Status refers to a "comparative social ranking of people, groups, or objects in terms of the social esteem, honor, and respect accorded to them" (Ridgeway 2019:9)
Any observable individual trait that encompasses at least two states that are differentially valued, such that possessing the more highly valued state accords an individual greater social benefit. The theory of status characteristics and expectation states delineates two types of status characteristics: specific characteristics and diffuse characteristics (defined below; Berger et al 1977).
A characteristic that a) has at least two differentially evaluated states, b) carries specific performance expectations, and c) carries general performance expectations. Examples of diffuse status characteristics are race, gender, beauty, sexual orientation, height, weight, occupation, and education level (Dippong 2012).
A characteristic that a) has at least two differentially evaluated states and b) carries specific performance expectations. Examples of specific status characteristics are mathematical ability, musical ability, and so on (Dippong 2012).
Expectations refers to "a key concept in the program and the program deals with different types of expectations. Performance expectations are anticipations on the part of an individual of the abilities and task capacities of self and others, reward expectations are anticipations of the rewards (or goal objects) to be possessed by self and others, and valued status expectations are anticipations of the status positions to be held by self and others" (Berger and Webster (2006:269; emphasis in original). Expectation states research typically operationalizes performance expectations using theoretical expectation state values (described below).
Expectation state value is calculated based on graph-theoretic models and is a function of the number of salient status characteristics operating in the interaction, as well as the number and lengths of paths to task outcomes (though see Whitmeyer 2003 for an alternate approach to calculating). Following the assumption of aggregation of expectations, expectation state values combine the total effects of all positively- and negatively valued states of salient status characteristics. Positive values of expectation state value reflect possession of positive performance expectations and negative values reflect negative expectations.
Expectation advantage refers to actor P's relative advantage or disadvantage over a single other task member O, based on each actor's aggregate expectation state values. For each actor, Expectation advantage is calculated by subtracting O’s expectation state value from P’s. For each dyadic pair within a group, expectation advantage is symmetrical (e.g., if P's expectation advantage is .385, then O's expectation (dis)advantage will be -.385).
Expectation standing utilizes expectation state values to model the distribution of expectations in groups larger than two actors. Expectation standing essentially reflects each group member's proportional share of the available expectations within the group (Fisek at al 1991)
Scope conditions are explicit theoretical statements that ‘‘specify circumstances under which the relationship expressed in a hypothesis [or theory] is expected to hold true’’ (Foschi 1997:537). The claims expressed in the assumptions of SCT are expected to predict behavior under conditons of collective orientation and task orientation (described below).
One of the scope conditions of status characteristics theory is that actors must be completing a problem-solving task. In other words, actors must be together for the purpose of solving a group problem rather than together to enjoy each other’s company. Task orientation is predicated on the belief that the group’s task has a definite ‘‘correct’’ outcome, whether such an outcome exists or not (Webster and Sobiezek 1974). Additionally, actors must also be sufficiently motivated to arrive at that correct answer.
One of the scope conditions of status characteristics theory is that actors must be completing a collectively oriented task. Collective orientation refers to a condition in which group members believe that in forming their opinion, it is ‘‘both legitimate and necessary to take others’ behavior into account’’ (Berger et al. 1972: 243).
The power and prestige order is the behavioral hierarchy that develops as a result of the aggregated expectation state for each actor in the group. There are four behavioral components of the observable power and prestige order. The high status actor speaks the most; is evaluated most positively; is spoken to the most; and is most influential in the group (Berger et al 1977).
The standard experimental setting is the primary method employed for studying expectation states theories. It usually involves a status manipulation, in which the experimenter induces status beliefs for the experimental participant and their partner, a collective task for the group to complete, and a behavioral outcome that measures one or more elements of the observable power and prestige order (Berger 2014). In the standard experimental setting, group tasks typically produce a behavioral measure of influence, known as P(S), which we define below.
Theoretical construct reflecting the probability that actor P will stay with their own initial choice when faced with disagreement from task partner O. Accordingly, the probability that actor P will change their decision when faced with disagreement from O equals 1-P(S). Empirically, researchers typically estimate P(S) using the proportion of stay responses p(s), an observable outcome related to a number of tasks employed in the standard experimental setting. It is possible to derive estimates of P(S) using the equation: P(S) = m + q(ep - eo), where m represents the population baseline tendency to reject influence, q is an empirical constant estimated from the data, and (ep - eo) is actor P's expectation advantage (Berger et al 1977).
An empirical indicator of P(S), p(s) is calculated as the observed proportion of experimental trials in which actor P stays with their own initial choice when faced with disagreement from task partner O. Researchers often employ p(s) as the dependent variable in a regression model to estimate the probability of a stay response using the equation P(S) = m + q(ep - eo) (Lovaglia and Houser 1993).