Wilson (1980) argued that social class has superseded race as the most important determinant of life chances for black Americans. His statements have sparked a heated debate in the sociology of race relations. This dissertation is an empirical test of the “declining significance of race" thesis in relation to the quality of life of black Americans. It assumes that "life chances” include not only economic criteria but also the possibility of attaining a happy, satisfying, and healthy life. Two perspectives on the relationship between race and well-being were distinguished. The “class" perspective identifies the source of the problems blacks face as increasingly a class phenomena rather than one of race. The “race” perspective sees race as increasingly the source of the problems blacks face. These two perspectives were tested using data from three different sources: the NORC General Social Survey; the Quality of American Life, 1971 and 1978 (Campbell and Converse, 1971, 1978); and Americans View Their Mental Health, 1957 and 1976: Selected Variables (Veroff, Douvan and Kulka, 1978). The effects of race and class (and other demographic variables) were compared across the years of each survey on selected measures of subjective well-being. The results revealed a persistent race effect on all of the quality of life measures except for the scales measuring psychiatric symptoms. Most of the race effects persisted even when controlling for social class, sex, marital status, and age across all the years examined. These results support the "race" perspective that “being black" is detrimental to the psychological well-being of blacks regardless of their social class status. There was, however, no discernible trend of race increasing or declining in significance--only its continuing significance. / Ph. D.

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Yes / We investigated how carers of people with dementia evaluate their standing in their community and wider society, and if this is related to ‘living well’. We used baseline data from the Improving the experience of Dementia and Enhancing Active Life programme and found that carers rated their standing in society higher than in their local community. Higher evaluations of both were associated with enhanced life satisfaction, well-being and quality of life. Initiatives that increase support or engagement in the community or wider society may help to increase carers’ perceptions of their social status, enhancing their ability to ‘live well’. / The IDEAL study was funded jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) through grant ES/L001853/2. The ESRC is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). ‘Improving the experience of Dementia and Enhancing Active Life: a longitudinal perspective on living well with dementia. The IDEAL-2 study’ was funded by the Alzheimer’s Society, grant number 348, AS-PR2-16-001.

by Siu-Fai Leung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-81). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Mortality and Socioeconomic Status --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Research Plan and Difficulties Encountered in the Study --- p.4 / Chapter 2 --- Imputation and File Merging --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1 --- Structure and Contents of Data Sets --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2 --- Imputation of Missing Values --- p.14 / Chapter 2.3 --- Merging Data Sets --- p.22 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Merging Death Data and Census Data --- p.22 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Merging Two Census Data Sets --- p.29 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- Final Data Set Used in Modeling --- p.31 / Chapter 3 --- Modeling and Estimation --- p.33 / Chapter 3.1 --- Discrete-Time Hazard Function Analysis --- p.33 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- The Hazard Function --- p.34 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Logistic Regression --- p.36 / Chapter 3.2 --- Application of Discrete-Time Hazard Model on the Death Data Set --- p.37 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Preparing the Person-Period Data Set --- p.38 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Modeling the Person-Period Data Set --- p.41 / Chapter 3.3 --- Combining Results from different imputed data sets --- p.47 / Chapter 3.4 --- Estimation of Cell Probabilities --- p.51 / Chapter 4 --- Model Adequacy Checking --- p.52 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Definition of Residuals in Multiple Imputation --- p.52 / Chapter 4.2 --- Residual Analysis of The Cancer Mortality Model --- p.59 / Chapter 5 --- Conclusion --- p.63 / Chapter 5.1 --- The Cancer Mortality --- p.63 / Chapter 5.2 --- Competing Risk --- p.68 / Chapter 5.3 --- Discussion --- p.72 / Appendix A: Coding Description of District --- p.75 / Appendix B: Results of the Heart Diseases Mortality Model --- p.76 / Bibliography --- p.80

This study investigates black-white status inequality as an explication of central city residential segregation interregionally in 1960 and 1970. Using the popular index of dissimilarity (delta) to quantify educational, occupational and income inequality, it was found that the South was more unequal than the North, but much less so in 1970. Moreover, the level of Southern inequality was more the product of white advantage and the level of Northern inequality results more from significant black disadvantage than is commonly thought. While inequality in both the North and South varies greatly among cities, the sources of inequality were not stable over time nor across regions, as status dissimilarity was more a high status event in the North and in 1970. Since delta, as a nominal measure, is insensitive to such divergent sources of inequality, it was discounted for comparative research. Gini, an ordinal statistic, was also found inadequate in detecting these changes in what status inequality means. Therefore, a interval/ratio index, tridelta, was constructed for accurate interregional and cross time contrasts of status inequality. Furthermore, it was shown that delta measures racial differences as inequality, gini detects degrees of absolute deprivation and tridelta is a quantification of relative deprivation. Using status to explain residential segregation since 1940, showed that status is a weak, but increasingly important, determinant of the nation's cities' levels of segregation. Surprisingly, the North showed less status influence on segregation and closer congruence to 1940 and 1950 levels of segregation than did the South in 1960 and 1970, despite index employed. Occupational dissimilarity, not deprivation, was important in explaining segregation. In contrast, educational and to a lesser extent, income deprivation (relative in the South and absolute in the North) was important, although in the North, education's effect was unexplainedly inverse. Since the South was found to have a more egalitarian housing market, it was suggested that perhaps black status gains have been more visible in the South and that "the American dilemma" may be more salient there. Whatever, the South approaches parity with the North.

Naked mole-rats are eusocial rodents that live in subterranean colonies with a strict reproductive and social hierarchy. Breeders are socially dominant and other colony members are non-reproductive subordinates. The effects of manipulating the serotonergic system on aggression are well studied in many species, but not in eusocial rodents like the naked mole-rat. For the current study, the effects of fluoxetine hydrochloride (FLX) on status-specific behaviours of subordinates (Experiment 1) and queens (Experiment 2) were evaluated both in-colony and in a social-pairing paradigm to investigate how the serotonergic system influences aggression in this species. In accordance with our main hypothesis, chronic treatment of FLX attenuated the frequency and duration of aggression in queens, but not subordinates, when paired with an unfamiliar conspecific. Further exploration of pharmacological manipulation on status-specific behaviours of this eusocial species may elucidate the neurobiological mechanisms underlying their unique and rigid social hierarchy.

The quality of educational attainment measures lies at the heart of many cross-national micro-sociological research projects and international education statistics. This study aims at validating cross-nationally comparable measures of educational attainment, among which are the International Standard Classification of Education 1997 (ISCED 97), the CASMIN education scheme and years of education. Following a conceptual discussion of what educational attainment means, the most common ways of measuring educational attainment cross-nationally as well as previous evaluations thereof are reviewed. Then, the implementation of ISCED 97 in cross-national surveys is examined by looking at both the resulting educational attainment distributions in three European surveys as well as the data generation and harmonisation processes. Finally, a number of cross-national measures of educational attainment are compared with country-specific measures with respect to their information content by firstly examining the dispersion of educational attainment, and secondly the predictive power when explaining two core social stratification outcomes, occupational status and social class attainment, by educational attainment. The main results of the study are that the measurement of educational attainment in cross-national surveys is affected by a number of avoidable weaknesses which adversely affect the validity of claims based on analyses of these data: 1. Countries and surveys are inconsistent in the way they measure educational attainment and apply ISCED 97 to national data; and 2. actual years of education and the one-digit version of ISCED 97 distort measures of association to differing degrees in different countries. Both make cross-national comparisons using these measures highly problematic. Therefore, some amendments to the implementation of ISCED 97 in cross-national surveys and coding for statistical analyses are proposed. As part of the latter, an alternative simplification of ISCED 97, optimised for European survey research, is developed and validated. Moreover, suggestions for data collection procedures are made to improve the measurement of educational attainment nationally and cross-nationally.

Many college students have reported struggling with mental health problems while dealing with challenging demands of college. The initial theoretical framework for this research was Pearlin's stress process model (SPM). Building on the SPM, the three additional mediating variables of perceived control, meaninglessness, and financial worries were added to create a composite model for the research. Mental health outcomes in the model were measured by a comprehensive range of factors, which included: psychological distress, suicide, substance abuse, and anger. Data were collected from a non-probability convenience sample of 463 undergraduate students attending a large state supported university in the southwestern region of the United States. Among the social status variables measured, being married, female, and white were significant predictors of poor mental health in the sampled college students. Poor self-image, feeling of meaninglessness, and worrying about current and future finances were significant mediating variables. Poor mental health could make individuals overwhelmed and discouraged. This is a formula for failure in college. The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of the correlates of mental health problems among college students. A greater understanding means that families and college administrations will have better ideas about how to intervene to reduce the stress of students and to focus the available and often limited resources to help young adults in their college experience.

This thesis deals with the question of prestige of subject Geography. Its aim is to explain how much prestige university students attach to Geography, with the help of semantic differential method, and where they place this term in the semantic field of terms. The research was conducted with questionnaire survey which focused on the comparison between the perception of Geography and other subjects, and at the same time the comparison of value judgement of Geography students and students of different programmes. The first part of the thesis explains the key words and the methods of the research into prestige conducted so far. They were analysed and on the basis of this analysis notional parameters of prestige attached to a subject were set. The following part is the main part. It consists of the questionnaire survey, including the evaluation and interpretation of the results, which is followed by suggestions for improvement of the prestige of Geography, with the use of chosen marketing tools. Key words: prestige; social status; value judgement; attitude; geography; semantic differential; marketing

Audit is a bilateral task where the auditors are required to socially interact with their clients during the audit process. The auditor and client may encounter different expectations that could lead to challenges in their social interaction. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore the challenges in the social interaction between the auditor and client during the audit process. Prior literature has applied versions of agency that are implicitly based on classic contract law and virtually ignored clients as a research object. The original value of this study lies in the adoption of the dramaturgical analysis into the context of audit. This study employs a qualitative research method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven real auditor-client dyads in Scania, Sweden. The findings suggest that clients are fixated on the price tag of an audit and do not consider the person delivering the audit service. This puts the auditor and client at risk as the findings suggest that the social interaction is important whereby a similarity attraction in sociodemographic space facilities the social interaction. Asset evaluations can create challenges in the social interaction which are solved with residual control stemming from ownership as well as social status. The seven auditor-client dyads in this study deals with their own unique challenges that resulted in seven prototypes. This study fills in a gap in the literature by interviewing and analyzing the auditors’ respective client expectations on one another. To fulfil each other’s diverse expectations, both must embody different roles.