Prestige Structure Research Articles

Occupational prestige differences within the medical and allied health professions

Occupational prestige differences within the medical and allied health professions are examined in relation to basic models of the doctor—patient relationship and the struggle of various specialties to achieve functional autonomy over their work. The prestige structure of the profession was found to be highly related to basic models of the doctor-patient relationship in terms of the control over patient outcomes but not at all related to a specialty's ability to carve out a clear domain of work. Some implications of the findings for the changing nature of the doctor-patient relationship and the development of new types of health manpower are discussed. Suggestions for use of occupational prestige scores in future research dealing with issues of professionalism, influence, and organizational control are also presented.

5: The Impact of School Resources on Students

At the heart of the controversies surrounding public education is the strongly held belief that schools should have a positive on their clientele. To most people this premise implies that all schools should provide adequate training not only in basic literacy and computational skills but also in more advanced subject areas that are regarded as essential in technologically sophisticated societies. The impact of schooling on the young, however, is not limited to cognitive development. School experience is structured so that children also acquire values and attitudes that facilitate their integration into the competitive occupational and political worlds of adults (Dreeben, 1968). The school's emphasis on formal achievement, interpersonal competition, and certification strongly suggests how it may aid in the formation of values and attitudes and act to select students for the occupational, economic, and prestige structures of the society. Its impact as an institution on the life chances of the young is unmistakable (Blau & Duncan, 1967; Kamens, 1971; Sewell, Haller, & Ohlendorf, 1970). Critics suggest that schools teach conformity; inhibit individualism, creativity, and independent thinking; foster mediocrity; and discriminate against non-Anglo, non-middle-class students. This implies that the impact of schools depends on the quantity and quality of resources, staff, programs, and facilities that are made available to students from certain regions, localities, neighborhoods, ethnic groups, or social class backgrounds. The issue is: Do measurable differences in the characteristics of schools lead to measurable differences in student outcomes? Do schools have an impact on their clientele? Methodologically adequate

Intersociety and intrasociety correlations of occupational prestige.

The possibility that recent evidence of international similarity in occupational prestige may be a spurious result of oversampling of students and other "modern" respondents in non-industrialized society studies is discussed and examined with survey data from Hausaland, a traditional, non-industrial society in northern Nigeria. Correlations between NORC prestige evaluations and evaluations of "modern" and "traditional" Nigerian respondents fail to support the alternative methodological explanation and provide additional support for the thesis of international occupational prestige uniformity. The need for comparisons among respondents from communities varying in size and complexity in non-industrial societies is indicated as a further test of the possibility of spuriously high international correlations, and the need for theoretical efforts to account for intersocietal uniformity in occupational prestige structures is emphasized.

Subcommunity Gladiatorial Competition: Civil Rights Leadership as a Competitive Process

This paper presents an analysis of the factors causing variation in the degree and character of civil rights leadership competition in 14 cities. Leadership competition is found to be closely linked with structural components of the Negro subcommunity. Organized competition is found in cities where leaders have several independent bases of support, while independent competition occurs where there is a weak community prestige structure. Also, evidence is presented which clarifies the social consequences of leadership competition. Organized competition facilitates intense activity, but individual competition most often results in sustained civil rights activity. Cities with no leadership competition seem best capable of maintaining a disciplined drive for specific goals. s is often the case, the folklore of American politics contains two conflicting statements about the value of competition for political leadership. On the one hand, competition for political office is assumed to be the measure of a thriving democracy. On the other hand, we tend to think of intensely competitive politics as the breeding ground for the spectacular demagogue. In particular, the American Negro civil rights movement is seen as an example of a situation in which high levels of competition have promoted irresponsible leadership.1 In this paper we will examine the civil rights movement in 14 cities, and present an analysis of the factors which cause variations in the degree and character of leadership competition and the way in which this competition has affected these movements.

Subcommunity Gladiatorial Competition: Civil Rights Leadership as a Competitive Process

This paper presents an analysis of the factors causing variation in the degree and character of civil rights leadership competition in 14 cities. Leadership competition is found to be closely linked with structural components of the Negro subcommunity. Organized competition is found in cities where leaders have several independent bases of support, while independent competition occurs where there is a weak community prestige structure. Also, evidence is presented which clarifies the social consequences of leadership competition. Organized competition facilitates intense activity, but individual competition most often results in sustained civil rights activity. Cities with no leadership competition seem best capable of maintaining a disciplined drive for specific goals.

Occupational Prestige in the United States, 1925-63

A correlation of .99 between prestige scores derived from the 1947 North-Hatt-NORC study of occupational prestige and a 1963 replication of it indicates that very few changes in occupational prestige ratings have occurred in the sixteen-year period. Cautioned by the recognition that the North-Hatt-NORC list of occupations is not a very representative or extensive sample of occupations, one can marshal evidence from other studies dating back to 1925 which does not invalidate the view that no appreciable changes in the prestige structure of occupations have occurred in the United States in the last four decades. While over the entire period, 1925-63, no systematic trends can be detected in the prestige of particular occupations, it is possible to show that systematic, though small, changes were ocurring between 1947 and 1963. Scientific occupations were increasing in prestige, culturally oriented occuaptions, were occurring between 1947 and 1963. Scientific occupations were increasing in prestige, culturally oriented occupations were falling, and artisans were enjoying a mild upward trend. Nevertheless, the overriding conclusion must be that the structure of occupational prestige is remarkably stable through time as well as space.

Life Situation and Subculture: A Comparison of Merited Prestige Judgments by Three Occupational Classes in Britain

s NUMBER OF STUDIES in Great Britain and the United ; States show that the various socioeconomic classes agree on the w Xoutlines of the occupational prestige structure. For the most part representaiives of different classes wll rank broad occupational categories in the same order. Within this loosely common framework, however, there is reason to expect some variation based on the posiiion of the rater. The widely held view that socioeconomic classes differ in the values to which they adhere, i.e. in the kinds of objects which they regard as worthy and unworthy, suggests that class judgments should differ on many matters.2 Furthermore, an individual's rating of an occupational group ordinarily takes into account his view of how others in society rate that group. The private views of some classes may differ more widely from their public judgments than do the private views of other classes.3 Recently Michael Young and Peter Willmott have secured empirical evidence that some ratings made by working-class people differ fiom the standard Hall-Jones gradings.4 Making use of interariews with a selected sample of British males, the present report offers a further exploraiion of class differences in judgments of prestige. The study employs a somewhat different kind of prestige judgment from that commonly used in other studies. Interviewees were asked for judgments of merzted prestige, defined as the social standing to which the rater feels that a designated person or group is entitled. The judgments of merited prestige are examined in three principal ways in this paper. First, the judgments made by representatives of different classes are compared. Second, the judgments are compared with estimates of actual social standing made by the same interviewees. And third, an effort is made to shed some preliminary light on why the typical member adopts the prevalent judgments of his class and why other members do not. 299

Are Social Classes in America Becoming More Rigid?

T HE subject of social class has received considerable attention during the past decade. Yet, much of the research has attempted to show that American social classes have become relatively static and well-defined. Implicitly or explicitly, most sociologists have taken for granted an increasing solidification of class lines in the United States during the past half-century.1 Among the factors which have been cited as contributing to this condition are the closing of the frontier, the decreased flow of immigration, the possible slow-down of industrial expansion, and the apparently decreasing fertility differentials among the various social classes. These act to restrict mobility and as such make for greater rigidity in the class system. This assumption of increased class solidification possibly has had other determinants. Research in small communities with clearly defined prestige or class structures convinced many that urban social systems exhibit a similar pattern. Secondly, structural-functional analysis has served as the frame of reference for a number of class studies. Inasmuch as this theory emphasizes staticism and integration, the historical effects of social change, disorganization, and conflicting values on the class structure have largely passed unnoticed.

The Social Status of Occupations: A Problem in Vocational Guidance

The object of the investigation here reported was twofold. In the first place, the writer was interested in obtaining information with regard to the social standing of the teaching profession. He was especially desirous of getting from high-school students some estimate of the status of this calling. In recent years much has been said and written regarding the altered condition of the teacher and the lowered prestige of those to whom society delegates the educational function. Many have assumed that the point has been reached in the degradation of the profession where one is justified in feeling some embarrassment if found within its ranks. In the second place, the writer wished to direct attention toward an important problem in vocational guidance which is seldom squarely faced. In all that has been written on occupations there is a tendency to disregard the fundamental question of social status. Detailed information has been gathered with respect to the financial remuneration, security, and hazards of occupations, but the question of social rating is ordinarily dismissed with the statement that a particular calling is highly respectable. These careful studies of the objective aspects of occupations are highly commendable, but the less tangible characteristics of vocational life should not be disregarded. It is even debatable that these characteristics are in peculiar need of examination. In order to throw some light on this question of status, fortyfive occupations were selected for study. These occupations were chosen more or less at random from the entire vocational range and were submitted to various groups of persons to be ranked according to their social standing. The list of occupations selected and the instructions for ranking them are as follows: