Psychological implications of social structure: Meanings of social class background in college-educated women's lives.

Abstract

This dissertation explores the psychological meaning of social class background in the lives of women who graduated from college in the mid- to late-1960s. Social class background was expected to influence individuals' assumptions, values, and world views even in adulthood. Women from the Radcliffe College Class of 1964, the Smith College Class of 1964, and the University of Michigan Class of 1967 were the participants in this study. Effects of social class background were assessed in the domains of personality traits and motives, and in four other specific contexts: childhood peer relationships, college experiences, work, and marriage. In general, there were very few effects of class background in personality traits, although women who were raised middle-class tended to be seen as judging themselves and others in conventional terms. Women from upper-class backgrounds scored highest on the need for power in 1990, but there were no class background differences in power motive scores in 1960. There were significant effects of social class background in all four of the other contexts. Women from working-class backgrounds reported more experiences of alienation in their childhood peer relationships and in their experiences at college. Also in the college context, women from working-class backgrounds were most likely to describe college as an opportunity for social mobility, while women from upper-class backgrounds were most likely to describe their attendance at college as expected of them and as a continuation of a family tradition. In the work domain, women from working-class backgrounds were most concerned with the economic aspects of work, women from middle-class backgrounds were most concerned with the mastery and lifestyle opportunities at work, and women from upper-class backgrounds were most likely to describe reasons for not participating in the paid labor force such as adequate financial resources and their own and others' lack of expectation for paid employment. Finally, in the marriage domain, women from working-class backgrounds scored highest on a measure of the importance of reciprocity in marriage. These results suggest both that class background, as distinct from current class membership, continues to exert a psychological effect into adulthood, and that position in the class system is associated with both psychological strengths and constraints.