Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Structure and Personality in Transitional Urban China

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The proposed research will examine the relationship between social structure and individual personality through the linkage of occupational self-direction in urban China in transition. The interplay of market institution and institutional legacy of the socialist planned economy indicates a transitional process different from the path of radical social change in the former Soviet and East European societies. The relationship between social structure and personality in transitional China may be quite different from that in fully capitalist societies, in socialist societies, and even in the transitional societies of the former Soviet Union and East Europe. The research will be conducted in Shanghai, the largest industrial city in China. It will employ a three-stage random sampling strategy to collect primary survey data. A sample of 500 registered residents of the city proper who are in the labor force at the time of survey will be yielded. A pretest will be conducted before the actual survey to warrant linguistically and culturally valid questions to be included in the interview schedule. The actual survey will be conducted in the form of face-to-face interviews. Using rigorous confirmatory factor analysis and structural-equation modeling, the proposed research will be the first study of the relationship between social structure and individual personality in China. The broader impact of this research lies in its potential to bridge the gap in research on China between the study of social structure by sociologists and the study of personality by psychologists. It will provide important information for social policy, helping to rectify a paucity of knowledge about the psychological consequences of ongoing transition in urban China.