AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF UFE STYLE m SUBURBAR FAMIUES Thesis for the Degree of Ph. .D. MiCHiGAN STATE UNWERSHY EFHE 'HEWRTT HACKLANDER 1973 This is to certify that the thesis entitled AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF LIFE STYLE IN SUBURBAN FAMILIES presented by EFFIE HACKLANDER has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for FAMILY ECOLOGY PH.D. degree in Major professor Date 7 r3 ABSTRACT AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF LIFE STYLE IN SUBURBAN FAMILIES By Effie Hewitt Hacklander Complex problems concerning family consumption expend- itures require a multidisciplinary approach. The concept style of life was utilized in the present investigation as being not wholly economic but partially determined by social- psychological pressures from within the family as well as from society. The commitment to a life style is considered by some writers to be a super-decision involving a great deal of inter-relationship and interdependentness in consumption choices. Consumption choices then evolve to restrict or facilitate any given life style while at the same time they are a reflection of life style. The present study was undertaken to investigate the possible changes-- in terms of the area of change and the possible direction of change--a family might make in consumption choices if given additional income and the opportunity to make changes. Data analyzed in this study were obtained from Q—arrays administered to 20 families deemed to be upper middle social class and 20 families deemed to be lower middle social class as determined by the Index of Class Position according to Ellis, et. a1. Five consumption areas were delineated as being common to all families and as among the largest expenditures, both in percentage terms and dollar amounts spent: housing, food, clothing, transportation, and leisure. The Present life style Q-deck consisted of ten statements in each of the consumption areas. For the Aspirational life style the same statements were used with slight tense modification to reflect a future orientation. Present life style scores were determined by summing the values of the five consumption areas of the constructed Present Q—sort, while Aspiration life style scores were determined by summing the values of the five consumption areas when a hypothetical increase in income was given to the respondent. Aspirational Difference was operationally defined as the arithmetical difference between the Aspirational life style and the Present life style as measured by the Q—sort. Face validity was estab- lished by a team of expert judges. Data analysis included multivariate and univariate analysis of variance to invest— igate the differences between the upper middle and the lower middle social class, Present and Aspirational life style, and relative importance of each of the consumption areas. Results indicated that the consumption area housing was of prime concern for this group of respondents. In analyzing Present and Aspirational life style by social class, transportation was found to make the greatest contri- bution and clothing the least contribution for Present life style. The differences were significant for the upper middle social class, but not for the lower middle social class. Clothing was found to make the greatest contribution and food the least contribution for Aspirational life style, although there were no significant differences by social class. Aspirational difference was also expressed in terms of residuals to determine the balance between the consumption areas and to show trade-offs between Present and Aspirational life styles when the respondent was given the hypothetical income increase. Respondents in both social classes indica- ted that they would exchange some of what they spend on housing for leisure. Some general implications of this research are: l) 0-- methodology can be used for interpretation and expansion of an economic framework, 2) operationalization of the concept life style, 3) families are somewhat future oriented, 4) families would change the balance of their consumption choices for greater maximization of satisfaction when given the opportunity, 5) a study of change and families' reaction to change as well as probable direction of change are indi-. cated, and 6) general knowledge and information about life style patterns, and families' ability and willingness to experiment. lw AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF LIFE STYLE IN SUBURBAN FAMILIES BY Effie Hewitt Hacklander A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Family Ecology 1973 I-I.I\”I‘Il L’I"II.I "IU YLIIJ'I'E”. YSIU’I‘JKHOJ‘IXH kA ~ - . ‘ o x u . \» x - ‘ o I v , ‘ e s x s . - 5 ~, - - . \ ~ . s ‘ ‘ ‘ . ‘ ‘ "‘ ‘ I I - y I I . ‘ . . - ‘ - ‘ ‘1 \.' ', o ‘ ~ . l - I a o . ..... ‘ A9)\ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (X0 The author is indebted to Dr. Carol Shaffer, major advisor and chairman of the thesis committee, for her counsel and guidance throughout the advanced graduate program. I would also like to thank the other members of the thesis committee for their counsel and suggestions throughout the development of the research project: Dr. Beatrice Paolucci, Dr. Margaret Bubolz, Dr. Joanne Eicher, and Dr. Harry Perlstadt. Appreciation is owed for the computer time for this project which was supported in part by National Aeronautics and Space Administration Grant NsG—398 to the Computer Science Center of the University of Maryland. Appreciation is also expressed to Dr. Jo Lynn Cunningham of the Research Support Unit, Institute of Family and Child Study, Michigan State University, for assistance in programming. Gratitude is also expressed to the author's husband and children for their patience and understanding during the course of this study. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS LIST OF TABLES Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ................................. 1 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ......................... 7 The concept of life style ............ . ....... 7 The relationship between social class and life style .......................... 9 Style of life, symbolism, and consumption preferences ................. 10 III. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ..................... 15 Definition of Terms..................... ..... l6 Assumptions .................................. l7 Hypotheses.. ................................. 18 Limitations .................................. 18 IV. RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCEDURE ................ 19 Method of Measurement ........................ 19 Method selection and instrument development for life style and consumption areas .............. . ...... l9 Validity and reliability of Q—sort.... 19 Order and scoring distribution of Q—sort ................ . ........ 35 Biographical Data ............................ 36 Selection of the sample ..................... . 37 Data collection procedure .................... 38 Data analysis .............. . ................. 39 Selection of statements ............... 40 Multivariate and univariate analysis of variance .............. 40 iii Chapter Page V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ........................ 42 Discussion of Findings ........................ 42 Biographical data ...................... 42 Dimensions of life style ............... 49 VI. SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS ...................... 67 Conclusions ................................... 69 Hypothesis I ........................... 69 Hypothesis II.......... ......... ....... 69 Hypothesis III ......................... 70 Implications .................................. 71 For theory ............................. 71 For research .......... - ................. 73 For applied programs ....... ‘ ............ 75 Summary of Implications ....................... 76 LITERATURE CITED ..................................... 79 APPENDIX ............................................. 84 iv Table Page 1. Methods used in analysis of data ................. 41 2. Fathers' occupations for upper middle social class ................................ 44 3. Fathers' occupations for lower middle social class ................................ 45 4. Level of mothers' education ...................... 46 5. Number of children in families by social class... 47 6. Range and mean scores for consumption areas by social class ............................. 49 7. Aspirational Difference for five consumption areas by social class ....................... 51 8. Comparison of Engel's Laws, BLS expenditure studies, and the current research data by consumption area, as income rises ........ 56 9. Selection of statements .......................... 58 10. Analysis of variance between aspirational difference by social class - methodological check - Hypothesis I ......... 59 11. Analysis of variance between aspirational differences by social class - test of Hypothesis II...... ................. 6O 12. Analysis of variance between upper middle social class and lower middle social class for Present life style - test of Hypothesis III ........................... 61 13. Analysis of variance between upper middle LIST OF TABLES social class and lower middle social class for Aspirational life style - test of Hypothesis III ............... . ...... 62 V CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Many of the complex problems concerning families re- quire a multidisciplinary approach for no one discipline or specialization is equipped with the totality of concepts, frameworks, theories and methodological techniques necessary for explaining all of human behavior. It is generally accepted that the family is the basic unit in the social structure, and in order to "continue building a viable and stable society, we must learn more about the behavioral aspects of our nation's greatest re- source and most fundamental social unit--the family...the family can play a unique role in dealing effectively with [godayé] issues, given the knowledge research can provide (43:17)." Theoretical Orientations Several different structural dimensions exist in all societies which give form to the total society. As such, the structure of a society influences the distribution of wealth, prestige or status, and power. Differentiation of classes based on wealth--the economic order--and status groups--the social order--will be of concern in this study: the predominant factor being primarily, although not 2 totally, economically based (56:24—25). Common characteristics of life style groups are acknow- ledged as "...material monopolies‘E?hic§J provide the most effective motives for the exclusiveness of a status group; although, in themselves, they are rarely sufficient, almost always they come into play to some extent (56). ‘Weber suggests that these characteristics or "motives" have a specific role: The decisive role of a "style of life" in status honor means that status groups are the specific bearers of all convent- ions...Even if the principles of status conventions differ greatly, they reveal certain typical traits, especially among those strata which are most privileged. If mere economic acquisition and naked economic power still bearing the stigma of its extra-status origin could bestow upon anyone who has won it the same honor as those who are interested in status by virtue of style of life claim for them- selves, the status order would be threat- ened at its very root...therefore, all groups having interests in the status order react with special sharpness precisely against the pretension of purely economic acquisition. ...With some over-simplification, one might thus say that 'classes' are strati- fied according to their relations to the production and acquisition of goods; whereas 'status groups' are stratified according to the principles of their consumption of goods as represented by special 'styles of life' (56: 26-27). I, [[r f. Ill. 'l’l I‘( III: III [III I lllAlal'I‘ftll‘III 3 As indicated above, style of life is not wholly economic but partially determined by social-psychological pressures. Man's freedom of choice is restricted by "pressures beyond his will:" pressures from within himself and from his society. To a very large extent he takes over his goals and ideals, his major objectives, from the large society in.which he lives while his minor objectives are determined by his immediate society. Also, in selecting among alternatives to achieve his objectives he is bombarded on all sides by pressures to conform, to copy, to repudiate, to contribute, to discard, to support, to join; in any case to yield: to follow something or other (25: 6). Adherance to any given life style is an example of Hoyt's "choice by association" or a predeterminant of future choice-making, where a choice once made leads one to take or reject other choices that follow. A type of choice that becomes dominant tends, positively, to encourage others favorably related to it: an expansive chain reaction may be set up. Negatively, a dominant choice tends to keep out interests unrelated or unfavorably re- lated. These principles work everywhere in our society and explain not only why choices cluster and specializations grow, but cast much light on the one-sided de- velopment of every culture. If man understands these principles he can to some degree control his choices and those of his society (25: 27). I III III [II [I'lllll ) I! 1 . (IlItIIJI 4 Toffler suggests that the commitment to a given life style is in fact a “super-decision" or a decision of a higher order than theeyeryday decisions. He speaks of life style as narrowing the range of choices and so long as we “operate within the confines of the style we have chosen, our choices are relatively simple (51:315)." Thus, the inter-relatedness and interdependentness of choice—making is culminated in life style. Family Life Style The concept of life style can also include the family. In this sense the family life style is "a holistic concept denoting the family's biased apperception of the outside world, and its automatized reactions to, or means of coping with, this world (35: 7)." In other words, perception can be both the denoter and the ultimate limitation on family life style. As a family's life style is perceived by others as ...the different consumption patterns are viewed in terms of their symbolic signif- icance. Within a class-related life style, consumption (and the display of that process of consumption) serves the dual purpose of symbolically identifying the consuming unit (i.e., the family) with similar consuming units likely to be of the same socio-economic class or level and at the same time carefully distin- guishing the family from other units of the same social aggregate in subtle ways, as well as making clear a gross distinct- ion between other members of dissimilar units who are usually viewed as being inferior (8: 9). (Emphasis added) Consumption patterns then, are interrelated with socio- economic class which in turn restricts or facilitates any given life style while at the same time it is a reflection of life style. An over—all objective of consumption is to get the greatest possible satisfaction from expenditures. Elizabeth Heyt gives four guidelines for accomplishing the above: 1) Increasing supply of resources 2) Knowing alternate uses of resources 3) Increasing utility and expanding appreciations 4) Balancing choices of resources (13) The fourth guideline, balancing choices seems appropriate for this investigation. The distribution of elements to create a "satisfying life" are of course not known for each individual, but it is commonly thought that all necessary components must be present. As stated by Gross and Crandall, "...the balance among the ingredients may vary according to the product desired or the resources available, but a product quite different and often unsatisfactory, will re- sult if all necessary ingredients are not represented (13: 145)." A family's choice of life style is in effect their 6 "balancing of choices". How families alter their life style or "balance" when given an opportunity to do so through additional income becomes an intriguing question. Other researchers have operationalized life style by the use of consumption areas. Michelson and Reed state, "We thought allocation of resources to be the best medium.within which to develop an operationalization of life style because allocation of resources is one of the best single indicators of that hierarchy of values and hence of life style (35)." The present study is an indirect measure of values as they exist within the economics of the family as expressed by the Present and Aspirational life styles, with the advantage that because of the technique used the results should con— tain only a very limited amount of the researcher's enthno- centrism. Many writenshypothesize that in the near future U.S. families will reach levels of affluence never before known by any society, and in fact the median family real income, (or purchasing power) has risen 33%.over the 10 year period from 1961-1971 (36). As the effects of the rising level of affluence is realized, perceptions of life styles, as indi- cated by consumption may become even more important. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Concept of Life Style One definition of life style incorporates a multi- disciplinary view: Life-style is a systems concept. It refers to the distinctive or characteris- tic mode of living, in its aggregative and broadest sense, of a whole society or segment thereof. It is concerned with those qualities which describe the style of life of some culture or group, and dis- tinguish it from others. It embodies the patterns that develop and emerge from the dynamics of living in a society (29: 185). Life style can also have individualistic overtones as well, or the wish to do certain things in particular ways indivi- duals regard as suitable for themselves (29). In addition, life styles are observable——a1though oftentimes one observes only fragments or partialities of life style. It is also said that life styles can be categorized: We can think of people in categorical terms derived from their customary behav- ior, emotional tone, expressed wishes: by being donors and recipients to their special forms of taking and giving. So the person oriented to display may take attention and admiration from us, the ambitious leader wants us to obey, the careless driver may want to share an accident with us. As they show us them- selves, order us about, or collide with us, 8 they bring their life styles to our attention. We discover something about the content of their personali- ties and the special fashion or form they give to it. To capture the essence of life styles and how they are exemplified in families requires a conceptual orientation to configurations, to patterns of ideas, feelings and actions (30). Ansbacher delineates three different possibilities for appraisals of life style: This may be an individual; or a group, where the members bear a psychological relationship to each other, and which has stability over time; or a class or cate- gory, where the members have only the property in common on the basis of which they are classified. The concept may vary further with regard to content, inclusive- ness, and centrality in the theory of the user (1:200). Even without a precise definition, the general meaning and significance of the vague, general concept life style is understood. Life style is communicated to others through symbols, or as Levy says, As we sense the meaningful currents in people's behavior and emotional express— ion, we become aware of what they are trying to do and the means they employ... and when we pronounce such judgments we are usually referring to the on-going symbolic quality of the person rather than to a specific action (31:276). The Relationship Between Social Class and Life Style Modern stratification systems have several different dimensions, each of which has its own ranking, values and orientations (28, 34, 56). The economic dimension divides the society into different classes based on the amount and source of income. Status, or prestige differentiation is based on the deference one claims and whether or not this deference is reciprocated by others. Individuals who occupy similar positions of status tend to form a group with spe— cific patterns of consumption behavior, or style of life, that one must maintain if he wants to belong to the group. The power structure constitutes the third dimension of the modern stratification system. Social mObility refers to the ability of individuals to move up and down the previously mentioned hierarchies of class, status, and power. Social class has been previously measured in a variety of ways. A continuum of stratification based on objective personal attributes such as income, occupation, and education is often used (13, 23, 55). Evidence also exists for dis- crete social class groupings based on a cultural clustering of large numbers of families which have group attitudes, norms, and behavior patterns. One of the significances of the various community studies done along these lines is that “individuals with the same or similar characteristics tend 10 to hold the same values and to follow essentially the same patterns of conduct (8). Social class can then be defined, as does Kahl, as "...a large number of families that are and consider themselves to be, approximately alike and equal to each other and that are differentiated from other groups of families (27)." In addition, Cavan points out that in the culturally defined social class, the concept is that of a group not a statistical aggregate and the basic unit is the family rather than the individual (8). The symbolism of the various social classes is recognized, thus, the life style of each family is distinctive, yet joined by common over-all cultural elements of their social class (14). Style of LifeL¥Symbolism, and Consumptionygreferences The faily social class position can be communicated to others by symbols, or as Martineau puts it, "...everyone of us in his consumption patterns and style of life shows an awareness that there is some kind of superiority-inferiority system operating, and that we must Observe the symbolic patterns of our own class (33: 225)." What an individual buys and where he buys it differ in both economic terms and in symbolic value (33), for as social class helps distinguish among varying life styles Consumption is the reflection of life- style and a means of a person's showing his social class (42). ll Prestige tends to be bestowed through consumption behavior rather than income, for only that which can be seen can be judged. Consumption patterns and inter- action networks are intimately linked: people spend their leisure time with others who share their tastes and recre- ational activities, and they learn new tastes from those with whom they associate (27: 124). Previous research has reported that lower class persons delineate fewer classes than do those at the higher strati- fication levels (10, 22). Lewis suggests that this is not simply that lower classes see and use fewer categories, but this may be instead due to an attempt at self-elevation, or the idea that those near the top would enhance their social position by seeing many categories below them, while those near the bottom would enhance theirs by seeing few categories above them (30). The universal use of goods as symbols has been discussed by such writers as Benedict and Veblen (3, 44). If a symbol is to convey meaning it must be recognized by the group with which the individual or family is associated whether that be only two persons or an entire society. In addition, the Symbol must communicate the same meaning to all within that sgroup, or have social recognition (44). In reality thisis again a classification system: The necessity for any group to develop a common or shared terminology leads 12 to an important consideration; the direction of activity depends upon the particular way that objects are classified (49). Evidence to support differences in life style in the buying behavior of different social classes is plentiful. Parsons and Smelser reported that a "standard package" of certain minimum of possessions and level of consumption is implied by the U.S. family and value systems. Spending symbolizing class and prestige was also identified (38). Parsons and Smelser concluded that: l) the standard package for each social class is relatively stable, and 2) types of symbolism vary from social class to social class. Jacobi and Walters found that in attempting to measure the degree of style awareness in purchasing dresses, there were three levels (or types) of symbolic acceptance manifested regardless of income: Whether we are concerned with three social-cultural dress levels for the entire range of income in the economy, or dress levels for any particular in- come bracket, three types of buyers or social-cultural dress levels may be distinguished (26: 211). Davis investigated status symbols and status perception 'by having his respondents classify pictures of living rooms into piles that were higher, lower, and most like the respon- dents own social standing. Not only were the respondents rating themselves, but they were also asked to rate the 13 hypothethical persons "who lived in the homes" or perceived prestige by use of material goods (10). Residence structure and location as well as the possess- ion of more nondurable goods is also considered to be a part of life style. Tallman and Morgner investigated the possible differences between urban and suburban life styles based on location of the residence. Data in this study indicated that for working class, residence was associated with the differ- ences in life styles between the urban and suburban families (50). However, resident location did not explain the greater concentration of middle class families in the suburbs, nor their upwardly mobile orientation. The researchers suggest that upwardly mObile families may choose suburban residences for their symbolism of middle-class status (50). At the same time, our data show that mo- bility orientations do not significantly modify the residential differences in other aspects of life-style reported in this paper. What seems most likely is that the interaction between suburban location and upwardly mobile persons with working-class backgrounds results in a life-style which is different from that characteristic of white—collar suburbs or working-class urban areas (50: 345). Logically, within each social class there would be iruiividual families whose life style permits (or forces) t11€mm to consume somewhat differently than the other members (”5' that social class. It could be a function of any one of 14 the various factors that make up social class measuring in- struments. For example, within each social class there are always families whose incomes vary either above or below the "typical" and the same is true for educational level, yet these "fringe" families continue to identify with the same social class. Coleman calls these "fringe" families "over- privileged" and "underprivileged". The factory foreman who has a larger income than his fellow workers but refused to move to a white—collar residential area is an example of the overprivileged, and the college professor or Protestant minister who earns less than other professionals with similar amounts of education, is an example of the underprivileged. :Differences in life style can be observed in the various ;products that are consumed by the "fringe" families. For example, Coleman states that in the early stages of the Inarketing of color TV, purchasers were the overprivileged in each social class, while in the case of the market for compact carts, early sales were concentrated among the underprivileged mfifldbers of each social class. Logically, one might have ex- PEKZted that in the case of color TV the purchasers would be tkubse social classes with high incomes, and in the latter e“ample that it would be the low-income consumers who pur- chased compact cars (9) . CHAPTER III STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM This study was designed to identify the general areas of “tradeoffs” or "exchanges" that wuld likely occur among five consumption areas of life style if a family were to have an increase in income. Families were asked to distinguish between their perception of their actual life style and their perception of their aspirational life style. Specifically, the following questions were of concern: 1) Is the relative importance families put on the various consumption areas en- compassed in life style the same for both lower middle and upper middle social classes, i.e. what is the balance between consumption areas? 2) What is the future-orientation of these families? How might famihes allocate increases in income? 15 l6 DEFINITIONS Theoretical Definition: In this study, life style is similar to that as discussed by Ansbacher and is defined as that of individuals or groups conceived as actively shaping their lives through preferences and corresponding choices (1). This particular definition was chosen over others because of the specific relevance to perception. Operational Definitions: Present life style is the summed values of the five con- sumption areas of the constructed Present Q—sort. Aspirational life style is the summed values of the five consumption areas as measured by the constructed Aspiration Q—sort when a hypothetical increase in income is given. Aspirationalfgifference is defined as the arithmetical difference between the aspirational life style as measured and the present life style as measured by the constructed Q—sort. Consumption Areas as operationally defined will be the 10 statements in each of the five categories: housing, food, clothing, transportation, and recreation. Socialgglass is operationally defined as that as obtained by use of the Ellis, et. a1. Index of Class Position (14). 17 ASSUMPTION The following assumption is basic to this study. Be- cause of their role as family purchasing agents, wives can convey perception of family consumption preferences. Based on the reviewed literature, certain differences between the two social class groupings were expected: 1) 2) 3) Upper middle social class families were expected to have a higher mean aspirational difference score than lower middle social class families. The consumption area housing was expected to be the most often selected for both upper middle social class and lower middle social class in present life style, while the consumption area leisure was expected to be of prime importance for both upper middle social class and lower middle social class in aspirational life style. The consumption area housing was expected to contribute the greatest difference for both present and aspirational life style regardless of social class. The above directional hypotheses were transformed to the null form for testing. 18 NULL HYPOTHESES Methodological Hypothesis: Hypothesis I. There are no differences between upper middle social class and lower middle social class in Aspirational Difference for the five consumption areas; housing, food, clothing, transportation, and leisure. Substantiative Hypotheses: Hypothesis II. There are no differences between Present and Aspirational scores for the five con- sumption areas; housing, food, clothing, transportation, and leisure. Hypothesis III. There are no differences by social class between Present and Aspirational life style. LIMITATIONS As a nonrandom sample was used in this investigation, predictions to other populations are necessarily limited. In addition, it should be emphasized that this was an explor- atory study indicating that the results should be stated more in terms of questions raised rather than in concrete answers. The actual goods and services used by the families interviewed were not identified, but rather behavior, both actual and proposed, as perceived by the wife and mother of the family, was investigated. CHAPTER IV RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCEDURE METHOD OF MEASUREMENT Instrument Selection and Development LifegStyle Basis fer measuring perceptions of life style would appear to lie in Q~methodology as developed by Stephenson, as it is a distribution of forced ranking of individual items or statements (48). However, the use of Q-methodology is somewhat controversial. Kerlinger lists several strengths and weaknesses of Q—methodology (28). A primary strength is that structured Q-sorts are theoretically oriented, for to relate two or more variables in a logical way, one must work with some kind of framework. As stated by Kerlinger, a second strength is that “Q can be used to test the effects of independent variables on complex dependent variables" (28:593). Using this method one can assess changes of single individuals as opposed to changes in the means of groups. A third strength is that of the usefulness of Q methodology in exploratory research where one may not have positive identi- fication of all the variables but only hunches about certain themes or categories. Fourth, Q data are suitable for analysis of variance and correlation, and fifth, subjects tend to enjoy sorting the Q—decks. 19 20 Q—methodology has disadvantages and criticism as this method is not well suited to cross-sectional investigations and requires supplementation in this area. Generally, 0 does not work well with large samples, nor usually for random sampling, and therefore generalization to larger populations is limited. As Q—methodology is a forced-choice procedure it violates the independence assumption for statistical testing, (the response to any given item affects the re3ponse to other items in the Q—sort). This can be somewhat overcome by rais- ing the level of significance requirements (28: 595). An additional criticism is that the forced-choice feature is an unnatural procedure for individuals, however, at the same time it forces individuals to make discriminations that they might not otherwise do (28, 35). The procedure for evaluating each item or statement and placing it in an array is known as a Q—sort. As outlined by Sommers, The method of evaluating such arrays and the position of items within them requires the establishment of a number of classes, each with a different score, and with each class containing an appropriate number of test items so that the array takes the shape of a quasi-normal frequency distri- bution...from the frequency distribution it can be seen that those classes at the extremes of the distribution can be con- sidered to be highly discriminating and have few items falling within them while those classes in the central positions could be less discriminating and have a greater number of items falling within them (45: 351-352). 21 Two limiting factors should be considered when select- ing items for a Q—sort: 1) none of the statements included should be so similar as to make distinctions between them difficult, and 2) there should be a basic homogeneity of classes of items so that that respondent can make some necessary decisions as to how the different items are related and their relative value (45, 48). Construction of the Q:deck Five consumption areas were delineated as components for constructing the structured Q-deck or profile of life style. General classes to be investigated were: housing, food, clothing, transportation, and use of leisure time. Twenty statenents were constructed and/or adapted from literature in each of the five consumption areas for a total of 100 state- ments. These statements were then presented to a team of expert judges consisting of graduate students and faculty in human ecology at the University of Maryland for face validity 1 The judges were instructed to rate 20 statements in check. the consumption area of their speciality on a representative- neutral-unrepresentative scale following procedure outlined by Phillips (39). The statements which the expert judges determined to be representative, both individually and by l Judges consisted of one graduate student and one faculty member fim’each area in housing, food, clothing, and home management. The home management people rated trans- POrtation and all 8 judges rated leisure time. 22 congruent choices, by area of expertise, were considered for the final consumption instrument. Congruence between judges was 98.2%. The final instrument consisted of ten representative statements in each of the five consumption classes for a total of 50 statements. (Rationale for the final inclusion of each statement is detailed below). Pre-testing was then conducted on three families in each social class grouping. Additional modification of wording of statements took place at this time. A second pre-test was conducted on three additional families for each social class grouping. No additional changes were deemed necessary. The pre-test results were not included in the final data collection. Consumption Areas Housing Dobriner reported in his suburban studies that working class suburbanites are do-it-yourselfers, while middle class suburbanites will hire repair and maintenance work done (12). Handel and Rainwater have reported similar findings (19). Thus statement H—3, "We do our own maintenance and repair work on the house" was included. Local newspapers have carried various advertisements for "total communities" in the researched location over approximately the last two years. Ideas in the advertisements 23 are similar to those proposed by family finance experts such as Trolestrup (52). Thus statement H91 was constructed: “Good housing includes the surrounding environment such as recreational facilities, availability of schools, churches, shopping, and ease of getting to work." Crime rates are of concern to many people in the researched location, so state- ment H94 was constructed to read, "we feel safe in this neighborhood." The remaining statements were constructed from the over-all theme prevailing in much of the literature on life style, consumer behavior studies, and consumer expen— diture studies. Statement H92 reads, "If we could get a fair price for our house we would move." H99, "The chikiren are happy in this neighborhood, and H—5, "We think it is im- portant to live near one's relatives, such as brothers, sisters, and parents." were based again on the "total community" idea and on results of various suburban studies in which respondents voiced both a rationale for moving to the suburbs because it was “good for the children" and at the same time expressing a desire to remain close to conjugal families (57, 12). Statement H910 was based on the generally accepted idea that this is a very mobile society and that one channel of upward mobility is that of job transfers and the corresponding moves. Statements H96, H97, and H98 were constructed with possible "aspirations" of families in mind. Food 24 "We would like at least one more bedroom and one more bath." "We can afford to spend more for housing." "Advice from a professional decorator is a necessity.“ "we move frequently; and we like it that way." Much has been written about constantly rising food prices during the time period of this study. Statements were constructed based on traditional economical-based sources and ideas purported by mass media during this time period. F-9 F-lO "My family prefers that I cook from scratch." "The use of convenient pre-packaged food is a real boon to meal prepar- ation." “We have tried during the last several months to cut down on our food bill." "We think buying food in quantity is more economical." Food has also long been considered as a means of showing high status (56). Three statements were constructed based on an "expensive equals status“ theme. F-l F-3 F-6 "We try to eat out about once a week." "I buy a lot more meat and dairy products for my family than is necessary." "We regularly make purchases from the gourmet section.“ In addition, F-4 "At a luncheon party, I would like to be able to pick up the check," and F—5, "When buying food, 25 I never buy “off" brands,“ were adapted from Nesbitt (37). One additional statement was added based on Dobriner (12) and Whyte's (57) comments that beer is the working man's drink, and that white collar workers drink wine with their meals. Statement F-7 reads, "Good wine enhances good food." Transporation In addition to food, housing, and clothing, transporta— tion is now considered one of life's "necessities". United States' enslavement to single unit transportation, cars, rather than a mass transit system is well documented. In fact, Trolestrup states, "Owning a car is a necessity (52)." This became statement T-2. T-4 was also constructed with prevailing values in mind; "Even if a rapid transit system was available I would continue to drive the car for personal use.“ For those interested in economy in transportation T-lO "Gas mileage is an important factor in choosing a car for our family," and T—S “We have a smaller economy car as well as a Targer family-type car" were constructed. T—7, "When purchasing a new car we consider the future trade-in value before making a final deal“ was also added. However, auto- mobiles are considered to be consumer goods which also can connote status and prestige. Statement T-8 was adapted from Nesbitt (37), "We think it doesn't make sense to want the biggest, the nicest, the shiniest car just because it is 26 the biggest, the nicest, and the shiniest." The remaining four statements were constructed along the theme of "cars equal prestige symbols." T-l "A nice smooth comfortable ride is important when thinking about a new car." T-3 "we get new car fever when the new models come out each year." T-6 "Foreign cars are more prestigious that U.S. makes." T-9 "One can tell a person's social po- sition by the car he drives." Clothing Various studies have explored the symbolic use of cloth- ing to communicate status and prestige. Statement C-4 "We think one's behavior, not clothing, determines prestige," was adapted from a 1963 study conducted by Carpenter (6). Both Carpenter and Nesbitt, in their respective studies, used a question similar to C-2,'When shopping for clothes I look for certain brand names' (6, 27)." Jacobi and Walters state that clothing has a different symbolic meaning for the different social classes. They de- lineated three different dress buying levels differentiated by the degree of awareness and acceptance of the current style. Type 1 buyers were thought to be less dependent upon store names, labels, and brands, and more concerned with aesthetics and workmanship although they were completely aware of group status symbols. Type 2 buyers include those 27 who have not yet completely assimilated the clothing status symbols, and therefore rely on store names, labels, and brands as well as price to gain prestige. Type 3 buyers are little concerned with style and what is fashionable, their purchasing pattern tended to be automatic and habitual (26). Based primarily on this rationale the following statements were constructed: C-l "We think that what one wears is relatively unimportant." C-3 "I prefer clothing which is quite unusual.“ C-5 "I buy fashionable clothing for the children." C-6 "we believe you have to look successful to be successful.“ C-7 "We think it takes a great deal of money to dress in good taste." C-8 "I buy practical and economical clothes for the children." C—lO "I buy only well-known brands of clothing." In discussing expenditures for working class families, Handel and Rainwater state that the life style of these families is such that they infrequently purchase suits of clothes (19). Thus, statement C-9, “We think one good suit is all that is necessary for the man in the family" was included. Leisure Included in the concept of life style is the character- istic way of filling leisure time. In researching the liter- ature on leisure, one theme becomes clear: leisure time and 28 the use of leisure time is being increasingly defined as a social problem. This idea along with the idea that there will be increasing amounts of enforced leisure due to a re— duction of the amounts of time that will be spent in the work role have raised controversy from moralists, philoso- phers, economists, and sociologists alike. The problem of leisure is not created merely by the growth of discretionary income, the reduction of the workweek, the pensioned retirement, and the length- ening span of life, just as alienation in work is not created primarily by the in- herent properties of certain jobs. Both problems are created when a value system is rendered apparently incapable of con- ferring honor on the typical situations which a social system engenders. Where inconsistencies exist between what the social system requires and what the value system prescribes, social problems are created, prominent among which are alien- ation from.work and the problem of leisure, reverse sides of the same coin (4:31). The normative connotation of leisure is further developed by Berger: Leisure refers to those activities whose normative content renders them most im9 portant to us, those things that we feel ethically (as distinguished from exped— iently) constrained to do. That these activities may empirically be found to occur most frequently in time not de- voted to paid occupations is significant primarily as an indication that work has lost much of its moral content--that work, which was once a calling from God to an earthly place, has become 'a job:"it's a living' (4:29). 29 Patterns of Use of Leisure Time It seems probable that a further reduction in working hours might also produce changes in patterns of family re- lationships in American society. Seventy-eight per cent of the workers interviewed in a study by Faunce indicated that with greater leisure they would spend more time with their families. Ninety-eight per cent of the workers indicated that they would, with more leisure, spend more time working around the house. Faunce concludes leisure which need not be used as recuperative time may be spent by the industrial worker in more active participation in family activites (15:92). Carter reports a direct rebuttal as found in Manpower Report 9; the President for 1968 where respondents indicated that even if they could live comfortably without working they would probably continue to work because they have no other activity that they would prefer to working at a job (32:53). An important prOblem of the sociology of leisure seems to be finding out when and under what conditions leisure should be considered an independent category that is not con- nected with work. Hendricks researched types of leisure behavior of families living in apartments as opposed to those living in single family houses. Although the present study was conducted with only families living in single family houses, Hendricks study has relevance as both studies were 30 conducted in an urban metropolitan area. Hendricks hypoth- esized that "the choices people make concerning their leisure activities can be understood in terms of their style of life and an appropriate index of such a life style and urban orientation may be the type of residence selected (21:416)." Home dwellers were found to be more active in outdoor leisure pursuits than were apartment dwellers (21:419). No relation- ship was found between resident type and social class, nor did controlling for social class change the relationship between residence and leisure activities (21:420). Educational level and occupation were found to be significant relationships for residence and urban activities but not for residence and outdoor leisure (21:422). Carter takes issue with the common concept of increasing amounts of leisure time and states that in fact work activity is increasing. The studies that I examined suggest that there has been an increase recently in the overtime and relatively stable dual job-holding rate. In the future, I suspect that there will be an increase in overtime that will be primarily con- centrated among managers, professionals, sales personnel, officials, and young married men caught in a life-cycle squeeze (7:65). Carter also states that he expects a continued rise in the number of families with two or more incomes. He also predicts a decrease in work related activities only for 31 those with enforced leisure such as unemployment or for those who choose an alternative life style which does not focus around work activities. He concludes by saying, "For those who choose work as an integrating force in their lives they will probably choose more of it (7:65)." Various attempts have been made to research leisure time in terms of occupation. Gerstl maintains that many of the social class differences found in studies of leisure do not clearly show the importance of occupation upon style of life. Gerstl states the effect is minimized when occupation is used as an index, or part of an index, of social placement. Gerstl found ad men, dentists, and college professors to be influenced most by the occupational milieu in their choices when asked how they would spend a hypothetical two extra hours of time in the day. Professors indicated they would most likely spend the extra time to work more, dentists stated their preference for relaxation and/or hobbies, and ad men would pursue recreational activities. It would seem that it is not only high occupational prestige which obliterates the differences between work and leisure in that the contrasts found between occupations within a social class suggest that the explanatory factor is that of the occupational milieu, i.e., the work setting, nature of the work itself, and the norms for behavior in a given occupation (7:163). 32 Blakelock considered time problems such as "fractured“ days, split shifts, and commuter time in his study of two shifts of employees in an oil refining company. Both groups were roughly comparable in job status as both were considered blue-collar workers. "Flexible activities" vs. "inflexible time" was investigated as a commodity in terms of activities. Questions concerning social activities, participation in organizations and meetings, usual number of hours of sleep, and time used to commute to work were used to determine in— flexible activities, while time spent around the house or yard was the measure of flexible activity. The time dimension of harmony was investigated using the following questions to measure the amount of time that the individual perceived himself as having compared to his inter- ests. Thinking of the things you like to do off the job, which is the best description of the way you feel about when you get to do things. Suppose you wanted to do something that would take another three or four hours a week, do you think you could fit it in. How often do you get the feeling that you have just too many things that have to be done off the job (5:457-458). Blakelock states, "Simply because the hours of work have declined it should not be assumed that the time left over is actually available for personal fulfillment. What should be 33 examined is the nonwork time in relation to the resources available for personal fulfillment (5:460)." The resources, of course, might well include family economic resources, a factor the present research considers by use of the hypothet- ical rise in income for the measurement of Aspirational life style. Three major foci are outlined by Blakelock for research in the area of leisure: 1) Kinds of problems of leisure which would include the flexibility of activ- ities or desired activities as well as an overall picture of leisure time. 2) Social distribution of the types of problems of leisure, especially to determine what is typical or independent of certain age groups, educational levels, occupations, and classes. 3) Sources of problems of leisure including study of causes of discrepancies be— tween total non9work time and time available for leisure activities (5: 460-461). The current investigation directs inquiry to all three foci by determining present family preferences in leisure 34 activities, as well as future desires when additional economic resources are available. As the reviewed literature indicates, leisure can be viewed in a philosophical manner or as a pur- chased commodity such as recreational pursuits. It is the latter definition that was included in the present study. The social distribution of family leisure time is also built into the study by using two socio-economic groups, and a range of occupations and educational levels. Specific information about leisure time activities in regard to life style was gleaned from various sources. Handel and Rainwater in studying working class discuss the different aspects of working class leisure time in terms of expenditures. They state that working class peeple use very few services and in fact tend to do their own repair work on both their houses and their cars. Also that they are very likely to spend vacations at home or visiting relatives and do not patronize hotels, motels, or restaurants very frequently (19). In Dobriner's discussion of social class in suburbia he mentions several times that the working class watches much more TV, and reads much less, than does the middle class (12). With these various studies as background the following statements were constructed: L-l "We go camping rather than stay in motels when traveling overnight." L-2 "We think it is important to partic- ipate in local community affairs." 35 L-3 “If the TV broke, we would get it fixed immediately." L-4 ”We are saving for a boat (or a bigger boat).“ L-5 "Our idea of a good time is to go to a party at a friend's house." L-6 "As a family, we enjoy visiting relatives." L-7 "we are all avid readers." L-8 "Our family enjoys do-it—yourself projects." L-9 "We have a vacation house." L-lO "we limit the number of hours the children can watch TV. Two decks of cards were used in data collection. The "present" deck consisted of the 50 statements delineated above while in the “aspirational" deck wording was changed slightly in tense to reflect a future orientation. See Appendix,;p.87-92. Order and scoring distribution of Q9sort The order of the statements in the Q—deck was determined by drawing slips of paper from a box on which the statement code had been written. The first slip drawn became the top card in the Q—deck, the second slip drawn became the second card, etc. (See Appendix for card order, p. 86 ). Frequency distribution and scoring for the statements are given below: Most Least Like Like Us US Weighting 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 l = 50 Score ________________________________ No. of items 2 3 6 9 10 9 6 3 2 ==250 36 Biographical Data Background information yielding data for family charact— eristics was obtained from the respondents and included husband's occupation, a self-evaluation of social class, number of children in the family, and the mother's educational level. Various measurements of social chess were considered for use. Hollingshead's two-factor Index and Warner's multi- level scale were eliminated because: (1) accurate income figures are primarily inaccessible due to "invasion of privacy" lawsuits currently of issue in the researched location, and (2) the Ellis method includes a self-evaluation of social class by the respondent. The latter was deemed essential due to the orientation of the entire study towards respondents' perceptions. Social class was determined by the method developed by Ellis, et. al.,which incorporates Hollingshead's 7-point scale on occupation and the respondents self-evaluation (14). The composite score of these two factors gives the Index of Class Positon (ICP) level, where a low score indicates a high class position. For this study, respondents were placed into flapper middle social class (ICP I-III) and lower middle social class (ICP IV-VI). See Appendix, p. 84 . 37 §election of the sample Subjects for the study were families living in the Washington, D.C. suburban area. Initial contact was made with mothers whose preschool children attended a cooperative nursery school in suburban Fairfax County, Virginia. Six families were found to reside in the same subdivision of $50-60,000 homes. The other 14 respondents in the upper middle social class group were located by simply knocking on doors in this subdivision until families who met the pre—established criteria were located. Respondents for the lower middle social class group were located by a check with a local realtor and courthouse records to determine present selling prices of houses in several prospective subdivision-type areas. The subdivision selected was in Laurel, Maryland, with houses priced at $18—21,000 at the time of the study. Specific respondents were located and interviewed by canvassing the neighborhood street by street until 20 families meeting the pre-established criteria were located and were willing to participate. A purposive sample of 40 families equally divided between upper middle and lower middle social class was selected by the following criteria: 1. No broken families were used. 38 2. All families contained at least one pre-school aged child. 3. The husband's age was between 25-35. 4. No persons other than the nuclear family regularly resided in the home. 5. Mothers were not employed full time. 6. Twenty families for each social class (upper middle and lower middle) were selected. Procedure 1. Families were contacted to set up a conven- ient time for administering the measures. 2. Wives were interviewed in their homes. Background information was gathered for the Index of Class Position (ICP).l Each re- spondent was then asked to complete the other instruments. lIn pretesting, it was determined that the question of self-evaluation of social class as posed by Ellis would not be appropriate for this group. Hence, the respondent was asked ”What social class grouping do you feel your family belongs to?“ If the respondent replied, "middle class", then the probe question was asked, "WOuld you consider it to be upper middle, middle middle, or lower middle class?" 39 3. Present life style was measured by a Q-array consisting of 10 statements in each of the five consumption areas-- housing, food, clothing, transportation, and leisure. 4. Aspirational life style was measured by asking the respondent to again select the items using a second Q—deck with items reworded to have a future orientation. The stipulation was made that the re- spondent now had 20%/ month more money income. ,pata Analysis Biographical data consisting of father's occupation and self-evaluation were used to compute the ICP levels. .Mother's educational level and number of children were included to add another dimension and/or for explanatory purposes. Frequency distributions, means, and standard deviations were computed for the five consumption areas for both Present and Aspira- tional life styles. 2An example assumed to be approximately 20% of the family income based on fathers occupation and value of the residence ($500/month for upper middle and $200/month for lower middle, was presented to each respondent. 40 The first two and the last two selection choices of the 50 statements were determined for each social class. The Aspirational Difference score was determined by the residual of the summed score of the Aspirational life style minus the summed score of the Present life style. Planned analysis of the data also included multivariate and univariate analysis of variance to investigate the diff- erences between the upper middle and lower middle social class groupings, Present and Aspirational life style, and relative importance of each of the consumption areas. See Table l, p. 41. 41 TABLE 1. METHODS USED IN ANALYSIS OF DATA Purpose of Analysis Data Used Statistics and Computer Description of Family Biographical; age Frequency Counts Characteristics limitation, occupa- Assignments of fam- ilies to one of two social class group- ings (upper middle or lower middle) Description of present life style scores Transformation of present life style scores Description of as— pirational life style scores Transformation of present and aspir- ational life style scores to aspira- tional difference Test of Hypoth- eses I,II,III AD: tional range, mother's education number of children Occupation, self- evaluation of social class as measured by Ellis, et. al. Q-array for "present" 5 components in "present" consump- tion area item scores summed Q—array for "as- pirations“ 5 component sums; grand sums .__— ‘ Ha - Hfi F - F a P Ca - CP T - T a P L - L a P _| See above Social class level Raw scores for each of the 5 present consumption areas summed; range, mean, standard deviation Grand sum of "present" 5 areas of consumption Raw scores for each of the 5 "aspira- tional" consumption areas summed; range, mean, standard dev- iation Grand sum of as- pirational minus present Sums, differences, means, multivariate and univariate an- alysis of variance; F-statistic CHAPTER V RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Discussion of the results includes: (1) descriptions of biographical data collected on the respondents, (2) discussion of the various components of dimensions of life style, (3) discussion of the differences between the two social class groupings in terms of life style, and (4) identifying social class groupings by the consumption areas comprising life style. Biographical Data The research data was collected in March and April of 1972. Background information obtained from the respondents included the father's approximate age, father's occupation, level of mother's education, number of children in the family, and the mother's evaluation of the family's social class. All of the 20 families approached from the upper middle social class group willingly consented to be a part of the study. A total of 26 families in the lower middle social class group were approached to get a total of 20 willing to participate. All families interviewed were nuclear families, with the father being the only wage earner, and had at least one pre—school aged child. 42 43 One of the initial criteria for suitable respondents for this study was that the father's age fall within the range of 25-35 years. All families in the study met this criteria. Social Class Social class position was determined for each family by the Index of Class Position as developed by Ellis, et. al. which combines Hollingshead's occupational scale with the re- spondent's self-evaluation of his social class (14). Based on these two scores, 20 families were then placed into upper middle social class (ICP—III) and 20 families into lower middle social class (ICP IV—VI). Fathers' Occupations The fathers' occupations are given in Tables 2 and 3 by social class according to Hollingshead's occupational—status classifications. Hollingshead's 7-category scale ranks occu- pations into groups by size and value as well as by profession (23). Level of Mother's education Level of the Mother's education is thought to be im- portant in decision-making in the family. As shown in Table 4 all of the mothers were high school graduates. In the lower middle social class grouping 20%,of the mothers had.some education beyond high school while 75% of the mothers 44 TABLE 2. Fathers' occupations for upper middle social class Hollingshead ICP ICPl Occupation .33; Score Wt. Level Military, com. officer 1 l 2 II Sales Mgr., nat'l l 2 2 II concern Federal gov't. admin. 3 l 2 II Attorney 1 1 2 II Accnt. Rep., Div. Mgr. 1 2 2 II Engineer (college degr.) 3 l 2 II Scientists 2 l 2 II Proprietor (owns 4 l l 3 III dress shops) Real estate mgr. l 2 3 III (commercial) Physician 2 l 2 II Public Affairs Conslnt. l l 3 II Business executive l l 2 II Economist l l 3 II Public health advisor l 2 3 III TOTAL 20 1 Based on Hollingshead score and the respondents' self- evaluation (ICP Wt.) respondents were placed into lower middle (ICP IV9VI) and upper middle social class (ICP I-III). 45 TABLE 3. Fathers' occppations for lower middle social class Hollingshead ICP ICP1 Occupation “N2; Score Wt. ALevel Military, noncom. 1 4 4 IV officer Admin. Assist. 1 3 4 IV Auditor (not CPA) l 2 4 IV Construction worker 2 6 5 VI Electrician 2 5 4 IV Musician l 3 5 IV Repair sh0p foreman 2 4 5 IV Optical technician 1 5 3 IV Life insurance agent 1 3 5 IV Telephone repairman l 5 4 IV Plumber 1 5 3 IV Sales rep. 3 3 5 IV Garage owner 1 3 5 IV Florist l 3 5 IV Claims examiner 1 4 4 IV TOTAL 20 1 Based on Hollingshead score and the respondents' self- evaluation (ICP Wt.) respondents were placed into lower middle (ICP IV9VI) and upper middle social class (ICP I-III). 46 TABLE 4. iLevel of Mothers' Education Upper middle Lower middle social class social class ELLIS; """ «3x; """ ;;;;;;;2; ”””” 02' High school 3 15 16 80 1 yr. college 2 10 l 5 2 yr. college 5 25 3 15 College degree 9 45 0 -- Other (R.N.) l 5 0 -— TOTAL 20 100 20 100 in the upper middle class grouping had two or more years of college and 50%.had received a four year college degree (or equivalent). Number of chilgpen The average upper middle social class mean (i = 3.15) shows the family has more children than the average lower middle social class family (i = 2.30). See Table 5. However, when the responses are examined in terms of percentages, the number of families with two and three children equal 65%.for both the upper middle and the lower middle social class. The number of families in the lower middle social class with one child was 25%.compared with 5%.in the high middle social class group. The reverse might be expected as usually fathers in 47 the upper middle social class groupings spend a longer period of time training and preparing for their occupations, thus possibly delaying the birth of children. Another factor might be that fathers in the lower middle social class group- ings may be at the lower end of the 25-35 acceptable age range for this study while the upper middle social class families are at the upper end of the age range. TABLE 5. Number of children in families by social class Upper middle Lower middle social class social class No. of children SILL; """ 3i """" ;;;;;;;2; """" <7: 1 l 5 5 25 2 6 30 9 45 3 7 35 4 20 4 3 15 o -_ 5 1 5 l 5 6 2 10 l 5 TOTAL 20 100 20 100 Av. No. children 2.30 3.15 48 Table 6 shows the range and mean scores for the five consumption areas comprising life style. Scores are reported by Present and Aspirational life style and by social class. In the Present life style the upper middle social class places less importance on housing and transportation but places more emphasis on food, clothing, and leisure than does the lower middle social classl Within the Aspirational life style, the mean for consumption area food was exactly the same for both social classes, and relationships for the other dimen- sions of life style stayed relatively the same between social classes. When comparing Present and Aspirational life style, both social classes placed less emphasis on housing and more em- phasis on leisure than they did for the present life style. Upper middle social class placed more emphasis on clothing, and less emphasis on food. According to one version of Engel's law one would expect less emphasis on both food and housing at the Aspirational level, or as income rises the proportion spent for basics decreases (2:8-11).l More em- phasis was placed on<:lothing at Aspirational level for the upper middle social class although the change was not large. l A further discussion of Engel's Laws appear on p.55—56, 49 oolhe mmlmm omlme Holhe Hmlhm mmlve mmlflw mmlmm amine holoe mommy N m.mm o.m¢ m.om h.mm N.m¢ H.h¢ m.m¢ b.0v ®.Hm H.vm OHUOHE H030.H oh.m mn.m m®.¢ oo.m h¢.¢ om.m Nw.¢ o¢.¢ mm.m Nm.m m hmime molmm Holmm mmlmm wwlae hmlmm omloe mmlae mmloe Hmlmfi mmcmn x m.om m.am o.m¢ o.mv m.me n.me m.me m.mo m.mo m.am oaooas Home: a m a m a uni a a 4 a nano Hmaoom muomaoq .unommcmua mcHSDoHU coon msamsom mmmao weaves” a women coHumiEomcoo How mmBOm some one. modem .0 magma me 50 This might indicate a quality increase rather than an in— crease in quantity, however in checking the ranking of the clothing statements from the original raw Q—array the cloth- ing statements ranking within the top ten statements were repeatedly statements C-1, C-4, and C-8: C1 "we think that what one wears is relatively unimportant." C4 "We think one's behavior, not clothing, determines prestige." C8 "I buy practical and economical clothes for the children." In addition, 3 of the 20 upper middle social class respond- ents placed C—9, "We think one good suit for the man in the family is all that is necessary," in the first ten ranked statements. As fathers in this group are well—paid profess- ionals this ranking seems a little incongruous with what one would expect. However, several of these professions would dictate apparel other than business suits for on the job, i.e., military uniforms (l), scientists (2), and physicians (2). Another factor may be the fashion trend away from suits and towards sports jackets and slacks. Means for upper middle social class for Transportation remained essentially the same for both Present and Aspira- tional life style, while for lower middle social class the Aspiration mean (50.9) was lower than for the Present (53.7) reflecting a preference for decreased spending in that area. 51 .Agpipational Difference In Table 7 the various "balances" are shown as residuals with the purpose being to show leveling tendencies or "trade— offs" between Present and Aspiration.1 This table was com- puted using the raw scores for both Present and Aspirational life styles. Logically Aspiration would be expected to be a higher score than Present life style, therefore the residuals were determined using Aspiration - Present = Difference. Table 7. Aspirational Difference for five consumption areas by social class Housing Food Clothing Transp. Leisure Total Social Class Upper -70 -22 +23 —3 +72 middle 0 lower -49 +43 -37 — + 9 0 middle 56 9 l The option of saving the hypothetical income increase was not directly included, as one of the objectives was to determine in which consumption area the increase would occur. However, savings is implied, in terms of investment, for some of the possible responses, i.e., vacation homes, boats, or.larger homes. 2Although it is recognized that mathematically the results would be the same if it were computed Present - Aspiration = Difference. 52 In interpretation, the closer the score approaches zero the less descrepancy between Present and Aspirational, or the closer to achieving "balance." A negative residual indicates the family feels too much is being spent in that category while a positive residual indicates the family would prefer to spend more in that area. For comparison purposes, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Budgets shows the largest percentage of family allocations going for housing for both the Higher (25.65%) and the Mod- erate (24.6%) standards.1 A.more complete breakdown is given below: .Higher Standard .Moderate Standard Hbusing 25.6%. 24.6% Food 19.8%. 23.2% Clothing 11 . 1% 10 . 8% Transportation 8 . 6% 9 . 6% Medical care 3.8% 5.3% Taxes 17.4% 15.0% All other 13 . 7% ll. 5% SOURCE: "New BLS Budgets Provide Yardsticks for Families of Three Levels," Monthly Labor Review, April, 1969, p. 12. l The Bureau of Labor Statistics periodically publishes the costs of family consumption. Included are consumption costs for food, housing, transportation, clothing and per- sonal care, medical care, and miscellaneous consumption. Three budgets at three income levels are included for a family of four consisting of a man 38 yr. old, his unem9 ployed wife, a boy 13 and girl 8. These were the most recent figures available at the time the research data was collected. 53 Complete comparisons to the BLS standards are not possible because precise information on income was not obtained from each family. However, the approximately income for the lower middle social class in the present study corresponds reason— ably well with the BLS income level of the Moderate standard, ($9,076) while the approximately income of the upper middle social class in this study was substantially more than the Higher standard of the BLS of $13,050.1'2 In this investigation, mfledical care and taxes were not included. Presumably Leisure would be included in the BLS's "all other" category. Respondents in both social classes, when given a choice, indicated that they would exchange some of what they spend on Housing for Leisure. This may be in part due to the age of the respondents (25-35) as they have growing famiies and might logically put more money in housing at this time, but in the future the proportion of income going for housing might be reduced as many families buy housing before other items. Additional support for this view would be the high 1 In checking with local realtors, incomes for the upper middle social class residential area were found to range from $23,000-40,000+, while for the lower middle social class residential area incomes ranged between $7,700-10,800. 2More recent BLS data is available, however, the figures reported here correspond in timing with the collect- ion of the research data. 54 cost of housing in the Washington metropolitan area as the median is reported to be $10,000 above the national average (42). As the researched area is also highly transient the possibility of a heavy expenditure for housing being only temporary in terms of the total life span is very real. However, percentage of income comparison with the BLS stand- ards would tend to show that the high expenditures for housing continue. Given additional income, the upper middle social class would spend proportionally less on food while the lower middle social class would spend more on food, but the reverse was found to be true for clothing. In comparison with the BLS studies, the Moderate standard did in fact show a greater percentage than the Higher standard for food, and a lesser percentage for clothing. Upper middle social class respond- ents felt their spending for Transportation is about right while the lower middle social class respondents indicated they spend too much. Again comparing with the BLS studies shows that the Higher standard did not have as large a per- centage allocation for transportation as did the Moderate standard. As mentioned above, all respondents, regardless of social class, would like to spend more on Leisure. Com- parison of the research data with the BLS standards for the consumption area Leisure is not meaningful since the category 55 was not explicitly reported by BLS. Income-expenditure curves for various consumer categor- ies can be computed which indicate the percentage of income a family spends on each item.by income level. These relation- ships are commonly known as Engel's Laws (although Engel actually formulated only the one on food). ‘gngel'sypaws 1. Percentage of income spent on food decreases as income rises. 2. Percentage spent on housing stays about the same. 3. Percentage spent on clothing stays the same (or increases). 4. Percentage spent on luxuries increases (17). When comparing respondents scores with Engel's laws preferences for consumption categories food and housing de- creased as income rose, clothing and transportation increased, and leisure slightly decreased. This comparison does not consider the magnitude of the scores (as reported in Table 7) and therefore should be used only as a theoretical comparison. Precise income data was not collected for the test families, hence income-expenditure elasticities (or the percentage of change) could not be calculated. See Table 8. 56 TABLE 8. Comparison of Engel's Laws, BLS Expenditure Studies, and the current research data by consumption area, as income rises Engel's Laws BLS Current Research Data Hous ing 8 ame 1. \b Food ”L J; 4’ Clothing same or T 1‘ T Transportation (luxuries)‘~ Leisure "" slight \L 1 As reported in percentages. 2 Reported as preferences for expenditures. In theory (per Engel) housing should remain the same as income increases and in actuality BLS percentages increase and the current data preferences decrease. Engel's Law holds for food and clothing for both BLS figures and the current research. The law on luxury items states that as income in- creases amounts spent for luxuries will increase. There are no direct comparison categories for either BLS or the current data; however, in Engel's day both transportation and leisure would have been considered luxuries. 57 Selection of Statements As shown in Table 9, statement #1 "Good housing includes the surrounding environment such as recreational facilities, availability of schools, churches, shopping, and ease of getting to work," was most commonly selected in the first category for both Present and Aspiration for upper middle social class and Present for lower middle social class. Statement #1 was also among the top selected statements for lower middle social class for Aspiration. Statements #4 and #9 were also concerned with housing, "We feel safe in this neighborhood," and "The children are happy in this neighbor— hood." Statement #32, "Owning a car is a necessity,“ appeared in three out of the four categories as one of the four statements most commonly selected first. Based on the suburban location of these families and virtual lack of public transportation, this seems a logical concern. One additional selection should be discussed. Statement #49 appears as first selected for lower middle social class- Aspiration and as a last selected statement for lower middle social class-Present. Statement #49 reads, "We have a vaca- tion house.“ The response to this statement was more quant- itative than the other statements and apparently one-fourth of the lower middle social class families would place ac- quisition of a vacation home at the top of the list when given additional income. 58 TABLE 9. Selection of statements First Selected1 Last Selected2 Stat. Frequency Stat. Frequency No. No. Upper middle social class Present 1 11 44 5 9 7 41 3 32 5 10 4 4 4 -- -- Aspiration 1 10 10 3 4 4 2 3 46 3 9 2 48 3 25 2 Lower middle social class Present 1 6 49 10 9 5 44 5 32 4 25 3 40 4 23, ll 2 Aspiration 49 5 41 5 l 3 27 3 ll 3 2 3 32 2 10 3 1 First selected uses either first or second statement position in the Q—array as when the instrument was adminis- tered the respondents were asked to "choose two statements for the first pile" consequently both statements were scored the same. 2 Includes statements selected both 49th and 50th as the respondents were asked for "two cards of least importance to your family." 59 Analysis of Variance A one-way (with two levels) multivariate analysis of variance was computed to determine differences between upper middle social class and lower middle social class on the five areas of consumption. This was a methodological procedure as a cross check on the accuracy of procedures using the Q— technique. In the use of a forced choice technique all resi— duals will total to the same sum; in this case zero. Hence the multivariate analysis of variance should be negligible before one proceeds with additional computations. And in fact, the results shown in Table. 10 indicated there was no significant main effect due to social class so a univariate analysis was then computed for Aspirational Differences (Present - Aspirational = Aspirational Difference). TABLE 10. Analysis of variance between aspirational differ- ence by social class - Methodological check —- Hypothesis4I F-ratio 1. 6468 ‘p__ .1845 Univariate F S{£L_. DHousing .4173 .5222 DFood 2.9549 .0938 DClothing 4.4935 .0407 DTransport 2.5915 .1158 DLeisurel .5101 .4795 1 Only four of these variables could be run at a time because of the ispative nature of the five aspects of the consumption measure. 60 Table 11 shows Aspirational Difference significant for the life style characteristics housing and leisure. TABLE 11. Analysis of variance between aspirational differ- ences by social class - test of Hypothesis II. F-ratio {P 6.8 .0004 Univariate F (p DHousing 13.4000 .0008 DFood .3084 .5820 DClothing .2446 .6238 DTransport 3.2114 .0811 , l DLeisure 20.4595 .8081 1 Only four of these variables could be run at a time because of the ispative nature of the five aspects of the consumption measure. Aspirational Difference is a relative measure which does not take into account the magnitude of the differences. To look at this area an analysis of variance concerned with the differences by social class between Present and Aspira- tional life styles was computed. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance between the two levels of social class was computed testing the null hypothesis of no difference between upper middle and lower middle social class for Present life style. As reported in Table 12, the hypothesis was rejected as there was a diff— erence (p (.0141) . The greatest differences between upper 61 middle and lower middle social class for Present life style were found to be in Transportation, and next in Food. TABLE 12. Analysis of variance between upper middle social class and lower middle social class for Present life style - test of Hypothesis III. F-ratio S P 3.6338 .0141 gnivariate F g P PHousing 1.7876 .1892 PFood 5.2791 .0272 PClothing 2.0204 .1634 PTransport 10.6185 .0024 pLeisure1 2.0592 .1595 1 Only four of these variables could be run at a time because of the ispative nature of the five aspects of the consumption measure. As shown in Table 13, an analysis of variance was com9 puted for Aspirational life style by social class. The null hypothesis was rejected as there was a difference between upper middle and lower middle social class respondents for Aspirational life style. The greatest difference between the two groups was found in the consumption areas of cloth- ing, housing and transportation; no difference was found in food or leisure. 62 TABLE 13. Analysis of variance between upper middle social class and lower middle social class for Aspira— tional life style - test of Hypothesis III. F-ratio $._P 3.4833 .0170 Univariate F ‘ < P AHousing 3.2005 .0816 AFood .0012 .9729 AClothing 10.5744 .0025 ATransport 2.8594 .0991 ALeisure .4709 .4968 1 Only four of these variables could be run at a time because of the ispative nature of the five aspects of the consumption measure. Housing As reported in Table 11, housing was the variable that made the greatest contribution to overall variance in Aspir- ational Difference scores without regard for social class grouping. Selection of the statements shows upper middle social class placing more emphasis on Housing than lower middle social class. The univariate analysis of variance shows that this difference between social classes is statis— tically significant for Aspirational life style but not for Present. This suggests that although families may be inter- ested in altering their housing expenditures if additional 63 income were available, in the Present housing is not the greatest contributing consumption area to the differences between social classes. regs Tables 10 and 11, do not show significant differences for either social class or Aspirational Difference scores for Food. It was expected that with the current emphasis on high food prices there would be more concern about expendi- tures in this area. Table 7, Aspirational Difference, shows an "imbalance“ for food for both social classes, as upper middle social class is minus, lower middle social class is plus, but when combined the differences even out. When considering Present versus Aspirational life styles, food was found to contribute the second largest amount of difference between the social classes, but no diff— erence was found for food for Aspirational life style. Clothing It has been generally accepted from previous research that social status isexpressed and perceived symbolically through clothing, as was substantiated in the Aspirational Difference residuals in Table 7 where the upper middle social class had a residual of +23 and the lower middle social class a -37. In the univariate analysis, clothing 64 was found to contribute a lesser amount towards differences between social classes for Present life style, but was the greatest contributor towards differences for Aspirational life style (Tables 12 and 13). Egansportation Differences between upper middle and lower middle social classes for transportation were not significant for Aspira- tional Difference as shown in Tables 10 and 11. Transporta- tion was found to contribute the greatest amount of difference between the social classes for Present life style and was the second greatest contributor for Aspirational life style. Information on the type and number of cars the respondents owned was not gathered. The research.was conducted in a suburban area with very limited public transportation, there- fore transportation was expected to be important to all re- spondents both at present and in the future. Leisure Tables 12 and 13 show no significant differences be— tween upper middle and lower middle social classes for either Present or Aspirational life style for Leisure. A significant difference was demonstrated for Aspirational Difference for leisure time without regard to social class. 65 Both social classes presently have leisure time but would like to spend their leisure time in a different manner if they had additional income. This preference was also dem- onstrated by Aspirational residuals as shown in Table 7 where the residual was +72 for upper middle social class and +99 for lower middle social class indicating families felt there was an "imbalance" in expenditures. Summary Housing is the area of prime concern for this group of respondents. Three statements concerning housing were se- lected as being "most important" of the fifty statements. In the analysis of variance, housing and leisure were found to make the greatest contribution to overall variance and were the only life style aspects that were individually significant for Aspirational Difference. It would appear that when given a choice, all respondents would exchange some of the funds they are currently spending for housing for additional leisure time activities. All families, re- gardless of social class, felt their expenditures were not in the "balance" they would prefer. The analysis of Present and Aspirational life style by social class revealed transportation making the greatest contribution to differences between social classes and 66 clothing making the least contribution for Present life style. These differences were found to be significant for the upper middle social class, but not for the lower middle social class. Clothing made the greatest contribution for Aspirational life style, and food the least. There were no significant differences by social class for Aspirational life style. In general, when comparing Present and Aspirational life style there seems to be a greater difference between social class groups on Present than on Aspirational. CHAPTER VI SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS The major concern of this exploratory study was to in- vestigate the relationships of social class to Present and Aspirational life style in 40 suburban families. Also in— cluded in this study was an estimation of "balancehbetween various present and future expenditures as well as an im- portance selection for both styles of lfie. A review of related methodological literature deter— mined that Q—methodology seemed a good technique for incor- porating the various dependent variables that the researcher wished to explore. Five consumption areas common to every U.S. family and among the largest expenditure areas--both in percentage terms and in dollar amounts spent--were delineated; housing, food, clothing, and transportation as being absolute necessities, and leisure because all families have a certain amount of leisure time.1 Face validity was established by concensus of expert judges in each consumption area. 1 Not unmindful of education as an important contributor to the development of human capital, it was omitted from this study as a specific consumption area. No families in— terviewed included children in the later teen years, nor did any respondent remark about the absence of educational— type responses in either the Present or Aspirational life style. Education costs were deemed to be relatively unim- portant to this sample. 67 68 Through pre-testing 100 statements)some were eliminated, altered, and combined until each of the five consumption areas of the final measure contained ten statements for a total Q—array of 50 statements. A purposeful sample was located in which 20 respondents were upper middle social class and 20 were lower middle social class as determined by the Index of Class Position according to Ellis, et. a1. Background information obtained from the respondents included age of the father, number of children, educational level of the mother, father's occupation, and a self-evaluation of social class. Research data was collected in March and April of 1972. Statistical analysis of the data included importance selections of the individual statements in the Q—sort, Present life style score (sum of the five consumption areas), Aspirational life style score (sum of the five consumption areas, second administration), and Aspirational Difference score (the residual of Aspirational life style minus Present life style). In addition, multivariate and univariate analyses of variance were computed to investigate differences between the social class groupings as well as determining the contribution of the individual consumption areas to the differences between groupings. 69 CONCLUSIONS Methodological Hypothesisyg. There are no differences be- tween upper middle and lower middle social class in Aspir- ational Difference for the five consumption areas: housing, food, clothing, transportation, and leisure. The test of social class main effect was not significant hence it was concluded that the Q9sort is a valid technique to investigate other social class differences. Substantiative Hypothesis II. There is no difference between Present and Aspirational scores for the five consumption areas; housing, food, clothing, trans- portation, and leisure. Tallman and Morgner (50) and others have reported the constant "upwardly mobile" outlook of upper-middle and lower- middle suburban families. The aspirational difference was computed as the residual between Present and Aspirational life style, and those respondents in the upper middle social class would have achieved at.1east.part of their life-goal aspirations by virtue of the fact that they are professionals by training and occupation. Thus, the descrepancy between Present and Aspirational was not anticipated to be as large for the upper middle social class as for the lower middle social class. 70 Results were mixed for Aspirational life style. Mean scores for Housing and Transportation were lower for the upper middle social class than for the lower middle social class while Clothing and Leisure were higher. Mean scores for Food were exactly the same for both social classes. When evaluating the results of the Aspirational Difference, the residuals for upper middle social class were closer to zero for all consumption areas except Housing. When Aspirational Difference was evaluated the residuals for Leisure were the greatest distance fromrzero of any of the consumption categories at +72 for upper middle social class and +99 for lower middle social class. Null Hypothesis II was rejected. Substantiative Hypothesis III. There are no differences by social class between Present and Aspirational life style. Hypothesis III was formulated based on literature re- viewed for development of the statements for the Q—array, particularly the various community studies of Warner, et. al., Dobriner, and Handel and Rainwater. A frequency count of the selection of the 50 statements used in the Q-deck showed the statement "Good housing includes the surrounding environ- ment such as recreational facilities, availability of schools, churches, shopping, and ease of getting to work," being 71 selected as the most important statement by 17 of the total 40 respondents. The second most frequently first-selected statement was also concerning housing: "The children are happy in this neighborhood" being selected as most important by 12 of the 40 respondents. The analysis of variance showed that indeed the differ- ences between social classes and between Present and Aspir- ational life styles in housing were significant. In terms of Aspirational Difference, both upper middle and lower middle social classes felt they were spending too much for housing. The null Hypothesis III was rejected as there were significant differences between social class groupings. IMPLICATIONS Some general implications of the current research for theory, research, and applied programs will be discussed in this section. For theory: Traditionally economic studies of the family focus on relating one of several economic variables to another var- iable, such as income and occupation, as Opposed to relating consumption to family behavior (41). This study was concerned with the effect of a change in income on the family, or specifically the change in consumption behavior that would 72 occur if the family were to have a substantial increase in income. Economics plays a vital role in the family's social and psychological support system, although the relationship between them has not been fully explored. Or as expressed by Hollingshead, "...human activities are organized within a sociocultural framework and there are] controls of a cultural nature which limit the person's economic behavior (24)." Economics, then, is a part of this sociocultural framework, with consumption choices being a visible sign. In addition, social class may well be one of the "cultural controls." A continuing rise in the level of affluence has been hypothesized, and as the effects of this affluence is realized, the manipulation of consumption choices by per- ception and the resulting decisions will have ever increasing ramifications for families and their life styles as well as in the marketplace. As described by Hoyt, "Perception, however, is the ultimate limitation (25)." Thus, in this study the families "perception" of what they would do with additional income was explored, and these perceptions were analyzed to determine how life styles of families, or be- havior, would likely be altered if income was increased. By giving the respondents the hypothetical increase in income they were theoretically given the opportunity to 73 “balance choices"* for greater maximization of satisfaction. And, as the results of the study show, all the families inter— viewed, regardless of social class, would change the balance of their expenditures. The desire to conform to "social pressures"* is also explored in this study by the inclusion of some “prestige-type" statements used in the Q—deck as well as the basic use of the Aspirational score. And in fact, the residuals for Aspirational Difference were further from zero for the lower middle social class grouping than for the upper middle social class grouping, indicating a striving to conform to social pressures. For further research: A review of the diverse literature associated with life style shows the definite lack of consensus concerning the definition, both theoretical and operational. Michelson and Reed state the problem: A major question to be resolved for both theoretical and operational purposes is that of the various levels of social reality at which life style may be appro- priate and in what way at the level of the individual (e.g., as consumer), the family, social groups (and on the basis of occupational, educational, or neigh- borhood criteria?), social classes, or cultures. This issue cannot be resolved a priori simply by assumption or by *Additional concepts used by Elizabeth E. Hoyt. 74 sociological fiat as in the past. Rather, as has occurred with other sociological variables, resolution will likely occur in an evolutionary manner with empirical findings based on various theoretical approaches being used to modify one another. Again, having both theoretical and operational ramifications is the issue of the extent to which each type of life style today is primarily a reflection of some corresponding socioeconomic status (i.e., membership in a social class) or whether life styles are manifestations of social choice and as such are not so mono- lithically determined (35: 15-16). The present research operationalized life style in terms of consumption areas, or an economic framework, but modified with socio-psychological considerations from Hoyt and others, such as perception, balancing of choices, sym- bolism, and social pressures. Reflection of socioeconomic status was also considered. Use of the Q—technique, was an attempt by the researcher to go beyond the descriptive, and into interpretation as well as to explore the predictor value of life style. Basic methodology used in this study, the Q—technique, allowed development of a method for measurement of some qualitative aspects of life style as well as the relative importance families place on various consumption areas. The direct comparison of present and future consumption practices provided a technique for exploring consumers' 75 reactions to change. A large number of external and internal factors affecting family consumption patterns could be built into the Q—items and compared between various socio—economic groups. Possibly the information gained from this study of life style will be of value in suggesting modifications for other economic analyses of families. Although the present research channeled study to the family, some modifications in the instrument and sampling procedure would be desirable, to give a more complete view of the possibilities for appli- cation to the general society. In addition to providing general knowledge of present life style patterns for the family economist or family ecol— ogist, this study will provide a study of change and the family's reaction to change, including the probable direction of the change. The study should also provide an indication of the effects of chain-type decision-making for future choices of the family. Implications for public policy plan- ning of family programs of various types and their effective— ness might also be gauged in terms of families' abilities to discriminate among alternatives when given a new set of choices. Various government agencies are making attempts to assist families in areas such as: 76 (1) income accessment and maintenance (2) social and private insurance areas (3) ecological and economic resource allocation decisions (4) cost/benefit relationships relative to consumer solicitude (5) housing and urban planning Summary of implications: The integrative nature of this study was a comprehensive test of broad question areas and specific research areas as summarized according to relevance for the National Goals and Guidelines for Home Economics (43). Hopefully, this invest- igation provided new knowledge for improving the conditions contributing to man's psychological and social development (Goal I); in terms of the family's economic functions, image projections, change and probable direCtion of change of be- havior with an increase in income. General knowledge and information about life style patterns addressed Goal II -- improving the conditions contributing to man's physiological health and development. The symbolism of consumption goods as social status, and the economic importance of the family's :major expenditures with the identification of some of the complex factors determining the proportions of income used 77 in each of the consumption areas studied are related to the subgoals of Goal III--improving the physical components of inan's near environment. Goal IV, improving consumer competence and family re- source use was paramount for this study. Some additional knowledge may have been provided on such broad research questions as: (1) value changes associated with income changes, (2) a test of substitution and complementary effects of choices (expressed in this study as "balancing choices"), (3) families's future orientation, (4) identi- fication of consumption areas having the greatest impact on family level of living, (5) comparison of two perceptions of family life style in terms of two socioeconomic groups, and (6) development and use of a method of measurement which integrates various disciplines. The concern of Goal V is to improve the quality and availability of community services which enrich family life. General knowledge from this study might be used in estimating the effectiveness of public policy planned programs of var- ious types for families. Implications for those professionals concerned with family welfare are primarily with the respondents desire and willingness to even up imbalances, as they seem them, among consumption expenditures when given a choice. 78 Thus, although the professional can give no universal pre— scriptions for expenditures, it is apparent that there is a ‘willingness to experiment; also that families appear to be somewhat future oriented in that they were willing to make consumption choices concerning what to do with additional income. 10. 11. 79 LITERATURE CITED Ansbacher, Heinz L., "Lifestyle: A Historical and Systematic Review," Journal of:;ndividual Psychology 23:2, Nov., 1967, 191-211. Bell, Carolyn Shaw, Consumer Choice in the American Economy, New York: Random House, 1967. Benedict, Ruth, Petterns of Culture, Boston: Houghton Middlin Co., 1934. Berger, Bennett M., "The Sociology of Leisure: Some Suggestions," in WOrk and:Leisure, Erwin O. Smigel ed., New Haven: College and University Press, 1963, 21-40. Blakelock, Edwin, "A New Look at the New Leisure,“ American Science Quarterly, 4:4, March, 1960, 446-467. Carpenter, Virginia, "Inventories of Opinions Concerning Slection, Use and Care of Clothing," Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, 1963. Carter, Reginald, "The Myth of Increasing Non-Work vs. Work Activities,“ §ocialgProblems, 18:1, Summer, 1970, 52-67. Cavan, Ruth Shonie, "Subcultural Variations and Mobility,“ in Hendbook of Marriage and the Family, Harold T. Christensen (ed.) Chicago: Rand McNally, 1964, 537. Coleman, Richard P., "The Significance of Social Strati- fication in Selling," in Proceedings of the American Marketing Association, ed. by Martin L. Bell, American Marketing Association, 1960, 171—184. Davis, James, "Status Symbols and the Measurement of Status Perception, Sociometpy, 1956, 154-165. Dixon, W; J., Biomedical Computer Programs, University of California Press, 1968. 12. l3. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 80 Dobriner, William.M., Class in Suburbia, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Doubleday and Co., 1957. Duncan, Otis Dudley, "A Socioeconomic Index for all Occupations," in Albert J. Reiss, Jr., Otis D. Duncan, Paul K. Hatt, and C. C. North, Occupations and Social Status, Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1961, 109—161 and Appendix B. Ellis, Robert A., Lane, W; Clayton, and Olesen, Virginia, "The Index of Class Position: An Improved Intercommunity Measure of Stratification," American Sociological Review, Vol. 28, April, 1963, 272-274. Faunce, William A., "Automation and Leisure,“ in WOrk andyPeisure, ed. by Erwin O. Smigel, New Haven: College and University Press, 1963, 85-96. Gerstl, Joel E., "Leisure, Taste and Occupational Milieu,“ in Work and Leisure ed. by Erwin O. Smigel, New Haven; College and University Press, 1963, 146—167. Gilboy, Elizabeth W}, A Primer on theygconomics of Con- sumptionp New York: Random House, 1968, 16-17. Gross, Irma H" and Crandall, Elizabeth, Management for Modern Families, New York: Appleton-Century Crofts, 1963. Handel, Gerald and Rainwater, Lee, "Persistence and Change in WOrking Class Life Style," Sociology and §ocial Research,Vol. 48, No. 3, April, 1964, 281-288. Havighurst, RObert J., and Feigenbaum, Kenneth, "Leisure and Life—Style," American Journal of Sociology, Vol.LXIV, No. 4, January, 1959, 396-404. Hendricks, Jon, "Leisure Participation as Influenced by Urban Residence Patterns," Sociology and Social Review, 55:4, July, 1971, 414-428. Hobermann, Frauke and Miklavz Prosene, “On Journal Articles About the Sociology of Leisure," Soziologen- korrespondenz, 1970, V01. 1, 44—57. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 81 Hollingshead, August B., "Two Factor Index of Social Position," in Sociological Measurement: An Inventory of Scales and Indices, Charles M. Bonjean, et. al., San Francisco; Chandler Publishing Co., 1967, 442-449. Hollingshead, August B., "A Re-Examination of Ecological Theory," Sociology and Social Research, Vol. 1, January- February, 1947, 194—204. Hoyt, Elizabeth, Choice and the Destiny of Nations, New York: Philosophical Library, 1969. Jacobi, John E., and Walters, S. George, "Social Status and Consumer Choice," Social Forces, vol. 36, 1958, 209-214. Kahl, Joseph A., "Six Variables of Social Class," in Consumer Behavior and the Behavioral Sciences: Pheories and Applications, Steuart Henderson Britt, ed., New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1966, 258—259. Kerlinger, Fred N., Foundations of Behavioral Research, New York; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1965. Lazer, William, "Life-style Concepts and Marketing," pimensions of Consumer Behavior, James U. McNeal, ed., New York: Appleton-Century-Croft, 1965, 185-194. Lewis, Lionel S., "Class and the Perception of Class," Social Forces, V01. 42, March,1964, 336-340. Levy, Sidney J., “Symbols by Which We Buy," in Pimensions o; Consumer Pehavior, James U. McNeal, ed., New York: Appleton-Century-Croft, 1965, 99-105. Manpower Report of theyPresident for 1968, 51. Martineau, Pierre, "Social Chisses and Spending Behavior," in Pimensions of Consumer Behavior, James U. McNeal, ed., New York: Appleton-Century-Croft, 1965, 223-236. Mayer, Kurt B., Class and Society, New York: Random House, 1966, Studies in Sociology Series. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 82 Michelson, William, and Reed, Paul, "The Theoretical Status and Operational Usage of Life Style in Environ- mental Research," Paper presented to American Sociolog— ical Assn.,Amgust 31, 1971, Washington, D.C. Milius, Peter, "U.S. Incomes Hit Median of $10,000," Washington Post, June 18, 1972, A1. Nesbitt, Susan Carol, "Relationships Between Standards in Economic Value Systems and Social Status," (unpub- lished M. A. thesis, Washington State University). 1966. Parsons, Talcott and Smelser, Neil J., Economy and Society, New York: The Free Press, 1965. Phillips, Bernard 3., Social Research: Strategy and Tactics, New York: Macmillan Co., 1967, 174-176. Price, Dorothy, "A Technique for Analyzing the Economics Value System," Journal of Marriage and the Famil , August, 1968, 467-472. Rice, Ann Smith, "An Economic Framework for Viewing the Family," in Emerging Conceptual Frameworks in Family Analysis, ed. by F. Ivan Nye and Felix M. Berardo, 223-268. Robertson, Thomas 8., ConsumeryPehavior, Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman, and Co., 1970. Schlater, Jean D.” ed., National Goals and Guidelines for Research in Home Economics, American Home Economics Assn., October, 1970. Shibutani, Tamotsu, Society and Personality, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1961. Sommers, Montrose 8., "Product Symbolism and the Per- ception of Social Strata," in Pimensions of Consumer Behavior, James U. McNeal, ed., New York: Appleton- Century-Croft, 1965, 347-361. "New BLS Budgets Provide Yardsticks for Families of Three Levels," Monthly Labor Review, April, 1969, 12. 473 48% 49. SO. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 83 Steel, Robert G. D. and Torrie, James H., Ppinciples and Procedures of Statistics, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960. Stephenson, William, The Study of Behavior, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953. Strauss, Anselm, Mirrors and Masks: The Search for Identity, Glencoe, I11.: The Free Press, 1959, 9. Tallman, Irving and Morgner, Romona, "Lifestyle Differ- ences Among Urban and Suburban Blue-Collar Families," Social Forces, V01. 42, March 1964, 336-340. Toffler, Alvin, Future Shock, New York: Bantam Books, 1971. Trolestrup, Arch W., The Consumer in American Society, New York: McGraw—Hill, Co., 1970. , Washington Post, April 3, 1972. Veblin, Thorstein, The Theory of theyPeisure Class, New York: Mentor Books, 1953. Warner, W. Lloyd, et. al., Social CPess in America, New York: Harper and Row, 1960. Weber, Max, "Class, Status and Party," in Bendix, Rein- hard, and Seymour Martin Lipset: Class Status, and Power, Glencoe, Ills The Free Press, 1953, 21-28. Whyte, William, The Organization Man, New York: Double- day and Co., 1957. APPENDIX 84 Classigevels Arrange by_ICP Scores ICP Level ICP Weighting Range of Scores Social Class I 1 2 II 2 3-4 III 3 5-7 IV 4 8-9 V 5 10 VI 5 11-12 Upper Upper-middle Middle Lower-middle Upper—lower Lower-lower SOURCE: Table 1, Ellis, et. al., pp. 274. Based on occupation Score (Hollingshead) and the self-evalu- ation score, respondents were placed into upper middle social class (ICP I-III) and lower middle social class (ICP IV—VI). 85 .Interview Procedure 1. 10. Ask Father's occupation. Ask Mother's educational level. Self-evaluation--ask whether they consider themselves to be upper, middle, or lower social class. Then.whether it is upper middle, middle-middle, or lower middle if the initial response was "middle class." ASk the respondent to sort the "Present" cards into three piles, "most like us,"“neutra1? and "least like us." The number of cards in each pile does not matter. Ask respondent for the tyo_most like us cards, then 3 more most like us cards. Place the two cards, and then the three cards face down. Add the remaining cards face down one at a time as the respondent hands them to you from the "most like us" pile and the "neutral" pile. Ask respondent for the two cards from the "least like us" pile which are the least important or least typical of them. Then three additional cards which are least like them. Add the remaining cards face up until the respondent has handed you all the cards. (This is work- ing from the low end toward the middle). The "selection" of all 50 cards from "most like us“ to "least like us" is now complete. Place a rubber band around the card deck. Repeat procedures #4-7 with the Aspiration card deck. Return to car, transfer the rankings to the respondents code sheet. Put the two card decks back in the prOper card order. Card Order L2 F4 C6 H4 F5 T4 C8 L4 F8 F10 L8 H5 C9 L6 T7 T10 F2 H2 C10 F9 Tl C4 H6 H8 Cl T8 F3 T2 H9 L10 F7 T6 H10 C2 L1 L7 F6 H3 T5 CB H1 L5 H7 T3 Fl L3 T9 C5 L9 C7 86 87 PRESENT LIFE STYLE (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (a) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) * (15) (16) (17) H1 H2 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 H10 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 Good housing includes the surrounding environment such as recreational facilities, availability of schools, churches, shopping, and ease of getting to work. If we could get a fair price for our house we would move. We do our own maintenance and repair work on the house. We feel safe in this neighborhood. We think it is important to live near one's rela- tives, such as brothers, sisters and parents. We want at least one more bedroom and one more bath. We can afford to spend more for housing. Advice from a professional decorator is a necessity. The children are happy in this neighborhood. We move frequently; and we like it that way. We try to eat out about once a week. May family prefers that I cook from scratch. I buy a lot more meat products for my family than is necessary. At a luncheon party, I like to pick up the check. When buying food, we never buy any "off" brands. We regularly make purchases from the gourmet section when we shop for food. Good wine enhances good food. *Indicates reverse scoring. (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) (24) (25) (26) (27) (28) (29) (30) (31) (32) (33) (34) F8 F9 F10 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 T1 T2 T3 T4 88 The use of convenient pre—packaged foods is a real boon to meal preparation. We have tried during the past several months to cut down on our food bill. We think buying food in quantity is more economical. we think that what one wears is relatively unimportant. When shopping for clothes, I look for certain brand names. We prefer clothing which is quite unusual. We think one's behavior, prestige. not clothing, determines I buy fashionable clothing for the children. We believe you have to look successful to be success- ful. We think it takes a great deal of money to dress in good taste. I buy practical and economical clothes for the children. We think one good suit for the man in the family is all that is necessary. I buy only well-known brands of clothing. A nice smooth comfortable ride is important when thinking about a new car. Owning a car is a necessity. We get new-car—fever when the new models come out each year. Even if a rapid transit systemiwere available, I would continue to drive the car for personal use. (35) (36) (37) *(38) (39) (40) (41) (42) (43) (44) (45) (46) (47) (48) (49) (50) T5 T6 T7 T8 T9 T10 L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 L9 L10 89 We have a smaller economy car as well as a larger family-type car. Foreign sports cars are more prestigious than U.S. makes. When purchasing a new car, we consider the future trade-in value before making a final deal. We think it doesn't make sense to want the biggest, the nicest, the shiniest car just because it is the biggest, the nicest, and the shiniest. One can tell a person's social position by the car he drives. Gas mileage is an important factor in choosing a car for our family. We go camping rather than stay in motels when traveling overnight. We think it is important to participate in local community affairs. If the TV broke, we would get it fixed immediately. We are saving for a boat (or a bigger boat). Our idea of a good time is to go to a party at a friend's house. As a family we enjoy visiting relatives. We are all avid readers. Our family enjoys do-it—yourself projects. We have a vacation house. We limit the number of hours the children can watch TV. *Indicates reverse scoring. 90 ASPIRA’PIONAL LIFE STYLE (51) (52) (53) (54) (55) (56) (57) (58) (59) (60) (61) (62) (63) (64) *(65) H1 H2 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 H10 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 Good housing should include the surrounding envir- onment such as recreational facilities, availability of schools, churches, shopping, and ease of getting to work. If we could get a fair price for our house we would move. We would probably do our own maintenance and repair work on the house if it were necessary. We feel safe in this neighborhood. We would like to live near our relatives, such as brothers, sisters, and parents. We would like at least one more bedroom and one mor e bath. We wish we could afford to spend more for housing. If we were to move we would consider advice from a professional decorator a necessity. The children would be happy in a different neighbor- hood. We would like to move more often. We would like to be able to eat out about once a week. My family would prefer that I cook from scratch. I wish I could buy a lot more meat for my family. At a luncheon party, I would like to be able to pick up the check. When buying food we never buy any "off" brands. *Indicates reverse scoring (66) (67) (68) (69) (70) (71) (72') (73) (74) (75) (76) (77) (78) (79) (80) (81) (82) (83) F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 C1 C2 C3 c4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 T1 T2 T3 91 We would like to be able to make purchases from the gourmet section every time we shop for food. Good wine enhances good food. The use of convenient pre-packaged foods could be a real boon to meal preparation. We would like to be able to cut down on our food bill. We would like to buy food in quantity as it is more economical. What one wears is relatively unimportant. If shcpping for clothes I would not be concerned about brand names. We would like to buy clothing which is quite unusual. One's behavior, not clothing, determines prestige. I would like to buy fashionable clothing for the children. You have to look successful to be successful. A woman should dress to reflect her husband's income. I would buy practical and economical clothes for the children. I wish we could afford more than one suit for the man in the family. I buy only well—known brands of clothing. We would like a car with a nice smooth comfortable ride. Owning a car is a necessity. We get new car fever when the new models come out each year. (84) (85) (86) (87) *(88) (89) (90) (91) (92) (93) (94) (95) (96) (97) (98) (99) (100) T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 T9 T10 L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 L9 L10 92 When the rapid transit system becomes available we will continue to drive the car for personal use. We will buy a smaller economy car as well as a larger family-type car. A foreign sports car would be more prestigious than a U.S. make. When purchasing a new car in the future, we will consider the likely trade-in value before making a final deal. It doesn't make sense to want the biggest, the nicest, the shiniest car, just because it is the biggest, the nicest, and the shiniest. One can tell a person's social position by the car he drives. Gas mileage will be an important factor in choosing our next car for the family. We would like to camp rather than stay in motels when traveling overnight. It is important to be able to participate in local community affairs. If the TV broke, we would get it fixed immediately. We are saving for a boat (or a bigger boat). Our idea of a good time would be to go to a party at a friend's house. As a family, we would enjoy visiting relatives. We are all avid readers. Our family enjoys do-it-yourself projects. We would like to have a vacation house. We would like to limit the number of hours the children can watch TV. *Indicates reverse scoring. 03062 1233 93 II'III “ u H u “ “IIII U“ “III A“ T“ SII“1 NIIIIII AII mu H|