The Views of Adolescents on Some Aspects of the Social Class Structure

Abstract

nOCIAL PSYCHOLOGISTS have been increasingly concerned with the _way in which an individual's perceptions, values and behaviour are kJinfluenced by the social class of which he is a member. One aspect of the problem which has recently received attention is that of an individual's awareness of the structure of the social class system and of his own position within it. 2 With one exception, 3 these studies have been concerned with adults. It is the object of the present paper to present some comparative material obtained from young adolescents (I3-I4 year old boys) coming from different socio-economic backgrounds, differing in intelligence and attending different types of secondaly schools, with a view to throwing light on the following questions: To what extent do young adolescents view society tn terms of adult frames of reference ? Further, what are the relative influences of home and school in determining the boys' outlook ? This will be examined by a companson of the views of boys belonpg to different status groups attending the same type of school svith those of boys, matched for social status, who attend different types of school. After a description of the sample and some of the methodological problems involved in the research, the adolescent views of certain aspects of the social class system svill be discussed. This vill be followed by a description of the boy's subjective assessment of his family's position vithin the system. The