Social Class and Work-related Decision

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DOI: 10.1177/1069072708330677

2009 17: 266 originally published online 26 February 2009Journal of Career AssessmentNadya A. Fouad and Mary E. Fitzpatrick

Social Class and Work-related Decisions : Measurement, Theory, and Social Mobility

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Social Class and Work-related

DecisionsMeasurement, Theory, and Social Mobility

Nadya A. FouadMary E. FitzpatrickUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

In this reaction to Diemer and Alis article, Interatin Social Class Into Vocational

Psycholoy: Theory and Practice Implications, the authors point out concerns with binary

schema of social class, hihliht the contribution of social class to the social conitive career

theory, arue for a more nuanced look at ways that work provides social mobility in the United

States, and note the need to interate social class with other contextual variables.

Keywords: social class; career development; work-related decisions

We appreciate the opportunity to provide a reaction to Diemer and Alis (in press)examination of the role of social class in vocational psycholoy. Their call for voca-tional psycholoists to attend to social class as an explicit construct is very much needed.

The discussion of various ways of measurin social class (and the philosophical underpinninsof those measures) was particularly helpful. We wholeheartedly aree with their centralpoint that the impact of social class upon career development is obfuscated because social

class is a poorly understood construct (p. 3). Thouh we aree with the authors that, inpractice, it is very difficult to disentanle social class from race and ethnicity, ender or

disability, we applaud the careful delineation of the possible role that social class may playat various junctures in work decisions.

We are writin this as the words credit crunch and mortgage foreclosures are daily head-

lines, Conress just passed a $700 billion bill desined to buy bad mortae loans from

banks, and more than 2.2 million people became unemployed in the first 9 months of 2008(Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008). Daily newspaper reports portray individuals who arepostponin retirement, others who are takin multiple jobs to pay home mortaes, and still

others (especially teenaers or individuals of color) who are havin difficulty findin work.This environment hihlihts how important it can be to access the resources to ain addi-

tional education, to prepare for a hiher payin job, and to prepare to enter a contractinlabor market. We believe that the prevailin economic zeiteist hihlihts the critical need

to examine social class, access to resources, and the career development process.We had many reactions as we read Diemer and Alis (in press) article but space limitations

allow us to only comment on a few. In the sections that follow, we hihliht three points

that we believe vocational psycholoists should consider in incorporatin social class intotheir research and trainin, specifically our binary schemas for conceptualizin social class,

applications to social conitive career theory (SCCT), and work as related to social mobilityin the United States.

Journal of Career Assessment

Volume 17 Number 3

Auust 2009 266-270

2009 SAgE Publications

10.1177/1069072708330677

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Fouad, Fitzpatrick / Social Class and Work-Related Decisions 267

High and Low: Discrete Versus Continuous Schemas of Social Class

Diemer and Ali (in press) discuss at lenth the traditional issues involved in quantitative

measures of social class and more modern measures that take into account subjective psycho-loical self-views such as the social class worldview model (SCWM; Liu, Ali, et al., 2004;

Liu, Soleck, Hopps, Dunston, & Pickett, 2004). It is interestin to note that thouh both tra-ditional and modern measures for social class are continuous variables, our mental schema of

social class remains firmly attached to a two- or three-level heuristichih and low; or hih,medium, and low. For example, thouh Diemer and Ali make clear the importance of more

sophisticated consideration of social class in vocational research and practice, their introduc-tion also notes that previous research has treated social class as a dichotomous variable,

resources or the lack thereof. In the subsequent discussion of social class, we are struck bythe pervasiveness of this presence versus absence framework. Other examples from the article

include renters versus homeowners, workers able to take breaks without approval versus thosewho are not, presence versus absence of classism experiences, and most cited examples ofsocial class research such as a study dividin both children and neihborhoods in to hih-and

low-income roups (Krieer, Williams, & Moss, 1997).A limited, discrete framework for social status is understandable based on historical

measurement approaches and as a research method for comparin roup differences. Anearly measure for socioeconomic status (SES) created by F. Chapin in 1936 was based on

the presence or absence of particular material oods in the home, such as a radio (Lundber,1940). Socioloical lexicon oriinally divided society into two or three classes, rooted in

Marxist conceptualizations of employers, manaers, and workers (Wriht, 1979). AsDiemer and Ali point out, Most individuals understand there are stratifications . . . upper,

middle and lower class (p. 24). Similarly, we are all familiar with phrases identifyin orcomparin the haves and the have nots.

Obviously, clusterin individuals into social class roups allows socioloical, psycholoi-

cal, and vocational researchers to focus on between-roup differences, such as analyzin thework choices and experiences of youth in poverty, or the forotten half (Blustein et al.,

2002). Blustein and his colleaues, amon others, arued that vocational psycholoy hasexclusively focused on resourced individuals, usually collee students, in both research and

practice. Thouh we aree that considerin the differential experiences of individuals with

limited resources is an important and much needed development within vocational psychol-oy, the ability to measure social class continuously and multidimensionally with scales suchas the SCWM allows for a far more sophisticated analysis of the influence of self-perception

of social class on occupational outcome variables than a two-roup comparison.Diemer and Ali (in press) explain that SCWM considers how individuals behave within

self-identified and self-constructed economic cultures. The SCWM construct is made up offive domains: (1) consciousness (awareness of social class in a particular domain), (2) ref-erent roups (salient roups includin family, peers, and aspiration), (3) property relation-

ship (materialism), (4) lifestyle (oranization of time and resources), (5) behaviors

(observable manifestations of SCWM; Liu, Soleck, et al., 2004). Clearly, occupationalchoice is a critical symbol that will be in varyin derees consistent or inconsistent withindividuals quantitative SES, but may be more accurately explained by a more complete

assessment of psycholoical responses to economic cultures provided by SCWM. Other

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vocational constructs, such as career values, copin self-efficacy, and career adaptability

may also be to varyin derees conruent with individualized economic cultures. In con-siderin economic cultures continuously and multidimensionally, researchers may bein to

appreciate more complex influences of psycholoical social class.

SCCT

Diemer and Ali (in press) consider the implications of social class on vocational psy-choloy theory, and specifically the authors note that SCCT (Lent, Brown, & Hackett,

1994) considersfamily quantitative SESas a backround person variable, or a distalbar-rier, influencin self-efficacy in a particular career domain throuh access to related learn-

in opportunities. goals and choices in that career domain are in turn influenced by

learnin opportunities. The authors hypothesize social class may be also appropriatelyconsidered a contextual barrier, or proximal barrier to a particular career choice.

Contextual barriers and supports are defined as environmental factors that persons per-

ceive as havin the potential, respectively, to aid or hinder their efforts to implement a par-ticular educational or occupational oal (Lent et al., 2001, p. 475). Like other social conitive

variables, contextual barriers are dependent upon person perception, and are not objectivemeasures of the environment. Research has suested that financial resources, as well as otherexperiences related to social class such as access to role models and family influence, do

proximally influence career oals, but only indirectly, throuh their influence on self-efficacy

(Lent et al., 2001; Lent et al., 2003; Lent et al., 2002). In a pilot study of SCCT variables incareer decisions in 114 low-SES youth, Ali, McWhirter, and Chronister (2005) found supportfor the hypothesis that perception of contextual barriers was less important in influencin

self-efficacy than was positive social support from peers and siblins. These roups are iden-tical to the concept of referent roups in the SCWM. In sum, these studies support the central-

ity of self-efficacy in influencin career choice, and there are intriuin possibilities relatinSCWM to studies of career development processes. Thus, future research on the SCWM

could consider how specifically constructs such as awareness of social class in specific careerdomains, referent roups, materialism, and lifestyle influence self-efficacy.

It seems likely many of the constructs described by SCWM would influence outcome

expectations as well as self-efficacy. Outcome expectations are individuals beliefs aboutwhat will happen as a result of an action they take or a task they do in a particular domain

(Lent et al., 1994). They are hypothesized to be influenced by self-efficacy and to in turnhave a direct influence on career oals. Althouh the pilot study of low-SES youth men-

tioned previously did not find a sinificant relationship between SES and outcome expecta-tions (Ali et al., 2005), the authors hypothesized that this may have been due to their

utilization of traditional operational measurement of SES. It would be interestin to con-sider how ones awareness of ones own social class in a particular domain influences

outcome expectations. For example, a youth who has a hih awareness of belonin to the

workin class may have more neative outcome expectations for takin actions to developartistic skills, than a youth whos is less aware of his or her social class. Related researchmiht consider the outcome expectations individuals have about the impact to their family

and peer relationships were they to take actions to leave their families economic culture.



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Fouad, Fitzpatrick / Social Class and Work-Related Decisions 269

Social Mobility in the United States

Diemer and Alis (in press) comments about the contextual constraints that face immi-

rants and refuees led us to consider the role that work has been a path to social mobility.Thouh it is important to understand that the notion of equal opportunity may not apply to

everyone, it is equally important to understand the way that work has created opportunitiesfor others in the United States. Many immirants have come to the United States for hiher

education and have seen this country as a land of opportunities. We know this from personalexperience, as one of us (Fouad) is the dauhter of immirants who came to this country

seekin further opportunities in employment that were not available to them in their homecountries, and the other (Fitzpatrick) is the randdauhter of Irish immirants.

Both of Fouads parents were from families who were considered upper class (father) orthe educated elite (mother), but both were constrained in their work choices. Her mother

was limited by options open to women in Brazil; her father was limited by the choicesavailable to members of his social class in Eypt. He chafed under the cultural expectationsof the way thins were done at the time, via social networkin or political connections.

They chose to move to the United States after 5 years of workin in Eypt to allow him towork in an environment that rewarded individual achievement. He noted that it was impos-

sible to do thins differently in an environment used to doin thins the same way for 3000years. Fitzpatricks father was a first-eneration collee student who rew up in a poor

family. Her randfather had emirated from Ireland and worked in the United States as atailor. Her father paid for a private Jesuit hih school education by workin at three or four

part-time jobs, and for collee by servin in the military. He was an ethnic minority (IrishCatholic) but not a visible ethnic minority, was able to be educated within his own ethnic

roup, and to access overnmental resources.This is not to deny the very real structural barriers that many immirants or members of

marinalized roups face in seekin employment. Indeed, Deimer and Alis (in press)

points about the reality that many immirants face lower-status and lower-payin jobs areimportant. Rather, these examples hihliht two critical points that vocational psycholo-

ists must understand about the intersection between social class, access to resources, andsocial mobility in the United States. First, many individuals, both within and outside the

United States, believe in the American dream that hard work ultimately results in more

opportunities, includin work that brins wealth, security, and prosperity. This belief isoften not well founded in reality, as Diemer and Ali delineate, but, nonetheless, still oper-ates for many. Vocational psycholoists must understand that many embrace this dream

(Fouad & Byars-Winston, 2005), and in fact, the U.S. educational system and labor markethave created opportunities for many individuals.

The second point that our personal examples illustrate is the importance of social classon the perceptions that one has of opportunities. Fouads parents had the identity capital toknow they wanted more education, both had access to scholarships to attend school abroad,

and both had the personal resources to complete advanced derees in another lanuae.

Fitzpatricks father knew that education would provide him more opportunities, and he hadthe resources to access ways to fund that education (part-time work and military service).These are exactly the resources that Diemer and Ali (in press) discussed in notin that

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social class [has an] impact upon access to learnin experiences and the development of self-

efficacy beliefs (p. 23). In other words, Fouads parents and Fitzpatricks randparentsmay have struled as immirants in a new country, studyin in a second lanuae, and

eventually buildin a home in another culture. But Fouads parents had the resources ofhavin been brouht up in affluent homes, in which education was valued, travel was

expected, and financial safety nets were always available. Fitzpatricks father rew up in ahome where education was valued, hard work was modeled, and the dreams of a different

life seemed possible. Vocational psycholoists must understand the role of social class inperceivin that clients can access resources.

Aain, we applaud Diemer and Ali for beinnin an important discussion about socialclass in vocational psycholoy. We hope that their excellent article will serve as a stimulusfor us to bein usin more nuanced schemas to conceptualize social class, to bein workin

toward clearer explications of social class in theory, and to understand the ways that dreams

of social mobility have influenced many individuals.

References

Ali, S. R., McWhirter, E. H., & Chronister, K. M. (2005). Self-efficacy and vocational outcome expectations

for adolescents of lower socioeconomic status: A pilot study.Journal of Career Assessment, 13, 40-58.

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2008) Table A.1. Employment situation, September 2008. Retrieved October 6,

2008, from http://www.bls.ov/cps/home.htm

Blustein, D. L., Chaves, A. P., Diemer, M. A., gallaher, L. A., Marshall, K. g., Sirin, S., et al. (2002). Voices

of the forotten half: The role of social class in the school-to-work transition. Journal of CounselingPsychology, 49, 311-323.

Diemer, M. A., & Ali, S. R. (IN PRESS). Interatin social class into vocational psycholoy: Theory and

practice implications.Journal of Career Assessment, ISSUE, PAGES.

Fouad, N. A., & Byars-Winston, A. M. (2005). Cultural context of career choice: Meta-analysis of race/ethnicity

differences. Career Development Quarterly, 53, 223-233.

Krieer, N., Williams, D. R., & Moss, N. E. (1997). Measurin social class in US public health research:

Concepts, methodoloies, and uidelines.Annual Review of Public Health, 18(1), 341.

Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., Brenner, B., Chopra, S. B., Davis, T., Talleyrand, R., et al. (2001). The role of con-

textual supports and barriers in the choice of math/science educational options: A test of social conitive

hypotheses.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 48, 474-483.

Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, g. (1994). Toward a unifyin social conitive theory of career and aca-

demic interest, choice, and performance.Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45(1), 79-122.

Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., Schmidt, J., Brenner, B., Lyons, H., & Treistman, D. (2003). Relation of contextual

supports and barriers to choice behavior in enineerin majors: Test of alternative social conitive models.

Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50, 458-465.

Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., Talleyrand, R., McPartland, E. B., Davis, T., Chopra, S. B., et al. (2002). Career

choice barriers, supports, and copin strateies: Collee students experiences. Journal of Vocational

Behavior, 60(1), 61-72.

Liu, W. M., Ali, S. R., Soleck, g., Hopps, J., Dunston, K., & Pickett, T., Jr. (2004). Usin social class in coun-

selin psycholoy research.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 51, 3-18.

Liu, W. M., Soleck, g., Hopps, J., Dunston, K., & Pickett, T., Jr. (2004). A new framework to understand social

class in counselin: The social class worldview model and modern classism theory.Journal of Multicultural

Counseling and Development, 32(2), 95-122.Lundber, g. A. (1940). The measurement of socioeconomic status.American Sociological Review, 5, 29-39.

Wriht, E. O. (1979). Class structure and income determination. San Dieo, CA: Academic Press.


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