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Teymoori A, Jetten J, Bastian B, Ariyanto A, Autin F, Ayub N, Badea C, Besta T, Butera F, Costa-Lopes R, Cui L, Fantini C, Finchilescu G, Gaertner L, Gollwitzer M, Gómez Á, González R, Hong YY, Jensen DH, Karasawa M, Kessler T, Klein O, Lima M, Mähönen TA, Megevand L, Morton T, Paladino P, Polya T, Ruza A, Shahrazad W, Sharma S, Torres AR, van der Bles AM, Wohl M. Revisiting the Measurement of Anomie. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0158370. [PMID: 27383133 PMCID: PMC4934700 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158370] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2015] [Accepted: 06/14/2016] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Sociologists coined the term “anomie” to describe societies that are characterized by disintegration and deregulation. Extending beyond conceptualizations of anomie that conflate the measurements of anomie as ‘a state of society’ and as a ‘state of mind’, we disentangle these conceptualizations and develop an analysis and measure of this phenomenon focusing on anomie as a perception of the ‘state of society’. We propose that anomie encompasses two dimensions: a perceived breakdown in social fabric (i.e., disintegration as lack of trust and erosion of moral standards) and a perceived breakdown in leadership (i.e., deregulation as lack of legitimacy and effectiveness of leadership). Across six studies we present evidence for the validity of the new measure, the Perception of Anomie Scale (PAS). Studies 1a and 1b provide evidence for the proposed factor structure and internal consistency of PAS. Studies 2a-c provide evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. Finally, assessing PAS in 28 countries, we show that PAS correlates with national indicators of societal functioning and that PAS predicts national identification and well-being (Studies 3a & 3b). The broader implications of the anomie construct for the study of group processes are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ali Teymoori
- University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | | | | | | | | | - Nadia Ayub
- Institute of Business Management, Karachi, Pakistan
| | | | | | | | | | - Lijuan Cui
- East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | | | | | - Lowell Gaertner
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States of America
| | | | - Ángel Gómez
- Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, UNED, Madrid, Spain
| | | | - Ying Yi Hong
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | | | | | | | | | - Marcus Lima
- Federal University of Sergipe, Sergipe, Brazil
| | | | | | - Thomas Morton
- University of Exeter, Exeter, England, United Kingdom
| | | | - Tibor Polya
- Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
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