Subject Area
Sociology
Description
Ideology plays a very important role in everyday life, particularly in a President’s term of office. Under the Presidency of George W. Bush, welfare and other Social Services were severely cut due to the fact that he believed in more conservative viewpoints (higher military spending, higher tax cuts for the wealthy, etc.). However, ideologies are not only seen on a grand scale: everyone makes day-to-day decisions based on his/her own beliefs. This study hypothesized that males within the Providence College student body would believe in more conservative ideologies, whereas females would believe in more liberal ones. Statements based on both the Principles of Distributive Justice, in addition to the mission statements from the four main political parties were taken and put into a questionnaire. Participants (a total of 41) were then asked to rate these statements on a Likert Scale from one (Strongly Disagree) to five (Strongly Agree). Correlations and trends based on gender and home state were then analyzed. Based on the Independent T-Test, one Socialist question regarding the elimination of corporate influence in the Federal Government was statistically significant (t=0.017, p < 0.05). Two others approached 0.05: one Republican and one Democrat. The findings of this study suggested that males tended to identify more strongly with conservative statements and females with liberal statements, validating the hypothesis of this study.
Publisher
Providence College
Date
Spring 4-23-2009
Type
Thesis
Format
Text
Language
English
Cover Page for Thesis
abstract.doc (26 kB)
Abstract for Thesis
Comments
A project based on independent investigation, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Social Work. Originally written for the Theory Practice Seminar, Providence College, 2009.