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Causal Beliefs for Socioeconomic Status Attainment Scale: Development and Validation
1University of California Irvine.
The Journal of Social Psychology
|August 9, 2021
Summary
People
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Sociology
Background:
- Meritocracy emphasizes individual effort and ability in socioeconomic status (SES) attainment.
- This focus has historically overshadowed other critical factors like opportunity and chance.
- Understanding beliefs about SES attainment is crucial for social mobility research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate scales measuring beliefs about the causes of socioeconomic status (SES) attainment.
- To differentiate between beliefs about personal (agency) and societal (society) SES attainment.
- To identify key dimensions underlying these beliefs: merit, opportunity, and chance.
Main Methods:
- Development of psychometrically validated scales for agency and society beliefs regarding SES.
- Utilized a nationally representative sample for data collection.
- Employed factor analyses and item response theory for scale refinement and validation.
Main Results:
- Introduced three subscales (merit, opportunity, chance) with six dimensions for both agency and society beliefs.
- Merit includes effort and ability; opportunity includes social connections and privilege; chance includes luck and fate.
- Correlation analyses supported the construct validity of the developed scales.
Conclusions:
- The study provides robust scales to measure diverse beliefs about socioeconomic status attainment.
- Findings highlight the multifaceted nature of perceived SES causation beyond individual merit.
- These scales offer valuable tools for future research on social mobility and inequality.
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