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43 Soc. F. 501 (1964-1965)
The Lower Class, Status Frustration, and Social Disorganization

handle is hein.journals/josf43 and id is 511 raw text is: STA TUS FRUSTRATION THE LOWER CLASS, STATUS FRUSTRATION, AND SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION* JACK L. ROACH ORVILLE R. GURSSLIN State University of New York at Buffalo ABSTRACT The status-frustration hypothesis is the most widely used sociological explanation of lower class social disorganization. Some reasons for the prominence of this interpretation are dis- cussed. The theory's plausibility hinges, in large part, on the validity of certain assumptions concerning the social-psychological characteristics of lower class persons. An analysis of empirical studies indicates that these assumptions have little basis in fact. The inadequacy of empirical support for the status-frustration hypothesis is traced to the tendency of the literature to obscure the actual characteristics of the lower class. An alternate theoretical framework is presented in which economic deprivation is treated as the independent variable. It is felt that this scheme more adequately accounts for the facts of lower class social disorganization, since material deprivation is the basic problem of the lower class, not sfatus deprivation. T he lower class1 has the highest rates of various indices of social disorgani- zation. This has been established by a number of empirical investigations. The highest rates of mental disturbance including most forms of neuroses and psychoses are found in the lower class.2 The most severe * This paper is based in part on Jack L. Roach's unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Economic De- privation and Lower-Class Behavior, State Uni- versity of New York at Buffalo, February, 1964. Valuable counsel, particularly on the theoretical framework, was provided by Llewellyn Z. Gross. 1 By lower class we mean the lowest socio- economic level which is characterized by unskilled occupation and a grammar school education. This range of the population might also be termed the ,.poverty group in view of the close association of these attributes with economic deprivation. Cf., Economic Report of the President: An- nual Report of the Council of Economic Ad- visors (Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1964), pp. 62-66; Limited Educa- tional Attainment: Extent and Consequences, Health, Education, and Welfare Indicators (April 1962), p. 5. 2August Hollingshead and Frederick Redlich, Social Class and Mental Illness (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1958); Charles C. Hughes et al.; People of Cove and Woodlot (New York: Basic Books, 1960); Raymond G. Hunt, Socio- cultural Factors in Mental Disorders, Behavioral Science, 4 (April 1959), pp. 96-106; Edward A. Rundquist and Raymond F. Sletto, Personality in the Depression (Minneapolis: University of Minne- forms of psychoses are concentrated in this range of the population.8 Unskilled laborers and the unemployed have one of the highest suicide rates4 and the highest rate of homicide.5 sota Press, 1936), p. 366; William H. Sewell, Social Class and Childhood Personality, Soci- ometry, 64 (August 1961), p. 350. 3 Robert E. Clark, Psychoses, Income, and Occupational Prestige, in Reinhard Bendix and Seymour Lipset (eds.), Class, Status and Power (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1953), pp. 333-340; Robert M. Frumkin, Occupation and the Major Mental Disorders, in Arnold Rose (ed.), Mental Health and Mental Disorder (New York: W. W. Norton Co., 1955), pp. 136-160; Robert J. Kleiner and Seymour Parker, Goal-striving, Social Status, and Mental Disorder, American Sociological Review, 28 (April 1963), pp. 189-203; Leo Srole et al., Mental Health in the Metropolis (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1962). 4Elwin H. Powell, Occupation, Status, and Suicide; Toward a Redefinition of Anomie, American Sociological Review, 23 (April 1958), pp. 131-139. This work summarizes similar find- ings from a number of other studies. See also Jack P. Gibbs, Suicide, in Robert Merton and Robert Nisbet (eds.), Contemporary Social Prob- lems (New 'ork: Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1961), p. 244; Warren Breed, Occupational Mo- bility and Suicide, American Sociological Review, 28 (April 1963), pp. 179-188. 5 Gerhard J. Falk, Status Differences and the Frustration Aggression Hypothesis, The Inter- national Journal of Social Psychiatry, 5 (Winter 1959), pp. 214-222; Robert C. Bensing and Oliver

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