Beliefs about Self and Others: A Test of the Dogmatism Theory

The 7 propositions of Rokeach's theory of open- and closed-mind relating to beliefs about self and others were tested. It was hypothesized that closed-minded persons, in contrast to open-minded persons, would hold negative beliefs about self and about others, hold contradictory self-beliefs, engage in self-proselytization, seek status and power, report a sense of martyrdom, and display moral self-righteousness. In keeping with theoretical expectations, all hypotheses were confirmed although the magnitudes of correlations between dogmatism scale scores and the dependent variable measures were low.