Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science Equality in Context: Implications of Multidimensional Values for Policy Preferences

这个项目调查了美国政治文化中对政治价值观的多重理解在多大程度上影响了大众公共政策偏好的性质。该项目的目标是测试一个以心理学和政治学文献为基础的一般理论框架。该项目具体评估了美国政治文化中价值意义的可用性，这些意义与个人层面特征和问题背景的关系，以及它们对政策偏好形成的影响。这本著作通过将价值概念化为多维本质，其意义取决于社会、心理和语境因素，扩展了政治价值、舆论和政治心理学领域的文献。该项目使用调查和实验方法，结合学生和社区主题样本，检查美国公民共同享有的平等的含义，以及他们在形成关于平权行动、社会福利和民权政策的意见的基础上所扮演的角色。该项目的总体理论方向为促进对公众舆论的科学理解提供了潜力，因为它寻求对公共政策偏好的基础进行更细致的评估。

This project investigates the extent to which multiple understandings of political values present in American political culture influence the nature of mass public policy preferences. The objective of the project is to test a general theoretical framework grounded in both psychological and political science literatures. The project assesses specifically the availability of value meanings in American political culture, the relation of those meanings to individual-level characteristics and issue contexts, and their implications for the formation of policy preferences. This current work expands the literature in the realm of political values, public opinion, and political psychology by conceptualizing values as multidimensional in nature, the meaning of which is dependent on social, psychological, and contextual factors. The project uses survey and experimental methodologies in conjunction with student and community subject samples to examine the meanings of equality common to American citizens and their roles in forming the foundation for opinions regarding affirmative action, social welfare, and civil rights policies. The general theoretical orientation of the project provides potential for the advancement of scientific understanding of public opinion as it seeks to attain a more nuanced assessment of the foundations of public policy preferences.