Abstract
Effects of the delivery procedure on the stability of a postmaterialism scale. The postmaterialism scale of Inglehart was developed to measure postures that would go from materialistic values, referring to the material welfare as: to maintain high economic level, to fight against the delinquency, to maintain a good army force, etc., until postmaterialistic values, where are emphasized problems such as the freedom of ideas expression, greater democratization and the development of a most humanitarian society. This scale has been included in the World Values Surveys (on 1990- 91 and1995-96), but it has taken different forms, being simplified the administration procedure in the second of the surveys. Furthermore, for this work two alternative forms of administr ation have been prepared. The main objective sof this paper are: 1) to study the reliability (as stability) of measures that provides the scale, and, 2) to know the influence of delivery procedure in the scale reliability. The procedure to estimate the reliability has been test-retest. The different forms of the scale have been applied in different subjects samples. The results permit to obtain conclusions about the delivery procedure and about the stability in the measure. In this sense, the postmaterialism scale is not good for its reliability of the measure, at least as it has been used in the World Values Survey (1990-91 and 1995-96). One of the alternative systems proposed in this work is shown more reliable than all the others, exceeding, though in f ew quantity, the limit of the demanded reliability.
