Psychological Modernity

The modernity syndrome construct is broadened significantly by including the concept of psychological modernity in itself relevant to social functioning & responsive to educational & late socialization experiences. For their purposes, 2 theoretical positions are considered: H. A. Witkin's concept of differentiation & field independence & J. Loevinger's conceptualization of ego development. The major hypothesis is that in comparison to traditional men, modern men are, in general, more field independent & differentiated, more conceptually abstract, & have higher levels of ego development. The hypotheses were tested on 3 separate subsamples: 2 carefully selected & matched subsamples from the Pakistan-Argentina samples of the Inkeles' 6 Nation Study; a sample of M's & F's (aged 25-45) from the Negro Migration Study of Boston; & a sample of registered voters from the Mass Third Congressional District. The results of the 3 samples supplemented & complemented each other; some of the many findings of the Negro Migration Study are presented here. R's for this sample were M's & F's randomly drawn from core 'ghetto' areas of Roxbury, Dorchester, & South End Boston. 73% of the sample was F, most born & reared in Ru areas, average educational level of 10.9 years; of the 89% having an occupation only 52% were then employed. As expected, the modernity syndrome correlated strongly with education. Modern individuals were found to be efficacious, to have a sense of control over their lives, to take moderate risks, to be adaptable & flexible, to be well informed, & to score highly on measures of intellectual functioning. Modern individuals were found to be field independent & to have higher levels of ego development than traditional individuals & thus bear out the construct of strong connection between modernity & a wide variety of psychological traits & organizations. The extent to which modernity & the psychological variables are determined at different periods of an individual's life cycle still remains inconclusive. But the evidence points to the importance of education. 7 Tables, Appendix. E. Loomis.