The Differential Prestige of Situs Categories

Prestige judgments between proposed situs categories were secured from an area probability sample of 340 subjects in order to test the current assumption that situs categories are equally evaluated. The consistency of these judgments suggests, however, that situses are differentially evaluated. Some implications of this finding for situs analysis and several technical problems which were encountered are discussed. T he concept of occupational situs was proposed by Hatt as a horizontal differentiation of the occupational structure.' More recently Morris and Murphy have refined the concept2 and have presented data which suggest that situs categories are associated with subjective class identification and political preference.3 To these writers the occupational structure in America can be characterized as a series of more or less distinct hierarchies or "ladders" of occupations. The assertion has been that in principle each of these parallel (i.e. not themselves ranked), situs ladders includes a range of occupations from high to low socioeconomic status. It is the purpose of this paper to present some data bearing upon the assumption that situses themselves are not differentially evaluated. No general assessment of the situs concept is intended. Hatt isolated eight situs categories using as a major criterion the differences in the kind of relationship between occupations and the consuming public.4 These include: political, professional, busintess, recreation and aesthetics, agriculture, manual work, military, and service situses. He expected that subjects would be unable to make consistent ranking judgments between situs categories. In an exploratory analysis of part of the NORC data,5 Hatt found that he was able to derive Guttman scales of judgnments of occupations within situses and especially within smaller clusters or "families" of occupations but not for occupations falling in different situs categories. The sample of oc cupations and subjects used in this study, however, was relatively small.6 Reiss has recently reported a secondary analysis of responses of a larger sample of NORC subjects, including as nmany as fifteen occupations.7 This study suggests that satisfactory Guttnian scales can be derived for occupations falling in several different situs categories. In general, the same rank order is found using other scaling procedures, altlhough it does seem clear that the general standing of occupations is not a single dimensional phenomenon.8 Morris and Murphy have noted that Hatt's situs distinctions do not nmake consistent use ol * The writer would like to acknowledge the helpful assistance of Dr. Theodore R. Anderson of the State University of Iowa. 1 Paul K. Hatt, "Occupations and Social Stratification," Am,erican Journal of Sociology, 45 (May 1950), pp. 533-543. 2 Richard T. Morris and Raymond J. Murphy, "The Situs Dimension in Occupational Structure," A nerican Sociological Reviezw, 24 (April 1959), pp. 231-239. 3 Raymond J. Murphy and Richard T. Morris, "Occupational Situs, Subjective Class Identification, Political Affiliation," Amnerican Sociological Revziew, 24 (June 1961), pp. 383-392. 4 Hatt, op. cit., p. 539. 5 N.O.R.C. Survey No. 244, (March 1946). Summarized in: "Jobs and Occupations: A Popular Evaluation," reprinted in Reinhard Bendix and Seymour Martin Lipset, editors, Class, Status and Pozwer: A Reader in, Social Stratificationz (Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press, 1953). 6 Hatt's analysis was based upon a random sample of 100 subjects and three systematic samples ol occupations (25, 16, and 12 occupations). When this is broken down into situses and families the size of the sample is less impressive. Within situs categories Guttman scales with their coefficients of reproducibility are figured on as few as two and as many as eight occupations, and from a minimum of four (in the case of more detailed breakdowns, a minimum of 'two), and a maximum of 16 responses. See Table 1 in Hatt, op. cit. 7 Albert J. Reiss, Jr., Occiqpationis anid Social Statuis (New York: The Free Press, 1961), p. 94. 8Ibid.., p. 105 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.136 on Tue, 05 Jul 2016 05:34:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms