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In order to define social status it is necessary to measure selected attributes abstracted from the totality of attributes characteristic of the persons studied. Use of the living-room scale assumes that the complex structure of attitudes giving persons their status varies with their material possessions. Measurement is not mere enumeration but a form of scientific description which uses numerical symbols corresponding to different distances from an arbitrary point on a continuum. Measurement must always be relative to the frame of reference adopted. It is more susceptible of accurate recording, independent verification, and transmission.
F. Stuart Chapin (Tue,) studied this question.