Operationalizing ideological constraint

This approach of choosing issues with a common underlying theme echoes Converse's (1964) approach to operationalizing ideological constraint. The ideological constraint measure was computed by first setting the measure's initial value to zero for each respondent. Next, the respondent's score was incremented one point in a negative direction for each answer that coincided with Kerry's position on the issue. Similarly, the respondent's score was incremented one point in a positive direction for each answer that coincided with Bush's position on the issue. To help clarify this process, the battery appears in the questionnaire with the name of each candidate in brackets after the position favored by that candidate.