To insure the widest possible test of the hypothesis that individuals with lower ascribed or achieved status will demonstrate lower levels of self-esteem than higher status individuals, 972 subjects completed questionnaires which included the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale.North Florida residents were sampled using a disproportionate stratified random sampling technique. Seven groups were identified: psychiatric patients, prisoners, black or white college students, city residents, married black residents, and service-oriented professionals. When analyzing data for each group, the results indicated that persons with lower ascribed status (blacks, females, and older Americans) did not, as a group, have lower self-esteem scores than persons with higher ascribed status (whites, males, and younger Americans). However, persons with lower achieved status in the areas of educational attainment and occupational prestige did have lower self-esteem scores than did persons of higher status. Further, having an institutionalized status4onfinement at a state psychiatric hospital or a maximum security prison-is correlated with low self-esteem scores. Some possible explanations of these findings are explored.The theoretical construct, self-esteem, derived from symbolic interaction theory, has been defined by Crandall(1973:45) as "liking and respect for oneself which has some realistic basis." Presumably, the individual arrives at a decision concerning hidher personal worth after a process of self-evaluation. In this judgmental process the individual approves, disapproves, or ranks hidher performances, attributes, and/or capacities according to criteria which he/she has internalized. These criteria typically reflect the individual's status in society. As Cooley (1902) and Mead (1934) postulated, self attitudes are reflections of social values and are internalized through the process of socialization. To the degree that a group of people are identified as having positive ascribed and achieved attributes, one would expect positive self-evaluation and, therefore, high self-esteem.American minorities have always had to deal with the problem of balancing discrepancies between their own value systems, attributes, etc. and those of the larger society. Concomitantly, minority groups have had to deal with the impact of these discrepancies on their self-attitudes. Kramer (197055) noted, "The way in which one is identified in the larger society (as well as where one is located in the social structure) affects the way in which one identifies oneself." Therefore, it seems logical that minority and/or low status groups are likely to judge themselves-as a g r o u p l e s s positively than members of majority or high status groups.
"Four central constructs of the post-modern perspective are extended and tested using secondary analysis of [U.S.] Census data and the NORC General Social Survey: 1972-94 data sets. The modified postmodern themes of: (1) the decline of a single universal family organizational standard, and (2) growing cultural diversity...were supported by examining changes in American family structure, attitudes toward such structural changes, and changing attitudes toward marital and family patterns over the last quarter century. However, little support was found for the greater use of, and reliance on, (3) the mass media. Mixed results were found on the fourth construct, greater variance in, and/or loss of, personal happiness or personal or family life satisfaction."
One of the essential components of symbolic interaction theory has been the concept of self. Since the late ninteenth century, social and behavioral scientists such as William James have used the notion of self to develop &dquo;unifying integrating concepts to handle problems of consistency of the person and the continuity of this consistency over time&dquo; (Sherif, 1968). Sherwood (1965) has noted that the self as a theoretical construct is multidimensional and that it must include both structural and affective qualities. The essential affective quality of the self has been labeled self-esteem, which Crandall (1973: 45) defined as: &dquo;liking and respect for one's self which has some realistic basis.&dquo; Coopersmith (1967: 2-6) noted that the evaluative attitudes towards one's self are relatively enduring and that the judgmental process involved in &dquo;self-evaluation&dquo; assumes that the &dquo;individual examines his performance, capacities and attributes ... and arrives at a decision of his own worthiness&dquo; (1967: 6).
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