Social Attitude and Social Class

tT IS often said that the most interesting and fruitful investigations in | science are those carried out in fields which lie between two wellestablished Sdisciplines. While it would not perhaps be quite accurate to call either Sociology or Social Psychology well-established , and while the lines of demarcation between them are not as clear as one might sometimes wish, nevertheless they differ sufficiently in their theoretical setting and their methods of work to make it possible to institute inter-disciplinary mvestigations which may serve to give an air of verisimilitude to the generalization quoted above. The relation between social attitude and social class is clearly a topic which is of interest both to the sociologist and the social psychologist. The analysis of social class has for long been the business of the sociologist, while the investigation of social attitudes has been largely undertaken by the psychologist. An attempt to integrate these two fields of study has recently been made by an American ter, R. Centers, in his book on The PsychologSy of Social Classes [3]. It seems opportune to discuss in some detail the methodological problems raised, and the scientific value of the results reported, and to draw parallels, wherever possible, with similar research carried out in this country. The Psychology of Social CZasses beps with the statement of a theory which the author traces back to Marx, Sombart, Sorokin and a plethora of other writers. This interest group theory of sociaZ classes, as Centers calls it, may best be stated in the author's own words: