Rokeach’s dogmatism scale relied on overheard remarks from intuitively-judged close-minded people
Evidence
In writing about how the closed views were codified he states, ‘some of the statements appearing in the Dogmatism Scale were inspired by spontaneous remarks we overheard being made by persons we thought intuitively to be close-minded’. From such a premise where ‘spontaneous remarks were overheard’ and where individuals were ’ thought intuitively to be close-minded’ (italics added) it might be fair to question the methodological process and in particular any ongoing claims to theoretical relevance. This particular analysis does not however set out to either validate or invalidate such claims, nor is it to underestimate or negate the research of rokeach within his own specialist field. Indeed as Miguel Farias at the University of Oxford explains, rokeach’s research has been extremely important and a seminal influence. More appropriate is to raise questions about the legitimacy of using rokeach as a foundation upon which to establish and conceptualise Islamophobia in the contemporary setting. — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 360
Categorization
- QUESTION: The unsteady empirical basis of Rokeach’s scale weakens the theoretical grounding of Runnymede’s own typology.