The Effects of Employment on the Political Alignment of South Carolina High School Students
School Name
Spring Valley High School
Grade Level
11th Grade
Presentation Topic
Behavioral Science
Presentation Type
Non-Mentored
Abstract
Political alignment refers to an individual’s position on the political alignment chart. The political alignment chart is a method of evaluating a person’s political ideologies based on the left-leaning versus right-leaning and libertarian versus authoritarian tendencies found in their political ideologies. Political alignment is typically cultivated via the events an individual experiences and the actions and words of those around them. This experiment sought to determine if there is a possible relation between employment and political alignment. It was hypothesized that participants would typically be more libertarian-right-leaning during and post-employment than they would be if they had never been employed because libertarians, the party of the individual, typically support individual worker’s rights, as would an individual worker. In order to determine if the hypothesis was supported, 60 high school students were asked to complete a specially prepared political alignment test that was evaluated based on the Likert scale. The Likert scale provided quantifiable values to be used to determine the participants’ position on the political alignment chart. Each question had five possible answers, ranging from one to five based on how greatly a participant agreed with the statement posed by the question. The value of one was negative 10, while five was positive ten. The values in between shifted by multiples of five. The resulting data did not support the hypothesis as the employed or previously employed students were not significantly more libertarian-leaning than unemployed students. Therefore, the idea that employment status may affect political alignment was not supported.
Recommended Citation
Evans, Tanner, "The Effects of Employment on the Political Alignment of South Carolina High School Students" (2022). South Carolina Junior Academy of Science. 73.
https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/scjas/2022/all/73
Location
B&E 234
Start Date
4-2-2022 11:15 AM
Presentation Format
Oral and Written
Group Project
No
The Effects of Employment on the Political Alignment of South Carolina High School Students
B&E 234
Political alignment refers to an individual’s position on the political alignment chart. The political alignment chart is a method of evaluating a person’s political ideologies based on the left-leaning versus right-leaning and libertarian versus authoritarian tendencies found in their political ideologies. Political alignment is typically cultivated via the events an individual experiences and the actions and words of those around them. This experiment sought to determine if there is a possible relation between employment and political alignment. It was hypothesized that participants would typically be more libertarian-right-leaning during and post-employment than they would be if they had never been employed because libertarians, the party of the individual, typically support individual worker’s rights, as would an individual worker. In order to determine if the hypothesis was supported, 60 high school students were asked to complete a specially prepared political alignment test that was evaluated based on the Likert scale. The Likert scale provided quantifiable values to be used to determine the participants’ position on the political alignment chart. Each question had five possible answers, ranging from one to five based on how greatly a participant agreed with the statement posed by the question. The value of one was negative 10, while five was positive ten. The values in between shifted by multiples of five. The resulting data did not support the hypothesis as the employed or previously employed students were not significantly more libertarian-leaning than unemployed students. Therefore, the idea that employment status may affect political alignment was not supported.
