Occupational prestige 4884817 217744465 2008-06-07T13:33:55Z Dailiang 4353925 {{Nofootnotes|date=January 2007}} '''Occupational prestige''' (also known as job prestige) refers to the consensual nature of rating a job based on the collective belief of its worthiness. ==History== Job prestige did not become a fully developed concept until 1947 when the [[National Opinion Research Center]] (NORC), under the leadership of Cecil C. North, conducted a [[opinion poll|survey]] which held questions regarding age, education, and income in regard to the [[prestige]] of certain [[employment|job]]s. This was the first time job prestige had ever been researched, measured, and taught. Duncan's Socioeconomic Index (DSI) became one of the most important outcomes of this survey, as it gave various occupational categories different scores based on the surveys results as well as the result of the 1950 Census of Population. During the 1960s the NORC did a second generation of surveys which became the basis for the socioeconomic status score until the 1980s as well as the foundation for Trieman's International Prestige Scale in 1977. Out of these surveys and research job prestige has been defined in various ways. Some definitions include: * The consensual nature of rating a job based on the collective belief of its worthiness. * Prestigue is the measurement of the "desirability" of an occupation in terms of socioeconomic rewards. * Prestige reflects factual, scientific knowledge about the material rewards attached to certain occupations. However, depending on whom you ask, the definitions can change. many equate job prestige in terms of money, while others base it on education, and a third group bases it on how much a person's job helps society. The indicators most commonly used to measure SES come from Duncan's (1961) Socioeconomic Index (SEI), a composite of occupational prestige, income, and education. Duncan used data from North and Hart's (1949) pioneer study of occupational prestige and census data from 1949 to conduct the first correlational study of the statistical relationship between education, income, and occupation. The North-Hart study made use of the public's rankings of the prestige of various occupations. Using the North-Hart's study and census data, Duncan focused on White males with at least a high school education and income of $3,500 dollars or more in 1949, and found an average correlation among income, occupational prestige, and educational level of 0.75. The study did not report whether the index included a sample of ethnic minorities (Easton-Brooks & Davis, 2007). The SEI model continues to influence the way researchers measure SES. The National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS:88, NCES, 1988) initially employed a measure of SES developed by Stevens and Featherman (1981) based on father's income, mother's income, father's education, mother's education, and father's and mother's occupation as rated by the SEI model. In the first-year follow-up study, the National Center for Education Statistics (1990) used the Nakao and Treas (1994) revised SEI model. ==Calculating Occupational Prestige in America== In the past studies have shown that education was a major factor in calculating job prestige, but some claim that is no longer the case{{Fact|date=February 2007}}. It used to be that having a college degree automatically meant you would probably attain a prestigious job as well. Researchers argue that this is no longer the case{{Fact|date=February 2007}}, because many more people now receive some higher education. Also, prestige used to be based on age, wealth and education, and today a great factor in the calculation of occupational prestige is how a certain job helps humanity. Based on the latest Harris Poll with a nationwide sample of 1,010 U.S. adults, the highest ranking jobs belong to firefighter, scientists, and teachers. Lower ranking jobs include brokers, actors and bankers. Police officers and Engineers tend to sit somewhere in the middle of the ladder.According to The Harris Poll (2007), the following are the changes over the last quarter century of American's view as the most and least prestigious jobs: * Those who see teachers as having "very great" prestige has risen 25 points from 29 to 54 percent; * Those who say lawyers have "very great" prestige has fallen 14 points, from 36 to 22 percent; * Scientists have fallen 12 points from 66 to 54 percent; * Athletes have fallen ten points from 26 to 16 percent; * Doctors have fallen nine points from 61 to 52 percent; * Bankers have fallen seven points from 17 to 10 percent; * Entertainers have fallen six points from 18 percent to 12 percent. During the 1960s through the 1980s job prestige was calculated in a variety of different ways. People were given index cards with about 100 or so jobs listed on them and had to rank them from most to least prestigious. This ranking system was known as placing jobs in a "ladder of social standing." Another method they used in this time period was to have the respondents rank jobs on a "horizontal ruler" using specific guidelines such as estimated income, the freedom said job allowed, and how interesting the job was. No matter what the method the outcomes were generally the same. Today, a common way of calculating prestige is the "North-Hatt" study were respondents are asked to reveal whether they think a job puts a person in five different categories, from "excellent standing" to "poor standing" to "I don't know." This method might seem a little general, but the results it provided seemed to be the same as the study from the 60's to the 80's.{{Fact|date=January 2008}} ==References== *Duncan, O. D. (1961). A Socioeconomic Index for all Occupations. In J. Reiss, Jr. (Ed.), Occupations and Social Status (pp. 109-138). New York: Free Press of Glencoe. *North, C., & Hart, P. K. (1949). Jobs and Occupations: A popular evaluation. Opinion News, 9, 313. *Stevens, G, & Featherman, D. L. (1981). A Revised Socioeconomic Index of Occupational Status. Social Science Research, 10, 364-395. *Nakao, K., & Treas, J. (1994). Updating Occupational Prestige and Socioeconomic Scores: How the new measures measure up. Sociological Methodology, 24, 1-72. *Easton-Brooks, D. & Davis, A. (2007). Wealth, Traditional Socioeconomic Indicators, and The Achievement Debt. The Journal of Negro Education. Washington: Fall 2007. Vol. 76, Iss. 4; pg. 530 - 542. * Klaczynski, Paul A. "Sociocultural Myths and Occupational Attainment: Educational Influences on Adolescents' Perceptions of Social Status." Youth and Society, 1991, 22, 4, June, 448-467. * "In U.S., Women's Weight Gain Brings Loss of Income, Job Prestige, Study Finds." Health & Medicine Weekly, 2005, June. Retrieved March 9, 2006, from NewRx database. * Schooler, C., & Schoenbach, C. (1994, September). "Social Class, Occupational Status, Occupational Self-Direction, and Job Income: A Cross-National Examination. Sociological Forum." Academic Search Premier database, 1994, September 431-459. * "Firefighters, Scientists And Teachers Top List As Most Prestigious Occupations; According To Latest Harris Poll:Bankers, Actors And Real Estate Agents Are At The Bottom Of The List" (The Harris PollĀ® #77, August 1, 2007). * Ollivier. "Too much money off other people's backs': status in late modern societies". The Canadian journal of sociology. 2000 vol:25 iss:4 pg:441 -470. ==External links== *http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=25198&nfid=mnf *http://www.jaymorrissey.com/2008/01/02/the-stigma-of-occupational-prestige/ *http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=793 [[Category:Sociological terms]]