The Explanations for Unemployment Scale: An Eight-Country Study on Factor Equivalence

Authors

Kostas Mylonas, The University of AthensFollow
Adrian Furnham, The University of LondonFollow
Emmanouil Konstantinidis, The University of LondonFollow
Sofia Papazoglou, The University of AthensFollow
William Divale, City University of New YorkFollow
Cigdem Leblebici, Izmir University of EconomicsFollow
Sonia Gondim, Federal University of BahiaFollow
Angela Moniz, Centro Universitario Padre AnchietaFollow
Hector Grad, Autonomous University of MadridFollow
Jose Luis Alvaro, Complutense University of MadridFollow
Romeo Zeno Zeno, University of BucharestFollow
Anna Filus, University of WarsawFollow
Pawel Boski, University of WarsawFollow

Publication Date

2013

Abstract

Explanations for Unemployment have been studied through a 20-item scale created by Furnham (1982) on three theoretical dimensions: the individualistic, the societal, and the fatalistic. In this study we revised this scale to co-ordinate it with contemporary social and economic facts and through metric testing-adjustments and multivariate statistical analysis we arrived at a 19-item scale retaining eight of the original scale items. This revised scale was statistically and theoretically valid as its factor structure closely resembled the original factor structure Furnham had described. For the second stage of the study, data were collected from eight countries and multilevel covariance structure analysis was applied to the data pool. The final structure can be considered universal for seven of these countries, meaning that the structure people employ to explain unemployment is the same across countries. The individualistic factor was clearly supported in this structure. The second factor narrowed the societal spectrum to industrial management and educational provision and the third factor appeared as a transformation of the fatalistic dimension to a “helplessness” factor. The three factors were investigated for their scoring differences across countries and overall.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.4087/PAEY6933

ScholarWorks Citation

Mylonas, K., Furnham, A., Konstantinidis, E., Papazoglou, S., Divale, W., Leblebici, C., … Boski, P. (2013). The Explanations for Unemployment Scale: An eight-country study on factor equivalence. In Y. Kashima, E. S. Kashima, & R. Beatson (Eds.), Steering the cultural dynamics: Selected papers from the 2010 Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology. https://doi.org/10.4087/PAEY6933