Factor analysis of attitudes toward abortion.
700 Ss rated the concept abortion on a series of bipolar adjectives. Factor analysis of the ratings suggested (a) that Ss judged the concept along four orthogonal dimensions, immoral-repelling, cruel-destructive, emotional-serious, and rational-impulsive and (b) that males and females had similar factor structures. Polarity analysis showed that abortion was seen as immoral, repelling, bad, cruel, destructive, ugly, sinful, emotional, serious, rational and impulsive. Although this is highly unfavorable compared to the results of previous research, it appears to represent a liberal trend.
D000028:Abortion, Induced; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors