Ownership as interpersonal dominance

Rudmin, Floyd W.

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Book

Document type:: Book

Collection:: POP - Possession, Ownership, Property

Title:: Ownership as interpersonal dominance: a history and three studies of the social psychology of property

Author:: Rudmin, Floyd W.

Year of publication:: 1988

Language:: English

Subject:: Besitz Eigentum Sozialpsychologie

Topic:: C - Psychology

Shelfmark:: C/R916 O9

Access:: Free access

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.48671/pop.AC14489044

similarity ratings and Belk’s scale of Materialism did not have the redundancy or balance of the PRF, any missing data was grounds for exclusion from the analyses of those sections of the questionnaire data. [See Appendix D for a tabulation of the data used here.] Results The first task of the analysis was to determine the semantic structure of the verbs of ownership in a manner that would be comparable and legitimate for the two samples. Assuming these to be opportunistic samples of the same population of adult English Canadians, the data were initially pooled (n =245). Hierarchical cluster analysis of the verb correlation matrix using maximum distance criteria indicated six clusters of verbs. Save and hide were anomalous. This is shown in Figure 6, where, for example, save correlated most highly with keep (r=.25, p <.001), manage (r=.27, p<.001), plan (r =.28, p <.001) and share (r =.30, p <.001), while hide correlated most highly with make (r=.21, p<.001) and lend (r =.25, p<.001). Though statistically significant, these correlations were still much weaker than the within-cluster correlations of verbs that did cluster. These verb clusters appear on the left in Table 4, where they are tentatively labelled possession, dominion, acquisition, attachment, stewardship, and covetousness. To confirm these clusters, factor analysis was used on the pooled data, and Cronbach alpha coefficients were used as measures of cluster coherence in the sample data. Principal components factor analysis, based on eigenvalues greater than one and varimax rotation, essentially reproduced these clusters. Other factoring methods, rotations, and factor selection criteria did not improve the correspondence with the cluster analysis. The factor analysis, however, did indicate that be familiar with and share should each appear in two factors. Keep and cherish had relatively low factor loadings in their respective verb clusters, but were retained there because their presence did not appear to diminish sample Cronbach alpha coefficients for the verb clusters. Considering the verbs as equally weighted items in a scale, alpha coefficients were above 65 for the summer students and above .71 for the ferry passengers on all but the possession cluster. For that two-item cluster, have and possess were correlated in the student sample (n= 170, r =.46, p <.001), but not in the ferry sample (n=75, r=.16, p >.05). The failure of have and possess to correlate in the ferry sample may stem from possess having less of a meaning of dominion for that group. For the students (n= 170), both have and possess correlated with

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