The Interpersonal Sources of the Development of Political Images: An Intensive, Longitudinal Perspective

Abstract

Harold Lasswell, among others, has noted that the vague, diffuse, and distant
symbols of the secondary political world are elaborated and take on
personal meaning to the individual as a result of a process of
displacement or projection of some image from the primary world. To
examine whether such a process mediate between primary and secondary
worlds, a single subject was given two separate Q samples and asked to
describe her images of 25 objects as well as how these objects made her
feel. The correlation and factor analysis of these data, plus lengthy
interviews with her, demonstrated how the varied aspects of her
political world take on personal meaning to her with respect to specific
primary images. The current study is and update of the study after
almost 14 years. The same subject was asked to describe many of the
objects from the original study as well as other "new" primary and
political objects in her life. Once again the data support the
Lasswellian proposition that primary and secondary worlds are bridged by
a process of displacement of primary affect. Additionally, the data
allow us to see how new objects are incorporated into her world and how
changes in her primary world affect her images of the secondary
political world, as well as how earlier images impact ones developed
later.