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In order to determine the directions which the field of sociology of occupations has taken in recent years, a content analysis of articles on work and occupations in four general sociological journals and two specialized journals was completed for the years of 1976 to early 1982. Not surprisingly, there has been a rapid increase in the number of papers dealing with status and income attainment. Very surprisingly, there has been a near demise of papers on the professions. Another dominant thrust has been the large number of articles on women and sex roles. Satisfaction and alienation at work and attempts at job redesign have also received increasing attention. Papers on other topics have received less concentrated attention. Moving beyond the results of the content analysis, the present work discusses unresolved theoretical issues and potential new directions for the content areas. It is suggested that even for sociologists who do not identify themselves as specialists in occupations, the occupational variable remains a dominant one in sociological analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concepts "ascribed status" and "achieved status," developed by Ralph Linton, have located properties of social systems which have given sociologists valuable insights into the nature of social structure. Linton defined "ascribed status" as "assigned to individuals without reference to their innate differences or abilities" and "achieved status" as "requiring special qualifies" and "open to individual achievement." Thus, accident of birth determines an individual's "ascribed statuses," and performance or effort or volition determine his "achieved statuses." Unfortunately, as clear as the distinction between these two concepts may appear, they have not been received without confusion. It is the contention of this paper that a significant source of confusion has been the treatment of these concepts as if they were unrelated to social structure. Further, it is our view that this confusion removes the essential value of the concepts; and therefore, their relationship to social structure requires restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between modernization and female crime rates and tests a model which incorporates female participation in various social roles as an intervening variable. Modernization is predicted to have positive, direct effects on female property crime, as well as positive, indirect effects through female role participation. Data from approximately forty countries were analyzed using correlational and regression techniques. The results offer little support for the general model. GNP/cap exhibits positive, direct effects on female theft and fraud but only minor indirect effects. The net effects of the several female role-participation variables are generally small. Differences by type of female crime are examined and several possible explanations for the results are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies of subjective anomie assume that all individuals have the same goals, and they explain anomie in terms of differences in the means to achieve goals. This paper examines the effect of variations in the goal of success on anomie. Data are from a Harris survey of 3,001 adults in the continental United States. A multiple regression of anomie on success orientation, plus six social status variables, revealed that success orientation has a significant positive effect on anomie and that, next to education, it is the best predictor of anomie. This finding helps explain both intraclass variations in anomie and the increase in anomie from the 1950s to 1971 found by Fischer(1974). The social status variables did not explain much of the variation in success orientation, and the effect of success orientation on anomie was not mediated by education and income. The relevance of these findings to Durkheim's theory of anomie is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article points the weaknesses of Richard Bland and Roy Wallis' commentary about the essay on status inconsistency and participation in social movements. The comment began with observations concerning the status inconsistency method represented in the essay and moved to a broader criticism of the notion of status defense. However, Bland and Wallis missed the point of the essay. For instance, they defined status more narrowly than Zurcher and Kirkpatrick in "Citizens for Decency". Moreover, they accused the authors of obsessively seeking some ulterior motive among anti-pornography crusaders which could explain their participation. Finally, they offered no evidence to demonstrate that overrewarded inconsistents would be expected to engage in resistance to changes in their social environment which might threaten their over-rewarded situation.

This paper suggests a new way of applying "Proportional-Reductions-in-Error" related measures (i.e., Gamma, dyx, dxy, and Kendall's Tau's) to link logical forms of hypotheses to types of ordinal measures of association. First, the basic form of associations for ordinal data are examined. Second, the analytical properties of "P-R-E" related measures are investigated. Finally, it is proposed that "P-R-E" related measures be used in testing the logical form of the relationship between variables implied in a hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the Hollingshead Index of Social Position (I.S.P.) is correlated with class awareness and class identification, two principal components of class consciousness. Comparative data are introduced from the Hollingshead and Redlich (1958) community study of New Haven, Connecticut, and an investigation by this writer (1963) of an urban Pennsylvania community, hereafter referred to as Twin City. Both studies use an objective index (I.S.P.) to estimate positions individuals occupy in the status structure of the community, and both correlate class awareness and class identification with class placement by this index. The interviews for the present study were conducted in a middle-sized Pennsylvania city, with a population of approximately 75,000, in the summer of 1961. The number of completed interview schedules, from which data analyses were derived, was set at 1,811. The social position which individuals and families occupy in the Twin City status structure was determined according to the modification of Hollingshead's three-factor I.S.P. All of the sample households enumerated in the interview schedule were stratified by class through use of this index. The collected data used to determine the I.S.P. for each household consisted of the education and occupation of the head of the household plus the ecological location of the dwelling unit in which the respondent resided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Often enough members of one social class have been viewed as struggling with members of other classes, as excluding others from membership in their own class, or as aspiring to become members of higher social classes. Whatever the precise formulation of the situation, the general tone of descriptions of interclass relationships has often been one of competition, antagonism, exclusion, tension, or conflict. Yet ordinary experience suggests that most individuals direct some positive affect toward social classes other than their own in any functioning and enduring system of social stratification. This paper is concerned with a measure of part of this affect (here termed status affinity), and it offers a description of some of the antecedent conditions contributing to different affect distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a variety of social structural factors do influence all youth, it is critical to note that American youth are not a monolithic entity. Obviously, differences in age, race, sex, and socioeconomic status will play a part in what youth think, feel, and believe. Still, as this review of youth-oriented research indicates, the empirical focus, for the most part, has been upon white, middle-class, college students. One result of this research bias has been a tendency to generalize for all youth from data collected from a relatively small, select, youth population. A second obvious outcome is that sociologists have largely ignored the study of poor youth; non-students; blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, American Indians; youth in the work world; youth in the military; and females. Generally, this review of the social science research suggests that there is consensus among students of youth behavior as to the factors which influence the attitudes and behavior of contemporary youth. At the same time, it must be noted that much of what is pronounced is based on little in the way of empirical research and derived primarily from observations of a limited segment of American youth. Finally, this review of the literature would certainly support the observation that social scientists have provided little in the way of knowledge that would be of value to policy planners, program developers, or those involved in the day to day business of youth socialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blau's and Duncan's reconceptualization of social mobility analysis in terms of the status attainment model led to a rapid growth in the number of studies of mobility processes in the United States. Observations of differences in the attainment processes of different segments of the population and theoretical and methodological critiques have produced alternative ways of viewing and analyzing social stratification and mobility. Recent European contributions have tended to be more heavily theory-laden and concerned with social class rather than a continuum of occupational levels. Current developments promise to provide a basis for a rapprochement between the two approaches and further clarification of the relative importance of structural and individual factors in the social mobility process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Kuhnian approach to the structure of scientific research is used to examine the historical development of the status attainment paradigm in sociology. A content analysis of applications, critiques, and alternatives to the status attainment model over the last decade illustrates the "life-cycle" phases of a scientific research area that are suggested by Kuhn. The analysis reveals an extension or elaboration of the paradigmatic research effort throughout early years of the decade. However, the perception of "anomalies" by critics of the research tradition, coupled with the increasing exploration of alternative approaches, suggests the onset of a crisis stage for status attainment research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through long suggested, subjective indicators of status inconsistency have seen little empirical use. Data from a sample survey with controls for additive status variables are used to compare objective and subjective status inconsistency with these conclusions: (1) Individuals in an "objective" state of educational-occupational inconsistency are no more likely to feel inconsistent than those whose objective statuses are aligned. (2) When considered in conjunction with vertical status dimensions, neither objective nor subjective status inconsistency is independently associated with measures of social participation; only the subjective measure is independently associated with powerlessness. (3) The joint use of subjective and objective status inconsistency concepts in future work must be carefully justified and must take into account well-substantiated but frequently ignored methodological problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The defining and, where appropriate, modeling of supervisors, co-workers, parents, teachers, and counselors were correlated with a particular counseling activity. School counselors (N = 81) reported these perceived influences and the amount of time they devoted to talking with youths about the ways to avoid past mistakes. In low socioeconomic (SES) areas, counselors and teachers showed the strongest relationship with this behavior; while in high SES groups, parents provided the dominant association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music may be understood as a structural representation, or symbolic "model," of social interaction processes. Since music is a readily available expressive system in our society, individuals may use it as a socially meaningful symbolic medium within which they manage conflicting affective associations with interaction. Music listening then becomes one means by which individuals may maintain psychological well-being while adapting to complex social structures. Three initial points in this argument were examined, using high and low music listeners. High listeners were found to have more conflicting positive and negative affective associations with interaction than low or medium listeners, as measured by a TAT-type technique. The effect of role playing an affective interaction situation in an experimental design increased listening absorption in music for high but not for low listeners. High listeners were also more likely to describe musical effects in terms of symbolic participation in group processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis of status inconsistency predicts greater leftism as an interaction effect of discrepant status dimensions. Inconsistent individuals are objectively low in some dimensions and subjectively insecure in those where they hold a high position. Ensuing anxiety and frustration are likely to be translated into political opposition to the status quo. Though theoretically plausible, empirical investigations of the hypothesis report mixed results. Employing data collected among a sample of 382 lower-class Chilean slum dwellers, a new test of the hypothesis is conducted. Dummy-variable regressions are employed to isolate status additive effects on leftism from inconsistency interaction effects. Neither education-occupation nor education-income discrepancies are found to produce significant changes in the dependent variable. Identical results are obtained when age is controlled for. Limitations of these findings and their theoretical implications, as they add to a growing body of research, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature concerned with social mobility is quite extensive. This body of material has to a great extent taken a societal or institutional perspective, with a large proportion of mobility studies focusing on such questions, among others, as: what are the social origins of a particular occupational stratum; what rates and trends can be found over time and place; and, are class boundaries becoming more rigid? Emphasis on such questions is certainly pertinent for the understanding of stratification. Yet, there has been a relative neglect of what should prove to be an intriguing aspect of social mobility—the social and psychological consequences of such mobility for the individuals involved. A basic question to ask is: do individuals who have experienced mobility exhibit variations in their behavioral patterns when compared to individuals who are socially stable? To find and study possible variations in the behavior of individuals who have had different mobility experiences seems an important area of investigation. Several decades ago it was postulated that social mobility resulted in social isolation through its disruption of participation in primary and secondary group structures (cf. Durkheim, 1951:252-254; Sorokin, 1927); mobility was seen as detrimental for interpersonal relations because of its effect on ties within these groups. However, the theoretical and empirical work since these early statements has not shown that such a simple relationship between mobility and participation exists; mobility does not seem always to lead to social isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, several authors have shown that over the past two or three decades the status of Catholics in America has risen more rapidly than that of Protestants (see Greeley, 1963; Bressler and Westoff, 1963; Mack et al., 1956; Vaughn et al., 1966; and Lipset and Bendix, 1959). A recent and well-documented article by Glenn and Hyland (1967) demonstrates beyond reasonable doubt that Catholics are now of higher average status than Protestants as a category. Several other studies in the recent past (Lenski, 1961; Pope, 1955; and Hollingshead and Redlich, 1958) have shown that Catholics were, until recently, of lower average status than Protestants as a category, and lower than most large individual Protestant denominations. If this was in fact the case, then the higher current status of Catholics necessarily means Catholics have been more mobile than Protestants. Among the more commonly-accepted reasons for the apparent "mobility advantage" of Catholics are those expressed by Glenn and Hyland (1967). They say: "The more favorable distribution of Catholics by region and community size could mask a religiously-based handicap, and there are reasons to believe that it does." They argue that since Catholics are more urban and more concentrated in the non-southern regions than are Protestants, and status and mobility in these areas are higher than in the country generally, these facts explain the nationwide Catholic advantage in status. Curiously, Glenn and Hyland claim that their data support Greeley's (1963) finding that Catholics have no mobility disadvantage, but hold that Lenski (1961) and Lipset and Bendix (1959) were right in their conclusions that Protestants were more mobile than Catholics. Glenn and Hyland suggest that there is little reason to further explore Protestant-Catholic status and mobility questions, since the differences were (or are) probably minimal, and other kinds of questions are more important. Among such questions, they cite research into dif- ferences among various Protestant denominations as a possible area of inquiry. And clearly there is a need for more good research into areas such as the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of studies dealing with status consistency were reviewed and certain assumptions made. Signal among the assumptions is the idea that achieved statuses may be viewed as goals and ascribed statuses as literal means to those goals. By employing Merton's modes of individual adaptation typology, a theoretical framework was constructed which it is believed will allow the prediction and explanation of behavior associated with various configurations of status inconsistency. It was concluded that individuals with high-ascribed and low-achieved status may, when incapable of attaining high-achieved status, engage in ritualism as a mode of adaptation. Over time, if awareness of status discrepancy increases, a re-evaluation of the desirability of ascribed status as a means to achieved status may result in rebellion. It was also concluded that individuals with low-ascribed status may engage in retreatism as a mode of adaptation, but this mode may be rejected in favor of high-consistent status, which requires innovating. If stress caused by the social context persists, rebellion may result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three procedures are generally used for the identification of community leaders. Leaders may be assessed by criteria of position, by criteria of participation, and by criteria of reputation. Most researchers have relied on the latter two procedures and have made assessments exclusively on the basis of participation or on the basis of reputation. In the few studies in which both procedures have been used together, they have appeared to yield listings of community leaders of varying degrees of similarity. D'Antonio and Form, for example, report in their El Paso study that 71 to 93 per cent of the key decision-makers in one or more of the six issues they studied were also reputed leaders. In contrast, Freeman and his associates in their Syracuse study report only a 39 per cent overlap in two independently derived lists of the leading participants and the most frequently nominated leaders. To be sure, the methodologies of the El Paso and Syracuse reports are not directly comparable. However, this is equally true of all of the leadership study comparisons. The problem of establishing empirically meaningful criteria for such comparisons is unresolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past decade, a great deal of interest has been generated in relation to Emile Durkeim's concept of anomie. Of even greater interest to American sociologists, however, has been Robert K. Merton's concept of anomie as formulated in his widely cited essay, "Social Structure and Anomie." Studies in the areas of suicide, crime, and delinquency, to suggest only a few categories, have attempted to utilize this concept empirically, focusing on it as an explanatory device. Leo Srole's anomia scale was developed as an index to Durkheim's anomie and has been used to assess Merton's theory. A careful examination of Merton's concept of anomie suggests that his emphasis is different from Durkheim's and that this difference leads to varying hypotheses. Merton's conception of anomie is one of a condition in society in which there is a disjunction between socially mandated goals and the means by which these goals are pursued. This disjunction is reflected in the great emphasis which is placed on success goals in American society and the lack of similar emphasis on legitimate means for the attainment of success. Furthermore, since access to the legitimate means for the attainment of success is differentially distributed, there is differential utilization of illegitimate means. It follows, then, that the lower the social class position, the less the access to legitimate means and the greater the tendency to deviant behavior. Thus, crime and delinquency rates could reasonably be expected to increase as social class declines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

About half a century ago Durkheim asserted that Protestants show a greater degree of anomie than do Catholics. Although Durkheim's assertion was based on limited studies, his statement has sparked considerable empirical research into the phenomena surrounding anomie. The social scientist interested in this topic today has numerous earlier studies and a selection of research instruments on which to draw in designing his own research. Among the most useful of the studies on anomie up to the present time are those by Srole, Nettler, Meier and Bell, Bell, Mizruchi, Dean, and Dean and Reeves. The study by Dean and Reeves is particularly interesting in terms of both questions answered and questions raised. Since this present study was conducted in response to the questions raised by the Dean and Reeves research, it will be necessary to review briefly their research procedures and findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tug concert of class consciousness seems to mean many things to sociologists, perhaps because they have not always agreed on the meaning of one of its elements-class. In contemporary writing the term has been used in five different ways. These, in order of comprehensiveness, are: first, the manifestation of an awareness that a system of stratification exists in society; second, the willingness of a person to designate where he feels he belongs in this system; third, the manifestation of interests in common with others who feel they belong in the same aggregate; fourth, the possession of presumedly accurate knowledge of the interests of the class to which one feels he belongs, and as a consequence, a manifestation of interests similar to these; and fifth, a feeling of solidarity with those who are identified as belonging to one's self-assigned class, and a feeling of estrangement from those not identified as belonging to one's self assigned class. The first three usages are indicative more of class identification than of class consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]