UC Berkeley

In today’s society, do people believe they can personally achieve the American Dream, no matter their social class upbringing? In seven studies, we examined this question using the novel framework of social class possible selves. More specifically, we examined how high-aiming individuals’ social class possible selves are as a measure of future hoped-for, expected, and feared levels of education, occupational prestige, income, and subjective social class rank. We also examine how traditionally independent American cultural values will also be representative of future social class possible selves. Furthermore, we aimed to address how social class possible selves are shaped, examining family social class as an important predictor of social class possible selves and cultural values, as well as social mobility beliefs, system justification beliefs, collective social class self-esteem, and optimism as potential moderators. In addition, we addressed how much individuals believe in their social class possible selves by measuring perceptions of their efficaciousness and distance from the current self. Finally, we sought to establish the motivational power of social class possible selves on career attainment behaviors. We find social class possible selves represent distinct conceptualizations of social class in the future and are also represented by different levels of cultural values. Further, these possible selves all are predicted by family social class, though expected social class possible selves are the most strongly associated with class upbringing. In addition, expected selves are perceived as more likely to occur and closer to the present self. Family social class has differential effects on the efficacy and distance of these selves. Finally, we show that social class possible selves lead individuals to apply to opportunities that are in line with their expected levels of future income.