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Using data from 1994-95 third-wave interviews, this study tests whether Kohn and Schooler's findings (based on 1964 and 1974 interviews) that self-directed occupational conditions increase intellectual functioning and self-directed orientations hold when the respondents are 20 years older. Results confirm that even late in life self-directedness of work continues to affect intellectual functioning and self-directedness of orientation. These psychological characteristics, in turn, affect social-structural position in ways that increase disparities between the advantaged and disadvantaged. From a historical and societal perspective, the findings suggest that the occupational self-directedness of a society's workers may affect its social norms, values, and modes of production. Reprinted by permission of the University of Chicago Press. © All rights reserved

In this paper, we attempt to shed light on the nature of, relevance of, and relationship between global self-esteem and specific self-esteem. We marshal evidence that the two types of self-esteem may have strikingly different consequences, global self-esteem being more relevant to psychological well-being, and specific self-esteem being more relevant to behavior. We use linear structural equation causal modeling to test this hypothesis for the case of global self-esteem (Rosenberg 1979) and specific (academic) self-esteem. Our findings show that, while global self-esteem is more strongly related to measures of psychological well-being, specific (academic) self-esteem is a much better predictor of school performance. Other findings indicate that the degree to which specific academic self-esteem affects global self-esteem, particularly the positive component of global self-esteem, is a function of how highly academic performance is personally valued.

Using structural equation modeling techniques on data from a nationally representative longitudinal survey, we first explored the reciprocal relationships between socio-economic status (SES) and health status. We then estimated the degree to which health-related lifestyles/behaviors and psychosocial distress are mediating mechanisms of these relationships. As predicted, SES positively affects health, and health positively affects SES. Although the causal path from SES to health is stronger than the reverse, these findings confirmed the hypothesis that both social causation and health selection contribute to social inequalities in health. In terms of the mediating mechanisms through which SES and health affect each other, more than a third of the overall SES-health relationship was accounted for by health-related lifestyles/behaviors and psychosocial distress. A notable part of the effect of SES on health is due to differences in psychological distress, with the effects of health-related lifestyles/behaviors being much smaller. On the other hand, in terms of the effects of health on SES, differences in weight and sleeping behavior are more important than psychological distress.

Using data from a U.S. longitudinal investigation of psychological effects of occupational conditions (a project of the National Institute of Mental Health's unit on Socioenvironmental Studies), we examined the relationship between the complexity of household work and 2 psychological variables: intellectual flexibility and self-esteem. Longitudinal reciprocal effects analyses revealed that for men (n = 351) and women (n = 355), more complex household work was associated with increased intellectual flexibility. For women, complex household work was also associated with increased self-confidence and decreased self-deprecation. For men, complex household work was associated with decreased self-confidence. The results are discussed in terms of theories of the cognitive and neurological effects of environmental complexity and of theories of self-esteem.

In this article, I call into serious question Salthouse's (2006) conclusions evaluating and disparaging the validity of the \"use it or lose it\" hypothesis regarding mental exercise and mental aging. I do so, in some part, by using data not discussed by Salthouse. The core of my argument relies heavily on a critical assessment of the conclusions that Salthouse derived from both his theoretical reasoning and his review of the literature. The more judicious conclusion I reach is that, although the whole story regarding cognitive function and aging is not known, at some level and to some degree, \"using\" it often delays the eventuality of \"losing\" it.

We examine the relations among socioeconomic status, control beliefs, and two coping styles (problem-focused vs. emotion-focused) in the context of financial stress. Findings indicate that low socioeconomic status (SES) is linked to greater use of emotion-focused financial coping and lesser use of problem-focused financial coping. The effects of SES on the use of problem-focused financial coping appear to be entirely mediated by two measures of perceived control: self-confidence and fatalism. In contrast, the effects of SES on emotion-focused financial coping are not mediated in this way. Results also indicated that problem-focused and emotion-focused financial coping are differentially related to financial stress and to general psychosocial distress. These results suggest that low SES may decrease one's control beliefs, which in turn decrease the likelihood of choosing effective financial coping processes, resulting in double disadvantage.

This article conceptualizes and indexes social class for a Western capitalist country (the United States), a non-Western capitalist country (Japan), and a socialist country (Poland). The idea that social classes are to be distinguished in terms of ownership, control of the means of production, and control over the labor power of others is adapted to the historical, cultural, economic, and political circumstances of each country. It is hypothesized that men who are more advantageously located in the class structure of their society are more likely to value self-direction for their children, to be intellectually flexible, and to be self-directed in their orientations than men who are less advantageously located. The hypothesis that occupational self-direction plays a crucial role in explaining the psychological effect of social class in all three countries is also confirmed. There was no firm basis for hypothesizing the relationships between social class and a sense of distress. The pattern is cross-nationally inconsistent, in part because occupational self-direction does not have the cross-nationally consistent effect on the sense of distress that it has on other facets of psychological functioning.

This chapter examines cross-national differences in individual values, attitudes, and behaviors. The central question raised is how social-structural and cultural factors account for the differences found. After discussing a series of theoretical issues raised by this question, the chapter reviews the findings of four quantitative sociological research programs on modern cross-national differences. The program on individual modernity led by Alex Inkeles established that social-structural conditions associated with industrialization are linked to an increase in individuals' being open to new experience, rejecting traditional authority, and taking a rational, ambitious, orderly approach to both work and human problems. The cross-national research on the Kohn-Schooler hypothesis that self-directed work increases intellectual functioning and self-directed orientations confirmed the generality of that hypothesis and established that the social status and social class differences in these psychological characteristics found within different countries are largely the result of social-structurally determined differences in the opportunity for occupational self-direction. Eric Wright's cross-national research program on class structure and class consciousness provides evidence that in a range of countries social classes directly affect political attitudes, while acting as tangible barriers to mobility and personal relationships. The research deriving from John Meyer's theories on institutionalization highlights the importance of institutions and socially constructed views of reality for the development and maintenance of cross-national differences and similarities in cultural values and their behavioral embodiment. All four of the programs provide evidence of the continuing importance of historically determined cultural differences. All are also congruent with the hypothesis that speed of change generally decreases as we go from psychological to social-structural to cultural levels of phenomena--a possibility whose confirmation would provide a valuable tool for understanding how culture and social structure affect cross-national differences in values and behavior.

An experiment carried out in the United States and China investigated how social context affects cognitive orientation. Explanations for cultural differences in cognitive orientation is that they are rooted in agricultural practices that encourage relatively more holistic or analytic orientations. Recent work has proposed that social network structures might lead to more holistic orientations in two ways-by leading individuals to feel strong social bonds, or by encouraging individuals to be concerned about happenings in distal relationships. This research attempted to adjudicate between these explanations by experimentally varying conditions of social exchange in an effort to make participants more or less concerned about other relationships in the network and more or less attached to fellow group members. Results indicate potential support for both explanations, although they reveal a process more complex than that theorized. In particular, participants receiving gifts from partners led to more holistic orientations, but it did not appear to do so through stronger affective attachment. Alternatively, the manipulation of concern about other relationships did not predict holism, but measures of the extent to which participants felt control over their situations did. Results also show that exchanging gifts with partners produced significantly different responses in participants across cultures.

This paper shows that Japan underwent a sequence of historical periods during which the level of technical development and the place of the individual in society paralleled that of similar periods in Europe. Particular attention is paid to 16th-century Japan, a period remarkably similar to the European Renaissance in its individualism and socioeconomic and cultural vitality. In both Japan and Western Europe, this renaissance followed the breakdown of an imperium and its replacement by a feudal system. The historical parallel continues with those parts of Europe in which absolutist governments were successfully imposed, since Japan underwent a similar phenomenon, accompanied by a similar decline in individualism and in technological development. Although no definitive conclusions can be reached, the paper explores the implications of these parallels for our understanding of both Japan and the general historical and psychological processes involved in the growth of individualism and technology.