Relationship of Patriotism Measures to Critical Thinking and Emphasis on Civil Liberties versus National Security.

Williams, Robert L.; Foster, Lisa N.; Krohn, Katherine R.

Students in a large undergraduate course (N = 236) at a major state university in the Southeastern United States took a standardized critical thinking test and four short sociopolitical scales (constructive patriotism, blind patriotism, respect for civil liberties, and emphasis on national security) at the beginning of the fall semester 2007. Although numerous published studies have addressed relationships between types of patriotism and various sociopolitical variables, these studies typically have not targeted respect for civil liberties and emphasis on national security. Also, negligible attention has been given to the relationships between types of patriotism and cognitive variables (e.g., critical thinking, problem solving). The current study found that both constructive and blind patriotism were significantly related to measures of critical thinking, respect for civil liberties, and emphasis on national security but in opposing directions. The article concludes with implications of the findings for public policy and practice.

UNITED States; UNITED States politics & government; PATRIOTISM; CRITICAL thinking; CIVIL rights; NATIONAL security -- Social aspects; NATIONAL security; POLITICAL planning

Analyses of Social Issues & Public Policy, 2008, Vol 8, Issue 1, p139

1529-7489

Academic Journal

10.1111/j.1530-2415.2008.00165.x