The Nonconsequences of Objective and Subjective Status Inconsistency: Requiem for a Moribund Concept*

Though 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.     

Objective and Subjective Status Inconsistency: a Search for Empirical Correspondence

The relationship between objective (researcher) and subjective (respondent) definitions of status inconsistency is examined with data from a survey study of Gary, Indiana. The analysis of a variety of measures of income-occupation inconsistency indicated a moderately high correlation between "normatively" defined and objectively defined inconsistency but otherwise very little relationship between subjective and objective measures. The overall pattern of correlations among the particular measures employed suggests that researchers and subjects share a common mode of status evaluations up to, but not including, the concept of status inconsistency.     

Status Inconsistency: Its Objective and Subjective Components*

Sociologists need to recognize the distinction between objective and subjective status inconsistency. Objective inconsistency may be defined in terms of an arbitrary manipulation of an individual's status ranks, or it may be defined in terms of the normative expectations linking together the various status dimensions. Subjective inconsistency, on the other hand, involves asking the respondent to decide for himself whether or not he is inconsistent. When objective inconsistency is defined in terms of arbitrary mathematical manipulations, the relationship between these two components of inconsistency (i.e., objective and subjective) is basically an empirical question. However, when objective inconsistency is defined in terms of the normative expectations in a population, and when the respondent shares these expectations, we propose that these two components of inconsistency will be identical. Conversely, they will not be identical when the respondent does not share these expectations. Finally, the implications of defining inconsistency in terms of normative expectations are explored.     

Status Inconsistency and Participation in Social Movements: an Application of Goodman's Hierarchical Modeling*

Goodman's hierarchical modeling is used to analyze the status inconsistency configuration of 67 active participants in an anti-pornography social movement and 44 persons who actively opposed the movement. The substantive results indicated the need to interpret status inconsistency effects in light of the second-order interaction of all three stratification variables—education, occupation and income. We found that inconsistencies between two of the stratification dimensions changed the association between the third dimension and participation in a social movement in the positive direction. A modification of the over-rewarded/under-rewarded inconsistency hypothesis was advanced as a special case of the general finding. The methodological results indicate that the Goodman hierarchical modeling technique is a promising system for establishing empirical linkages between significance testing and substantive interpretations with regard to the area of status inconsistency.     

Dimensions of social capital and subjective well-being: evidence from Italy

The concept of social capital was investigated as an explanatory variable of a number of significant socio-economic phenomena, such as economic development, the well-functioning of institutions, and school performance. This study proposes an analysis of the relation between social capital and well-being. The two concepts have been interpreted by social sciences in many different ways. In particular, as a result of its recent success, social capital has been the object of a great deal of interpretations. Social scientists have considered it either as a collective resource (macro social capital), or as an available resource amongst members of specific groups (friends, associations, local communities, etc.; i.e. meso social capital), or as a resource that individuals can achieve through their personal networks (micro social capital). Using data from a representative sample of Italian citizens (25–80 years old), this work investigates which dimension (micro, meso, or macro) of social capital has (if any) a major influence on subjective well-being. Data show some interdependence only with the macro social capital, and suggest that it is just the symbolic and cognitive qualities of the social capital, rather than its structural dimension, that could be associated with subjective well-being in a significant way.     

Subjective measures of risk aversion, fixed costs, and portfolio choice

The paper investigates risk preferences among different types of individuals. We use several different measures of risk preferences, including questions on choices between uncertain income streams suggested by Barsky, Juster, Kimball, and Shapiro (1997) and a number of ad hoc measures. As in [Barsky et al., 1997] and [Arrondel and Calvo-Pardo, 2002], we first analyze individual variation in the risk aversion measures and explain them by background characteristics (both “objective” characteristics and other subjective measures of risk preference). Next we incorporate the measured risk preferences into a household portfolio allocation model, which explains portfolio shares, while accounting for incomplete portfolios and fixed costs. Our results show that a measure based on factor analysis of answers to a number of simple risk preference questions has the most explanatory power. The Barsky et al. (1997) measure has less explanatory power than this “a-theoretical” measure, suggesting that sophisticated measures based on economic theory may exceed the financial capability of respondents. Fixed costs turn out to provide an economically and statistically highly significant explanation for incomplete portfolios.     

Old and Female: Testing the Double Jeopardy Hypothesis*

A double jeopardy hypothesis argues that the combined negative effects of occupying two stigmatized statuses are greater than occupying either status alone. Applying this framework to elderly persons, it can be argued that being female and “old” elderly has more negative consequences than being male and “old” elderly, male and “young” elderly or female and “young” elderly. An empirical test of this hypothesis, using both an objective (mental health status) and a subjective (perceived well-being) indicator as the dependent variable, reveals a confirmation of double jeopardy using the objective quality of life indicator, but not the subjective indicator. Additional analyses of the factors affecting each of the dependent variables, adds further support for the uniqueness of old, elderly women as a social category.     

From White-Collar Occupations to Small Business: Korean Immigrants' Occupational Adjustment*

Previous studies indicate that about one-third of Korean immigrant families in the United States are engaged in small business. This paper attempts to explain why such a large proportion of Korean immigrants turn to small business. The data are based on personal interviews with 159 randomly selected Korean businessmen in Atlanta. The data analysis shows that neither Korean immigrants' sojourning orientation nor their perception of host discimination is an important factor in their decision to start a business. It instead indicates that Korean immigrants' perception of disadvantages in nonbusiness occupations, their sense of status inconsistency, and their anticipation of economic mobility through business are three major factors which lead them to small business. The findings are theoretically important since neither the concept of status inconsistency nor that of mobility has been applied to minority small business, while sojourning and host discrimination have been emphasized as explanatory variables for minority members' entry into small business.     

Linear trend or graded association: an international study of objective and subjective socioeconomic inequalities in self-rated health

Abstract

Despite the well-documented socioeconomic inequalities in health, it is less known about how objective and subjective socioeconomic statuses (SES) are related to self-rated health (SRH) in an international context. Using data from the 2007 International Social Survey Program (ISSP) that included 33 countries across six continents (N?=?40,049), we found that for objective SES, either education or income, or both were related to SRH as general linear trends (i.e., higher SES was associated with better SRH as a general trend) rather than graded associations (i.e., adjacent levels of SES were associated with SRH in a dose–response relationship). After controlling for subjective SES, the magnitude of the associations between objective SES and SRH reduced, whereas the associations between subjective SES and SRH remained strong in nearly all countries. Findings suggested that more rigorous analyses are needed to clearly describe the SES-health associations, and future international research should expand to include subjective measures of SES.     

Social network engagement and subjective well‐being: a life‐course perspective

Social networking is a digital phenomenon embraced by billions worldwide. Use of online social platforms has the potential to generate a number of benefits including to well‐being from enhanced social connectedness and social capital accumulation, but is also associated with several negative behaviours and impacts. Employing a life‐course perspective, this paper explores social networking use and its relationship with measures of subjective well‐being. Large‐scale UK panel data from wave 3 (2011–12) and 6 (2014–15) of Understanding Society reveals that social network users are on average younger, aged under 25, but that rising use is reported across the life‐course including into old age. Probit, multinomial logistic, and ANCOVA and change‐score estimations reveal that membership, and greater use, of social networks is associated with higher levels of overall life satisfaction. However, heavy use of social networking sites has negative impacts, reflected in reductions in subjective well‐being. Socio‐economic disadvantage may drive these impacts among young (in education), unemployed and economically inactive heavy SNS users.     

Rural population density: its impact on social and demographic aspects of rural communities

Using the settled areas of South Australia as a case study, this paper seeks to demonstrate the specific importance of rural population and settlement density as an important variable in understanding the social, population and settlement geography of sparsely settled rural regions, where sparse and falling density presents both practical and conceptual problems for rural planners. After a review of the literature on population density, the case is argued for the use of net rural rather than gross density in the analysis of settlement patterns. The paper then tests a series of hypotheses on the empirical relationship between rural density as independent variable and selected demographic and socio-economic indicators as dependent variables, at two specific points in time. For the same region, points in time and set of indicators, it goes on to compare the predictive power of rural density as an independent variable with that of three other important qualities of rural settlement patterns (remoteness, settlement size and urban concentration). Rural density is found to be a significant explanatory variable, both in its own right and in comparison with the three other variables tested. In conclusion, the findings are related to policy development measures for rural Australia.     

Comment on Wilson and Zurcher's "Status Inconsistency and Participation in Social Movements"

Wilson and Zurcher (1976) set out to discuss the relationships within a set of four variables—income, occupation, education, and pornactivity, that is, activity in relation to two anti-pornography crusades—and to proceed from this discussion to conclusions about status inconsistency as an explanatory framework for the analysis of social movements. We should like to comment on three levels. First we discuss the purely numerical aspects of their analysis; second, the inferences they draw from that analysis; and third, we present some reflections on the theoretical apparatus of Wilson and Zurcher.     

Explaining Client Satisfaction with an Employee Assistance Program

ABSTRACT

The first objective of this paper is to explore the psychometric qualities as well as the usefulness of an employee assistance program client satisfaction scale. The responses obtained from 82 clients of an external service provider permitted a validation of the satisfaction scale and ultimately the selection of five items showing stronger convergent validity as well as high reliability (alpha = .89). The second objective is to explore the possible relationships between demographic (gender, age), treatment (referral-type, type of problem, urgency, degree of resolution) and organizational variables (unionization, job category, sector, size), and variations in client satisfaction levels. The results of bivariate analysis indicate that the type of referral, the type of problem, and the degree of resolution of the problem are related to client satisfaction. This study provides some support for the inclusion of treatment variables in a comprehensive explanatory model of client satisfaction. It is further argued that client satisfaction is an adequate measure of the success of an employee assistance program. Finally, some methodological issues surrounding the use of such surveys are discussed.     

Organizational Structure and Innovation in U.K. Voluntary Social Welfare Organizations: Applying the Aston Measures

This paper discusses the methodological issues involved in assessing the impact of organizational structure upon the innovative capacity of voluntary organizations. It reports the use of a specific methodological tool—the Aston measures—as an approach to these issues. In addition to the empirical findings reported, this paper argues for these measures as a useful addition to the methodological tool kit of voluntary sector researchers.     

Class Consciousness and Political Attitudes among Athenians*

Using data collected in Athens, Greece in the spring of 1977, an effort was made to test the relationship between several objective socioeconomic indicators and subjective class perceptions and political attitudes. Our main concern was the effect of subjective class awareness and consciousness on selected political issues (pro-Western foreign policy, civil liberties, and economic conservatism) and voting. Our findings show that class and socioeconomic variables tend to be stronger predictors of socio-political attitudes than are status indicators. In addition, subjective perceptions of class (particularly capitalist political influence and limited societal opportunity), father's politics, and age are major explanatory variables for political attitudes and the way people perceive national and international issues. Perception that the upper class benefits most from clientelism was related to voting and economic conservatism. Working-class consciousness was important in explaining voting in 1977. Our research strategy suggests that for the future we should broaden the study of class consciousness and awareness by viewing it as multidimensional and including measurements based on both closed- and open-ended questions.     

Demokratischer Smog? Eine empirische Untersuchung zum Zusammenhang zwischen Sozialschicht und Umweltbelastungen

For years the public and scientific debate about Environmental Justice was mostly confined to the U.S. Only recently, the question about the existence and strength of the “social gradient” of environmental pollution has entered the European debate. Earlier research simply records subjective perceptions of pollution and correlates them with indicators of social status. Objective measures of environmental quality are seldom used, and even then only in studies of small geographic areas. In contrast, the present study uses various objective measures of air pollution (nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, ozone) and road traffic noise (day, night) and assigns them to the respondents of the Swiss Environmental Survey 2007 (N?=?3 369) using a geographic information system (GIS). The combination of objective GIS coded data with subjective measures allows for a new approach in Environmental Sociology that takes spatial context into account, which is often neglected in sociological studies. Using bivariate and multivariate statistical methods this objective data on pollution is related to indicators of social stratification such as income, education and nationality as well as the subjective perception of pollution. Subjective and objective measures of pollution are positively correlated with the interesting exception of ozone. Surprisingly, and contrary to the expectations, income is not significantly correlated with the pollutants considered and there is even a significant and positive correlation with education. In the multivariate analysis, however, a significant and negative correlation with income is observed, although this effect is fairly weak. Also, foreigners from Non-Western countries suffer from a higher burden of environmental pollution. However, in comparison to social and minority status differences in environmental impact between urban areas and the countryside are much more pronounced. We suppose that problems of environmental justice may be more accentuated in countries with a higher degree of segregation than in the Swiss population.     

Older Adults and Emerging Digital Service Delivery: A Mixed Methods Study on Information and Communications Technology Use,Skills, and Attitudes

Based on data from a survey (n = 3291) and 14 qualitative interviews among Danish older adults, this study investigated the use of, and attitudes toward, information communications technology (ICT) and the digital delivery of public services. While age, gender, and socioeconomic status were associated with use of ICT, these determinants lost their explanatory power when we controlled for attitudes and experiences. We identified three segments that differed in their use of ICT and attitudes toward digital service delivery. As nonuse of ICT often results from the lack of willingness to use it rather than from material or cognitive deficiencies, policy measures for bridging the digital divide should focus on skills and confidence rather than on access or ability.     

The quality of life concept in sociology

An interdisciplinary concept, quality of life (QOL) has gained prominence in research in psychology, marketing, and several other disciplines. What is its status in sociology? Arising out of the social indicators“movement,” QOL has gained attention as both objective and subjective measures. Precursors of the concept figured in sociological research in the 1930s on level and plane of living. Now, it is recognized in one sociological encyclopedia, a textbook, and a few sociological monographs, but otherwise has gained little coinage in general sociology. One social problems text has adopted it as an organizing theme. With these modest inroads, the components of QOL, such as inequality, income, crime, the environment, etc., always have been prominent in sociology. When QOL is recognized in theory and when legislatures require its use in evaluation of public programs, the concept will become established in sociological research.     

Objective and Reputational Rankings of Ph.D.-Granting Departments of Sociology, 1965–1982

Abstract

From its inception in 1965 until 1975 when it stopped publishing such studies, The American Sociologist (TAS) published numerous quality rankings of Ph.D.-granting sociology departments and several articles that compared different rankings. During these years TAS published far more rankings of sociology departments than did any other journal This article reviews these studies as well as the rankings of sociology departments found in three major multi-disciplinary rankings (Cartter, 1966; Roose and Andersen, 1970; Jones, Lindzey, and Coggeshall, 1982). It discusses the major methodological approaches used in these studies and reviews the debate among scholars regarding the most appropriate ways to rank departments. An analysis of the various objective and subjective rankings reveals that there is an elite group of seven departments that consistently rank at the top regardless of the ranking method employed.