Rags to riches or falling from grace: Gestalt characteristics of income mobility, core self-evaluations, and career success

Abstract

Despite the importance of one’s income, we know very little about the organizational consequences of changes in this critical socioeconomic resource. Based on gestalt characteristics theory, we test predictions about how key features of one’s income mobility experiences over their lifespan contribute to core self-evaluations. Based on a national, longitudinal sample from the United States consisting of over 12,000 people, we consistently find that several theoretical features of an income mobility trajectory (i.e., beginning, end, peak, slope, and variability) predict one’s core self-evaluations, which subsequently predicts several measures of career success. Our findings extend recent research by demonstrating that resources, like income, are not static but are quite malleable. People often experience going from “rags to riches” or “falling from grace” by relying on key features of these experiences. Our results also show how these resources contribute to core aspects of one’s psychology.