Objectives
It is necessary to apply and develop the field’s terms and theories to understand and possibly change negative social and interpersonal processes which are seldom set in motion.
Empirical studies predict that one can measure different aspects of these processes; therefore this “umbrella project” has also covered development of instruments suited to measure some of these processes.
Sub-projects
Attitudes to irregular immigration
In order to compare such attitudes we developed a robust cross-national tool to measure attitudes to what is often referred to in the Norwegian media as “illegal immigration”.
Although the instrument is developed by student selection, the results show a pattern in these attitudes which corresponds with what is also found in other student selections (amongst others Holland, Denmark, USA) together with a representative national selection in New Zealand, but not in “sending countries” such as Vietnam or Bulgaria.
In other investigations we have sought experimentally to affect attitudes to immigrants by getting (inducing) subjects to think from a “supra-national” (common in-group identity) or a more limited “national” mindset. The results show surprisingly that the first mentioned mindset can lead to less goodwill, perhaps out of fear that one’s own national identity can be erased in a supranational context.
We have in addition performed experiments in the USA and Norway to see if different descriptions of irregular immigrants affect people’s attitudes in positive or more negative directions. The results show that this can be the case in the USA, while wider studies are needed in Norway
Attitudes to foreigners – xenophobia
The project looks at fear or threat based xenophobia (as opposed to “above and down” disdain of foreigners.
As a first step the results show that it is possible to develop a robust concise, cross-national attitude scale with coincident cumulative (Mokken) pattern in three student selections (USA, Holland and Norway)
Investigations are under way to see whether, and to what degree, xenophobia, measured with this instrument, can have a connection with the majority of Norwegians perceptions of groups with immigrant backgrounds.
Attitudes on how to promote integration
Integration requires not just the immigrant population, but also the majority population to make concessions.
This theme – which is actually little studied in social psychology, involves something more than to show tolerance. It requires the majority population’s attitudes to “stretch” and adjust with a view towards proactively advancing integration of ethnic minorities.
The result of the first step in the project is that we have succeeded to develop and validate a measuring instrument to detect such attitudes.
The result of a subsequent study indicates moreover that such ”proactive” attitudes, amongst other things go together with the majorities beliefs on how far the immigrant population constitutes a uniform group or consists of different groups with different perceptions and opinions. The investigations are included in a PhD project. (Phelps)
Attitudes to emigration
The project has identified attitudes which could lie behind young, educated Bulgarians willingingness to emigrate, even if they must reside/work illegally in a (western) country.
The results from the investigation give deepened understanding of the widespread “brain drain” which occurs in Bulgaria.
We found a complex picture of promoting and inhibiting psychological factors: on the one side the young person’s wish for a better living standard was the most important motive for a possible emigration, on the other side the criticism of those who betrayed their country by choosing to emigrate to find a better live; this weighed heavily against them.
Qualitative studies of attitude scales
The project investigates attitude scales with the help of a so called “think-aloud” procedure.
A result of the use of this method is that certain attitude statements (in Norway, but not in the Netherlands) can trigger associations with particular “sources” or ideological discussions (for example the Norwegian Progress Party).
The findings indicate that attitude statements which are formulated with a view to be easily culturally recognizable can risk becoming objects for a “meaning shift”, i.e. that the statement can be interpreted in the light of the source with which it is associated.
By identifying these sources, the findings give a deepened social-psychological understanding of what can underlay a more general “social desirability”, when people answer attitudinal measures.
Currently, in both the Netherlands and Norway, similar studies of our Xenophobia scales are been done
Publications
Ommundsen, R. & Larsen, K.S. (1997). Attitudes toward Illegal Aliens: The reliability and validity of a Likert-type scale. The Journal of Social Psychology, 137, 665-667.
Ommundsen, R. & Larsen, K.S. (1999). Attitudes toward illegal immigration in Scandinavia and United States. Psychological Reports, 84, 1331-1338.
Ommundsen, R., van der Veer, K.,Mørch, S., Hak, T. & Larsen.,K.S (2002). Attitudes toward illgal immigration: A cross-national methodological comparison. The Journal of Psychology, 136, 103-110.
Van der Veer, K., Ommundsen, R., Hak, T., & Larsen, K.S. (2003). Meaning shift of items in different language versions. A cross-national validation study of the Illegal Aliens Scale. Quality & Quantity, 37, 193-206.
Van der Veer, K., Ommundsen, R., Larsen.,K.S., Le Van, H., Krumov, K., Pernice, R., & Romans, G.P. (2004). Structure of attitudes toward illegal immigration: Development of cross-national cumulative scales. Psychological Reports, 94, 897-906.
Hak, T., van der Veer, K. & Ommundsen, R. (2006). An application of the Three-Step Test-Interview (TSTI): A validation study of the Dutch and Norwegian versions of the ”illegal Aliens Scale”. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 9, 215-227.
Ommundsen, R., Larsen, K, van der Veer, K., Van Le, H., & Krumov, K. (2007). Developing attitude statements toward illegal immigration: transcultural reliability and utility. Psychological Reports, 100, 901-914.
Van der Veer, K., Ommundsen, R., Krumov, K., Le Van, H., & Larsen, K.S.(2007). Scale devlopment to measure attitudes toward unauthorized migration into a foreign country. Journal of Education, (1) 92-100. (ISSN 0861475X). (The article is in Cyrillic alphabet).
Krumov, K., Atanassova, M., Larsen, K., Ommundsen, R., van der Veer, K., Schneider, J.F., Hiber, K., Ivanova, D., Hristova, P., & Ivanova, S. (2007/2008).Cultural change as a motivating factor for migration behaviour in the sending countries. Zeitschrift für Sozial Mangagement, 5, (1/2), 114-123. (Erratum published in 2008, vol. 6 (1), 161-162.
Van der Veer, K., Ommundsen, R., Krumov, K., Van Le, H., & Larsen, K. (2008). Scale development to measure attitudes toward undocumented migration.. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 49, 357-363.
Pernice, R., van der Veer, K., Ommundsen, R., & Larsen, K. (2008). On the use of student samples for scale construction Psychological Reports, 102, 459-464.
Larsen, K., Krumov, K., Van Le, H., Ommundsen, R., van der Veer, K. (2009).Threat perception and attitudes toward documented and undocumented immigrants in the United States: Framing the debate and conflict resolution. European Journal of Social Sciences, 7 (4), 115-135.
Ommundsen, R.. van der Veer, K., Krumov, K., Larsen, K., Hristova, P., Ivanova, S., Ivanova, D. &. Georgieva, D.(2009) Illegal immigration behaviour: Factors and prediction possibilities. Bulgarian Journal of psychology, 1-2, p 13-30. (In Cyrillic).
Phelps, J.M., Türken, S., Eilertsen, D.-E., & Ommundsen, R. (2011). Integrating immigrant minorities: Developing a scale to measure majority members’ attitudes toward their own proactive efforts. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 52, 404-410.
Ommundsen, R., van der Veer, K., Krumov, K., Hristova, P., Ivanova, S., Ivanova, D., & Larsen, K.S.(2010). Attitudinal predictors of potential illegal cross-border migration. The Open Journal of Social Science, 3, 60-67.
Van der Veer, K., Ommundsen, R., & Yakushko, O. (2011). Cross-National Fear-Based Measure of Xenophobia: Development of a Cumulative Scale. Psychological Reports, 109(1), 27-42.
Van der Veer, K., Ommundsen, R., Yakushko, O., Higler, L., & Woelders, S., & Hagen, K. (2013). Psychometrically and qualitatively validating a cross-national measure of fear-based xenophobia. Quality & Quantity, 47, 1429-1444. (Published online 01 September 2011. DOI 10.1007/s11135-011-9599-6).
Phelps, J.M., Ommundsen, R, Türken, S., & Ulleberg, P. (2012). Intergroup perception and majority integration attitudes. Social Psychology. DOI:10.1027/1864-9335/a000194.
Van der Veer, K., , O., Higler, L., & Woelders, S., Ommundsen, R., & Pernice, R. (xxxx). Developing and validating a cross-national cumulative scale measuring attitudes toward illegal immigrants. International Journal of Social research Methodology, 1-15, iFirst Article; http:dx.doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2012.716998.
Ommundsen, R., , Van der Veer, K., Yakushko, O., & Ulleberg, P.(2013). Exploring the relationships between fear-based xenophobia, social contact, and perceptions of out-group entitativity in Norway. Psychological Reports, 112, 109-124.
