Social Structure and Self-Direction A Comparative Analysis of the United States and Poland

This book presents the results of a major research project on the relationship between social structures and personal values in both capitalist and socialist societies. Based on an array of original empirical work, and using new and sophisticated cross-national methodologies, it gives a comparative interpretation of the links between social class and social stratification, working conditions, and personality in the US and Poland.;The author's earlier work "Class and Conformity" is regarded by some as a classic in the field, providing an exploration of the casual connection between social stratification and values in terms of the close relationship between social stratification and the conditions of work that facilitate occupational self-direction. This new work goes far beyond this, integrating an entire corpus of research and interpretation into a generalized model of the social structure and personality relationship in industrialized societies, demonstrating the key role of social class, and developing an innovative method for cross-rational comparative inquiry.;The work is intended for students and teachers of sociology, social psychology, political science, social structure, social stratification, class, work, personality, sociological methodology and theory.