Comparative analysis has established the claim of Scotland to have operated a meritelective system, and the preceding chapter has shown that the system manifested only a moderate degree of class bias in the selection of boys for the higher type of secondary education (and in their acceptance of places in it). A linear additive model has shown that the main determinants of occupational success were, so far as we are able to discern, cleverness, character, and class. We now turn to an investigation of the occurrence and effects of childhood deprivation in Scottish society. In order to carry this investigation through, we propose a novel distinction between disadvantage and deprivation, and we map these two terms onto distinct aspects of our quantitative models.

But before proceeding to the empirical analysis, we devote this chapter to an exposition of the meanings of some key concepts. For it is our earnest endeavor to present quantitative analyses that have substantive import, an import which is open to examination and assessment by any reasonably careful inquirer. What follows is a discussion of the meanings of terms such as disadvantage, deprivation, privilege, class, and status. The relevance of this discussion to the subsequent analysis is that the simple, linear-additive model of Table 4.5 is offered as a representation of the transmission of advantage and disadvantage from parents to sons, whereas privilege and deprivation will be identified with deviations from the simple model.