Position in the Class Structure and Psychological Functioning in the United States, Japan, and Poland

Abstract

This article conceptualizes and indexes social class for a Western capitalist country (the United States), a non-Western capitalist country (Japan), and a socialist country (Poland). The idea that social classes are to be distinguished in terms of ownership, control of the means of production, and control over the labor power of others is adapted to the historical, cultural, economic, and political circumstances of each country. It is hypothesized that men who are more advantageously located in the class structure of their society are more likely to value self-direction for their children, to be intellectually flexible, and to be self-directed in their orientations than men who are less advantageously located. The hypothesis that occupational self-direction plays a crucial role in explaining the psychological effect of social class in all three countries is also confirmed. There was no firm basis for hypothesizing the relationships between social class and a sense of distress. The pattern is cross-nationally inconsistent, in part because occupational self-direction does not have the cross-nationally consistent effect on the sense of distress that it has on other facets of psychological functioning.