Walter T. Martin

A Theory of Status Integration and Its Relationship to Suicide

THIS paper explicates a theory that attempts to account for differences in suicide rates of societies and other population categories. While the theory is directly concerned with variability in suicide rates,1 it has implications of a broad theoretical nature and may prove to be of value in the analysis of behavior other than suicide. In a general sense, the theory represents an attempt to approach the problem of deviant behavior from a point of view that generates specific empirical propositions as opposed to vague ideas that often pass as theory in sociology. The theory of status integration in its complete form is to be described in full in a much longer report that will also include the derivation of specific hypotheses, the methods of testing these hypotheses, and the results of the actual tests.2 The present report presents only a brief discussion of the nature and development of the theory of status integration, examples of measures of status integration, and some tests of hypotheses. This restriction means that a number of important theoretical and methodological problems must be treated superficially or ignored for the time being. It is hoped, however, that a preliminary report may result in evaluations and suggestions that will serve to strengthen the final report.

Status integration and suicide : a sociological study

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TOWARD A THEORETICAL SYSTEM OF HUMAN ECOLOGY

There is no aspect of society that is in greater need of sociological study than is mans increasingly efficient organization for providing himself with a quantity and variety of material goods. In recent decades human ecology has been the most notable attempt by sociologists to develop an analytical framework encompassing this sector of collective human behavior. But so widely accepted has become the self evident truth that the early great expectations for human ecology have not been fulfilled that even sociologists with an ecological orientation seem to lack faith in the value of their subject matter. Although each year demonstrates anew that this phenomenon remains too vital to be banished entirely from sociology, human ecologists have come to practice Uncle Tom postures in the presence of colleagues endowed with the current psychological orientation, and to spend their research hours assaying their data hopefully for values, sentiments, motivations, and other elusive psychological elements. The factors which have led to this unseemly situation are too complex to analyze here but, in brief, the difficulty lies in the absence of a coherent theoretical system developed specifically around mans organization for sustenance. The lack of such a system has led to fragmentation with consequent sterility in human ecology, and, correspondingly, a weakening of sociology itself. The development of a theoretical system would do more than anything else to further the advance of human ecology toward a logically sound, empirically productive, and sociologically meaningful discipline. In attempting to move toward a theoretical system in the present paper, it has not been possible to give proper recognition to all those who have advanced similar ideas in the past. The parallels will be evident to persons familiar with the field. In particular it will be noted that the system offered here bears, at certain points, a close relationship to

Status integration, social stress, and mental illness: accounting for marital status variations in mental hospitalization rates.

Since the middle of the nineteenth century observers have commented on the consistent variations by marital status in rates offirst admission to mental hospitals. One approach to accounting for these persistent differences is in terms of social structurally induced stress which is associated with particular combinations of social statuses such as marital status, age, and sex. The theory of status integration is introduced to provide a rationalefor predicting the relative rank of mental illness rates among dfferent age-sex-marital status configurations with first admission rates used as a surrogate for mental illness rates. A series of tests are described and the empiricalfindings tend to conform to those anticipated by the theory. The smaller the measure of status integration, the greater the rate offirst admission. In two notable exceptions the theory proved inadequate in predicting differences between males and females and variations by age. Doubt is cast on the popular notion that differences among marital statuses in mental illness rates are to be explained by the characteristic life styles associated with the different marital statuses since the theory is able to predict rates offirst admission among three race-nativity statuses when marital status is held constant.

Converting Education into Income and Occupational Status: Another Look at the European Ethnics

This article extends an earlier investigation of differences among European immigrant groups in the United States in the extent to which they convert educational attainment into income. The size of the sample has been significantly enlarged, making it possible to include more ethnic groups and to increase the number of factors taken into account. The present analysis examines the conversion of educational achievement into income and into occupational status. Special attention is focused on the earlier finding that, among second-generation immigrants, those with only the father foreign born are most effective in converting education into earnings.

Differentials in the Ability to Convert Education into Income: The Case of the European Ethnics.

This paper investigates the extent to which European immigrant groups to the United States differentially convert their educational attainment into income. Particular attention is given to variations among 1st generation immigrants and three types of second generation immigrants. We find that 2nd generation male immigrants with foreign-born fathers and native-born mothers are best able to convert their education into income. Empirical analyses reported are based on data drawn from a public use sample of the 1970 U.S. Census of Population.

Industrialization and Occupational Differentiation: An Ecological Analysis

An important question for sociological research asks under what conditions occupational differences between males and females, and between whites and blacks are most likely to be minimized. One hypothesis that deserves exploration is that these differences, which to a large extent result from ascription on the basis of real or imaginary distinctions in physique and physiology, are inversely related to a populations level of industrialization. While there has been a good amount of attention devoted to a description of occupational differentiation by color (Gibbs, 1965) and by sex (Gross, 1968), little work has focused on an explanation of these differentials (Poston, 1968; Poston and Johnson, 1971). For example, in a recent analysis, occupational differentiation by color was compared with occupational differentiation by sex, and the results indicated quite different patterns among Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas of the United States in 1960 (Martin and Poston, 1972). Some SMSAs were charac-

Earnings Differences between Old and New U.S. Immigrants

Recent investigations have noted that immigrants to the United States from Asian and Latin American countries (the new national origin countries) are not faring as well economically as immigrants from European countries. This study sets forth possible reasons these patterns obtain, one of which is that immigrants from the new countries have less of the characteristics associated with higher economic attainment than immigrants from the European countries. To test this hypothesis, we take data from the 1970 Census of Population and apply a regression standardization approach in which all immigrants are assigned the compositional characteristics of a standard population. Even after their earnings have been adjusted statistically, the Asian and Latin American immigrants still earn less than immigrants from the old national origin countries.