Evidence for a Social Psychological View of the Status Attainment Process: Four Studies Compared

Abstract

Data from a fifteen-year panel study of males, age 17 in 1957 (N = 442) and age 32 in 1972 (N = 340), are adduced to examine a social psychological theory of the status attainment process. Estimates are compared with those based on conceptually similar though operationally nonidentical structural equation models reported in previous longitudinal research. The comparison generally provides strong evidence in support of the social psychological explanation. Research implications of the convergences and divergences of findings across studies are discussed as are the data requirements for more adequately specifying social psychological models of the status attainment process. In The American Occupational Structure Blau and Duncan documented the extent of status transmission operating in contemporary U.S. society, i.e., son's socioeconomic achievements are not independent of family's relative standing in the prestige hierarchy. The classic study provided empirical support for widely held hypotheses about education as a mechanism for the selection and distribution of individuals within different social strata (Sorokin) and as an agent of socialization for inculcating societal values, *This research has been supported by the United States Office of Education (1958-61); by National Science Foundation Grant GS29031 (1971-74); by the Manpower Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, Grant 91-55-72-49 (1972-73); by the Grant Foundation, Inc. (197475); by Michigan State University (East Lansing), University of Wisconsin (Madison) and Washington State University (Pullman) Agricultural Experiment Stations; and by the Social Research Center, Washington State University. We gratefully acknowledge the considerable contributions of David L. Featherman and T. Michael Carter to the collection and preparation of the data on which this analysis is based. Critical evaluations of an earlier draft of this manuscript were provided by William H. Sewell, Karl L. Alexander, Duane F. Alwin, Lee Freese, and Vaughn R. A. Call. An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, 1976.