COR 074d

Coding of Respondent's Occupational Choice


     This was a rather difficult operation because it was necessary
to take the answers to several questions into account in deciding
what the respondent's future occupation would be. These questions
were Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 9 (b) from the 1957 questionnaire. 
Judging from the answers to all these questions, we then assigned
each respondent a four-digit code. The first two digits specified
the type of occupation, again using Appendix B of Albert J. Reiss,
Jr.
"Occupations and Social Status" (1961, Free Press) as our standard.

The types were "Unskilled" (20), "Farmer" (30), "Service"
(40), "Operatives" (50), "Skilled"  (60), "White Collar" (70),
"Executive" (80), and "Professional," which was broken down as
follows: "High Medical" (including physicians, surgeons,
osteopaths, and dentists) (99); "Lawyers" (98); "Engineers" (97);
"Professors, Scientists, and Research Workers" (96); "Low Medical"
(including optometrists, veterinarians, and pharmacists) (95);
"Other High Prestige Professions" (94);  "Teachers" (93);
"Clergymen" (92); "Nurses" (91); and "Other Low Prestige
Professions" (90). The second two digits specify the prestige of
the occupation, according to the NORC scores in Appendix B of
Reiss. High prestige professions were defined as those with a NORC
prestige score of 80 or above.

Special cases and criteria are listed below:

(a) All respondents who were going to college and checked "Liberal 
    Arts" or "Undecided" as their major field were given the code 
    9075, which specifies "Low Profession, Unspecified." 

(b) Priests and ministers were classified as "Clergymen"; nuns,   
    monks, missionaries, etc., were classified as "Religious      
    Workers." 

(c) All respondents who were going to college and checked a      
    scientific field as their major interest were classified as   
    "Professors, Scientists, and Research Workers."

(d) No one was classified as a professional if he or she was 
    not planning to continue with some kind of higher education,  
    with the exception of dancers, musicians, and entertainers.

(e) Those who were going to college and checked "Business" as 
    their field of interest were classified as "Executives" 
    unless they specified otherwise. Those who checked 
    "Executives"  as their future occupation were classified as   
    executives if and only if they were going to college or 
    business school. 

(f) Airline hostesses were not included in the Reiss appendix, 
    and were arbitrarily assigned the score 7069, the same 
    as unspecified office workers. 

(g) Respondents going to airlines communications school were      
    assigned the score 7069, the same as telephone and telegraph  
    operators. 

(h) All boys who were going to vocational school but did not     
    specify the course to be taken and did not give any other     
    indications about occupation were classified as "Skilled
    Workers, Unspecified," with the score 6065. All similar girls
    were classified as "Office Workers, Unspecified," with the 
    score 7069. 

(i) Members of the armed forces were classified as operatives, with

    the score 5056. 

(j) Respondents who checked "Factory Worker" as their occupational 
   choice on question 9(b) were classified as operatives,      
    unspecified. 

(k) Those who checked forestry as their field of interest, but were

    not going to college, were classified as game wardens, with
    the same score as policemen, 4066. 

(1) Nurses aides were classified as "Attendants, Hospital and Other
    Institutions." 

(m) Those who said they would become "Laborers" were classed      
    "Laborers, Unspecified," with the score 2045. 

(n) Those who were entering the military service did not specify  
    that they planned a military career and gave no further       
    information about it. 

(o) Girls who were getting married and gave no other information  
   about occupational choice were given the score 0500. 

(p) Respondents who gave no information pertaining to occupational 
    choice were coded 0000.