Abstract:

The economic development in China has attracted worldwide attention since the social transformation. However, with the abundance of material accumulation due to the rapid economic development, wealth distribution has been further polarized, social dissatisfaction has been growing, restlessness has contaminated people, and anxiety has become a common social phenomenon. This quantitative research explored the relationships between class position (objective social status), class identity (subjective social status), and life experiences from the critical class perspective. Here are the results: Social status (both objective and subjective) and life experiences have significant effects on the generation of anxiety; those from low social status and those who have experienced unjust treatment are more likely to develop anxiety; relative to objective social status and subjective social status, life experiences play a more critical role in generating anxiety. But objective social status is the basis that not only directly causes anxiety but also restrains people’s class identity via their life experiences, and in this way, indirectly affects anxiety. This article argues that, social anxiety brought about by social status and life experiences tends to affects individuals in a negative manner. The mutual influence during the interaction among people is likely to make people aware of the cause of their anxiety and come to a “common sense” for an explanation, which conversely intensifies the “common sense” and further amplifies their anxiety. Through such an “amplifying” mechanism, the relationships of objective social status, life experiences and subjective social status with anxiety will generate three forms of anxiety, respectively: status anxiety mainly caused by low income, experience anxiety due to unjust life experiences, and interpersonal comparison anxiety based on wealth polarization.

Key words: social status, life experiences, anxiety