WHAT DOES AMERICA THINK? 1655.2 Caring for Others
These are actual survey data from the General Social Survey, 2004.People need not worry about others.One-quarter of respondents either agreed or
strongly agreed with this statement. Another quarter was neutral. One-half disagreed
or strongly disagreed. The gender differences in responses were striking. Men were far
more likely to agree with the statement than were women. Almost 32 percent of the
men agreed or strongly agreed, in contrast to almost 20 percent of the women.CRITICAL THINKING|DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- How much we think we should care for others versus care for ourselves is heavily influenced by
how we are socialized. One level of socialization is that of the larger culture. What core values
do you think Americans in general hold that might help explain these survey results? - What do you think lies behind the variation of responses with regard to gender? What stereo-
typically masculine qualities might make men report that they are less worried about the needs
of others than women are? What stereotypically feminine qualities might teach women that it
is appropriate to care for others? Where do we learn these qualities?
3 Go to this website to look further at the data. You can run your own statistics and cross tabs
here: http://sda.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/hsda?harcsda+gss04
REFERENCES:Davis, James A., Tom W. Smith, and Peter V. Marsden. General Social Surveys
1972–2004: [Cumulative file] [Computer file]. 2nd ICPSR version. Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research
Center [producer], 2005; Storrs, CT: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut;
Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research; Berkeley, CA: Computer-Assisted
Survey Methods Program, University of California [distributors], 2005.