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This article presents abstracts of papers presented at the seventh annual meeting of Society for Psychophysiological Research held at the Vacation Village Hotel in San Diego, California from October 19-22, 1967. One of the papers explored monocular visual evoked potentials as an index of maturity of human neonates. Another paper focused on habituation differences to tactile stimulation for waking and sleeping infants. In this paper the role of state in determining a psychological or physiological response is not disputed.

The paper presents comparison between the associations of British and American voluntary associations. The development of postwar research on the structure and functioning of voluntary associations has been uneven, and there have been marked differences between British and American research in this field. This paper offers a narrow definition of voluntary associations. It defines voluntary associations as groups in which membership is in no sense obligatory, which have a formal constitution, but which do not have paid officials at the local level. The next section of this paper places the subsequent analysis in context by pointing briefly to the very substantial similarities between research in Great Britain and the U.S. The third section discusses differences in the research environments of the two countries, and suggests their relevance to the main problem. The fourth section assesses the differences in research orientations between the two countries, as it has influenced the study of voluntary associations. The final section considers the effect of these differences upon the functional analyses that have been made.

This paper is concerned with the voluntary associations of adolescents. It focuses on three main issues. First, on the extent to which middle-and working-class adolescents are affiliated with and involved in formal organizations; Second, on affiliation as a family-linked characteristic; and third, on whether involvement by an individual in children's associations is related to subsequent membership in formal groups as an adolescent. Data for the study were collected from a sample of 456 students enrolled in high school population of a small city, which is situated 20 miles from Omaha, Nebraska. A very high proportion of middle-class and working-class students in the study were affiliated with groups. The data show that while middle-class students were more likely to be affiliated than working-class students, the differences were not great. Similarly, no important differences along class lines were observed when attendance at meetings were considered. Membership in voluntary groups did indeed prove to be family linked. Students were more likely to join youth associations if a parent belonged to a voluntary association than where this was not the case.

This paper presents a study on the nature of influence in regional sociological associations in the U.S. It compares and contrasts organizations and extends an earlier study of three national societies. Data were collected and analyzed which pertained to several characteristics of association presidents. Data about each president were collected for a period of ten years prior to his election. It is noted that as membership in the national associations has become greater, the smaller coteries of specialized interests have developed to delineate members who share a common language. Moreover, the presidency of an organization, as it is occupied by a sequence of incumbents, renders visible the norms and values of members. Information was gathered from news reported in the "American Journal of Sociology" and the "American Sociological Review," from private correspondence, and from association records. The study concerned the six regional societies which are affiliated with the American Sociological Association.

The article reports on the eighth annual meeting of The Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy that will be held between November 1st and 3rd, 1974 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. The address for registration and submission of research papers is also given.

The eighth annual meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research will be held from October 17-20, 1968 at the Mariott Twin Bridges Motor Hotel in Washington D.C. Program chairman for the meeting is Clinton C. Brown, member of Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science in Maryland. Abstracts of papers to be presented should be submitted to Brown before August 1, 1968. They must be limited to 250 words if the author wishes them to be published in the journal "Psychophysiology." Abstracts which are acceptable but for which there is no room in the meeting program will also be published in the journal.