ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the issue of how internal processes in standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSAs) influence the structural parameters which have been taken as given and treated as exogenous conditions. Both the status-attainment model and the macrostructural theory focus on the distributions of a population along various lines, that is, on the degrees of various forms of differentiation in a social structure. The variables of status-attainment research are attributes of individuals. For example, investigations in this tradition report how individuals' education or occupational status is affected by ascribed characteristics, such as parental status, race, and sex. The status-attainment model dissects the observed multivariate distribution of individuals' attributes into the factors and social processes that produce it. These are indicated by additional parameters and measures that have no direct parallels in macrostructural analysis. The chapter summarizes the results of estimating a separate path model for each of the 125 SMSAs.
