Social generational change and the foundations of attitudes about the same-sex marriage.

摘要

This dissertation draws on public opinion data and in-depth interviews with college students and their parents to analyze the foundations of attitudes about same-sex marriage. The analyses show that people's attitudes and values regarding homosexuality are of fundamental importance in shaping discourse about same-sex marriage, but that those relationships are more varied and complex than expected. People's beliefs, attitudes, values, and experiences regarding homosexuality fail to cohere discursively, and there are multiple middle-ground discourses about same-sex marriage that cannot be classified as either supportive or oppositional. The analyses also show that people's cultural definitions of marriage shape discourse about same-sex marriage. There are tensions between heterosexual/religious and companionate/civil definitions of marriage in discourse, but there also exists a shared consensus about what marriage means in practice that resembles companionate marriage. It is argued that attitude polarization is not inherent in the discourse but results from politicization of the issue.;More broadly, this dissertation analyzes the similarities and differences in how members of two cohorts talk about same-sex marriage in order to shed light on processes of social generational change. Most children and parents in the sample have similar attitudes on issues related to marriage and sexuality because of the power of socialization, religious and political ideologies, and attitude change among the older cohort. However, comparing the discourses of parents and students who essentially agree with each other shows important differences in how they talk about same-sex marriage. Younger religious conservatives and older liberals are more likely to use middle-ground discourses because of the cross-cutting influences of their cohort locations and their religious and political ideologies.;It is argued that making comparisons simultaneously between and within cohorts is essential for explaining attitudinal differences regarding same-sex marriage. The "social generation" concept can help account for these patterns if it is understood as a cultural and social psychological process that accounts for how groups of people, defined intersectionally by cohort and social location, develop similar worldviews based on their shared encounter with the social structure. Conceived thusly, the social generation concept is integral to the analysis of social change and social reproduction.