| Sumario: | The effects of current occupational status and intergenerational differences in occupational status upon individual beliefs in doctrinal orthodoxy are examined in light of three hypotheses. A dissociative hypothesis would predict excessively high levels of orthodoxy for mobile persons, suggesting that the consequences of social mobility would work to counteract processes of secularization. An acculturation hypothesis would predict that mobile persons will be intermediate in degree of orthodoxy to persons at their strata of origin and destination, suggesting that in the societal context of an excess of upward over downward mobility, social mobility would generate a net increase in secularization. A cognitive dissonance hypothesis would predict excessively low levels of orthodoxy among mobile persons, suggesting that social mobility reinforces processes of secularization. The data generally best fit a model consistent with the acculturation hypothesis, though sufficient deviations occur to warrant a discussion of the conditions which foster dissociative and dissonance effects as manifested in orthodox religious beliefs.
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