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This study was undertaken to examine the relationship between status indicators and psychiatric diagnosis. The basic assumption tested was that information such as the patient's status inconsistency (which is related to role conflict), achieved status, and ascribed status are used in establishing the psychiatric disposition of the patient. The principal hypothesis tested was that patients with high status inconsistency would receive the more severe diagnoses (i.e., psychotic) while those with low status inconsistency would receive the less severe diagnoses (i.e., non-psychotic). It was found that the status inconsistency of the patients yielded the least explanatory power regarding diagnosis. In contrast, employment, occupation, age, and sex all proffer a moderate amount of explanation. The single most powerful predictor variable was the race of the patient. Our conclusion was that both primary and secondary socialization of the agents for diagnosis (psychiatrists) affected this socially constructed outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manifest goals of this research were to: (a) devise a means of measuring the relative importance for youth of two potential types of referents-parents or peers and (b) obtain information on behavioral correlates of parent and peer orientations. Tests of relationship were made relative to parent or peer orientation and: the age-grade level, sex, the perceived source of need satisfaction, and the socioeconomic class of respondents. Ordinal type scales were used where applicable to gain measurements of the variables. Chi-square tests and rank-order correlations provided the measures of association between type of orientation and the independent variables. All the associations were found to be significant, except socioeconomic class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]