Well, I didn't really do it on purpose. The book was in hubby's stocking at Christmas. My father is freaking out. He thinks she will get expelled when she starts school. Hehehee
Posted on 03/22/2006 7:00:47 AM PST by sandbar
Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.
At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.
The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right. Similar conclusions a few years ago from another academic saw him excoriated on right-wing blogs, and even led to a Congressional investigation into his research funding.
But the new results are worth a look. In the 1960s Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months. There's no reason to think political bias skewed the ratings — the investigators were not looking at political orientation back then. Even if they had been, it's unlikely that 3- and 4-year-olds would have had much idea about their political leanings.
A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.
The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests. The girls were still outgoing, but the young men tended to turn a little introspective.
Block admits in his paper that liberal Berkeley is not representative of the whole country. But within his sample, he says, the results hold. He reasons that insecure kids look for the reassurance provided by tradition and authority, and find it in conservative politics. The more confident kids are eager to explore alternatives to the way things are, and find liberal politics more congenial.
In a society that values self-confidence and out-goingness, it's a mostly flattering picture for liberals. It also runs contrary to the American stereotype of wimpy liberals and strong conservatives.
Of course, if you're studying the psychology of politics, you shouldn't be surprised to get a political reaction. Similar work by John T. Jost of Stanford and colleagues in 2003 drew a political backlash. The researchers reviewed 44 years worth of studies into the psychology of conservatism, and concluded that people who are dogmatic, fearful, intolerant of ambiguity and uncertainty, and who crave order and structure are more likely to gravitate to conservatism. Critics branded it the "conservatives are crazy" study and accused the authors of a political bias.
Jost welcomed the new study, saying it lends support to his conclusions. But Jeff Greenberg, a social psychologist at the University of Arizona who was critical of Jost's study, was less impressed.
They monitored all these people growing up in Berkeley? Come on! If they had done the same study in the Heartland somewhere I can imgine they would get results conducive to that area, conservative.
This is stupid. Seriously, just stupid.
Cal Poly!!!
Oh I am so sorry...
I would think the more important bogus conclusion from this bogus study is that one's path in life is largely pre-determined.
If I'm a whiny, insecure nursery school kid then I'm damned to be a "rigid young adult" and whatever the opposite of " bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests" would be.
So is the whininess and insecurity genetically programmed?
Or we're emotionally impressionable until nursery school and then the switch gets flipped off and we've got no probability of emotional change or growth?
think about it...if the study went from kindergarten for 20 years, then they tracked these kids through college. BERKELEY....yes, most of them will be liberal after four years of indoctrination. Go talk to them in 10 years.
We are talking Berkley, here. My guess is that everyone right of Joseph Stalin was marked conservative.
Could it be that the ones who were not whining learned that their crackhead mother was too busy sleeping off a high to hear them so they learned that whining didn't work until they could jack an innocent bystander and then learned to cry that it was police brutality when they were beat to a pulp by a sheriff because the perp killed his partner and the perp's pregnant girlfriend?
Where as the whiny kid learned that he is loved and grew to be confident because he knew that he could take risks because he was still valuable.
So what's their full definition of "conservative"? Is it just about respecting authority?
Excellent parenting!
So now conservativism is "genetic"? What won't the radicals try to push next?
<<<"The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months.">>>
There's a huge clue in that statement!
You know what it is, the guy has conservatives pegged as the goody-goody nerd. It's sterotyping at it's worst.
Well, I didn't really do it on purpose. The book was in hubby's stocking at Christmas. My father is freaking out. He thinks she will get expelled when she starts school. Hehehee
Self-reliant liberal? Never met one. Do they exist?
Wow, my four year old's biggest insult is doo-doo head. Maybe I should consider special ed. ;o)
>>>We are talking Berkley, here. My guess is that everyone right of Joseph Stalin was marked conservative.>>>
You have a point.
Yeah, she/he's way behind. Mine's just turning three.
Wanna send the little urchin over here for tutoring? :)
Rosy will read the liberal book, and they can yell "Booyah!" together. (Apparently that's a popular exclamation in leftist oppressor circles.)
It must be accurate.
Imagine having to be handled by all those leftists in your tender years.
Proper headline:
PSYCHOTIC WHINERS FROM BERKELEY PROVE THEY ARE NOT PSYCHOTIC WHINERS
Yeah, this "research" is really convincing..... nominate these clowns for the Nobel Peace Prize since they belong in the same pathetic club as Jimmy Carter and Yassir Arafart.
did ya'll notice the 'hugh' pool of study subjects... a whopping 100 kids. Um..I'm not a statistics wiz, but 100 and this is considered "valid"??? yikes.
40 years of liberal policies have shown failure. Conservatives are the ones who ARE trying something new.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.