ukhls consultation launch, 19/06/07, rss preferences, beliefs, attitudes and expectations s c noah...

UKHLS Consultation Launch, 19/06/07, RSS

Preferences, beliefs, attitudes and expectations

• S C Noah Uhrig <[email protected]

• Jackie Scott [email protected]


Importance of subjective indicators for understanding:

individual development

individual and societal wellbeing – both functioning and affect

Need to measure:

Beliefs, Expectations and outcomes

Preferences and realisable opportunities

Topics: gender division of labour; ageism and employment; risk aversion in finance or partnership; intolerance and acceptance of others; self-efficacy in areas such as education & health


Issues

• Can’t be stand alone section – looking to shed light on other areas of behaviour/individual development e.g. family, social networks, employment, standard of living

• how innovative e.g. hypothetical questions about risk adversity – on cash winnings, on jobs, even on having children; perceived benefits and drawbacks of choices

• Is it beneficial to replicate items for which we have time-series data/cross-national comparisons from attitudinal surveys (BSA; ISSP; EVS; ESS etc)

• Dead hand of history versus difficulty of asking questions that aren’t salient (yet!)


Themes might include:

• Preferences of time-use, risk aversion, social contacts, health behaviours etc.

• Beliefs (and relation to knowledge) concerning domains of relevance, including family choice, employment, health, consumption, social relations etc.

• Attitudes towards contemporary issues of relevance for individual and household choices

• Attitudinal precursors and consequences of behavioural changes • Values, personality differences, and perceptions of cultural norms that

influence life choices• Expectations for self, significant others and future societal change


Attitudes and Behavioural Inconsistency – it’s the content & form of questions that counts

• Attitudes and behaviours at aggregate level - little relationship

• At individual level – change more likely where attitude/behaviour inconsistency

• Attitude change more likely than behavioural change

• But without knowing attitude strength/centrality importance of preferences unclear

• What about dads? Tricky because even-handed norms not salient in work-family responsibilities

Employment behaviour and attitudes about kids suffering when

mum works

00.20.40.60.8

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

%

in job kids suffer

ukhls consultation launch, 19/06/07, rss preferences, beliefs, attitudes and expectations s c noah...

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