Magnitude Prestige Scale (MPS)

The Magnitude Prestige Scale reflects the perceived social prestige of an occupation.
The MPS, which can be coded with the help of the KldB 92, ranges from 30 (assisting agricultural labourers) to 216 (dentists) (cf. Frietsch/Wirth 2001).

Origin/Creator:	Bernd Wegener
Method/Structure:	Wegener built his scale using the ISCO scheme. 50 occupations were subjected to a magnitude measurement in three series, with two occupational titles serving as connecting points. The classification of all prestige scores were averaged and extended to 283 ISCO occupations using the Treiman Scale (SIOPS). In a second step, the 50 prestige scores were extended to the Status Acquisition Scale (SAS). Subsequently, values with less than ten cases on the resulting scale were replaced by the values calculated using the SIOPS. Subsequently, the values for the original 50 occupations were added back into the scale by linear transformation. Finally, a power transformation was used to normalize the scale so that the lowest value was 20 and the highest 186.1 (cf. Fritsch/Wirth 2001: 9ff.).
Development/implementation for Germany:	An update of the MPS allows coding it with ISCO-88 and the KldB 92 (cf. Christoph 2005).

Related classifications:

German Classification of Occupations 1992 (KldB 92)

Keywords

Prestige of occupations, Prestige Scale

Magnitude Prestige Scale (MPS)

Fundamental literature: Frietsch, Rainer, Wirth, Heike (2001): Die Übertragung der Magnitude-Prestigeskala von Wegener auf die Klassifizierung der Berufe. ZUMA-Nachrichten, 48(25), 139-163.

Further literature: Albrecht, Andrea, Trappmann, Mark, Wolf, Christof (2002): Statusmaße light: Statusskalen bei unzureichenden Berufsangaben. KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 54(2), 343-361.

Christoph, Bernhard (2005): Zur Messung des Berufsprestiges: Aktualisierung der Magnitude-Prestigeskala.

Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik, Jürgen H.P., Geis, Alfons J. (2003): Berufsklassifikation und Messung des beruflichen Status/Prestige. ZUMA-Nachrichten, 52(27), 125-138.

Wegener, Bernd (1985): Gibt es Sozialprestige? Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 14(3), 209-235.