In this paper, we develop an information distortion model (IDM) of social class differences in self-beliefs and values. The IDM combines psychological biases on frame-of-reference effects with sociological foci on ability stratification. This combination is hypothesized to lead to working-class children having more positive math self-beliefs and…

This article focuses on different ways in which socially disadvantaged parents engage with their children's educational experiences, and provides evidence of the role they play in opening or narrowing their children's access to education. Disadvantaged parents are usually associated with weak or difficult educational trajectories for their…

With reference to capital theories and rational choice theory, this paper aims to understand how abilities and schooling ambitions are intertwined with social class, gender and ethnicity. By drawing on 16 in-depth interviews carried out with highly educated second-generation Turks in the Netherlands, the paper discusses the resources,…

Using the military preinduction test battery scores of over 200,000 19-year-old Dutch men, the study measured the effects of birth-order and family size on five psychological functions. (Author)

As the major instrument for the discovery and training of talent, the school in contemporary technological society plays an increasingly deterministic role in the selection of individuals for particular occupations and, hence, particular positions in the social hierarchy. The Netherlands was chosen as a research site because the consequences of…