SOCIAL CLASS CHAPTER 4: ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES:Occupation

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Consumer Psychology (PSY - 514)

LESSON24

SOCIAL CLASS

CHAPTER 4: ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES

Understanding:

· Social Class

· Measurement of Social Class

Social Class

The concept of Social Class is used to assign individuals or families to a social class category. Social Class may best

be e thought of as a continuum a range of social positions on which each member of society can be placed.

Researchers prefer to divide the continuum into small number of specific social classes or strata.

Division of members of a society into a hierarchy of distinct status classes, is such that members of each class have

relatively the same status and members of other classes have either more or less

Social class is treated as a personal phenomenon one that reflects an individual's sense of belonging or

identification with others. This feeling of social group membership is referred to as Class Consciousness.

The Measurement of Social Class

How would one measure the social class? There is no general agreement amongst the researchers as to how should

they measure social class. To a great extent researchers are uncertain about the underlying dimensions of social

class structure. Systematic approach to measuring the social class fall into following broad categories

1. Subjective Measures

2. Reputation Measures

3. Objective Measures

1. Subjective Measures

Individuals are asked to estimate their own social class positions. Typical to this approach is the following

question:

Which one of the following four categories best describe your class?

Lower class

Lower Middleclass

Upper Middleclass

Upper class

Do not know/refuse to answer

Subjective Measures tend to produce overabundance of people who classify themselves as middleclass

understating the "fringe people" who could be classified as either lower or upper

Class Consciousness

Social class is treated as a personal phenomenon, one that reflects an individual's sense of belonging or

identification with others. This feeling of social group membership is referred to as Class consciousness.

Life of the Nation Survey

Every year in Japan a life of the nation survey is conducted. Citizens place themselves in any one of the categories

including:

Upper

Upper Middle

Middle Middle

Consumer Psychology (PSY - 514)

Lower Middle

Lower Class

Results of the survey have been as below

Late 1950's 70% (in any middle class)

· 1960-today 90% (in any middle class)

Issues

Subjective Measures tend to produce overabundance of people who classify themselves as middleclass. There is

difficulty in understanding the "fringe people" who could be classified as either lower or upper

2. Reputational Measures

Reputational measures require selected community informants to make initial judgments concerning the social

class memberships of others within the community. The final task of assigning community members to social

class positions belongs to the trained researcher.

Sociologists use the RA to obtain better understanding on the specific class structure of the communities.

Consumer Researchers are concerned with measurement of social class to understand markets and consumption

behavior better not social structure. Reputation approach proved to be impractical

3. Objective Measures

Objective measures consist of selected demographic or socioeconomic variables concerning the individual(s) under

study. These variables are measured through questionnaires that ask respondents several factual questions about

themselves.

Variables of Objective Measures

Variables of Objective Measures may include:

Occupation

Education

Income

1. Occupation

Occupation is the best documented measure of social class. Importance of occupation as a social class indicator is

dramatized by the frequency with which people ask they meet the first time what do you do for a living?

Marketers think in terms of specific occupations when defining their target markets e.g. accountants are our best

customers; we target our 7 days Northern Areas of Pakistan trips to executives and professionals.

The likelihood that a particular occupation would be receptive to certain products or services provides the basis

for an occupational Screener questionnaire for FGD's

Self Employed

There is a world wide increasing trend toward self employment amongst business and professional people.

Business executives and professionals who are self employed or entrepreneurs are likely to be wealthier than their

counterparts. The link between self employment and higher income is consistent with the trend of increasing

number of graduates working for themselves rather t n going to work for big business

2. Education

The level of a person's formal education is a commonly accepted approximation of social class standing. The more

education one has, the more likely it is that

a. The person is well paid

b. Has an admired or respected position

3. Income

Consumer Psychology (PSY - 514)

Family income is another socioeconomic variable frequently used to approximate social class standing. Researchers

favoring income as a measure of social class use either amount or source of income.

Difference between wealth and income is however, always drawn

Wealth not income is the primary driver to financial freedom. Wealth not income is a function of savings, to

achieve wealth one has to improve one's net worth not just one's income. Wealth deals with the creation of

resources and money deals with more with the consumption. For wealth one needs to network and build personal

alliances for getting the right information. On needs to find way to minimize expenses to increase the ability to

create wealth

Issues

Not all consumer researchers agree that it is an appropriate index of social class. A blue collar electrician and a

white collar administrative assistant may both earn the same amount of money. However, because of the social

class difference both will spend their money differently. So it is the difference in values that is important

discriminat in class not the income. Substantiating importance of consumer's personal values rather than the

amount of income, is the observation that affluence may be more a function of attitude and behavior than of

income level.

4. Other Variables

Other variables may include:

· Quality of Neighborhood

· The price value of residence

· Possessions have been used by sociologists

Two Categories of Objective Measures

Two Categories of Objective Measures include:

1) Single Variable Indexes

2) Composite Variable Indexes

1. Single Variable Indexes

Single Variable Index uses just one variable to evaluate social class membership e.g. occupation, education or

income

2. Composite Variables

Composite variables systematically combine a number of socioeconomic factors to form one overall measure of

social class standing. Such indexes may better reflect the complexity of social class than single index variable.

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