Department of Sociology, Brussels Institute for Social and Population Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Flanders Research Foundation, Brussels, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2024 Sep 9;19(9):e0310031. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310031. eCollection 2024.
Psychological capital (PsyCap) is a multidimensional concept entailing hope, self-efficacy, optimism, and resilience. This paper argues that it can be considered a form of "capital" explaining social inequality. We test whether PsyCap can be integrated into the Bourdieusian capital framework by assessing its relationship with social, economic, and cultural capital. We also identify different types of social positions based on the volume and composition of psychological, economic, cultural, and social capital. We use cross-sectional data from the European Social Survey of 2012 (N = 35,313 respondents; 29 countries). To test the associations with the Bourdieusian capital types, we calculated multilevel spearman rank correlations and performed confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Latent Class Analysis identified different types of social positions. We found positive weak correlations between PsyCap and the indicators of cultural capital (r ≤ .14) and positive moderate correlations with the indicators of economic and social capital (r ≤ .24). The results of the CFA showed that the fit of the 4-capital model was superior to that of the 3-capital model. We identified six types of social positions: two deprived types (with overall low capital levels); two well-off types (with overall high capital levels) and two types with high psychological and social capital in combination with varying levels of cultural and economic capital. Including PsyCap in the Bourdieusian capital framework acknowledges the power of positive psychological states regarding processes of social mobility and social inequality on the one hand and calls for understanding PsyCap as a social and group-level phenomenon on the other hand. As such, integrating PsyCap into the Bourdieusian framework can help to address the longstanding issue of understanding the relationship between social and individual differences in the study of social inequalities.
心理资本（PsyCap）是一个多维度的概念，包含希望、自我效能、乐观和适应力。本文认为，它可以被视为一种解释社会不平等的“资本”形式。我们通过评估心理资本与社会、经济和文化资本的关系，来检验它是否可以融入布迪厄的资本框架。我们还根据心理、经济、文化和社会资本的数量和构成，确定不同类型的社会地位。我们使用了 2012 年欧洲社会调查的横截面数据（N=35313 名受访者；29 个国家）。为了检验与布迪厄资本类型的关联，我们计算了多层次斯皮尔曼等级相关，并进行了验证性因素分析（CFA）。潜在类别分析确定了不同类型的社会地位。我们发现 PsyCap 与文化资本的指标之间存在正弱相关（r≤.14），与经济和社会资本的指标之间存在正中等相关（r≤.24）。CFA 的结果表明，4 资本模型的拟合优度优于 3 资本模型。我们确定了六种社会地位类型：两种贫困类型（整体资本水平较低）；两种富裕类型（整体资本水平较高）和两种类型，具有较高的心理和社会资本，结合不同水平的文化和经济资本。将 PsyCap 纳入布迪厄的资本框架，一方面承认积极心理状态在社会流动和社会不平等过程中的力量，另一方面呼吁将 PsyCap 理解为一种社会和群体层面的现象。因此，将 PsyCap 融入布迪厄框架可以帮助解决长期以来理解社会不平等研究中社会和个体差异之间关系的问题。
