Stratum Identification and Consciousness

Abstract

National sample data were analyzed to describe the identification and class consciousness of people with workingand middle-class occupations, race consciousness of blacks and whites, sex consciousness of women, and age consciousness of people sixty years or older. Stratum consciousness, an ideology about the position of the stratum in society, includes a sense of power discontent, evaluation of the legitimacy of its position, and the view that collective action is the best means to realize its interests. Comparisons of the two sets of subordinate and superordinate strata showed that only along the racial dimension was identification more widespread in the lower-power stratum, but that power discontent and collectivist orientations were stronger among both identified blacks and the working class than among identified whites and the middle class. Comparisons among the identified members of lower-power strata additionally demonstrated that consciousness was strongest among blacks, weakest among women, and moderate among people with working-class occupations and older people. Multiv'ariate analyses further showed that identification, power discontent, and rejection of legitimacy influenced the collectivist orientations of women and blacks additively, rather than interactively.