Research Report: Inclusion of Other in the Self and Class-Related Variables

This research report describes the correlations between inclusion of other in the self, a social psychological measure of relational closeness that assesses the extent to which one’s identity is shared with another entity (Aron, Aron, & Smollan, 1992), and social class-related variables including household income, socio-economic status (SES), parent education level, and participant education level. This research report was commissioned for inclusion of our data in a meta-analysis examining self-construals and social class. In a sample of 2,426 undergraduates at 14 universities across the US, family socio-economic status was consistently and positively associated with greater degrees of inclusion of one's university in one's self-construal. A similar pattern emerged for a subset of the sample involved in Christian study centers; participants of higher socio-economic backgrounds reported greater degrees of inclusion of their study center in their self-construals.