Status inconsistency

Status inconsistency , status incongruence or status discrepancy (opposite: status consistency or status congruence ) exists when a person ranks differently in terms of their social status on different rank dimensions.

Gerhard Lenski selected four different ranking dimensions (vertical hierarchies) for the measurement, on the one hand because of their importance for the national stratification system , on the other hand because of the data accessibility: income, occupation, educational level, ethnic origin.

He starts from the thesis that people strive to satisfy their needs as much as possible, even if this is at the expense of those around them. A person with inconsistent status ranks will therefore prefer, in a relevant action situation, to appear in accordance with his higher status in case of doubt. His interaction partners, on the other hand, will prefer to treat him according to his lower rank. It is then easy to foresee that such a situation will lead to mutual frustration and stress.

The attempt to replicate Lenski's results led to numerous studies with conflicting results. In 1990 Pamela Kerscheke-Risch carried out an investigation in which she tried to explain the contradicting results of the status inconsistency theory with numbers from the ALLBUS from 1980 and 1986. In this context, she made a descriptive, non- judgmental distinction between positive and negative status inconsistency according to the direction of the deviation. With her study, she demonstrated that only negative status inconsistency leads to liberal / progressive voting behavior and that blanket judgments according to which status inconsistency generally leads to stress and to progressive / liberal voting behavior are incorrect. But even among those with negative status inconsistency, two opposing behavioral tendencies were found: on the one hand, the inclination to political protest, on the other hand, the inclination towards disinterest and apathy. The effects mentioned showed up regardless of whether the people subjectively perceived their objective status inconsistency or not.

When determining "status congruence", Andrzej Malewski focuses on the discrepancy between the status factors presented by a person and the normative expectations of his social environment in this regard.

In a society that makes it the norm that one should always be superior to the other, inconsistency of status will make those affected by it difficult to interact outside of their own primary groups. One hypothesis is that they increasingly tend to question the relevant stratification system and the political order that legitimizes it.

The concept of status inconsistency offers a way of explaining why individuals who could actually be counted as part of the social elite due to certain status characteristics may under certain circumstances show political solidarity with those of lower status.

literature

George C. Homans : Status among Clerical Workers. Human Organization, 12 (1953), pp. 5-10
Gerhard Lenski: Status Crystallization: A Non-vertical Dimension of Social Status. American Sociological Review 19 (1954), pp. 405-413
Gerhard Lenski : Social Participation and Status Crystallization. American Sociological Review 21 (1956), pp. 458-464
Irwin W. Goffman: Status Consistency and Preference for Change in Power Distribution. American Sociological Review, 22 (1957), pp. 275-281
A. Zaleznik et al .: The Motivation, Productivity, and Satisfaction of Workers. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1958
Elton Jackson: Status Consistency and Symptoms of Stress. American Sociological Review 27 (1962) pp. 469-480
Elton Jackson, Peter Burke : Status and Symptoms of Stress: Additive and Interaction Effects. American Sociological Review, 30 (1965), pp. 556-564

Single receipts

^ Gerhard E. Lenski: Power and Privilege. A Theory of Social Stratification. McGraw-Hill New York London Sydney 1966. p. 86 ff.
↑ Pamela Kerschke-Risch: Status inconsistency . F.Enke Verlag, Stuttgart; Zeitschrift für Soziologie, Vol. 19, Issue 3, June 1990, pp. 195–202
^ Andrzej Malewski: The Degree of Status Incongruence and its Effects. In: In: Reinhard Bendix, Seymour Martin Lipset, (Ed.): Class, Status, and Power. Social Stratification in Comparative Perspective. Routledge Kegan Paul Ltd. London, 2nd ed. 1966. ISBN 0-7100-1073-7 . P. 304. (Reprinted from: The Polish Sociological Bulletin, No. 1 (7)) 1963.)

[1] Gerhard E. Lenski: Power and Privilege. A Theory of Social Stratification. McGraw-Hill New York London Sydney 1966. p. 86 ff.

[2] Pamela Kerschke-Risch: Status inconsistency . F.Enke Verlag, Stuttgart; Zeitschrift für Soziologie, Vol. 19, Issue 3, June 1990, pp. 195–202

[3] Andrzej Malewski: The Degree of Status Incongruence and its Effects. In: In: Reinhard Bendix, Seymour Martin Lipset, (Ed.): Class, Status, and Power. Social Stratification in Comparative Perspective. Routledge Kegan Paul Ltd. London, 2nd ed. 1966. ISBN 0-7100-1073-7 . P. 304. (Reprinted from: The Polish Sociological Bulletin, No. 1 (7)) 1963.)