A Q-Sort Study of the Relative Acceptability of Official and Unofficial Information Sources Among Soldiers during the First Three Years of U.S. Army Service.

摘要

This study was designed to test the hypotheses that significantly more acceptance would be found for statements from unofficial than for official information sources among soldiers in the first three years of U.S. Army service, and that the significance would be more pronounced over time. Findings did not allow acceptance of the hypotheses. The following trends were noted: A linear attendency to show increased acceptance of personalized sources over time; a strong tendency to reject statements from media sources by all categories; a tendency for elements in the group to pull away from the norm based on demographic responses; a tendency for minority members to be more positive about the quality of the soldier; a linear tendency to reject media statements from official sources as education level and reading habits increase; and soldiers in early stages of service tend to accept face-to-face and non-peer sources, and soldiers in later stages tend to accept peer and non-peer unofficial sources.