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Human face is a complex semantic organ, which among others reflects also human individuality due to the high variance of facial morphologies. This study examines the relationship between psychological characteristics and social status. Moreover, we have analyzed variability in facial form and its relation to a particular social rank. The study was performed on a set of photographs containing 55 pictures of men in a management position. These photographs were evaluated by 47 male (average age - 22 years) and 77 female (average age 21,6 years) respondents. The data were analyzed by means of classical methods of statistical testing as well as geometric morphometrics methods. This study tests whether there is a relation between three psychological characteristics - dominance, attractiveness, trustworthiness - and social status. The effect of perceived dominance and attractiveness on social status were not significant. Nevertheless, we found statistically significant relationship between perceived trustworthiness and social rank. We were not able to detect morphological facial structures, which would distinguish the heads of department from the chief executive directors. However the parametric tests discovered statistically significant differences between the facial morphology of a trustworthy and...

The present thesis deals with the subjective dimension of social stratification, more specifically subjective class and subjective status. The author begins by pointing to the subjective aspects of traditional theoretical backgrounds of class and hierarchical conception of social stratification. Then he analyzes subjective class and status as their analogous concepts and describes their application in empirical research, both foreign and Czech sociology. The analytical part presents its own secondary analysis of data from a representative survey ISSP 1992, 1999, 2009 and Social distance 2007 for the Czech Republic. Through this analysis author describes the differences between the two approaches and changes of their distribution and relation in time. Whereas subjective status is relatively stable in selected period, subjective class goes through a lot of changes. These changes are caused primarily by subjectively identified working class, whose representation weakens in time and approaches the class to subjective status. The author also deals with the differences of the declared reasons for identifying with class. For the lower classes it is especially their income which has the highest importance, middle and upper class also mentions the education and type of employment. But for higher classes it...

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This is a photo-documentary study of two themes found within the literature on fabulous appearances: the gay nightclub patron and the club DJ. This study used a large Midwestern gay nightclub as the field setting. Fabulousness involves the way patrons costume themselves in order to communicate status within the setting. This study revealed that participants in the setting utilize three different types of self-presentation. These types embody desirable characteristics and ideas of attractiveness that revolve around power, establishing a normalized “gay” identity, and using surreal based characteristics to achieve their goal of being noticed. The DJs served as informal organizers through their appearances and performances. Analysis of the DJ role found that DJs provide visual cues for other participants in the setting on how to act, dance, dress, and behave. This study is the first in depth examination of the role of the DJ and the communicative processes between the DJ and dancers in gay nightclubs.

While the connection between major choice and career goals seems logically obvious, research exploring this process is limited, particularly concerning how socio-economic class, based on parents' educational levels, influences the choice process. An important initial step in understanding this larger process is to explore how SES-based differences affect the process of choosing a major, a career goal and the way in which students link their major to a possible career. This study utilizes a comparative interview design to explore the lived experiences regarding major and career aspirations of first generation and traditional college seniors who have transferred from a community college to Portland State University. This study considers a first generation student to be any student that does not have a parent that has graduated from a four-year university in the United States. A traditional student is any student that has one or more parents who have earned at least a four-year degree in the U.S. Using a conceptual framework based on Pierre Bourdieu's work on social reproduction, this qualitative interview study examines how social and cultural capital as well as habitus influences first generation and traditional community college transfer students' choice of career, major and the link these students make between the two. This research found that the majority of students, both first generation and traditional community college transfer students, gained domain specific information that helped them with their major and or career goals from mentors such as, professors and academic advisers. However, Traditional students received "life advice" and encouragement from family members and employers that helped them to stay on track and gain inside information regarding their career choices. Traditional students used their past and current work history to assist them in strengthening their chances at realizing their career goals. Many traditional students planned to use the degrees they earned at college to advance within fields they already were working in. In comparison, it was only after they started college and settled on specific majors that first generation students looked for work experiences to help explore possible occupational outcomes. Another major difference between the two groups of students was that traditional students linked their majors to multiple jobs in an occupational area while first generation students linked their major to specific occupational positions. While there has been a large amount of research in the United States using Bourdieu's theory to examine how micro processes of language and teacher's expectations are utilized to maintain social stratification in K-12 education, there has been little research done on the micro processes that occur in college that lead to the reproduction of social class. This thesis illustrates how family background-based advantages that lead to differences in students' K-12 success actually continue after they enter higher education. By drawing attention to the importance of how family-background impacts major and career choices for community college transfer students after they arrive at the university, this thesis contributes to Bourdieu's explanation of how education at all levels contributes to the reproduction of a socially stratified society.

This study was undertaken as an investigation to find out the socio-economic status of the Freshman class of North Texas State Teachers college, Denton, Texas. The investigation has the following purposes: to find out the number of independent, partially dependent, and dependent students; to discover social and economic factors concerning their home background the year preceding their entrance to the college; to study the economic status of these groups for the school year 1936-37; to study the social status of the same groups, on the campus, for the same period of time; to study the scholastic status of the same students during the same period, and to compare the grades of each group to discover the effect, if any, of social and economic status upon scholastic attainment.

This thesis discusses the funerary expression of social status in Macedonia during the 4th century BCE. Specifically, this thesis aims to examine the royal and the noble status and the way this is expressed in death, by making a distinction between royals and nobles. The major questions of this research concern their differences and their similarities, as well as any potential indicators of each one. As part of the material, the thesis has employed four tombs to study that come from three cemeterial areas. The two first tombs are examined as royal tombs and are located in the ancient area of Aegae, located in the modern area of Vergina, while the other two tombs which are examined as noble tombs are located in the modern area of Hagios Athanasios and Derveni. By focusing on the wider cemeterial area, as well as on their architec-ture, their decoration, the grave goods and the human remains, the thesis is treating the archaeological assemblage as a holistic reflection of the social status of the de-ceased, assuming that wealthy tombs should be in accordance with the social ranking of the deceased. However, this thesis also takes into consideration other factors that might affect that funeral assemblage, such as the deceased’s or the family choices. But even despite this choice for planning to have a death as somebody wanted to, the thesis considers that having a wealthy tomb and burial mean that it was affordable and again in this case the funerary assemblage is an aspect by which the social status of the deceased can be illustrated. Finally, the thesis concludes by discussing that straight interpretations of what is considered to be of royal nature appear to be com-plicated and factors such as whoever wanted could have a prominent burial, blur the line between royals and nobles at death. / Denna uppsats diskuterar uttryck av social status i Makedonska begravningar under 300-talet f.v.t. Uppsatsen syftar specifikt till att undersöka kungafamiljens och elitens status och hur detta uttrycks i döden, genom att göra en uppdelning mellan kunglig och elit. De viktigaste frågorna i denna studie rör deras skillnader och likheter, liksom potentiella indikatorer för vardera grupp. Materialet som har studerats är fyra gravar som kommer från tre separata begravningsområden. De två första gravarna undersöks som kungliga gravar och ligger i det antika området Aegae, beläget nära det moderna området Vergina, medan de övriga två gravarna som undersöks som elitgravar ligger i det moderna områdena Hagios Athanasios och Derveni. Genom att fokusera på begravningsområdenas kontext, de enskilda gravarnas arkitektur, deras utsmyckning, gravgåvor och de mänskliga kvarlevorna, behandlar uppsatsen den arkeologiska samlingen som en holistisk återspegling av den avlidnes sociala status, med antagandet att rika gravar bör reflektera den avlidnes sociala status. Men den här avhandlingen tar också hänsyn till andra faktorer som kan påverka begravningssammansättningen, såsom den avlidnes eller familjens personliga val. De begravda kunde ha planerat begravningens utformning, uppsatsen utgår ifrån att en rik grav och begravning betyder att personen hade tillräckliga resurser för begravningen men man behöver se på hela begravningskontexten för att undersöka den begravdas sociala status. Uppsatsen drar slutsatsen att tolkningen av vad som kan vara kungliga och elitgravar är komplicerad och faktorer som att den som hade råd kunde få en påkostad begravning suddar ut gränsen mellan kungliga och elit vid döden.

Humans’ social relationships determine to a large degree their trajectories in life. Despite strong evidence for the impact of interpersonal relations on wellbeing, the causal links between the two are not yet fully understood. This dissertation offers a new perspective on the mechanisms through which social ties influence negative (excessive drinking) and positive (participation in recreational activities) health behaviors. In three studies employing a unique combination of social network, fMRI, and experience-sampling methods, we propose that health decisions are the result of complex computations involving prior social experiences, perceived social norms, social comparison processes, and current feelings of connections. Each chapter of this dissertation discusses one of these three studies. Chapter 1 provides evidence that past social experiences shape valuations of new information by showing that pairs of students that drink often together tend to have more similar neural responses to novel alcohol cues in regions associated with affective self-generated thought. In addition, this Chapter suggests that researchers must consider the intricate interplay between individuals’ personal goals and their communities’ norms to understand the influence of social environments on neural representations. The degree to which students aligned their neural response patterns to alcohol with those of their peers depended on interactions between their individual motives for drinking and their group’s approval of this behavior. Chapter 2 presents novel findings that people spontaneously represent social information from multiple networks (e.g., popularity and leadership) at a neural level in social cognition (right TPJ, dmPFC) and valuation (vmPFC) regions. Importantly, individuals who display higher neural sensitivity to status differences are also more likely to align their drinking behavior with their group norms in daily life. Together, our results provide insight into the neural mechanisms through which social comparison processes shape conformity and suggest social cognition and valuation regions as important hubs orchestrating this process. While Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 focus on the influence of social ties on drinking, Chapter 3 discusses the protective role of close relations during difficult times. We provide evidence that close college friendships, even if afar, helped young adults cope with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. Follow-up between- and within-individual analyses reveal that this buffering effect could be explained by differences in the quality of online interactions (e.g., via phone, text messaging), instances of personal disclosure, and participation in enjoyable activities. All in all, this dissertation advances our understanding of why measures of social wellbeing are the best predictor of health trajectories in life, by highlighting the important role social ties play in shaping valuation of new information, guiding behavior to meet social goals, and protecting against stress by allowing people to engage in recreational activities.

The thesis, entitled “From Self-Praise to Self-Boasting: Paul’s Unmasking of the Conflicting Rhetorico-Linguistic Phenomena in 1 Corinthians,” examines the rhetorical conventions of “boasting” and self-praise among those vying for social status and honor within the Greco-Roman world. While the terminological options for “boasting” and self-praise frequently overlap, a survey of these conventions demonstrates that the ancients possessed a categorical distinction between “boasting” and self-praise, which oftentimes conflicted with Paul’s distinction. Clear examples of this conflict appear in 1 Cor 1:10-4:21; 5:1-13; 9:1-27; 13:1-13; and 15:30-32, where Paul addresses the Corinthians’ overestimation of wisdom and eloquence, redirects the Corinthians’ attention away from loyalties to specific leaders to loyalty to Christ, redefines the standards by which the Corinthians should view themselves and their leaders, counters the Corinthians’ tendency to engage in anthropocentric “boasting,” and affirms his own apostolic ministry. It is the Corinthian community’s inability to grasp the application of theocentric “boasting” which leads Paul to address certain aspects and values of secular Corinth that have penetrated the Corinthian community. Thus, operating from an eschatological perspective, Paul critiques both the Corinthians’ attitudes and the Greco-Roman cultural values upon which their attitudes are based. Through irony, self-presentation, imitation, differentiating between theocentric and anthropocentric “boasting,” and distinguishing between personality and gospel rhetoric, Paul challenges the secular notions of social status, power, wisdom, leadership, and patronage and exhorts the Corinthians to focus their attention on their relationship with the Lord rather than on improving their social status or on increasing their honor.

This thesis analyses the content, tone, form and authorship of the national newspaper gossip column 1918-1939, as a new means through which the qualities of the popular press in this period can be more closely defined. Often dismissed as an example of the sensational, Americanization of early twentieth-century popular culture, the celebrity gossip column has been loosely grouped with the friendly, informal language and bolder formatting of the ‘New Journalism’ of the late nineteenth century and the development of the dramatic ‘human-interest’ stories of ‘everyday life’ in the interwar period (LeMahieu, 1988; Wiener, 1988). Through a comparative study of six newspapers including the Daily Express, Daily Mail and News of the World, I analyse the changing representation of the celebrity subject, and, originally, the shifting character and persona of the gossip columnist. Whereas some historians have analysed the content of newspapers without considering the questions of the newspaper’s production, I analyse newspaper employment records, gossip columnists’ memoirs and their unpublished letters and diaries to define the specific economic, social and cultural circumstances which, I argue, influenced their public portrayal. Also, in examining the unpublished correspondence between editors, proprietors and columnists and the burgeoning print culture of journalistic training manuals and professional memoirs, I provide a history of the press’s professionalization in this period. The national popular press has often been used as a historical source to define national character and national identity in the interwar period (Bland, 2008; Kohn, 1992). By scrutinizing the content and production of the gossip column and particularly the class, behaviour, interactions and subject matter of the columnist, I argue that the gossip column presented a version of ‘Britishness’ that was not so inward-looking and domesticated as so many accounts of interwar Britain suggest.