Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008
Dr. James Rhoads, Westminster College associate professor of political science, and Dr. Shannon Smithey, Westminster assistant professor of political science, have published "Attitudes Toward Privacy and Security Five Years After 9/11" in The Journal of Human Subjectivity.
"The paper sought to explore more deeply attitudes concerning the long-standing tension between security and privacy, especially in this age of terrorism," Rhoads said. "Participants in the study ranked a set of statements drawn from conversation on the security-privacy debate. Data was then correlated and factor-analyzed, revealing three distinct viewpoints."
The paper, part of a larger research project, was presented at the annual meeting of The International Society for the Scientific Study of Subjectivity last fall.
The abstract states: "The terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, led to a renewed sense of urgency by the U.S. government in protecting against future acts of terrorism. The government enacted The USA PATRIOT ACT, which granted authorities greater powers to monitor suspect individuals and groups. The new powers were met by civil libertarians with alarm, reigniting debates about the tensions between security and privacy. In the immediate aftermath of the events of 9/11, not surprisingly, issues of security trumped privacy concerns. However, as more than five years have now passed since that awful day, the authors were interested in investigating the structure of opinion that may currently exist on this subject. To that end, Q-Methodology was employed in order to gain a deeper understanding. Q-sorts were performed by college students studying political science and/or sociology at an Eastern liberal arts college. Three factors were identified that viewed the privacy-security debate: one group who saw the debate through the prism of partisanship, another group skeptical of government power, and a final group willing to endorse police powers."
Rhoads, who has been with Westminster since 1992, earned an undergraduate degree, master's, and Ph.D. from Kent State University.
Smithey has been with Westminster since 2003. She earned undergraduate degrees from Southern Methodist University and a master's and Ph.D. from Ohio State University.
Contact Rhoads at (724) 946-7255 or e-mail jrhoads@westminster.edu for additional information.
