The Social Grading of Occupations in Australia

Abstract

tN CONNECTION with a study of work attitudes conducted in the | Psychology Department of the University of Western Australia, a study Swas made of the grading of a number of representative occupations on their social standing.l This study was based on the judgments made by a vvide vanety of subjects living in the Metropolis and a provincial coal-mining town in Western Australia. Most of the occupations involved were the same as those reported by Hall and Jones [4] in their study of the social grading of occupations in England, and it is of interest to compare the two findings. This contribution is submitted as a note on the similarity of the frames of reference used in the grading of occupations between two widely-separated British populations. As will be shown, the results are also similar to those reported for various American samples between I925 and I947. In his recent critical review of the literature in the field of occupational prestige, Dames [2] pointed out a number of fallacies and shortcomings in those studies aNhich have demonstrated considerable agreement in the prestige of occupations irrespective of the regional and class differences of the respondents. Nevertheless, he concludes that . . in broad terms, the consensus typically reported supports the use of the model of a single public (p. I43). This present study affords additional evidence that this general conclusion is correct.