Cox H
Int J Aging Hum Dev. 1980;11(1):1-12. doi: 10.2190/AQEY-HGM3-P0HG-PGDP.
Utilizing a sample of older Americans this paper focused on the relationship between their personal motivation (whether internally or externally oriented) and their feeling of political incapability, political discontentment and anomie. The individual was defined as internally oriented to the degree that he felt there was a direct causal chain between his actions and given social outcomes, and externally oriented to the degree that he thought that luck, chance or fate determined these outcomes. Following Olsen's example, political incapability was defined as a feeling that the social system is preventing one from reaching desired goals, political discontentment was defined in terms of the political world not being worth one's participation, and anomies was defined as estrangement from one's social world [1]. External orientation was found to be significantly related to feelings of political incapability, political discontentment, and anomies among older Americans. The data tended to indicate that early personal orientation toward problem solving led to generalized expectations which provide long range motivational and behavioral patterns for individuals which follow them throughout life.
本文以美国老年人为样本，重点研究了他们的个人动机（无论是内在导向还是外在导向）与他们的政治无能感、政治不满和失范感之间的关系。个体被定义为内在导向，即他认为自己的行为与特定社会结果之间存在直接因果链；外在导向则是指他认为运气、机遇或命运决定了这些结果。以奥尔森为例，政治无能被定义为一种感觉，即社会制度阻碍个人实现期望的目标；政治不满被定义为认为政治世界不值得参与；失范被定义为与自己的社会世界疏远[1]。研究发现，外在导向与美国老年人的政治无能感、政治不满和失范感显著相关。数据倾向于表明，早期个人解决问题的导向会导致形成普遍期望，这些期望为个人提供长期的动机和行为模式，并伴随他们一生。
