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Peacefulness as Nonviolent Dispositions

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Personal Peacefulness

Part of the book series: Peace Psychology Book Series ((PPBS,volume 20))

Abstract

Nonviolence may be viewed from an intrapersonal, interpersonl, societal, and world perspective. Although these levels and their potential relationships have been discussed in the peace literature, a comprehensive theory of nonviolence to encompass all four levels has been lacking until recently. In addition, the relationship between levels of nonviolence has not been empirically studied because of the lack of measures to assess these four levels. This chapter discusses theories of nonviolence with an emphasis on the Diamond Model that explores the connections between levels of nonviolence. Recent research using the new 90-item Diamond Scale of Nonviolence (DSN) is also presented. The DSN assesses intrapersonal nonviolence (20 items), interpersonal nonviolence (20 items), societal nonviolence (25 items), and world nonviolence (25 items). The four DSN subscales show good internal consistency (alphas between 0.85 and 0.87) and test–retest reliabilities were above 0.85 on all four subscales. Validity data for the four DSN subscales are reported here along with personality correlates of nonviolent dispositions. The DSN is now a psychometrically sound instrument ready for research on nonviolence. Results from several data sets are examined to appraise the interrelationships among the four levels of nonviolence. Preliminary results point to strong links between intrapersonal and interpersonal nonviolence and between societal and world nonviolence and a general hierarchical consistency across the four levels of nonviolence.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Lewis-Clark State College, 83501, Lewiston, ID, USA

    Daniel M. Mayton II PhD

Authors
  1. Daniel M. Mayton II PhD
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Correspondence to Daniel M. Mayton II PhD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. San Luis Obispo, California, USA

    Gregory K. Sims

  2. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California, USA

    Linden L. Nelson

  3. California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, California, USA

    Mindy R. Puopolo

Appendix 3.1

Appendix 3.1

Diamond Scale of Nonviolence

Please read each statement in this section and decide whether it is true or not for you. Circle the response that best describes how you feel about the statement. If the statement is definitely true or nearly always true for you, circle the response “definitely true for me.” If the statement is generally true for you but not always true, circle the response “usually true for me.” If the statement is occasionally true for you but generally not true, circle the response “usually not true for me.” If the statement is definitely false or nearly always not true for you, circle the response “definitely not true for me.” Please do not circle more than one answer for each statement or leave any items blank.

Table 6
Full size table
Table 7
Full size table

Items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 43, 44, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 57, 58, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 74, 75, 77, 78, 79, 82, 83, 84, 86, and 87 should be scored so “definitely true for me” is a 4, “usually true for me” is a 3, “usually not true for me” is a 2, and “definitely not true for me” is a 1. The remaining items should be coded so “definitely true for me” is a 1, “usually true for me” is a 2, “usually not true for me” is a 3, and “definitely not true for me” is a 4. Subscale scores are computed by summing all items for the scale.

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Mayton, D. (2014). Peacefulness as Nonviolent Dispositions. In: Sims, G., Nelson, L., Puopolo, M. (eds) Personal Peacefulness. Peace Psychology Book Series, vol 20. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9366-2_3

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