Abstract: | A number of previous studies have called attention (typically ex post facto) to the finding that schizophrenics tend to have backgrounds with a particular type of status imbalance—their occupational level is lower than their years of education would seem to merit. The data from this study substantiated this finding. Moreover, we found that the greater the magnitude of this type of inconsistency, the higher the proportion of schizophrenia. Since schizophrenics were especially downwardly mobile, however, we tentatively concluded that this type of status inconsistency is not a “cause” of schizophrenia but rather a consequence of that illness. |