Occupational Stereotypes and Prestige

This paper examines occupational evaluation as a behavioral process. First, alternative methods of investigating occupational stratification are distinguished: the socioeconomic or “objective” approach, the prestige assessment or “subjective” approach, and a “linkage model” that attempts to identify objective characteristics that enter as status-conferring criteria into prestige assessment. The third approach assumes a weighting and combining process according to which prestige assessments are concluded de novo by each person who reviews the occupational structure. Taking account of occupational characteristics may, however, involve response to stereotyped imagery as to what occupations and their incumbents are like, as well as the processing of objective data. Popular stereotypes of occupations are explored through the use of the semantic differential.