart (1981, 1982) arrives at the conclusion that the decline of materialism in postwar Japan is the result of generational change and period effects. Aging effects cannot be demonstrated empirically. This article challenges his views. It will be shown that a life-cycle explanation can claim as much empirical evidence as a generational explanation, as long as the overall goodness of fit and the sign and strength of the age effects and cohort effects are the only criteria the decision is based upon. Particularly, a two-dimensional age-period model fits the data nearly as well as the cohort-period model that Inglehart proposes. Theoretical considerations, however, plead for a three-dimensional solution that includes some cohort effects beside period and aging effects for those generations that grew up in the postwar era. Such a model can also be established empirically.