The role of social class in the formation of identity: A study of public and elite private college students

Journal of Social Psychology

Volumn 147, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 137-157

  Aries, Elizabeth ^a   Seider, Maynard ^b  

^a AMHERST COLLEGE   (United States)

^b MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS   (United States)

Author keywords

Identity; Self; Social identity; Work

Indexed keywords

ADULT; ARTICLE; COMPARATIVE STUDY; FEMALE; HUMAN; MALE; MIDDLE AGED; OCCUPATION; ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; SELF CONCEPT; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; SOCIAL CLASS; SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY; STUDENT; UNITED STATES; UNIVERSITY;

ADULT; FEMALE; HUMANS; MALE; MASSACHUSETTS; MIDDLE AGED; OCCUPATIONS; PRIVATE SECTOR; PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL; PUBLIC SECTOR; SELF CONCEPT; SOCIAL CLASS; SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION; STUDENTS; UNIVERSITIES;

EID: 38449110138     PISSN: 00224545     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3200/SOCP.147.2.137-157     Document Type: Article

References (64)

1. Abrams, D., & Hogg, M. A. (1990). An introduction to the social identity approach. In D. Abrams (Ed.), Social identity theory: Constructive and critical advances (pp. 1-9). New York: Springer-Verlag.
2. Alix, E. K., & Lantz, H. R. (1973). Socioeconomic status and low occupational aspirations: Resignation as an orientational variable. Social Science Quarterly, 54, 596-607.
3. Argyle, M. (1994). The psychology of social class. London: Routledge.
4. Aries, E., & Moorehead, K. (1989). The importance of ethnicity in the development of identity of black adolescents. Psychological Reports, 65, 75-82.
5. Aries, E., & Seider, M. (2005). The interactive relationship between class identity and the college experience: The case of lower income students. Qualitative Sociology, 28, 419-443.
6. Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469-480.
7. Baxter, A., & Britton, C. (2001). Risk, identity and change: Becoming a mature student. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 11, 87-102.
8. Bettie, J. (2000). Women without class: Chicas, cholas, trash and the presence/absence of class identity. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 26, 1-35.
9. Bilsker, D., Schiedel, D., & Marcia, J. E. (1988). Sex differences in identity status. Sex Roles, 18, 231-236.
10. Bourdieu, P. (1977). Cultural reproduction and social reproduction. In J. Karabel & A. Halsey (Eds.), Power and ideology in education (pp. 487-511). New York: Oxford University Press.
11. Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in capitalist america. New York: Basic Books.
12. Cole, E. R., & Omari, S. R. Race, class and the dilemmas of upward mobility for African Americans. Journal of Social Issues, 59, 785-802.
13. Cook, T. D., Church, M. B., Ajanaku, S., Shadish, W. R., Kim, J., & Cohen, R. (1996). The development of occupational aspirations and expectations among inner-city boys. Child Development, 67, 3368-3385.
14. Côté, J. (1996). Identity: A multidimensional analysis. In G. R. Adams, R. Montemaayor, & J. P. Gullotta (Eds.), Psychosocial development during adolescence: Progress in developmental contextualism (pp. 130-180). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
15. Côté, J. E., & Levine, C. G. (2002). Identity formation, agency, and culture: A social psychological synthesis. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
16. Crocker, J., & Major, B. (1989). Social stigma and self-esteem: The self-protective properties of stigma. Psychological Review, 96, 608-630.
17. Cross, W. E., Strauss, L., & Fhagen-Smith, P. (1999). African American identity development across the life span: Educational implications. In R. Hernandez-Sheets & E. R. Hollins (Eds.), Racial and ethnic identity in school practices: Aspects of human development (pp. 29-47). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
18. Dews, C. L. B., & Law, C. L. (Eds.). (1995). This fine place so far from home: Voices of academics from the working class. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
19. Dizard, J. E. (1991). Achieving place: Teaching social stratification to tomorrow's elite. In Teaching what we do: Essays by Amherst College faculty (pp. 145-162). Amherst, MA: Amherst College Press.
20. Domhoff, G. W. (1967). Who rules America. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
21. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton.
22. Fine, M., & Burns, A. (2003). Class notes: Toward a critical psychology of class and schooling. Journal of Social Issues, 59, 841-860.
23. Frable, D. E. S. (1997). Gender, racial, ethnic, sexual, and class identities. Annual Review of Psychology, 48, 139-162.
24. Higher Education Research Institute. (1999). Cooperative Institutional Research Program Freshman Survey Institutional Profile. Los Angeles: University Of California.
25. Jones, S. J. (2003). Complex subjectivities: Class, ethnicity, and race in women's narratives of upward mobility. Journal of Social Issues, 59, 803-820.
26. Kozol, J. (2005). The shame of the nation: Restoration of apartheid schooling in America. New York: Crown.
27. Lareau, A., & Weininger, E. B. (2003). Cultural capital in educational research: A critical assessment. Theory and Society, 32, 567-606.
28. Lawler, S. (1999) "Getting out and getting away": Women's narratives of class mobility. Feminist Review, 63, 3-24.
29. Lott, B., & Bullock, H. E. (2001). Who are the poor? Journal of Social Issues, 57, 189-206.
30. Lubrano, A. (2004). Limbo: Blue-collar roots, white-collar dreams. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
31. MacLeod, J. (1995). Ain't no makin' it: Aspirations & attainment in a low-income neighborhood. Boulder, CO: Westview.
32. Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 551-558.
33. Marcia, J. E. (1993). The status of the statuses: Research review. In J. E. Marcia, A. S. Waterman, D. R. Matteson, S. L. Archer, & J. L. Orlofsky (Eds.), Ego identity: A handbook for psychosocial research (pp. 22-41). New York: Springer-Verlag.
34. Marcia, J. E., & Archer, S. L. (1993). Identity status interview: Late adolescent college form. In J. E. Marcia, A. S. Waterman, D. R. Matteson, S. L. Archer, & J. L. Orlofsky (Eds.), Ego identity: A handbook for psychosocial research (pp. 303-317). New York: Springer-Verlag.
35. Marger, M. M. (2005). Social inequality: Patterns and processes (3rd ed.). Boston: McGrawHill.
36. Massey, D. S., Gross, A. B., & Eggers, M. L. (1991). Segregation, the concentration of poverty, and the life chances of individuals. Social Science Research, 20, 397-420.
37. McGuire, W. J. (1984). Search for the self: Going beyond self-esteem and the reactive self. In R. A. Zucker, U. Aronoff, & A. I. Rabin (Eds.), Personality and the prediction of behavior (pp. 73-120). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
38. Morash, M. A. (1980). Working class membership and the adolescent identity crisis. Adolescence, 15, 313-320.
39. Munro, G., & Adams, G. R. (1977). Ego-identity formation in college students and working youth. Developmental Psychology, 13, 523-524.
40. Ortner, S. B. (1991). Reading America: Preliminary notes on class and culture. In R. G. Fox (Ed.), Recapturing anthropology: Working in the present (pp. 163-189). Sante Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.
41. Ostrove, J. M. (2003). Belonging and wanting: Meanings of social class background for women's constructions of their college experiences. Journal of Social Issues, 59, 771-784.
42. Ostrove, J. M., & Cole, E. R. (2003). Privileging class: Toward a critical psychology of social class in the context of education. Journal of Social Issues, 59, 677-692.
43. Ostrove, J. M., & Long, S. M. (2001, August). White women's social class identity and the college experience. Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.
44. Perrucci, R., & Wysong, E. (2003). The new class society: Goodbye American Dream? (2nd ed.). Oxford, England: Roman & Littlefield.
45. Phillips, T. M., & Pittman, J. F. (2003). Identity processes in poor adolescents: Exploring the linkages between economic disadvantage and the primary task of adolescence. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 3, 115-129.
46. Phinney, J. S. (1989). Stages of ethnic identity development in minority group adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 9, 34-49.
47. Phinney, J. S. (1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: A review of research. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 499-514.
48. Phoenix, A., & Tizard, B. (1996). Think through class: The place of social class in the lives of young Londoners. Feminism & Psychology, 6, 427-442.
49. Reay, D. (1996). Dealing with difficult differences: Reflexivity and social class in feminist research. Feminism and Psychology, 6, 443-456.
50. Rojewski, J. W., & Kim, H. (2003). Career choice patterns and behavior of work-bound youth during early adolescence. Journal of Career Development, 30, 89-108.
51. Rojewski, J. W., & Yang, B. (1997). Longitudinal analysis of select influences on adolescents' occupational aspirations. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 51, 375-410.
52. Seider, M. (2002). Inequities in higher education: The experiences of State College and Little Ivy students. Mind's Eye: A Liberal Arts Journal, (Fall), 35-57.
53. Seider, M., & Aries, E. (2004, August). Pushing class aside: How college students legitimize the class structure. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA.
54. Sennett, R., & Cobb, J. (1972). The hidden injuries of class. New York: Knopf.
55. Skeggs, B. (1997). Formations of class and gender: Becoming respectable. London: Sage.
56. Smith, E. R. (1999). Affective and cognitive implications of a group becoming part of the self: New models of prejudice and of the self-concept. In D. Abams & M. A. Hogg (Eds.), Social identity and social cognition (pp. 183-196). Oxford, England: Blackwell.
57. Snow, D. A., & Anderson, L. (1987). Identity work among the homeless: The verbal construction and avowal of personal identities. American Journal of Sociology, 6, 1336-1371.
58. Stewart, A. J., & Ostrove, J. M. (1993). Social class, social change, and gender. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 17, 475-497.
59. Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories: Studies in social psychology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
60. Tokarczyk, M. M., & Fay, E. A. (Eds.). (1993). Working-class women in the academy: Laborers in the knowledge factory. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
61. Turner, J. C. (1982). Towards a cognitive redefinition. In H. Tajfel (Ed.), Social identity and intergroup relations (pp. 15-40). New York: Cambridge University Press.
62. Turner, J. C., with Hogg, M. A., Oakes, P. J., Reicher, S. D., & Wetherell, M. S. (1987). Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. Oxford, England: Blackwell.
63. Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2002). Self-esteem and socioeconomic status: A metaanalytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6, 59-71.
64. Wentworth, P. A., & Peterson, B. E. (2001). Crossing the line: Case studies of identity development in first-generation college women. Journal of Adult Development, 8, 9-21.