Abstract:

Students of public opinion are well aware that important differences exist in people's involvement with the major (social) issues of the day. The concept of involvement has no scientific status in the social sciences, and there has been no endeavour to measure this kind of involvement in any systematic way. Based on a theory of involvement, we have developed a program of measurement for (the various dimensions of) involvement. (MDMI) It is argued that : 1. The system is highly suitable for obtaining continuous measures of involvement with social issues (problems) amongst the population; 2. To measure an important modifying variable to assist in the interpretation of public opinion research data; 3. To develop a general, empirically verified theory concerning involvement with social issues.