scholarly journals Champagne taste, beer budget: The new poor’s incongruent capital and consumption

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei-Fen Chen ◽  
Michelle R. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
The United States ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Downward Mobility ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Price Range ◽  
Fragmented Identity ◽  
Consumer Culture Theory

This study examines the shopping preferences of “new poor” consumers who have incongruent capital: lower economic capital and higher noneconomic capital. The new poor exemplify consumers with ambiguous and fragmented identity; thus, they do not fit marketers’ static categorization of consumer segments. In the marketplace, these consumers must compromise between their upper-class taste and lower-class earnings. Taking a Consumer Culture Theory approach to examine consumers’ identity projects in social inequality, we conduct 20 interviews among self-defined new poor consumers in the United States and Taiwan to explore how their dynamic social class consciousness is reflected in everyday consumption. The findings suggest that new poor consumers perform “compromised ideal consumption” in which they strategically interpret and wield their remaining capital to signal social class differences, while employing adaptive and active capitalization acts to access goods that should have been beyond their price range. The findings illuminate how incongruent, devalued capital reproduces social stratification in the context of downward mobility.

Biological Aspects of a High Socio-Economic Group

1970 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
John B. Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
Population Sample ◽  
Stabilizing Selection ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Social Scale ◽  
The Social ◽  
Biological Aspects ◽  
The Mean

Data are presented on the social backgrounds and IQs of a sample of scientists, their male sibs and their fathers. The range of IQ in the scientists is similar to the range of scores expected of the higher 25% of a representative general population sample.The IQs of the scientists showed a positive correlation with social class. Differences in IQ between the scientists and their fathers in each social class are related to the distance the scientists have moved up the social scale. In the twenty-two families in which the IQs of the father and two male sibs are known the upwardly mobile sibs tend to have higher IQs than the non-mobile or downwardly mobile sibs.In Class II there is evidence that stabilizing selection operates on IQ to maintain the mean IQ level. The effect on social stratification of such selection, together with increased educational opportunity, is discussed.

scholarly journals Partner Commitment in Close Relationships Mitigates Social Class Differences in Subjective Well-Being

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacinth Jia Xin Tan ◽  
Michael W. Kraus ◽  
Emily Impett ◽  
Dacher Keltner
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Close Relationships ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
The Relationship

Close relationships can be a source of positive subjective well-being for lower-class individuals, but stresses of lower-class environments tend to negatively impact those relationships. The present research demonstrates that a partner’s commitment in close relationships buffers against the negative impact of lower-class environments on relationships, mitigating social class differences in subjective well-being. In two samples of close relationship dyads, we found that when partners reported low commitment to the relationship, relatively lower-class individuals experienced poorer well-being than their upper-class counterparts, assessed as life satisfaction among romantic couples (Study 1) and negative affect linked to depression among ethnically diverse close friendships (Study 2). Conversely, when partners reported high commitment to the relationship, deficits in the well-being of lower-class relative to upper-class individuals were attenuated. Implications of these findings for upending the class divide in subjective well-being are discussed.

scholarly journals Anglicisms and calques in upper social class in pre-revolutionary Cuba (1930–1959): A sociolinguistic analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Antonio Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
The United States ◽  
Geographical Proximity ◽  
Print Advertising ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Cuban Spanish ◽  
Socioeconomic Stratum ◽  
Social Events

<p>The geographical proximity and socioeconomic dependence on the United States brought about a deep rooted anglicization of the Cuban Spanish lexis and social strata, especially throughout the Neocolonial period (1902–1959). This study is based on the revision of a renowned newspaper of that time, Diario de la Marina, and the corresponding elaboration of a corpus of English-induced loanwords. Diario de la Marina particularly targeted upper social class, and only crónicas sociales (society pages’ columns) and print advertising were revised because of their fully descriptive texts, which encoded the ruling class ideology and consumerism. The findings show that there existed a high number of lexical and cultural anglicisms in the sociolect in question, and that the sociolinguistic anglicization was openly embraced by the upper socioeconomic stratum, entailing a differentiating sign of sophistication and social stratification. Likewise, a number of the anglicisms collected, particularly those related with social events, are unused in contemporary Cuban Spanish, which suggests a major semantic shifting in this sociolect after 1959.</p>

Man-Made Medicine and Women's Health: The Biopolitics of Sex/Gender and Race/Ethnicity

1994 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Krieger ◽  
Elizabeth Fee
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
White Men ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Biological Variables ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
19Th And 20Th Century

National vital statistics in the United States present data in terms of race, sex, and age, treated as biological variables. Some races are clearly of more interest than others: data are usually available for whites and blacks, and increasingly for Hispanics, but seldom for Native Americans or Asians and Pacific Islanders. These data indicate that white men and women generally have the best health and that men and women, within each racial/ethnic group, have different patterns of disease. Obviously, the health status of men and women differs for conditions related to reproduction, but it differs for many nonreproductive conditions as well. In national health data, patterns of disease by race and sex are emphasized while social class differences are ignored. This article discusses how race and sex became such all-important, self-evident categories in 19th and 20th century biomedical thought and practice. It examines the consequences of these categories for knowledge about health and for the provision of health care. It then presents alternative approaches to understanding the relationship between race/ethnicity, gender, and health, with reference to the neglected category of social class.

Social-Class Correlates of Selected Cognitive Functions

1965 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-68
Author(s):  
Ralph Scott
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Motivational Conflict

Using data from four tests of cognitive functions for 126 14- to 16-yr.-old students certain social-class differences appeared related to levels of need content. The observation that lower-class Ss tended to prefer items of lower need levels in the Maslow hierarchy when confronted with reality situations and higher need contents in fantasy-choice situations was interpreted as reflecting motivational conflict.

The impact of social class and social cognitive domain on northeastern Brazilian mothers' and daughters' conceptions of parental control

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Tereza Lins-Dyer ◽  
Larry Nucci
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Cognitive Domain ◽  
Mothers And Daughters ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Mother Daughter Relationship ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Actual Control

The impact of social class was explored on Brazilian mothers' and daughters' conceptions of who should, and who actually would control decisions regarding the daughters' actions. Participants were 126 middle class and 126 lower class girls aged 11–16 years, and their mothers. No social class differences were found in daughters' judgments about who should control decisions. Lower class daughters perceived mothers as exerting greater actual control than did middle class daughters. Lower class mothers claimed higher control over prudential and conventional matters than did middle class mothers. Findings that daughters and mothers in both social classes viewed personal matters as under the daughters' control challenged the notion that interdependence is fostered by the mother–daughter relationship and are consistent with more recent views that an individualism–collectivism dichotomy should not be used to characterize cultures.

Verbal Activity of Middle- and Lower-Class Parents When Teaching Their Child

1977 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 575-578
Author(s):  
Theodore Jacob
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Family Member ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Family Interaction ◽  
Experimental Task ◽  
Verbal Activity ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Teaching Interaction ◽  
Middle Class Families

The present study attempted to evaluate the influence of social class insofar as determining patterns of parental activity during a parent-to-child teaching interaction. In all respects subject composition was the same as previously reported. The experimental task required parents to explain the meaning of a proverb to their son, and during this interaction total talking time was recorded for each family member. Results supported expectations that fathers spoke more than mothers in middle-class families and almost equal to mothers in lower-class families. The meaning of class differences in family interaction is discussed and directions for research are described.

Social Class Differences in Language Predictability: Written

1973 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Millicent E. Poole
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Experimental Situation ◽  
First Year ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Class Origin ◽  
First Year University

Two cloze-tests were constructed from written essays encoded by 80 first-year university students of middle-class and working-class origin. In a second experimental situation, 46 tertiary subjects were asked to ‘fill in’ the missing cloze deletions of these written passages. Within the terms of the Bernstein elaborated-restricted code framework it was posited that, since working class language is thought to be characterized by greater lexical and structural predictability, these passages would facilitate the decoding task. The analysis was based firstly on a ‘verbatim’ cloze completion criterion and secondly utilized an information theory approach. Results on the first criterion indicated significant social class differences (higher predictability of working-class messages on lexical and total cloze deletions); whereas those on the second criterion were nonsignificant. Possible implications of the study for teaching were explored.

scholarly journals Contact Heterogeneity as a Mediator of the Relationship between Social Class and Altruistic Giving

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 237802312096933
Author(s):  
Andreas Tutić ◽  
Ulf Liebe
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Objective Measure ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
The United States ◽  
Occupational Prestige ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Interaction Rituals ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Positive Effect

Research on the relationship between social class and altruistic giving has provided inconsistent evidence. Using the dictator game, in which one participant is endowed with a certain amount of money and has to allocate this amount between herself and another individual, several studies found that higher-class actors have a lower tendency toward altruistic giving than lower-class actors; other studies found the opposite pattern. We show that social class has a positive effect on altruistic giving in the dictator game with a sizeable sample of residents of the United States using both an objective measure of social class—that is, a composite of income, education, and occupational prestige—and a subjective measure. Shedding more light on the mechanisms underlying the positive effect of social class, it is demonstrated that class affects altruistic giving not so much by differences in empathic concern but by differences in the marginal utility of money and contact heterogeneity. It is argued that the latter effect can be derived from Collins’s theory of interaction rituals and class cultures.

scholarly journals A brighter future: The effect of social class on responses to future debt

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-107
Author(s):  
Harrison J. Schmitt ◽  
Lucas A. Keefer ◽  
Daniel Sullivan ◽  
Sheridan Stewart ◽  
Isaac F. Young
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Personal Control ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
The United States ◽  
Exploratory Investigation ◽  
Lower Social Class ◽  
Subjective Social Class ◽  
Brighter Future

The present study serves as an exploratory investigation of the role of social class in responses to the threat of future debt. Previous work has shown that individuals of high and low subjective social class differ in the ways that they respond to a broad range of threats and uncertainties about the future. Across three studies, we found that lower social class individuals expect more future debt and suffer greater attendant stress than higher class individuals (Study 1). We found that experimental manipulations of debt salience increased stress for lower class and not for higher class individuals (Studies 2-3). Likewise, we found that higher class individuals experienced higher affect balance and perceptions of personal control when the possibility of future debt was made salient, specifically as a function of decreased fatalism about future debt (Study 3). These three studies reveal yet another situation in which individuals of lower and higher social class respond differently to threat, and serve as an important step toward understanding the psychological ramifications of rising debt in the United States.

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