Becoming Conscious of the American Middle Class (Un)consciousness

It is argued in this article that social psychology would make the greatest contribution to research on class identity if
it concentrated on the area closest to psychology—analysis of class consciousness. In order to show that the study of the
psyche and mentality of the middle class is one of the least researched aspects of the American middle class, a brief overview
of the different approaches to the study of the middle class in selected disciplines will be offered. It will be demonstrated
that even if the identity of the U.S. middle class cannot be fully understood without its history and the social context in
which it operates, it is the study of its (un)consciousness that social psychology should be focusing its research efforts
on. The alternative would make social psychology indistinguishable from social history or sociology.