Status Characteristics and Expectation States: Fitting and Testing a Recent Model

In their most recent (1977) theoretical statement dealing with status characteristics and expectation states, Berger and his associates propose a linearfunction for predicting numerical values on a measure of relative power and prestige in task-oriented groups. In this paper we briefly outline the theory and the manner in which this function is employed, and we present a methodfor parameter estimation and assessment of goodness offit which is preferable to the ad hoc procedures employed by Berger et al. Using this method to review 14 studies carried out within a standardized experimental setting, wefind that Berger et al.'s linear modelfits the data from these experiments remarkably well. We conclude that these results demonstrate the utility and apparent validity of the central concepts and assumptions of this theory of status-organizing processes.