A Measure of Individual Modernity

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Abstract
Individual modernity may be defined as a syndrome of attitudes and beliefs, including progressivism, secularity, optimism, future-oriented perspectives, and a sense of personal efficacy. Measures of individual modernity have frequently been used in sociological and cross-cultural inquiry, but less attention has been paid to these devices by psychologists. An attempt was therefore initiated to construct- a new, brief index of modernity suitable for group administration and as free as possible from nuisance relationships to generalized distrust and anomie. An 8-item scale appearing to possess the desired attributes was developed on samples of 80 males and 139 females. Tentative norms were derived from a new sample of 766 subjects, and preliminary interpretational information was presented.