previous research has been approached from a recreational, community, or wel- fare point of view. Many of these stud- ies appeared in the middle 'thirties when the enforced leisure of the de- pression years stimulated communities to become increasingly concerned with the way in which people spent their hours away from work. Moreover, few studies have attempted to consider lei- sure in terms of the larger cultural con- text. For example, are the dominant values of the culture reflected in the differential use of leisure time? Is there a systematic relationship between social status and leisure styles? Does the occu- pational structure influence the ways in which work-free time is spent? Research evidence bearing on these and similar questions is extremely limited. In addi- tion, the question can be raised whether present leisure-time patterns are accu- rately portrayed by past research. It would appear probable that in recent years increasing amounts of spare time, accompanied by rising income levels, might tend to equalize the frequency of participation in many spare-time ac- tivities among different segments of the population. Perhaps certain alleged dif- ferences in leisure behavior are more apparent than real. It may well be, as Denney and Riesman suggest, that mass leisure has emerged so suddenly that we tend to interpret it by drawing on the stereotypes of an earlier era. 3
The present research views leisure activity as an aspect of social stratifi- cation. It focuses on the role of leisure as a part of the life styles of individuals occupying different prestige levels.
The Study Design
Although levels of prestige have been delineated in varied ways, it was felt that an occupational referent would provide a meaningful standard upon which leisure behavior could be based. 4 The North-Hatt Occupational Prestige Scale was selected as the instrument best suited to the requirements of the present study. 5 Through the use of this scale it was possible to translate the prestige level of individuals into a nu- merical score. A second instrument was constructed to measure certain config- urations of leisure behavior. It included a section on frequency of participation in different types of leisure activities, a set of questions concerning preferences and attitudes, several items pertaining
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all people can and do classify nearly all their activities according to these two categories in a way that is deeply meaningful to themselves. . . . As such the categories are . . . useful for our purpose" ( ibid., pp. 2-3 ).
There are, however, other researchers who feel that leisure should also be considered as an attitude of mind rather than merely spare time. For a discussion of this point of view, see Reuel Denney and David Riesman, "Lei- sure in Urbanized America," in P. K. Hatt and A. J. Reiss Jr., eds., Reader in Urban Sociology ( New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, Inc., 1951), p. 470.
Occupational prestige is generally re- garded as the most satisfactory and probably the most valid index of social status. For example, Warner and his associates found a high correlation between occupation and other measures of "social class." A multiple correlation of occupation, source of income, house type and dwelling area, with subjective judgments of community informants (Evalu- ated Participation) was .972. A zero-order correlation of .91 was obtained between oc- cupation alone and Evaluated Participation. W. Lloyd Warner et al., Social Class in Amer- ica ( Chicago: Science Research Associates, 1949), pp. 35 ff.
This scale was based on ratings of oc- cupations by a cross section of the American population interviewed by the National Opinion Research Center. There were of course some occupations encountered in this study which did not appear in the North- Hatt scale. Final ratings of all occupations not mentioned on the scale were the average of individual ratings made by five sociologists asked to compare and equate these occupa- tional titles with those in the scale and to assign corresponding prestige ratings to them.
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Publication Information: Book Title: Readings on Economic Sociology. Contributors: Neil J. Smelser - author. Publisher: Prentice-Hall. Place of Publication: Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Publication Year: 1965. Page Number: 296.
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