Worlds Unto Themselves: Tightness-Looseness and Social Class

dc.contributor.advisorGelfand, Michele Jen_US
dc.contributor.authorHarrington, Jesse Ryanen_US
dc.contributor.departmentPsychologyen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2017-09-14T05:38:55Z
dc.date.available2017-09-14T05:38:55Z
dc.date.issued2017en_US
dc.description.abstractPast research has convincingly demonstrated that social classes are culturally distinct entities with their own identities, values, beliefs, and customs. In short, they are “worlds unto themselves.” In this dissertation, I argue that social class cultural differences—particularly between the middle class and the working class—are also expressed in terms of tightness-looseness, or the degree to which a cultural entity has strong norms and low tolerance for norm deviance (tight) or weak norms and high tolerance for norm deviance (loose). Specifically, it is predicted that the working class is comparatively tighter relative to the middle class. In a series of six studies using survey, archival, and behavioral methods, this prediction found support. The working class had tighter perceptions of general life and specific domains (e.g., the workplace), endorsed tighter values, perceived rules more positively, were higher in traits like need for structure, conscientiousness, and conventionalism, perceived moral “transgressions” to be less justifiable, exhibited lower creativity, and were exposed to higher ecological threat. Working class adults were also found to exhibit higher explicit bias toward socially “deviant” individuals and greater xenophobia, and working class children were quicker and more likely to protest normatively incorrect actions made by a peer. Finally, it was found that working class students exhibited poorer outcomes in their first year of college due to a greater preference for simplicity—a psychological trait related to working class tightness. Overall, this research suggests that tightness-looseness is an important cultural difference between social class groups.en_US
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13016/M22N4ZJ22
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/19923
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledSocial psychologyen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledCultureen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledSocial classen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledSocial normsen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledTightness-loosenessen_US
dc.titleWorlds Unto Themselves: Tightness-Looseness and Social Classen_US
dc.typeDissertationen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Harrington_umd_0117E_18238.pdf
Size:
2.15 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format