日本人の権威意識の構造

抄録

It is said that the Japanese are weak toward authority, and the authors feel it is necessary to analyze the structure of the attitude toward authority among Japanese. The main purpose of this paper is an analysis of the Japanese attitude toward authority.
1) Thirty items (jobs or positions) were selected for rating. These items were: Judge of the Supreme Court, lawer, university professor, editorial writer of a big newspaper, radio news commentator, chief engineer for constuction of a dam, the president of the medical association, the Foreign Minister, Member of Parliament, the chairman of the General Council of Trade Unions, revolutionist, the president of the Bank of Japan, director of a large company, the best rice cultivator in Japan, principal of a primary school, president of the society for the child welfare, social worker, minister, president of Soka-Gakkai (a society of a new religion), the Emperor, literary critic, music conductor, kabuki actor, movie actor, masterhand of Go or chess, designer, Miss Universe, head master of tea ceremony, a grand champion of Sumo wrestling, and a baseball pitcher of fame.
2) These items were rated on twenty-two traits or attributes by the contant sum method. These traits were: length of training or experience, thinking ability, constant effort, educational background, popularity, critical ability toward the current issues, good writing and fluent speech, administrative ability, social status, standing by the weak, popularity among high society, number of subordinates, sensitivity, physical strength, good looks, idealism, international reputation, financial status, good tradition, superhuman attractiveness, pedigree, and athletic skill. Raters were about one hundred and twenty female university students.
3) The results of the rating for the social status are as follows: The president of the Bank of Japan is ranked the highest, and the president of the medical association, judge of the Supreme Court, the Emperor, the Foreign Minister, university professor and director of big company, follows in this order. These ranks seem to coincide with the current social hierarchy. Those who have strong social powers seem to be ranked high and those who criticize them low. Intellectual abilities (e.g., ability of reasoning, critical ability and educational background) are ranked higher than family standing, prestige by tradition or physical ability (see Table 1).
4) Intercorrelations of the twenty-two traits were computed and analyzed by Thurstone's centroid solution, and the following factors were found. (I) High education and social status vs. physical ability, constant efforts, popularity, and superhuman attractiveness. (II) Idealism vs. popularity among high society. (III) Term of training or experience, constant effort and physical strength vs. administrative ability. (IV) Good looks vs. popularity. Percentage of the factor variance (I) is approximately 50 (see Table 4 and Fig. 1).
5) Thirteen items selected from the thirty items, mentioned above were rated and analyzed by Torgerson's multi-dimensional scaling method. Raters were eighty female university students, fifty factory workers, a few nurses, business girls, and house wives. The results show that these items can be arranged on a two dimensional space with x and y axes. Those who have high ranks along the x axis are Foreign Minister, university professor, editorial writer and the Emperor, and those who have low ranks are movie actor, head-master of tea ceremony and a grand champion of Sumo. This may imply that the x axis shows the degree of social influences or the amount of authority. The higher the social status and educational backgrounds are, the higher the prestige. The prestige based on sensual or physical traits are ranked low. Critical attitude toward the current social hierarchy has not gained high prestige among Japanese. The implication of the y axis is not clear, but it may