Modernization may be defined as a personal and cultural expression of one type of social change, namely, movement of persons along a dimension from what is defined by the cultural norms as traditional to what is considered modern by the same culture. An example is presented of the construction of a Guttman scale based on this usage, which does not assume a universal set of traits of "the modern" or "the traditional." The data are from an Appalachian population. Unidimensionality is suggested by the data, but the evidence is not conclusive. Modernism-traditionism may be measurable in a population only if modernization is comprehended by the members as a change process occurring among them. Limitations on comparability of different populations by the use of such scales are discussed.
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John B.P. Stephenson (1968) studied this question.