The Self and Political Role: A Symbolic Interactionist Approach to Political Ideology

Author(s): Richard S. Brooks

Source: The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Winter, 1969), pp. 22-31
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4104998
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 The Self and Political Role: A Symbolic
Interactionist Approach to Political Ideology

RIcHARD S. BROOKS, Central Michigan University

SYMBOLIC interaction theory, though widely applied in the analysis of

other areas of human behavior, has been used infrequently in the study
of politics and almost never in the study of political ideology.? This
paper illustrates the applicability of the theory as an approach to the
latter. More specifically, it attempts to find a relation between differential
self conceptions and the types of political roles individuals play. It at-
tempts to provide a tentative answer to the following question: What
kinds of self-views are associated with a left-wing or moderate or right-
wing or some other political role?
Traditionally, an individual's social beliefs or ideology has been
viewed as a product of economic class or social conditions. More re-
cently, a number of sociologists and political scientists have approached
it as a correlate of status crystallization.2 But most of the empirical re-
search on political ideology has considered it to be a manifestation of
personality.3 In the personality studies it is assumed that ideological be-
liefs spring from an underlying personality structure or predisposing fac-
tors within the individual. In the research presented in the present article,
political ideology is treated as role perception. It is viewed as a set of
norms or a role incorporated into the individual's view of himself and
the world he lives in. It develops out of symbolic interaction with signifi-
cant others. Political role, as well as mind and self, is "the individual im-
portation of the social process."4

1 Two exceptions are: Carl J. Couch, "Self-Identification and Alienation," The

Sociological Quarterly, 7:255--64 (Summer, 1966); and William Kornhauser, "Social
Bases of Political Commitment: A Study of Liberals and Radicals," in Arnold M.
Rose (ed.), Human Behavior and Social Processes (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1962),
pp. 321-39.
2The status crystallization research on political behavior will be discussed in a
later section of this paper.
S Two critiques of the personality approach to politics are: M. Brewster Smith,
Jerome S. Bruner, and Robert W. White, Opinions and Personality (New York: John
Wiley and Sons, 1956), pp. 7-23; and Richard Christie and Marie Jahoda (eds.),
Studies in the Scope and Method of the Authoritarian Personality (Glencoe, Illinois:
The Free Press, 1954).
4George Herbert Mead, "Mind as the Individual Importation of the Social Proc-
ess," in Alfred M. Lee (ed.), Readings in Sociology (New York: Barnes and Noble,
1951), pp. 84-90.
22

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 The Self and Political Role 23

Preliminary Definitions
Political acts are social acts, and all social acts are directed toward ob-
jects." Therefore, "political behavior" may be defined as that part of
human activity directed toward the social object government. Much po-
litical behavior is institutional behavior, that is to say, it is role per-
formance within a well-defined interactional network or social system.
But political behavior sometimes takes the form of activity directed
toward changing or preventing change in the social system. In this case
it lies within the field of what is called collective behavior."
The self refers to the individual's view of himself in all of the statuses
and roles which organize and direct his behavior toward all of the ob-
jects of his experience; "political self identification" refers to the indi-
vidual's view of himself in the single status-role of political participant
or actor. An individual's perception of his political role consists of all the
norms attached to his view of himself in the status of political actor.
It is his beliefs concerning the appropriate ways of acting toward the
social object government.
As used in this paper, the term "ideology" is linked with the indi-
vidual's perception of his political role. It is a set of political norms
incorporated into the individual's view of himself. However, it should
be noted that many political roles are non-ideological. In ordinary usage,
a political role is not considered ideological unless the individual assigns
importance to it relative to other roles. All members of a nation-state do
not interact with respect to political objects and, consequently, do not
incorporate the status of political participant into their views of them-
selves. In the United States, for example, a large segment of the popula-
tion is politically apathetic.7 For many persons, politics is a minor part
of their lives; they define the political role as subordinate or peripheral
to other roles. For some, politics is a central life role.8 Hence, political
ideology, from the standpoint of the individual, may be defined as any
set of beliefs about appropriate ways of acting toward the political insti-
tution which have been saliently incorporated into the individual's view
of himself. While this definition excludes those who are politically apa-
thetic, it is broad enough to include "moderates" and "middle-of-the-
roaders" as well as extremists of the left and the right.

5 For discussions of "the act" as the unit of analysis in symbolic interaction theory,
see Bernard N. Meltzer, The Social Psychology of George Herbert Mead (Kalamazoo,
Michigan: Western Michigan University, 1959), pp. 23-25; and Elsworth Faris, "The
Retrospective Act and Education," Journal of Educational Sociology, 14:79-91 (Octo-
ber, 1940).
' Ralph H. Turner and Lewis M. Killian, Collective Behavior (Englewood Cliffs,
New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1957), p. 308.
7 Lester W. Milbrath, Political Participation (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1965).
8 Kornhauser, op. cit.

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24 THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY

Hypothesis
The hypothesis tested in this research is that the differences in left-wing
and right-wing political role perceptions are related to the manner in
which individuals identify themselves with respect to the major institu-
tions of society. Specifically, it is hypothesized that right-wingers pri-
marily view themselves as acting within these institutions. They tend to
anchor themselves and center their lives within societal and communal
institutions such as the family, occupation, church, and state. They of
course interact and identify themselves within other groups and play
other roles, but these latter tend to be peripheral. Reciprocally, it is
expected that political left-wingers will identify themselves as acting
within these same institutions, to be sure, but they more often view them-
selves as acting against or toward them as well as within them. They may
also tend to identify themselves more and organize a larger part of their
activity within other groups. They identify themselves in a wider variety
of statuses and roles."
Differences in behavior stemming from differential interaction and
identification are probably in the direction of acceptance of the prevail-
ing norms of the groups or systems within which the interaction occurs.
And the prevailing norms in any group may include those that are rele-
vant to supporting or maintaining the group. Individuals who interact
primarily within the family, occupational group, church, and state acquire
norms directed toward supporting these institutions. Individuals who in-
teract within many groups in addition to the major institutions are more
likely to acquire norms in conflict with the status quo.
Method

The data for this research were gathered over a period of three years
(1964 through 1966), and the 254 respondents in the "sample" were se-
lected because they were assumed to be ideologues (individuals who
have internalized ideological political roles). The interviewing was con-
ducted by persons trained for this specific project, and the respondents
were selected by the interviewers on the basis of preset criteria.10 Briefly,
these criteria included such things as reputation as left- or right-winger,
level of political activity, and demographic and status criteria. The 254
9 Ibid., found that radicals had less commitment to family and occupational roles
than liberals. It is also interesting to note a similarity between the hypothesis tested
in this paper and a point in Marxism. According to Marx, the "forces of production"
are dynamic while the "relations of production" tend to be static. The latter tends
to be static because the dominant class resists the changes required by the "forces
of production." That is, individuals who are anchored in the social system support
the status quo.
10 In this study, "reputation" is from the standpoint of individuals in the respond-
ents' home communities. The respondents were located by graduate students and

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 The Self and Political Role 25

respondents are not representative of any larger population, and no at-

tempt will be made to generalize beyond them. However, the distribu-
tion of the sample according to age, sex, occupation, religion, education,
geography, and political party preference creates the possibility, though
not the probability, that they are somewhat representative of ideologues.
With only five or six exceptions, all of the respondents come from the
10 per cent of the population who are most active politically." They
vote regularly, contribute money, attend political meetings, read the
news, talk politics, and define themselves as having a strong interest in
politics. The sample includes individuals who identify themselves as
Marxists, Black Nationalists, Professional Revolutionists, Socialists, Lib-
erals, Moderates, Moderate Republicans, Conservatives, Goldwater Re-
publicans, proponents of Moral Rearmament, and John Birchers.
A ten-item Gutman Scale was used to observe and measure the re-
spondent's political role perceptions. Forty-three items, selected from al-
most one hundred in a pretest schedule, were included in the interview
schedule. It was possible to construct two or three scales with more than
ten items, but many of the items in these scales were quite similar to each
other and did not present as wide a variety of political topics as the ten-
item scale. Conspicuously absent from the latter are items relating to
foreign policy, labor relations, and Communism. These would not scale
with the items used in the present scale.
Each item in the scale can be treated as a norm, because it expresses
approval or disapproval of a plan of action toward the social object
government. The items are statements relating to current, controversial
political topics, and the respondents were asked to agree or disagree.
The scale as a whole, however, does not present a complete picture of
the political role, but only a role segment; for all of the 254 political
activists in the sample obviously have internalized more political norms
than the ten included in the scale.
The ten items are listed below with either "agree" or "disagree" in
parentheses to indicate the direction of a left-wing response. The items
are listed in the order into which they fall in the scale. That is, the first
item received the smallest number of left-wing responses, and the last
item received the largest number of left-wing responses.
undergraduate majors in sociology and political science, and the latter came from a
wide variety of communities. The sample includes not only those reputed to be
liberals, conservatives, Black Nationalists, etc., but those reputed to be political
activists such as elective office holders, candidates for elective office, and party lead-
ers and workers. In order to obtain a broader distribution of the sample, the inter-
viewers were assigned quotas based on age, sex, occupation, religion, education, and
geography.
1For a brief discussion of the extent of political participation in the United
States see Fred I. Greenstein, The American Party System and the American People
(Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1963), pp. 9-11.

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26 THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY

1. It is too bad that some people consider patriotism old-fashioned.

(Disagree)
2. A program of socialized medicine for the entire population
would be better than the more limited program of compulsory
health insurance for old people. (Agree)
3. The federal government should use its power to put an end
to economic and social inequality. (Agree)
4. Negroes are moving too fast and pushing too hard in the Civil
Rights movement. (Disagree)
5. The state and local governments should be left free to work out
their social and economic problems without interference from
the federal government. (Disagree)
6. The United States is leaning too much toward socialism. (Dis-
agree)
7. There is too much government control of the economy. (Dis-
agree)
8. Governmental expenditures for welfare, education, and social se-
curity should be greatly increased. (Agree)
9. Federal government aid for education should be increased.
(Agree)
10. Barry Goldwater would make a great President. (Disagree)

Table 1 gives the number of respondents in each of the eleven scale

types, the number of errors, and the pattern of response for each scale

TABLE 1. Left Wing-Right Wing Guttman Scale

LEFT-WING
SCALE NO. IN No. OF RESPONSE ON
TYPE SCALE TYPE ERRORS ITEMS

(Left)
1 18 12 All ten items
2 22 22 2 through 10
3 22 11 3 through 10
4 20 16 4 through 10
5 27 25 5 through 10
6 38 47 6 through 10
7 13 8 7 through 10
8 15 12 8 through 10
9 33 44 9 through 10
10 31 31 10
11 15 4 None of the items
(Right)
Total 254 232
C. R. = .91.

type. The eighteen individuals in Scale Type 1 are the farthest l

politically and in terms of scale order. The fifteen individuals i
Type 11 are the farthest right.
A second instrument employed in the study was the Twenty

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 The Self and Political Role 27

ments Test, also known as the TST or the "Who am I?" This test was
developed at the State University of Iowa by Manford H. Kuhn.12 It is
used in the present research to measure the individuals' identifications
of themselves with respect to the major social institutions. The TST is
a simple, open-ended, relatively unstructured test and is administered
by giving the respondent a sheet of paper with twenty numbered blank
spaces on it and asking him to make twenty different statements about
himself in answer to the question, "Who am I?"
There are several methods for the analysis of the TST responses, and
some of these are based on form and structure and ignore the content
of the statements.l3 But the method used in the present paper was de-
veloped for this specific research and is based on the literal content of
the statements.
The basic rule in the present method of scoring the TST was to count
the number of mentions of the major social institutions: the family, the
occupational or economic institution, the church or religious institution,
the state or governmental or political institution, and civic and service
organizations.'4 However, two important exceptions to this rule should
be noted. In the first place, a distinction was made between acting within
an institution and acting against or toward it. For example, "I am a
liberal," "I am a Democrat," and "I am nonpartisan" were counted as
political mentions, for they seem to identify the individual as acting
or playing a role in the political system. "I dislike politics" and "I am a
radical" were not counted as major institutional mentions because they
seem to identify the individual as playing a role toward or against the
state rather than within it. The second exception to the rule was the
counting of physical self-identification statements as implied references
to major institutions. This included statements such as the following: "I
am a blond," "I am overweight," "I own an automobile," and "I live on
College Street." While these statements do not mention major social in-
stitutions, they are examples of what Kuhn and McPartland call "locus"
or "consensual" references and indicate "anchorage or self-identification
in a social system." 15
The 254 respondents gave a total of 4083 statements on the TST. Of
12 Manford H. Kuhn and Thomas S. McPartland, "An Empirical Investigation
of Self-Attitudes," American Sociological Review, 19:68-76 (February, 1954). For
a criticism of the TST see Charles W. Tucker, "Some Methodological Problems of
Kuhn's Self Theory," The Sociological Quarterly, 7:345-58 (Summer, 1966).
13 "'Manual for the Twenty-Statements Problem," Department of Research, The
Greater Kansas City Mental Health Foundation, Rev. mimeograph (January, 1959).
14 In addition to mentions of the family, occupation, church, and state, references
to local community groups, service organizations, and "civic duties and responsibilities"
are counted as major institutional mentions.
15 Kuhn and McPartland, op. cit., p. 70. The "physical self-identification" state-
ments of this research are quite similar to the category "A" statements in Thomas
S. McPartland, John H. Cumming, Wynona S. Garretson, "Self-Conception and Ward
Behavior in Two Psychiatric Hospitals," Sociometry, 24:111-24 (June, 1961); and
the "possession or location" statements in Couch, op. cit. Self-identification statements

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28 THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY

these, 2376 (58 per cent) were references to major institutions. Th

average number of all statements was 16.1, while the average number
major institutional statements was 9.4 (Table 2).

Findings
The findings, presented in Tables 2, 3, and 4, support the hypothesis.'"
Table 2 shows an increase in the average number of mentions of major

TABLE 2. Distribution of Total Number of Statements and of Number of

Major Institutional Statements on the Twenty Statements Test,
by Political Category
STATEMENTS ON THE TWENTY STATEMENTS TEST

POLITICAL Major Institutional

CATEGORY* TST Statements Statements

N No. X No. X

Left 40 609 15.2 296 7.4

Left of Center 42 670 16.0 356 8.5
Center 78 1274 16.3 747 9.6
Right of Center 48 775 16.1 485 10.1
Right 46 755 16.4 492 10.7
Total 254 4083 16.1 2376 9.4

* The "Left" consists of sc

and 4; the "Center," scale ty
9; and the "Right," scale typ

institutions, moving fro

40 leftists averaged 7.4
10.7 such mentions. On
former refer to the ma
ments made by the latte
Tables 3 and 4 show an
not mentioning major in
such mentions. In Table 3 it can be seen that 16 of the 18 individuals
in Scale Type 1 made fewer than the median number of 9 institutional
mentions, while 10 out of 15 in Scale Type 11 mentioned the major in-
stitutions more than 9 times. In Table 4, 75 per cent of the 40 individ-
uals in the Left made fewer than the median number of institutional

of this kind are quite clear and unambiguous, and others know how to behave con-
sistently toward persons who identify themselves in this manner. According to
McPartland, statements of this kind "refer to a more concrete level than that on
which social interaction ordinarily is based. They contain information about the self
which can be validated with a mirror, a yardstick, or a scale; .. ." "Manual for the
Twenty Statements Problem," p. 6.
16 Tables 1 and 3 present the data by political scale type; but in Tables 2 and
4, scale types 1 and 2 have been collapsed into the category "Left," 3 and 4 into
"Left of Center," 5, 6, and 7 into "Center," 8 and 9 into "Right of Center," and 10
and 11 into "Right."

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 The Self and Political Role 29

mentions; and the percentage decreases through each political category,

with only 35 per cent of the 46 individuals in the Right making less
than 9 mentions.17

Discussion

The most important contribution of the present research is its illustra-

tion of the utility of symbolic interaction theory as an approach to po-

TABLE 3. Distribution of Mentions of Major Institutions on the Twenty

Statements Test, by Political Scale Type
MENTIONS OF MAJOR INSTITUTIONS

POLITICAL Median or Above

SCALE TYPE Below* Median* Total

Percentage Percentage No.

(Left)
1 89 11 18
2 64 36 22
3 73 27 22
4 55 45 20
5 56 44 27
6 47 53 38
7 38 62 13
8 13 87 15
9 48 52 31
10 35 65 31
11 33 67 15
(Right)
Total 51 49 254
Gamma = .36; x2 = 30.64; p < .001.
* The median number of mentions of major institutions is 9.

litical ideology. It demonstrates an association of self identification with

left-wing and right-wing political role perception. The limitations of the
data do not permit a claim to superiority over other theoretical orienta-
tions, but this research does demonstrate that political ideology can be
approached empirically within the framework of that theory. According
to a recent statement, two of the major adverse criticisms of symbolic
interaction theory are (1) "the limited researchability of some of its
concepts" and (2) "its presumed inapplicability to broad, societal phe-
nomena." l1 To some extent, the present research surmounts these diffi-
17 The Gamma (Goodman and Kruskal's coefficient of ordinal association) of
.39 can be interpreted to mean that for every pair of individuals drawn at random
from the 254 in the sample, the probability is 39 per cent greater that the pair will
confirm the hypothesis rather than contradict it. It should also be noted that the
findings support the hypothesis when political mentions and physical self-identifica-
tions are not counted in the scoring of the TST. For example, when these statements
are not counted, 29 per cent of the statements of the 40 leftists are institutional men-
tions, while 39 per cent of the statements of the 46 rightists refer to major institutions.
18 Jerome G. Manis and Bernard N. Meltzer (eds.), Symbolic Interaction, A Reader
in Social Psychology (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1967), p. 495.

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30 THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY

culties. It provides an empirical test for a hypothesis, derived from the

theory, which relates the individual's self conception to his perception
of the political role. It demonstrates an association between left-wing or
right-wing political role perception and the way an individual views him-

TABLE 4. Distribution of Mentions of Major Institutions on the Twenty

Statements Test, by Political Category
MENTIONS OF MAJOR INSTITUTIONS

POLITICAL Median or Above

CATEGORY* Belowt Mediant Total
Percentage Percentage No.
Left 75 25 40
Left of Center 64 36 42
Center 49 51 78
Right of Center 88 62 48
Right 35 65 46
Total 51 49 254
Gamma = .39; x2 = 20.80; p < .001.
* The "Left" consists of scale types 1 and 2; the "Left of Center," scale types 3
and 4; the "Center," scale types 5, 6, and 7; the "Right of Center," scale types 8 and
9; and the "Right," scale types 10 and 11.
t The median number of mentions of major institutions is 9.

self with respect to the major societal institutions. In answer to the sec-
ond criticism, it should be noted that political ideology falls within the
scope of the phrase "broad, societal phenomena"; and although this re-
search is basically microsociological, it deals with intra- and interper-
sonal relations within the context of institutions and social systems. For
the independent variable in this study is the way the individual views
himself as an actor within the larger social system.
A number of recent studies have approached political ideology as a
product of inconsistent or poorly crystallized status.19 Because of the
difference in orientation, it is interesting to contrast these studies to the
symbolic interaction approach. This contrast is most apparent in the ap-
proach to status. In the status crystallization studies, status is assigned
objectively by the observer on the basis of the subject's rank or member-
ship in income, occupation, education, or ethnic categories. In symbolic
19 Gary B. Rush, "Status Consistency and Right-Wing Extremism," American
Sociological Review, 32:86-92 (February, 1967); Irwin W. Goffman, "Status Con-
sistency and Preference for Change in Power Distribution," American Sociological
Review, 22:275-81 (June, 1957); Emile Benoit-Smullyan, "Status, Status Types, and
Status Interrelation," American Sociological Review, 9:289-94 (April, 1944); Gerhard
E. Lenski, "Status Inconsistency and the Vote: A Four Nation Test," American
Sociological Review, 32:296-301 (April, 1967). Gerhard E. Lenski, "Social Par-
ticipation and Status Crystallization," American Sociological Review, 21:458 (August,
1956). Gerhard E. Lenski, "Status Crystallization: A Non-Vertical Dimension of So-
cial Status," American Sociological Review, 19:412 (August, 1954).

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 The Self and Political Role 3

interaction theory, an individual's statuses are his own view of his loca-
tions in various social systems, and the assignment is made by the indi-
vidual himself in the process of interacting with others. That is, a person's
status is not determined by the position he "really" occupies in a social
category, it results from the way others behave toward him and the way
he interprets that behavior. Status, in this view, reflects identification with
significant others or reference groups, not mere membership in a group
or collectivity. Income, occupation, education, and ethnic group are rel-
evant to his behavior in a given status if, and only if, the individual
incorporates them into his view of himself. The Twenty Statements Test
is a projective instrument which permits the investigator to make an
assessment of the subject's own interpretation of his statuses.
From the point of view of symbolic interaction, the status crystalliza-
tion research seems to either omit "definitions of the situation" or assume
a correspondence between "objective" status and perceived status. In
the words of Herbert Blumer, "Human beings interpret or 'define' each
other's actions instead of merely reacting to each other's actions."20
They do not respond to or organize their activities in terms of what the
situation or world "really" is, but to what they interpret it to be or be-
lieve it is. To see a pin and pick it up is to engage in activity. If the
pin turns out to be an optical illusion, one gets the exercise nevertheless.

20 Herbert Blumer, "Society as Symbolic Interaction," in Rose (ed.), Human

Behavior and Social Process, op. cit., p. 180.

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