Developing a Community Attitude Assessment Scale

The Community Attitude Assessment Scale (CAAS) measures citizens'attitudes toward 15 community Life Areas (e.g., Education, Employment,and Health) on four dimensions—Importance, Influence,Equality of Opportunity, and Satisfaction. Residents generallyrate these Life Areas high on Importance and Equality of Opportunity,but feel only limited Satisfaction with them and perceive themselvesas having fairly low Influence on their operations. The scaleis discussed as an instrument, and in terms of community theory,attitude theory and research, and public policy applications     

Models of social mobility

Properties of measures and models of social mobility are analyzed in relation to the conceptualization of mobility. Two main objectives of mobility research are identified. One is the study of determinants of occupational achievement, the other is the study of mobility as a characteristic of social systems. It is shown that the realization of both objectives is hindered by a failure of commonly used models and measures of mobility to separate out the various individual and structural factors responsible for mobility.