A Part-Whole Strategy for the Study of Opinions

An empirical counterpart was sought to a theoretical typologyof the orientation of Arabs in Israel to their minority statusin a Jewish-Zionist state. The indications were that such anorientation was complex and that the construction of unidimensionalattitude scales would not suffice. A set of 60 opinion statementswas used in a five-step procedure in order to arrive at second-orderunidimensionality. The procedures involved a principal factoranalysis, Guttman scaling, principal component analysis, smallestspace analysis, and summated ratings. A comparison between thecomponents and the final scale of orientation is made.