The Duration of Marriage

same score on a morale index for different reasons. Reference group theory may also be brought to bear in considering the strength of in-group identification as a factor in an airman's prestige ranking of the squadron to which he is assigned. Centers 7 found that people who could be objectively classified as upper class or lower class in American society thought of themselves as middle class or working class, apparently because the norms of American society make either of the first two labels undesirable. The same kind of responses were found in this study when airmen were asked to check the squadrons which were generally the best-a tendency exists for people to want to think of themselves as belonging to the group which others consider the most desirable. In every squadron, men were found to rank their own unit higher than others ranked it, a case of the membership-group as a reference group. In all but the service associations, men rated squadrons in their activity group higher than others rated them-a case of mutually sustaining reference groups. And finally, the men in the squadrons with the lowest base-wide prestige rankings-Food Service and Air Police-offer an illustration of what Merton and Kitt call a "positive orientation to non-membership reference groups." 8 Men from these two low prestige associations showed a stronger tendency than other respondents to identify with the unit having the highest base-wide prestige-the bomb squadron.