Sociology ETDs

Publication Date

12-4-1972

Abstract

Alienation and variations in orientation to counter culture values were investigated in a survey of University of New Mexico undergraduates. A cumulative-type attitude scale was developed to measure orientation toward counter culture values. Dean's Alienation Scale, which combines three subscales of normlessness, powerlessness and social isolation to form a total alienation scale score, was used as a measure of subjective feelings of alienation. Results of the first order multivariate analysis show a moderate positive relationship of student's counter culture orientation to a) alienation, with normlessness and powerlessness being the strongest components, and b) peer, as opposed to parent, social approval salience. However, the interrelationship of the three variables indicated a strong interaction effect between alienation and social approval salience; peer-salience was shown to be much more strongly associated with counter culture orientation among students without strong feelings of alienation than among students who do have such feelings, and the relationship between subjective alienation and counter culture orientation is markedly stronger among those indicating the social approval salience of parents than among those indicating the social approval salience of peers. Counter culture orientation was also found to be related to career orientation, sex role orientation, and religious orientation. A serendipitous finding shows an association between counter culture orientation and the relationship with parents which apparently contradicts previous explanations of youth rebellion based on the oedipal model of father rejection and mother alliance.

Degree Name

Sociology

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Sociology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Harold Charles Meier

Second Committee Member

Patrick Hayes McNamara

Third Committee Member

Joseph Fashing

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

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