Rising and falling on the social ladder: The bidimensional social mobility beliefs scale.

Recent works in the field of Social Psychology have shown the importance of studying subjective social mobility from different perspectives. In the literature about subjective societal mobility, most of the research is focused on the mobility-immobility framing. However, several authors suggested st...

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Main Authors: Juan Matamoros-Lima, Guillermo B Willis, Miguel Moya
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2023-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0294676
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author Juan Matamoros-Lima
Guillermo B Willis
Miguel Moya
author_facet Juan Matamoros-Lima
Guillermo B Willis
Miguel Moya
author_sort Juan Matamoros-Lima
collection DOAJ
description Recent works in the field of Social Psychology have shown the importance of studying subjective social mobility from different perspectives. In the literature about subjective societal mobility, most of the research is focused on the mobility-immobility framing. However, several authors suggested studying social mobility beliefs effects differentiating according to mobility's trajectory, that is, upward (i.e., improving status over time) and downward (i.e., getting worse in status over time). The present research was motivated by the lack of measures that discriminate between beliefs in upward and downward societal mobility. Across two studies using different samples of the Spanish adult population, we examined both dimensions of social mobility beliefs and tested their predictive validity on other related constructs. In Study 1 (N = 164), with an EFA, we corroborated the independence between the two types of mobility. The internal structure was confirmed by a CFA in Study 2 (N = 400). Furthermore, it was shown that upward and downward mobility beliefs are differently related to other related constructs. The results from Studies 1-2 showed good convergent validity. In all correlations with the different constructs (attitudes towards inequality, meritocratic beliefs, justification of the economic system, and status anxiety) we found opposite direction effects for both types of societal mobility (upward and downward). The development of this new instrument can help to deepen our understanding of the psychosocial consequences of subjective social mobility, as well as to differentiate two processes that may have different consequences.
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spelling doaj.art-de12d02825474c8c8161b8d7cae80d2c2023-12-24T05:33:37ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032023-01-011812e029467610.1371/journal.pone.0294676Rising and falling on the social ladder: The bidimensional social mobility beliefs scale.Juan Matamoros-LimaGuillermo B WillisMiguel MoyaRecent works in the field of Social Psychology have shown the importance of studying subjective social mobility from different perspectives. In the literature about subjective societal mobility, most of the research is focused on the mobility-immobility framing. However, several authors suggested studying social mobility beliefs effects differentiating according to mobility's trajectory, that is, upward (i.e., improving status over time) and downward (i.e., getting worse in status over time). The present research was motivated by the lack of measures that discriminate between beliefs in upward and downward societal mobility. Across two studies using different samples of the Spanish adult population, we examined both dimensions of social mobility beliefs and tested their predictive validity on other related constructs. In Study 1 (N = 164), with an EFA, we corroborated the independence between the two types of mobility. The internal structure was confirmed by a CFA in Study 2 (N = 400). Furthermore, it was shown that upward and downward mobility beliefs are differently related to other related constructs. The results from Studies 1-2 showed good convergent validity. In all correlations with the different constructs (attitudes towards inequality, meritocratic beliefs, justification of the economic system, and status anxiety) we found opposite direction effects for both types of societal mobility (upward and downward). The development of this new instrument can help to deepen our understanding of the psychosocial consequences of subjective social mobility, as well as to differentiate two processes that may have different consequences.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0294676
spellingShingle Juan Matamoros-Lima
Guillermo B Willis
Miguel Moya
Rising and falling on the social ladder: The bidimensional social mobility beliefs scale.
PLoS ONE
title Rising and falling on the social ladder: The bidimensional social mobility beliefs scale.
title_full Rising and falling on the social ladder: The bidimensional social mobility beliefs scale.
title_fullStr Rising and falling on the social ladder: The bidimensional social mobility beliefs scale.
title_full_unstemmed Rising and falling on the social ladder: The bidimensional social mobility beliefs scale.
title_short Rising and falling on the social ladder: The bidimensional social mobility beliefs scale.
title_sort rising and falling on the social ladder the bidimensional social mobility beliefs scale
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0294676
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