Final answer:
The relationship between Socioeconomic Status (SES) and occupational satisfaction can be influenced by control over one's work, decision-making involvement, and the symbolic meaning attached to the work. Functionalism suggests prestige and financial rewards as motivation, while work-content factors are empirically shown to strongly predict job satisfaction.
Step-by-step explanation:
The associations between Socioeconomic Status (SES) and occupational satisfaction can be approached from various theoretical perspectives. Researchers like Melvin Kohn have suggested that occupational satisfaction is greatly influenced by factors such as the ability to control one's work, participation in decision-making, autonomy from oversight, and feeling integral to work outcomes. The functionalist perspective, including the Davis-Moore thesis, posits that societal stratification and the associated rewards drive individuals toward more education and difficult professions, influencing their job satisfaction in terms of prestige and salary. Symbolic interactionism examines individual perceptions and their role in job satisfaction, considering factors like stress vulnerability and perceived risks that may negatively impact satisfaction levels. Lastly, empirical research has highlighted that the work-content factor, including job variety, difficulty, and role clarity, has a significant predictive power for job satisfaction, as opposed to weaker correlations with pay level.