Voluntary association membership as a residual of status inconsistency

The concept of status crystallization (Lenski: 1954) considers, simultaneously, the influence which status rankings on the education, occupation, and income hierarchies exert on the individual. Incongruent rankings on various status dimensions are thought to predispose an individual to a number of select reactions, most notably, the expression of political extremism and the desire for social change. In addition, past research suggests that voluntary association membership may serve as an integrative mechanism at both the social psychological and the sociological levels. The relationship between the nature of the status inconsistency experienced and the expression of liberal and/or conservative political and economic ideologies was examined, with the expectation that educational level would be the most crucial determinant of political ideology and income, of economic ideology. As well, the nature of the relationship between membership in instrumental voluntary associations and status inconsistency was investigated. Structured interviews were administered to respondents via telephone communication. The McClosky scale of conservatism (1958) and the Laumann scale of economic liberalism (1966) were employed to determine the relationship between the type of inconsistency experienced and the expression of liberal or conservative ideologies. Analysis of the data failed to reveal statistically significant results. The relationship between inconsistency and the expression of an extreme ideology was not altered when the nature of the inconsistency was examined. As well, there was no difference between status consistent and inconsistent respondents with respect to the number of instrumental voluntary association memberships reported.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Department dc:contributor.department

Sociology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Year dc:date.issued

1972

Author dc:creator

• Ward, Susan Scannell

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/113468

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/113468