Socialization and Social Class: Melvin Kohn Study:
Blue Collar Working Class
child figures out what parents want
White Collar “Middle” Class
symbolic rewards & punishments
communication as interaction
parents figure out what child wants
Notes:
Kohn’s study indicated that working class parents and middle class to upper middle
class white collar families raised their children with different emphases.
These are ideal types, of course, and no one family will have all of either of these lists of
characteristics. Rather, most families will be a “mix’ of both of these. However, working class
families and middle class white collar families do exhibit different patterns. The blue collar
parents are accustomed to taking orders at work. Therefore, they stress commands, obedience,
etc. They are raising their children to go into a workplace where, to be successful and keep
a job, their children will have to take orders. The white collar parents, on the other hand,
work in an environment that stresses communications, creativity, and values autonomy; they may
have to talk back to the boss to benefit the business. So their children are raised to be more
independent,etc. This will then benefit those children when they grow up and enter a white collar
workplace.
In a society in which technical competence and higher education results in better jobs, more and
more parents are beginning to emphasize autonomy. This is functional for a Post Industrial society
which needs workers ready to take risks such as changing professions several times, going back to
college to be re-educated, starting their own businesses, learning new technologies.
Please remember to read about: Conflict theory maintains socialization
"reproduces the class system." In other words, ascribed status, education and occupation,
networks, role expectations, endogamy interact such that people create new families very
similar to the family in which they were raised.