Social Factors and Neurosis in a Working-Class Population

Abstract

In the course of a study of families containing children of primary school age, we have collected detailed social and medical histories of the parents. In earlier papers (Ryle and Hamilton, 1962; Hamilton et al., 1962) based upon part of the population studied here, we have confirmed the reliability of the Cornell Medical Index (C.M.I.) as an indicator of neurosis. The aim of the present paper is to investigate whether social factors within a relatively homogeneous, largely working-class population, are related to neuroticism. While differences in the rate of neurosis between the social classes have often been described, interpretations of these differences are difficult because they may be due not only to variations in the rate of illness but also to differences in the mode of presentation, in symptomatology or in attitudes to medical treatment or to research enquiry. On the other hand, in studying a population such as ours, with small social class differences, the range of social factors available for measurement is reduced.