The Relationship between Attitudes toward Deviance and Deviant Behavior: The Influence of Science, Individualism, Social Bonds and Deviant Peers

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dc.contributor.authorRothwell, Virginia Leighen
dc.contributor.committeememberHawdon, James E.en
dc.contributor.committeememberYuan, Anastasia Sue Vogten
dc.contributor.committeememberBailey, Carol A.en
dc.contributor.committeememberShoemaker, Donald J.en
dc.contributor.departmentSociologyen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:16:18Zen
dc.date.adate2009-09-29en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:16:18Zen
dc.date.issued2009-09-11en
dc.date.rdate2009-09-29en
dc.date.sdate2009-09-15en
dc.description.abstractVarious sociological theories of deviance have demonstrated the importance of an individual's attitudes toward deviance in determining whether or not that individual will engage in deviant behavior. This research contributes to the theoretical and empirical literature on deviant behavior by examining the strength of two cultural factors, the scientific worldview and individualism, in predicting an individual's attitudes toward deviance when tested alongside the tenets of other predominate individual level theories of deviance, namely Hirschi's (1969) social control theory and Sutherland's (1939) differential association theory. The sample for this analysis is 202 students from a large research university in Southwest Virginia. The findings of this research lend support to Sutherland's (1939) differential association theory and to the scientific worldview as significant predictors of tolerant attitudes toward deviance. Several of the bonds of Hirschi's (1969) social control theory were also supported in this research; however, some failed to predict deviant behavior, leading to the conclusion that future research should focus on clearly elucidating the conceptualization of the social bonds forwarded in the original theory. Finally, the cultural ideology of individualism was not a significant predictor of tolerant attitudes toward deviance in this study. Future empirical studies should work to more clearly operationalize this variable as Hawdon (2005) described it and investigate the variables significance as a predictor of tolerant attitudes toward deviance.en
dc.description.degreePh. D.en
dc.identifier.otheretd-09152009-092751en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-09152009-092751/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/28988en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartRothwell_VL_D_2009.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectDifferential associationsen
dc.subjectSocial controlen
dc.subjectIndividualismen
dc.subjectScientific worldviewen
dc.subjectDelinquencyen
dc.titleThe Relationship between Attitudes toward Deviance and Deviant Behavior: The Influence of Science, Individualism, Social Bonds and Deviant Peersen
dc.typeDissertationen
thesis.degree.disciplineSociologyen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.leveldoctoralen
thesis.degree.namePh. D.en
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