The Meek Shall Not Inherit the Earth: Self-Evaluation and the Legitimacy of Stratification
作者研究了社会分层如何获得合法性。作者认为，不平等分配不仅靠强制维持，还通过人们自我评价的塑造获得广泛认同。作者借用米德的自我理论，论证资源不平等影响个体自我建构，进而使分层秩序被视为正当。这一思路与公平理论、地位归因理论等社会心理学观点兼容。作者还讨论了主要社会制度如何通过影响自我来维护合法性，并初步探讨了合法性被削弱的原因。
Stratified social orders are maintained through a wide variety of mechanisms, one being broad-based legitimation of the notion of unequal distribution of primary resources. My attempt to develop a set of propositions provides at least a partial explanation of how such legitimation is generated and maintained. I argue that both conflict and functional theory point, at least implicitly, to the importance of the effect of unequal distribution of resources on the development of the self-constructing my argument through application of Mead' s theory of the self to the case of stratification. This application is shown, in turn, to be compatible with several lines of theorizing in social psychology, including equity and status attribution theory. Once basic propositions are developed, I discuss ways in which major social institutions maintain legitimacy through their effect on the self and explore some possible sources of delegitimation.