Prestige and Esteem as Power Components: An Experimental Analysis

The position is taken that power is functionally related to both roles and social positions (Personal Power = (total - sum) Prestige + Esteem). Following Davis, prestige is regarded as an invidious value of status or office, and esteem as an evaluation of the occupant's fulfillment of role-expectations. The purpose of the paper is described as three-fold: '(1) to test empirically whether or not `prestige' and `esteem' are actually discrete or separate universes or scales in the evaluations of a group of subjects; (2) to ascertain if certain attributes of the subjects influenced their rankings and ratings; and (3) to discuss the implications of such findings.' Four null hypotheses were tested, one of which was rejected. Ss were students in classes in introductory sociology. Using a list of 20 occupations, the Ss prepared a list of names of persons in these occupations whom they knew personally. Ss rated these individuals on a 5-point scale according to 'how well they succeeded in being a 'person'.' This scale was used as a measure of esteem. Ss were later asked to rank the 20 occupations in the same scale in terms of the 'general standing of such an occupation.' This prestige scale was validated by comparison with the North-H attitude scores. Both scales were tested for reliability by test-retest. Analyses of variance and Chi-square were used in the statistical analysis. From the findings it was concluded that prestige and esteem scales constitute separate universes of evaluation. 11 of the 19 occupations rated (one occupation was rejected after test-retest) had higher esteem than prestige scores. These occupations tended to be the lower prestige occupations and the ceiling of esteem for incumbents in these occupations tended to be lower than for persons in higher prestige occupations. The prestige value of an office may set limits on the range of esteem-ratings its incumbents may achieve. With few exceptions, ratings on the two scales did not appear to be influenced by the evaluators' sex, size of home town, or occupational situs. Implications of the findings for power and social stratification are discussed. E. Scott.