In 1970, after a period of intensive study of the scientific literature on alienation & related concepts, & the empirical development of measuring instrument, nearly 2,000 Dutch people age 18 & over were interviewed, to get an insight into the backgrounds, components, & outcomes of alienation from society & from politics. Four years later, many questions were repeated in more than 1,000 interviews. Many of the earlier findings were reaffirmed. Alienation is the absence of a feeling of positive connection of a person with a social system to which he belongs, based on one or more experiences of imperfection in the role the person has or wants to fulfill in the social system. Goals, norms, & means are distinguished as the main elements of every role. The person may perceive each of tehse elements as absent, as unclear, or as unacceptable to him. Basically there are at least nine different possibilities of experienced imperfections in a role. The measuring instruments try to cover these sets of experiences in the person's role in society as well as in politics. Guttman-scales measured powerlessness, normlessness, & purposelessness, distinguished as to achievement- & success-powerlessness, indicating a lack of influence & a lack of result, respectively. For both years of investigation a number of hypotheses could be verified, which led to the following conclusions: (1) people with little education & those with misanthropic thoughts are more prone to feelings of achievement-powerlessness with respect to society than other people; (2) persons who think misanthropic also experience much purposelessness in society; (3) achievement-powerlessness proves to be related with success-powerlessness as well as with purposelessness, coinciding with normlessness, in the sense of unclear social norms; (4) both misanthropy & little education foster feelings of political achievement-powerlessness -- however, only via social achievement-powerlessness; (5) in both years, there was a relationship between little education & political purposelessness; & (6) political participation tends to be negatively connected with alienation. Protest behavior is less popular among people with negative social or political experience than among the self-confident, understanding, & idealistic persons. There were no signs that any alienation component leads to withdrawal from associations, clubs, & organizations, though the most active members tend to be those with a firm feeling of self-confidence. 5 Tables, 5 Diagrams, 2 Appendices. Modified AA.
