Class and Personality in Society

by Alan L. Grey

Overview

This volume graphically demonstrates how differences in social class affect personality. It does so by presenting research in class character covering a broad range of phenomena in the area shared by psychology, sociology, psychiatry, and anthropology. Concerned with key issues of substance and method in this area, the essays in Class and Personality in Society provide firsthand experience in the divergent ways in which specialists view and explore the relationship between personality and social status. The material offers a picture of how, out of controversy and confusion, scholars and researchers can achieve order, clarity, and sophistication. The editor's extensive introductory essay provides frames of reference from the social sciences pertinent to this aspect of social psychology. It describes historic trends and suggests fresh answers to controversial issues such as the nature of American class structure, the contribution of psychoanalysis to psychological research, and the relative importance, to personality, of early training versus current circumstance. Calling for more sociological awareness in psychological research, Grey documents his views with specific examples. The discussion is further enlivened by its pertinence to such current problems as the culture of poverty and community psychiatry. Class and Personality in Society was originally intended for use in courses in Social Psychology and Culture and Personality, and in sociology courses that discuss how social institutions and processes are related to individual personality. It may also provide stimulating supplemental reading in introductory psychology or sociology course. It will also prove valuable to professionals in specialized programs in clinical psychology and psychiatry concentrating on community mental health.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780202362595
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	08/15/2009
Pages:	198
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Alan L. Grey was professor in the clinical psychology program of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Fordham University. Grey has also been on the staff of the William Alanson White Institute of Psychoanalysis as a Research Coordinator and Supervisor of Psychotherapy in the Blue Collar Treatment Program of the Low Cost Clinic. He has published several articles in professional journals, contributed to several books, and is editor of Class and Personality in Society.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1: A Comparison of the Chicago and Harvard Studies of Social Class Differences in Child Rearing; 2: Social Class, Child Rearing Practices, and Child Behavior; 3: A Study Of Relationships between Child Rearing Attitudes and Maternal Behavior; 4: The Deferred Gratification Pattern: A Preliminary Study; 5: The Working Class Subculture: A New View; 6: Some Aspects of Lower Class Sexual Behavior; 7: Social Class and the Psychiatric Patient: A Study in Composite Character; 8: Social Class, Occupation, and Parental Values: A Cross-National Study

Editorial Reviews

[I]nteresting and useful.” —Robert H. Lauer, American Sociological Review

From the Publisher