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Sociologists and social psychologists, perhaps more than some of their fellow social scientists, have striven for what is in many respects one of the most elusive aims of science—valid generalizations. Examination of the results of the past thirty years of research are, however, far from encouraging. Arnold Hose, in addressing himself to the problem of generalization in the social sciences, is tempted to raise the question as to whether or not there has been considerably more striving than achieving. Certainly it is apparent that the replications often do not verify the original study. The data presented in this paper are drawn from a study of delinquent behavior which I conducted in New Zealand. My research in this field constituted in part a replication of research conducted by Nye and Short in the United States. The data from these two studies provided an opportunity for fruitful cross-cultural comparisons in the area of delinquent behavior. The rationale presented in this paper may be interpreted as a modest attempt to pursue what Rose has called "generalizability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing replies from a selected sample of contributors to the literature of symbolic interactionism, this paper examines the nature and extent of institutional ties among respondents holding similar views as to appropriate methodology in sociology. The specific institutional ties examined are those as: (1) fellow graduate students, (2) teachers and students, and (3) departmental colleagues. The methodological differences between the Chicago and Iowa schools, described in other studies, manifest themselves in the present sample, as do other views not neatly classifiable within either of these schools of symbolic interactionism. The more unconventional the conception of methodology held by a respondent, the more likely is the respondent to have been a fellow graduate student, a departmental colleague, and/or involved in a teacher-student relationship with other symbolic interactionists favoring the same conception. Respondents preferring the more orthodox methodological stances in modern sociology are less likely to have shared in such institutional flea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an exploration of the relationship between members' role performance and the benefits they receive from their organizations. The general relationship is interpreted in the context of a "social exchange model" for voluntary associations. Data for the analysis pertain to members of four voluntary farm organizations: Farm Bureau, Farmers Union, National Farmers Organization, and Grange. The data were obtained in a state-wide survey of Wisconsin farm operators in 1965. In general, the data show a moderate relationship, in a positive direction, between benefits and role performance. The benefits tend to differ in the magnitude and, in some instances, in the direction of their relationships to such performance. The findings indicate the importance of taking into account magnitude and direction of relationship, as well as interaction among the benefits and among costs, in order to devise a viable social exchange model of cost benefit relations for voluntary associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to report on the relationship found between a variety of content dimensions of the self and the expectations of each of four biographically significant others. The subjects whose self-conceptions are examined are 256 business executives and managers, and the four significant others whose expectations are perceived are wife, boss, a colleague, and father. Before turning to the findings it is necessary to discuss at least three methodological questions: (1) How do we know who is a significant other? (2) How do we measure the self? (8) What forms the link between others and the self? These issues are discussed in order below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a purely exploratory attempt to locate the role-specific-significant others (Sullivan's significant others) and the orientational others of a small sample of college students enrolled in a large midwestern university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]