Continuities in Theories of Status Consistency and Cognitive Dissonance

This paper attempts to place an explanation of the consequences of status inconisistenlcy within the framework of dissonance theory. It integrates the Theory of Social Certitude, the Principle of Expectancy Congruence, and the Theory of Distributive Justice into the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. The combined theory is evaluated in terms of its utility in explaining the empirical consequences of status inconsistency. A series of predictions are made regarding particular behavioral responses to specific inconsistency profiles. T he concept of status consistency (status crystallization or status congruence) is gradually assuming greater prominence in the literature of social stratification. Its major weakness lies in its use as a structural characteristic predicting behavioral consequences without an explicitly stated social-psychological theory of motivation to account for these predictions. Three such theories have been proposed. They are Homans' Theory of Distributive Justice,1 Zaleznik's Theory of Social Certitude,2 and Sampson's Principle of Expectancy Congruence.3 The last-named is an attempt to explain the findings of status consistency research within the framework of Festinger's Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.4 Sampson's approach is similar to that of Zaleznik but has the advantage of being more general. However, it is still incomplete as it does not adequately explain all consequences of status inconsistency. It is suggested herein that the Theory of Distributive Justice can bridge this gap if it can be integrated into a dissonance framework. Two attempts to do this have been malde.5 However, they represent mere beginnings as they are limited as to degree of specification and detailed analysis. The present paper hopes 1 George C. Homans, Social Behavior: Its Elein7cntary Form1ls (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1961). 2 A. Zaleznik, C. R. Christenson, and F. J. Roethlisberger, in collaboration with George C. Homans, The Motivation, Produtctivity, anid Satisfactioit of Workcirs (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958), pp. 56-66. 3 Edward E. Sampson, "Status Congruence and Cognitive Consistency," Socioiiietry, 26 (June 1963), pp. 146-162. 4 Leon Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissoaonce (Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson & Co., 1957). a James A. Geschwender, "Explorations in the Theory of Social Movements and Revolutions," unpublished manuscript; and C. Norman Alexander, Jr. and Richard L. Simpson, "Balance Theory and Distributive Justice," Sociological Inqitiry, 34 (Spring 1964), pp. 182-192. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.138 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 07:17:27 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms STATUS CONSISTENCY AND DISSONANCE 161 to complete the task and to spell out in some detail further implications of the combined theory. The strategy of attack will be to briefly describe the Theory of Social Certitude and the Principle of Expectancy Congruence, to relate them to each other, and to evaluate this combination. The Theory of Distributive Justice xvill then be described and integrated into dissonance theory. This combination will subsequently be evaluated as to its ability to explain the empirical findings of status consistency and further theoretical implications will be derived.