Using National Opinion Research Center data from 1973 and 1974 samples representative of the full-time employed United States population, this study investigates the relative importance and patterns of interaction among individual, job, and community predictors of life satisfaction and alienation attitudes. Automatic Interaction Detector (AID) analyses indicate the importance of job satisfaction and marital status to life satisfaction and the prominence of education and need for accomplishment in explaining alienation. An eclectic view of life satisfaction is suggested, and the desirability of adding need for accomplishment as a moderating variable to the traditional socialization/stratification model of alienation is discussed.
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