Interaction of All Factors All of the above’ factors interact in ways impossible to measure. As an example, how should we interpret the findings of Jencks’s study of the earnings of brothers? He found that brothers raised in the same family who made similar test scores and who had the same amount of schooling and work …
THE LUCK FACTOR. Many people who really work very hard and follow all the rules fail to succeed, while success sometimes seems to fall ‘into others’ laps. One could hardly plan or arrange for one’s immediate superior to drop dead at-just the moment when one is ideally qualified to move into the vacated position, .but many …
The Value-Stretch Hypothesis This hypothesis offers one explanation for those who accept mobility values but still fail. The values stretch hypothesis, developed by Rodman [1963,1974], states that many people sincerely accept certain goals and values but unknowingly follow behavior which blocks attainment of their goals. The hypothesis has two tenets: (1) that these persons are not strongly …
Mobility “Game Playing” This has received little study, but it seems’ likely that a good deal of “game playing” and artful “presentation of self” (see p. 108) may be involved in upward mobility. Graduating seniors are coached on how to conduct themselves before the corporate recruiter. To be well-liked may be as important as to …
The Deferred-Gratification Pattern This consists of postponing immediate satisfaction in order to gain some later goal. Saving one’s money to go to college or to start. a’ business is an example. The students who are now studying this textbook instead of playing poker or I goofing off” are’ practicing the deferred-gratification pattern (DCP). The middle class …
Education Education is an important rnobility ladder. Even a well-paid working-class job is hard to find unless one can read directional and do simple arithmetic. About one in five Americans is “functionally illiterate,” arid most of these people spend their lives on the program” and ends with the presidency. To preset on this second mobility ladder without a college degree is …
Individual Factors While structural factors may determine the proportion of high-status, well-paid positions in a society, individual factors-greatly affect whi.ch persons get them. ABILITY DIFFERENCES. I, Other things being equal, the talented usually earn more than the untalented. There is still much we do not know about ability-just what it is, how to measure it, and …
MOBILITY AIDS AND BARRIERS. Even in a relatively open class society, upward mobility is not open equally to everyone. As pointed out before, middle-class children typically have learning experiences which are more helpful in gaining upward mobility than the experiences of lower-class children. Conflict scholars maintain that credentials, tests. recommendations, the “old-boy network,”! and overt discrimination against racial …
THE DUAL ECONOMY. Many developing counties have t largely separate economics. One traditional economy of poor peasants consuming most of what they produce and selling little on the market. The other is a modern, cash economy in which people produce the market. Mobility In the modern sector may be rapid even while the traditional sector is …
DIFFERENTIAL FERTILITY. Although birthrate differences have narrowed in ,recent years (see Chapter 17); there is still a good deal of truth in the saying, “the lich get richer, and the poor get babies.” The combination of an expansion of higher-status jobs and a relatively low birthrate in the upper classes means that the upper classes do not …
