Rokeach suggests that, in terms of Gestalt, psychoanalytic, and behavioristic theory, Gestalt theory would be most appropriate to individual open in their belief systems, in whom action is primarily in accord with the meaningful, structural, and configurational requirements of the situation.

Behavioristic tenets, on the other hand, would correspond most closely with a completely closed belief system, whose actions could be completely controlled and directed by arbitrary reinforcements.

Classical psychoanalysis would also describe an individual with a closed system, but here the emphasis is an irrelevant internal motivations, rather than external  reinforcements.

Rokeach points out that the Dogmatism Scale should serve to measure general authoritarianism and general intolerance, because of the way in which open and closed systems have been defined. The Dogmatism Scale has evolved through five editions. Form D, containing 66 items, is used in the present experiment. This form presented a reliability of .91 on a test of 137 cases, while form E, which contained the best 40 items of Form D, as determined by item analysis, was found to have a reliability ranging from .68 to .93 (see appendix 2)

In terms of the theory of Levels of Human Existence, Rokeach’s concept of open and closed system of belief distinguishes levels 3 and 4 from levels 5 and 6. Thus, the Dogmatism Scale allows one to separate and operationally describe behavior associated with levels 3 and 4 on the one hand, and levels 5 and 6 on the other.

To separate levels 3 from 4 and 5 and 6, the 66 items of the Dogmatism Scale questionnaire were interspersed with the 21 items of the Gough-Sanford Rigidity Scale. Rokeach points out that the latter measures resistance to change of single beliefs, sets, or habits, whereas dogmatism refers to change of systems of beliefs. Therefore certain score combinations of high or low dogmatism with high or low rigidity should represent the following:   

TABLE I

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