Tittle, Charles

Employing the interactionist framework, the fat person was conceived of
as a social deviant engaged in the process of building and validating
a workable identity. Fat persons were drawn from two theoretical pools
reflecting high and low degrees of commitment to the fat role. It was
hypothesized that the committed fat subjects would have significant
others who approved the fatness. The data clearly supported this
assertion. It was further hypothesized that committed fat people
would experience a lesser degree of anxiety and depression than non-committed
fats. Directional support was found for this hypothesis.
However, considerable male-female differences exist regarding the role
of commitment as an anxiety reducer. An hypothesis stating that
committed fat people would exhibit a more positive self-concept than
their less committed counterparts was not borne out by the data.

The literature concerning achievement motivation suggests a relationship
between youths' awareness of similar trait occupational role models and
their mobility aspirations and expectations. The research study presented
here was conducted to test the hypothesis that the amount of knowledge
black youths have of black achievers is positively related to their
mobility attitudes, and their occupational and educational aspirations
and expectations. The data indicate that the hypothesized relationships
are at best weak. However, the fact that the strong relationships
generally cited as existing between parents' education and occupation
and their children's mobility attitudes were also not found indicates a
need for further research regarding the variables that could possibly
influence black mobility aspirations and expectations.