Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 285-289).

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 601-622).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1968. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Social groups without formally designated leaders spontaneously form status-based hierarchies in order to facilitate efficient and effective progress toward a common goal. The prevailing theoretical perspectives about who tends to attain status in these groups suggest that status allocation should be context-dependent. That is, the person who is given the most status should have qualities that help the group achieve its goal, and, because goals vary across groups, the characteristics that predict status should also vary. However, most research to date has focused only on the individual differences that predict status across a wide variety of situations, and has largely neglected the role of the specific context in which the group is situated. The primary aim of this dissertation was to investigate the contextualized, interpersonal processes that contribute to status attainment. To this end, I investigated the consistency with which the same people attained status across different groups and relationships, and how stable individual differences and social context interacted to predict status in a variety of situations and relationships. In the first study, N = 346 participants completed up to four activities with four different groups of their peers. Status attainment was moderately consistent across groups. Extraversion and its aspects, assertiveness and enthusiasm, as well as compassion, conscientiousness and intellect predicted status across all four tasks. The largest differences in the predictors of status attainment appeared to be due to how the task was completed, rather than the goal of the task: generally pro-social attributes predicted status attainment in collaborative tasks, whereas neuroticism and low agreeableness predicted status in more knowledge-based, rote tasks. In the second study, N = 651 informants provided perceptions of N = 267 participants. Status was fairly inconsistent across participants’ relationships with different informants. There was some evidence that different personality traits predicted status in different types of relationships: compared to relationships with friends, agreeable and neurotic participants tended to attain status in their romantic relationships, whereas participants low in dominance tended to attain status with their college friends. Together, these results indicate that different personality traits predict status attainment across situations and relationships.

The role of religion in status attainment process of native born American population has received adequate scholarly attention. However, not much is known about the religion-stratification link for US immigrants. Using the New Immigrant Survey (NIS) 2003, this dissertation examines the role of religious orientations and spiritual commitments on status attainment measures such as education, employment, and income among recent US immigrants. NIS is a nationally representative sample of recent US immigrants who receive permanent residency in year 2003. Results showed that immigrants' mobility patterns vary significantly by religious factors. Over all, findings of this dissertation supported hypotheses based on religious schemata and religious capital theory. Religious conservatism and higher pre-migration religious attendance were significant predictors of lower attainments. In contrast, the effects of post-migration religious attendance and church membership were found to negligible for the most part. Some gender differences were also noteworthy. Surprisingly, religious effects for men's attainment outcomes were more pronounced than women's. The limitations and the future directions for research in this area have also been discussed.

It is felt that additional research concerning the relationship of mental health to sociometric status is needed in view of the fact that Mill concluded that the Rorschach variables were not sufficiently sensitive for group comparison. The POI, an objectively scored test, was selected for the purpose of the present study.

The significance of the contemporary "winter dances" of the Coast Salish has been explained in terms of the Indian's 'search for status'. In this paper I attempt to establish the significance of Indian institutions for the Cowichan's 'search for status'. On the basis of informant interviews, I empirically describe the range of institutions in which a sample of the members of the Cowichan Band participate. Using a typology of institutions, I further delineate the type of viable 'status sets' maintained by band members and characterize the individuals who maintain them. In addition I test a theory which I feel might partially explain the differential participation manifested in the Cowichan status sets but is hopefully applicable to the members of any minority ethnic group. Briefly the theory assumes that: Actors who participate predominantly or exclusively in 'ethnic institutions' do so because their perception or definition of non-ethnics in terms of 'threat' prevents them from attempting to acquire status in non-ethnic institutions. A second hypothesis is also tested, namely that: Actors who participate predominantly or exclusively in ethnic institutions do so because they have failed in attempts to acquire status in non-ethnic institutions. The available data suggests that both the theory and the hypothesis are invalid. Contrary to expectations based on the theory, the perception of non-ethnics in terms of threat is greatest among those actors who negatively evaluate ethnic institutions but who have been unable to acquire non-ethnic status. In order to explain this result new assumptions focusing on the concept of 'negative self-evaluations' are introduced. With regard to the second hypothesis it would appear that predominant or exclusive participation in ethnic institutions is not a reaction to an initial failure to acquire non-ethnic status but more a function of the fact that ethnic statuses are more highly valued than non-ethnic statuses. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

The smartphones’ market is characterized by its fast evolving environment. In such an environment, the key concern for each company is how to continually encourage consumers to upgrade to the latest version before their existing model expires, which also highlights the importance of continual product enhancement. Consumers choose high-tech products not only for their functional values, but also for their symbolic values. This phenomenon is even more prevalent among products that tend to be conspicuously consumed. The high portability and multi-functional capabilities of smartphones make their use highly visible to users’ social surroundings, and consumers may choose to upgrade their existing smartphones for the perceived symbolic values provided by newer and enhanced models. The great success of the iPhone inspired the current research to further investigate the antecedents of upgrade intention and to uncover the symbolic value that smartphones provide to consumers. Reference group conformity is not the only way to fulfill symbolic values of selected products. Consumers also have the tendency to actively express their ideal self-image through acquiring and displaying material symbols and an ideal self-image sometimes also refers to a self-image with higher social status. Building upon the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991), the proposed research model also explores the possible moderating effect of status consumption on the TPB model. A survey will be administered to university students (smartphone users) to collect primary data to measure the effectiveness of the new proposed research model. The results of this study provided a better understanding of consumers’ upgrading purchase intentions toward smartphones. Additionally, this study finds that status consumption is partially related to smartphone purchases, which could also be extended to other technological products categories.