www.psychspace.com心理学空间网 by Milton
Milton Rokeach received a Ph.D. from Berkley in 1947 and served as Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University for many years. His best known work include The Open and Closed Mind (1960) and Beliefs, Attitudes and Values: A Theory of Organization and Change (1968). He received the Kurt Lewin Memorial Award of the American Psychology Association in 1984. This article appeared in Psychology Today, April 1970, pp. 33 - 58.
All Organized religions assume that religion teaches man distinct values that he might not otherwise have—moral values that guide him, in his everyday relations with his fellow man, toward higher, nobler or more humane levels than he might reached without religion. But is it true? Do the religious have distinct moral values that set them apart from the less religious? And if so, do these values help or hinder a genuine concern for the well-being of other members of the human race?
Many research studies have shown that there are significant differences in beliefs and attitudes between Jews, Catholics and Protestants, and even between various Protestant denominations. Most disturbing are findings that show that the religiously devout are on the average more bigoted, more authoritarian, more dogmatic and more antihumanitarian than the less devout. Such findings are disturbing from a religious standpoint because they point to a social institution that needs to be reformed. They are disturbing from an anti-religious standpoint because they point to a social institution that deserves to be destroyed.
Value Systems. I wanted to see if these value differences indeed existed between the religiously devout and non-devout, and to see how religious values were related to social compassion. In April 1968 I examined the value systems of well over 1,000 adult Americans ranging in age from 21 to 80. The sampling and data collection were handled by the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago, a national polling organization. The national sample was selected to represent all adult ages, social classes and parts of the country.