Social Class and Belonging: Implications for College Adjustment

Ostrove, Joan M.; Long, Susan E.

doi:10.1353/rhe.2007.0028

Cited by 380 publications

(361 citation statements)

References 64 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

327

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In particular, Croizet and Claire (1998) found performance decrements among lower SES French students under a situation of identity threat. More recently, this effect was demonstrated in a sample of college students in the United States (Spencer & Castano, 2007).In addition to this work on academic performance, SES has been found to influence social and emotional well-being in the context of higher education (Ostrove & Long, 2007). For instance, in a retrospective study, Ostrove (2003) found that women from lower and middle-class backgrounds reported feeling more alienated or belonging less during their time spent at an elite college-echoing Walton and Cohen's (2007) work on the effects of racial underrepresentation at elite private universities.…”

mentioning

confidence: 71%

Middle class and marginal? Socioeconomic status, stigma, and self-regulation at an elite university.

Johnson

Richeson

Finkel

2011

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

228

231

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In four studies, the authors investigated the proposal that in the context of an elite university, individuals from relatively lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds possess a stigmatized identity and, as such, experience (a) concerns regarding their academic fit and (b) self-regulatory depletion as a result of managing these concerns. Study 1, a correlational study, revealed the predicted associations between SES, concerns about academic fit, and self-regulatory strength. Results from Studies 2 and 3 suggested that self-presentation involving the academic domain is depleting for lower (but not higher) SES students: After a self-presentation task about academic achievement, lower SES students consumed more candy (Study 2) and exhibited poorer Stroop performance (Study 3) relative to their higher SES peers; in contrast, the groups did not differ after discussing a nonacademic topic (Study 3). Study 4 revealed the potential for eliminating the SES group difference in depletion via a social comparison manipulation. Taken together, these studies support the hypothesis that managing concerns about marginality can have deleterious consequences for self-regulatory resources.Keywords: stigma, socioeconomic status, self-regulation, social identity threat It's hard to be the only black dancer. You feel separate, and you feel negated in a certain sense, and it's not that people are trying to make you feel bad, but it's just obviously around you. . . . It's hard to be strong enough to be in that environment and to not feel wrong.-Virginia Johnson, 2007 In the New York Times article, "Where Are All the Black Swans?" (Kourlas, 2007), Virginia Johnson, a retired ballet dancer, recalls the experience of being Black in the overwhelmingly White world of ballet. In the epigraph above, she articulates the subjective experience that can arise from the awareness of being different-feeling "separate" and "negated." In effect, she is describing the psychological experience at the intersection of underrepresentation and social stigma: Being different, with the implicit understanding that this difference renders one devalued, or "wrong" (Crocker, Major, & Steele, 1998). Now imagine another identity in a different context: A young woman from a relatively modest or even middle-class background, starting her first year of college at a prestigious (and expensive) private university. How will this student's socioeconomic background influence her experiences in this elite context? The acute awareness that her background is discrepant from her peers'-and, in turn, from the context at large-may lead her to wonder if she will measure up in other ways. For instance, given that academic achievement is central to the identity of the university, her marginalized status in this context may lead her to question her ability to meet its academic standards. In turn, managing these concerns may pose a psychological burden. The purpose of the current work is to examine this possibility. Specifically, the present research explores the psychological ...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 71%

Middle class and marginal? Socioeconomic status, stigma, and self-regulation at an elite university.

Johnson

Richeson

Finkel

2011

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

228

231

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A l'inverse, les étudiants de classe populaire feraient l'expérience d'un décalage culturel entre leurs normes culturelles plutôt interdépendantes et les normes d'indépendance institutionnalisées à l'université. L'université serait perçue comme n'étant pas un endroit pour eux, et ils questionneraient leurs chances de réussite (Johnson, Richeson, & Finkel, 2011;Ostrove & long, 2007).…”

Section: Approche Socioculturelle De La Classe Socialeunclassified

Etudier, Mesurer et Manipuler la Classe Sociale en Psychologie Sociale: Approches Economiques, Symboliques et Culturelles [Studying, Measuring and Manipulating Social Class in Social Psychology: Economic, Symbolic and Cultural Approaches]

Goudeau¹,

Autin²,

Croizet

2017

rips

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Jusqu'à récemment, la classe sociale était peu étudiée en psychologie, et lorsqu'elle était prise en compte, c'était plutôt comme une variable démographique à contrôler que comme variable d'intérêt. L'objectif de cet article est de présenter une revue intégrée des recherches récentes sur la classe sociale en psychologie sociale qui examinent la façon dont la classe sociale influence le fonctionnement psychologique et le comportement. Cette littérature conçoit la classe sociale comme un contexte de socialisation modulant l'accès à des ressources, ce qui façonne les manières de penser, de ressentir et d'agir des individus. Nous présen-tons trois approches qui se distinguent en se focalisant sur trois aspects différents du contexte de classe sociale -les ressources économiques, symboliques ou culturelles -et leurs conséquences en termes de processus psychosociaux -focalisation attentionnelle, orientation vers le soi ou l'environnement ou façons de se définir comme individu. La présentation de ces trois approches et des processus psychosociaux associés nous amènera également à discuter des indicateurs utilisés pour mesurer la classe sociale (revenus, emploi, niveau d'éducation, rang perçu). Enfin nous argumenterons comment une psychologie sociale des classes sociales permet, notamment par le recours à la manipulation des processus, une identification précise des mécanismes par lesquels la classe sociale influence le fonctionnement psychologique et le comportement.Mots clés: classe sociale; ressources économiques; rang perçu; capital culturel Until recently, social class has been rarely studied in psychology, and when it was taken into account it was rather as a control demographic variable than as a variable of interest. The aim of this paper is to propose an integrated review of recent research in social psychology that examines how social class influences psychological functioning and behavior. This literature conceptualizes social class as a context of socialization that modulates access to resources, which shapes individuals ways of thinking, feeling and acting. We present three approaches that respectively focus on three distinct aspects of the social class context -economic, symbolic or cultural resources -and describe how these resources impact attentional focus, orientation towards the self or the environment and ways to define oneself as an individual. We review the supporting empirical evidence sustaining these approaches and discuss the relevance of the indicators used to measure social class (income, employment, level of education, perceived rank). Finally, we argue that an experimental social psychology of social class is particularly needed as it allows, through the manipulation of processes, to identify the mechanisms by which social class influences psychological functioning and behavior.

show abstract

“…However, in the recent past a growing literature in the social psychology of education starts to take into account students' subjective perception of their social class (see for example Ostrove & Long, 2007;Ostrove, Stewart, & Chetan Sinha * Measurement issues of the social class in social psychology of education:…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement issues of the social class in social psychology of education: Is it a category mistake?

Sinha¹

2017

Polish Psychological Bulletin

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social Class and Belonging: Implications for College Adjustment

Cited by 380 publications

References 64 publications

Middle class and marginal? Socioeconomic status, stigma, and self-regulation at an elite university.

Middle class and marginal? Socioeconomic status, stigma, and self-regulation at an elite university.

Etudier, Mesurer et Manipuler la Classe Sociale en Psychologie Sociale: Approches Economiques, Symboliques et Culturelles [Studying, Measuring and Manipulating Social Class in Social Psychology: Economic, Symbolic and Cultural Approaches]

Measurement issues of the social class in social psychology of education: Is it a category mistake?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About