Alienation: Its Meaning and Measurement Author(s): Dwight G. Dean Reviewed work(s): Source: American Sociological Review, Vol.

26, No. 5 (Oct., 1961), pp. 753-758 Published by: American Sociological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2090204 . Accessed: 22/02/2013 05:48
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MEANING AND MEASUREMENT OF ALIENATION Unlike murder rates, those for suicide are increasing. This trend is historically related to increasing literacy, urbanization, and a larger middle class. Higher status and moral commitment for these persons preclude murder; suicide emerges as a manifestation of increasing numbers of persons in an insecure achieved status. Whether trends, rural-urban areas, or characteristics of individual cases are comdisputes where assailant or victim own land 35 and neither own 13 per cent vs. 12 and 14 per cent (N=84, 38 vs. 51, 21, combining "own" and "neither own" for Kandyan and Ceylon Tamil, x2=l3.12, 2 d.f., P<.05).

753

pared, there is basis for concluding that increasing participation in an achievement as opposed to an ascribed status system is a necessary precondition for increasing rates of specified forms of deviance. The relationships, however, depend on the proportion of persons in the various status positions of the population and the stresses and strains that are subjectively experienced. Conceptually, it appears that stresses of a status position induce varying orientations to society (subcultural norms as intervening variables) which in turn facilitate or inhibit certain types of deviance. Differential rates of homicide and suicide are the direct effects of variations in these normative orientations.

ALIENATION:

ITS MEANING

AND MEASUREMENT

DWIGHT G. DEAN Denison University The concept of Alienation is considered here as having three major components: Powerlessness, Normlessness and Social Isolation. Scales constructed to measure these inter-correlated from .41 to .67 (N=384). There is a low but statistically significant negative correlation between the three components of Alienation and occupational prestige, education, income, and rural background. There is a small positive correlation between Alienation and advancing age.

Political Apathy,6 Political Hyperactivity,7 or Personalization in Politics,8 Prejudice,9 T HE concept of Alienation, rooteddeeply ,10 Psychosis,1" Regression12 Privatization in sociological tradition, has recently enjoyed a new popularity. Theorists have suggested numerous possible correlates York: Harper and Brothers, 1958, p. 185; Keniston, of Alienation, such as Apathy,' Authoritar- op. cit., p. 169. 4 Robert Merton, Mass Persuasion, New York: ianism,2 Conformity,3 Cynicism,4 Hoboism,5
DELINATION OF THE CONCEPT

* Grateful acknowledgment is made for the encouragement and guidance of Melvin Seeman, University of California, Los Angeles and to Raymond Sletto and Christen Jonassen of The Ohio State University. This is a revised version of a paper read before The Ohio Academy of Science, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, April 22, 1960. 1 Kenneth Keniston, "Alienation and the Decline of Utopia," The American Scholar, 29 (Spring, 1960), p. 164; Eric Kahler, The Tower and the Abyss, New York: Braziller, 1957. 2Theodor W. Adorno, et. al., The Authoritarian Personality, New York: Harper and Brothers, 1950, p. 618. 3 Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom, New

Harper and Brothers, 1947, p. 143. 5 Morton Grodzins, The Loyal' and the Disloyal, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956. 6 Morris Rosenberg, "The Meaning of Politics in Mass Society," Public Opinion Quarterly, 15 (Spring, 1951), pp. 5-15. 7 David Riesman and Nathan Glazer, "Criteria for Political Apathy," in Studies in Leadership, edited by Alvin Ward Gouldner, New York: Harper and Brothers, 1950, pp. 505-559. 8Adorno, op. cit., p. 618. 9 Ibid. 10 Ernst Kris and Nathan Leites, "Trends in Twentieth Century Propaganda," in Reader in Public Opinion and Communication, edited by Bernard Berelson and Morris Janowitz, Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1950, p. 283. 11 E. Gartly Jaco, "The Social Isolation Hypoth-

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754

AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICALREVIEW of a "ruler" who is "in charge of affairs," and who is favorably disposed toward the individual. A succinct description of this element is provided by Kris and Leites: 20 twentieth century are to an ever-increasing extent involved in public affairs; it becomes
increasingly difficult to ignore them. But "ordinary" individuals have ever less the feeling that they can understand or influence happiness is known to depend. Individuals in the mass societies of the

and Suicide.'3 Only recently have scientists attempted to develop scales to measure this phenomenon.'4 Numerous references to Alienation (or to similar concepts variously labeled) are, frequently, implicit rather than explicit. Sometimes the same writer includes several nuances of meaning. Seeman1' has brought order out of this chaos with his fivefold classification: Powerlessness, Meaninglessness, Normlessness, Isolation and SelfEstrangement. The first element, Powerlessness, was suggested long ago by Hegel 16 and by Marx 17 in their discussions of the worker's "separation" from effective control over his economic destiny; of his helplessness; of his being used for purposes other than his own. Weber18 argued that the worker was only one case of the phenomena; for in the industrial society, the scientist, the civil servant, the professor is likewise "separated" from control over his work. Parenthetically, the feeling of helplessness may have other sources besides the economic order of which Hegel, Marx, and Weber wrote. DeGrazia,19for example, has argued that the child's gradual awakening to the limitations of his parents sends him in search
esis and Schizophrenia," American Sociological Review, 19 (October, 1954), pp. 567-577. 12 Sebastian DeGrazia, The Political Community: A Study of Anomie, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948, esp. pp. 8-20 and 115-122. 13 See, for example, E. H. Powell, "Occupation, Status, and Suicide: Toward a Redefinition of Anomie," American Sociological Review, 23 (April, 1958), pp. 131-139. 14 See, for example, Allan H. Roberts and Milton Rokeach, "Anomie, Authoritarianism, and Prejudice: A Replication," American Journal of Sociology, 61 (January, 1956), pp. 355-358; Gwynn Nettler, "A Measure of Alienation," American Sociological Review, 22 (December, 1957), pp. 670677; and Leo Srole, "Social Integration and Certain Corollaries: An Exploratory Study," American Sociological Review, 21 (December, 1956), pp. 709716. 15 Melvin Seeman, "On the Meaning of Alienation," American Sociological Review, 24 (December, 1959), pp. 783-791. 16 Cited in Herbert Marcuse, Reason and Revolution, New York: Oxford University Press, 1941, p. 34. 17 Marcuse, op. cit., p. 273. 18 Hans H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, From Weber: Essays in Sociology, New York: Oxford University Press, 1946, p. 50. 19DeGrazia, op. cit., pp. 8-20 and pp. 115-122.

the very events upon which their life and What we consider the second component, Normlessness, is derived from Durkheim's concept of anomie. For, as Durkheim observed, sudden economic losses or gains result in situations where previous scales cannot remain unchanged, the "calibration is turned . . . topsy-turvy . . . yet no new graduation can be quickly improvised."21 DeGrazia,22 in searching for clues to Durkheim's meaning, has noted:
The specific words and phrases in French that Durkheim repeatedly used-un per-

petuel Jtat de mecontentement,tourments, deceptionsrepetees,inutilite, desorientee,inquietude douloureuse,malaise, sterility, intolerable,desenchantement, douloureux-help

us create the composite picture of anomie as it affects the individual. It becomes apparent that anomie as Durkheim conceived it in the subjective sense had three characteristics: a painful uneasiness or anxiety, a feeling of separation from group standards, a feeling of pointlessness or that no certain goals exist.

A perusal of the literature indicates that at least two rather distinct subtypes of Normlessness may be differentiated.The first subtype, Purposelessness, has been noted by MacIver,23who has described anomy as "the absence of values that might give purpose or direction to life, the loss of intrinsic and socialized values, the insecurity of the hopelessly disoriented." An illustration of the obverse-i.e., a group whose activities bear striking testi20 Ernst Kris and Nathan Leites, op. cit., p. 283. Italics are authors'. 21 Translation by DeGrazia, op. cit., p. 3. 22 Ibid. 23 Robert M. MacIver, The Ramparts We Guard, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1950, pp. 84-87.

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MEANING AND MEASUREMENT OF ALIENATION mony to the efficacy of purpose-would be the physicians among the Polish Jews in the Ghetto during the uprisingagainst the Nazis. When defeat became obvious, these men countered utter hopelessness and resignation by carrying on medical research on their starving compatriots until the very end.24 Bettelheim 25 has described his own reaction to the loss of standards that characterized the Nazi concentrationcamp in which he was imprisoned. He attributes his survival as a sane being to the fact that he had determined ahead of time that he would preserve his personality by forcing his experiences to yield insights into behavior under extreme conditions. His orientation to research furnished a "norm" which held him steady while community and civil life all around him disintegrated.Wolff 26 has utilized somewhat the same terms in explaining differential morbidity and mortality among American prisoners of war in Japan: "[man] is capable of enduring incredible burdens and taking cruel punishment when he has selfesteem, hope, purpose, and belief in his fellows." The second subtype of Normlessness may be considered as Conflict of Norms. DeGrazia27 has described at some length the contemporaryconflict between the "Cooperative" and the "Competitive" Directives, and between the "Activist" and the "Quietist" Directives. Karen Horney,28 in similar vein, has described the difficultiesof a person who incorporates in his personality conflicting norms such as the standards of Christianity versus the success imperative, the stimulation toward a constantly-higher ma24 Martin Gumpert, "The Physicians of Warsaw," The American Scholar, 18 (Summer, 1949), pp. 285290. Reprinted in Joseph B. Gittler, Social Dynamics, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1952, pp. 15-21. 25 Bruno Bettelheim, "Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 38 (October, 1943), pp. 417-452. 26 Harold G. Wolff, "A Scientific Report on What Hope Does for Man," Saturday Review, 40 (January 5, 1957), p. 45. 27 DeGrazia, op. cit., Chapter III, "Conflict Between Belief Systems," pp. 47-72. 28 Karen Horney, "Culture and Neurosis," in Sociological Analysis, edited by Logan Wilson and William L. Kolb, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1949, pp. 248-251.

755

terial standard of living versus the practical denial of a high standard for many people, and the alleged freedom of the individual versus the factual limitations on his behavior. Ruesch 29 and Petersen 30 have described the same idea in their discussions of social mobility. The studies so far undertaken 31 have, it seems to us, not adequately considered the possibility that Normlessness may have several facets. A third component, Social Isolation, may also be traced to Durkheim's conception of anomie, which included "a feeling of separation from the group or of isolation from group standards."32 Jaco,33writing on "The Social Isolation Hypothesis," has shown that residential areas with the highest schizophrenic rates are those characterized by anonymity, spatial mobility, a smaller percentage of voting, low social participation, greater unemployment, fewer memberships in lodges and fraternal organizations, more job turnover, fewer visits with friends, etc. Halmos 34 related social mobility to psychoneurosis and schizophrenia.Kohn and Clausen 35 found a relationship between social isolation (rejection by one's peers) and mental disease.
29 Jurgen Ruesch, "Social Technique, Social Status, and Social Change in Illness," in Personality in Nature, Society, and Culture, edited by Clyde Kluckhohn and Henry A. Murray, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1950, p. 125. 30 William Petersen, "Is America Still the Land of Opportunity?" Commentary, 16 (November, 1953), pp. 477-486. 31 We did not use Srole's scale of anomie for two reasons: (a) one of his five items related to the political realm, which was the dependent variable in our study (see footnote 38, below) and (b) our conception of anomie seems to have a different meaning. See T. C. Keedy and M. J. Vincent, "Anomie and Religious Orthodoxy," Sociology and Social Research, 43 (September-October, 1958), pp. 34-37; Wendell Bell, "Anomie, Social Isolation and the Class Structure," Sociometry, 20 (June, 1957), pp. 105-116; Dorothy L. Meier and Wendell Bell, "Anomia and the Achievement of Life Goals," American Sociological Review, 24 (April, 1959), pp. 189-202. 32 DeGrazia, op. cit., p. 3. 33 Jaco, op. cit., pp. 567-577. 34 Paul Halmos, Solitude and Privacy, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951. 35 Melvin L. Kohn and John A. Clausen, "Social Isolation and Schizophrenia," American Sociological Review, 20 (June, 1955), pp. 265-273.

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756

AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICALREVIEW
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCALES

In order to determinewhat empirical relationships, if any, existed between the several components of Alienation, it was necessary to construct scales to measure each. A total of 139 items presumably measuring Alienation (which had been gleaned from the literature, over 70 interviews, or specially constructed) were typed on 3 x 5 cards. Seven experts (instructors and assistants in the Department of Sociology at The Ohio State University) were requested to judge each statement as to its applicability or nonapplicability, first, to the componentof Powerlessness (using a one-page description as the criterion). When this part of the task was finished, each expert received a second set of cards to judge, again, each of the 139 items as to whether each item specifically and only referred to Normlessness; then, finally, a third set of cards was presented for judging of items as they might relate to Social Isolation.36 For retention of an item, agreement on the part of at least five of the seven judges was required, with no judge placing the item in more than one category. Finally, the usual "DP" tests were applied. Typical of the nine items in the final scale for Powerlessnesswere: 37 There is little or nothingI can do towards war. preventinga major "shooting" We are just so many cogs in the machineryof life.

Typical of the nine items of the Social Isolation sub-scale were:

Sometimes I feel all alone in the world. One can always find friends if he shows himself friendly.

The Social Isolation sub-scale had a "splithalf" reliability of .84 when corrected for attenuation. The three sub-scales were combined to make up the Alienation scale, which thus consisted of 24 items. The items from each of the sub-scales were rotated in order to minimize the possibility of halo effect. The total Alienation scale had a reliability of .78 when corrected. It seemed desirable to determine whether Alienation may be considered a general syndrome or whether the various components are somewhat discrete. The correlation coefficients between the sub-scales were, as shown in Table 1, considerablyabove the .01
TABLE 1. INTER-CORRELATIONS AMONG THE ALIENATION SCALE COMPONENTS (N=384)

Components: Powerlessness Normlessness SocialIsolation

Normless- Social Alienation Isolation (Total) ness .67 .54 .41 .90 .80 . 75

level of significance. This suggests that it is quite feasible to consider the sub-scales as Reliability of this sub-scale, tested by the belonging to the same general concept. How"split-half" technique, was .78 (N=384) ever, there appears to be enough independwhen corrected by the Spearman-Brown ence among the sub-scales to warrant treatprophecy formula. ing them as independent variables. Typical of the six items in the NormlessIt seemed advisable to investigate the reness scale, constructed simultaneouslyby the lationship of our scales measuring Alienation same method, were: and Adorno's "Authoritarianism" scale. A low inter-correlation would lead one to beThe end often justifies the means. I often wonderwhat the meaningof life lieve that the scales we have developed do reallyis. measure something other than Authoritarianof scalThe reliability on this sub-scale, when cor- ism, and are not simply another way variable. same the ing rected, was .73. The correlation coefficients between the various components of Alienation and Ador36 This method adapted from John K. Hemphill no's "F" scale (for a college sample pretest and Charles M. Westie, "The Measurement of Group Dimensions," in The Language of Social Reof 73 respondents) were as follows: search, edited by Paul Lazarsfeld, et. al., Glencoe, Powerlessness and Authoritarianism .37 Ill.: The Free Press, 1955, pp. 325ff. Normlessness and Authoritarianism .33 37 A mimeographed copy of the scales, with scoring instructions, may be obtained free of charge from the author.

Social Isolation and Authoritarianism Alienation and Authoritarianism

.23

.26

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MEANING AND MEASUREMENT OF ALIENATION

TABLE

757
(N=384)

2.

CORRELATION

COEFFICIENTS

BETWEEN

ALIENATION

AND

FIvE, BACKGROUND

FACTORS

Components: Powerlessness Normlessness Social Isolation Alienation

Occupation

Education
-.22** -.18** -. 11*

Income
-, -. -.

Age
.14**

Community
-.10* -.10*

-. 20** -.21** -.07 -.19**

26**

14**

-.21**

13** -.23**

.13** -.03 .12**

-. Q6 -.1l*

* Significant at the .05 level of confidence. ** Significant at the .01 level of confidence.

The first two correlation coefficients are significant at the .05 level of confidence; the latter two are significant at the .01 level of confidence. Hypotheses. Our hypotheses were: (1) There is a negative correlation between social status (as measured by a modified version of the North-Hatt Occupational Prestige Scale, the amount of education attained, and income) and Alienation and its several components; (2) There is a positive correlation between advancing age and Alienation and its components; and (3) There is a negative correlation between rural background and Alienation and its components. The Sample. The data were collected in Columbus, Ohio, as part of the writer's dissertation on Alienation and Political Apathy, Four a part of which is reported elsewhere.38 of the nineteen wards in Columbus, Ohio, were selected on criteria related to voting incidence and socioeconomic variables. Within these four wards, precincts were selected by random sampling; and, within the precincts, individuals were selected by random sampling. Of 1108 individuals who presumably received our questionnaire, 433 or 38.8 per cent responded. Of these 433, we were able to use 384 in our analysis.39 Findings. Table 2 indicates that while the hypotheses were in most instances sustained at statistically significant levels, the correlation coefficients are uniformly of such a low magnitude that it would not be feasible to
38 Dwight G. Dean, "Alienation and Political Apathy," Social Forces, 38 (March, 1960), pp. 185189. 39 The merits of questionnaires versus interviews cannot be discussed here. We decided, on the basis of preliminary interviews, to use the questionnaire in the belief that respondents would more likely answer truthfully than when an interviewer was confronting them. See Claire Selltiz, et. al., Research Methods in Social Relations, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1959, pp. 240ff.

predict the degree of Alienation from the score on any of the five social correlates measured: It is of interest to note that, in general, with increased status in society, there is less of a feeling of Alienation. If we assume that older people in our culture have decreased status, the positive correlationthat we found between age and Alienation would be expected. In this, our findings parallel Bell's
work.40

Discussion. The generally low order of correlations raises a number of theoretical considerations. To the extent that we may assume the validity of the Powerlessness, Normlessness and Social Isolation sub-scales, we did not find Alienation correlated with social status, age or community background to any noticeable extent. If we reject the hypotheses of a negative correlationbetween these social background factors and Alienation, we ought to investigate further, since each of the sub-scales exhibited a normal curve of score distribution, with scores extending almost the entire possible range. This would seem to indicate that these components and scales are not merely artifacts. One explanation might be that Alienation is not a personality "trait," but a situationrelevant variable. It is plausible, for example, that an individual might have a high Alienation-Powerlessnessscore in regard to political activity, but a low one in regard to religion. For example, the "pre-millennialists" among Fundamentalists might be politically apathetic precisely because they believe that international crises cannot be solved by man, but that the world can only be "saved" by Divine intervention. In regard to the Alienation-Normlessness component, it is interesting to note that Keedy,41 using Srole's scale, found anomie
40

41

Bell, op. cit., pp. 105-116. Keedy, op. cit., pp. 34-37.

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758

AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICALREVIEW Finally, while most of the literature and our particular research have conceptualized Alienation as a phenomenon of Society, others,44have made the local community or associational activities the referent. Perhaps the individual's identification with, or Alienation from, Society, is experienced with reference to primary groups or voluntary
associations.

related to religious orthodoxy among Protestants. Bell,42using the same scale but controlling for socio-economic status, found no correlation between anomie and being Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish; nor with frequency of attendance at church. It may be speculated that a Normlessness scale clearly differentiatingthe Purposelessness and Conflict of Directives sub-types might prove more fruitful. Further investigations should be made in regard to the syndrome of Alienation. In this connection,it may be noted that Srole's scale could not be retained in our Alienation scales because his items failed to meet our judging and item analysis criteria. His anomie scale, however, correlated .31 with our Normlessness sub-scale on a college pretest sample of 73. The fact that Nettler's scale 43 also correlated with Srole's scale at about the same magnitude seems to indicate that "estrangement from society" may be empirically separable from the other components.
42

It may very well be that Alienation is not a unitary phenomenon, but a syndrome. In this respect, Davids' conceptualization of eight components seems challenging.45 In any case, certainly much more research is required before the Alienation concept can be empiricallyvalidated.
44 John P. Clark, "Measuring Alienation Within A Social System," American Sociological Review, 24 (December, 1959), pp. 849-852; Wayne E. Thompson and John E. Horton, "Political Alienation as a Force in Political Action," Social Forces, 38 (March, 1960), pp. 190-195. 45 Anthony Davids, "Alienation, Social Apperception, and Ego Structure," Journal of Consulting Psychology, 19 (February, 1955), pp. 21-27 and "Generality and Consistency of Relations Between the Alienation Syndrome and Cognitive Processes," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 51 (July, 1955), pp. 61-67.

Bell, op. cit., pp. 105-116. Review, 22 (December,

43 Gwynn Nettler, "A Measure of Alienation,"

American Sociological 1957), pp. 670-677.

ALIENATION AND INTEGRATION OF STUDENT INTELLECTUALS *

JAN HAJDA The Johns Hopkins University Alienation from and integration into the larger society are complementary phenomena stemming from many sources. Both of them are general aspects of social and cultural participation characterizing intellectuals as well as non-intellectuals. These contentions are examined in a study of American-born graduate students. Graduate students are classified into 'four categories: alienated intellectuals, integrated intellectuals, Alienated non-intellectuals, and integrated non-intellectuals. Each category has a somewhat different social profile, different set of ties to non-academic collectivities and the academic community, different value orientations. The analysis suggests that intellectuals' feeling of alienation is not inevitable and that the variation in the intensity of alienation can be explained by the kind of ties the student intellectual establishes with non-academic people and by their reaction to his endeavors.
SOURCES OF ALIENATION
A

AND

INTEGRATION

LIENATION

is

an individual'sfeeling

is an expression of non-belonging or nonsharing, an uneasy awareness or perception

American Sociological Society, Chicago, September, 1959. I would like to acknowledge my debt to Professor Edward A. Shils of the Committee on Social Thought and Department of Sociology, University of Chicago, and Professor James S. Coleman of the

of uneasiness or discomfort which reflects his exclusion or self-exclusion from social and cultural participation. It
* This article is the revised version of a paper read at the Fifty-fourth Annual Meeting of the

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