Becoming Conscious of the American Middle Class (Un)consciousness

Abstract

It is argued in this article that social psychology would make the greatest contribution to research on class identity if it concentrated on the area closest to psychology-analysis of class consciousness. In order to show that the study of the psyche and mentality of the middle class is one of the least researched aspects of the American middle class, a brief overview of the different approaches to the study of the middle class in selected disciplines will be offered. It will be demonstrated that even if the identity of the U.S. middle class cannot be fully understood without its history and the social context in which it operates, it is the study of its (un)consciousness that social psychology should be focusing its research efforts on. The alternative would make social psychology indistinguishable from social history or sociology.