Replication through Reconceptualisation; Progressiveness and Conservatism and the Relation between Social Class and Premarital Sexual Permissiveness

Samenvatting

A study may be replicated when a crucial construct in a generalization can be reconceptualized. I. L. Reiss formulated a generalization on the relationship between SC, premarital sexual permissiveness, & liberalism-conservatism. The SC & permissiveness variables related positively for liberals & negatively for conservatives. In the present study, liberalism-conservatism is reconceptualized. On the basis of a national Dutch sample, various dimensions of liberalism-conservatism were empirically assessed. One set of dimensions may be considered as abstract-ideological; another set as meta-attitudinal & value-oriented, containing many attitudes in various facets of social life as well as the abstract-ideological ones. No evidence was found to support Reiss' generalization. Since premarital sexual permissiveness can be conceptualized as being a constituent part of a broader progressive-conservative dimension, the construction of theories regarding this variable should occur within this broader framework. 4 Tables. Modified HA.