Time-Series Analysis of Dogmatism Norms Among College Students

Research has shown that values of student activists in the late 1960s differed considerably from student values in the 1950s, and that activists were noticeably low in either dogmatism or authoritarianism. The hypothesis that dogmatism among students in general in the late 1960s was lower than among students in the 1950s was tested by a time-series analysis of secondary data. Dogmatism norms available for the period 1958–1968 showed a significant negative trend over time, and this trend persisted when norms were controlled for education level, geographic region, and college selectivity.