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Tins paper is intended as an effort at taking-stock of the reference group concept after nearly three decades of use, the latter two of which have been marked by its more than ample employment. Its popularity indeed has so frequently led to its serving as an all-purpose post hoc explanation of behavior that it has led to the wry definition, "Your reference group is a group that you behave like and you behave like them because they're your reference group" (Cohen, 1962: 104). The inconsistencies, lack of clarity, but also areas of agreement which have marked the varied formulations of the concept, will be apparent from the following review and commentary. The Final discussion indicates some of the matters still to be considered in the use of thin important but perhaps overworked concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the career of Maurice F. Parmelee, sociologist, government official, nudist, and author of thirteen books, including the first American criminology text (1918). The contents of the latter are examined and contrasts with contemporary textbooks are noted. Parmelee's career is an anomoly, for although he published abundantly, he faded into sociological obscurity. Some conjecture is offered about scholarly career paths generally, drawn out of the Parmelee case. Finally, the paper argues that historical accounts of the development of American criminology are incomplete, for they fail to mention a number of early figures, including Parmelee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines available theoretical models which have been derived front statistically established patterns of association between contextual and organizational variables. These models offer an interpretation of organizational structure as a product of organizational structure as a product of primarily economic constraints which contextual variable are impose. It is argued that available models in fact attempt to explain organization at one remove by ignoring the essentially political process, whereby power-holders within organizations decide upon courses of strategic action. This `strategic choice' typically includes not only the establishment of structural forms but also the manipulation of environmental features and the choice of relevant performance standards. A theoretical re-orientation this kind away from functional imperatives and towards' a recognition of political action is developed and illustrated in the man body of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assumption underlying most philosophical theories of science, that one can apply to any scientific theory the concept of 'truth', is, with its implication of absolute finality, a hangover from the period when Newtonian physics was regarded as an absolute end state. The hidden mourning about the passing of this ideal science gives present philosophical approaches to science and scientific method their common stamp. The alternative seems to be the retreat into a sociological relativism. The paper shows that it is possible to work out a science-theoretical paradigm which avoids the pitfalls of both philosophical absolutism and sociological relativism. It suggests that instead of discussing criteria of a fictitious absolute end-state of knowledge, one might try to discover criteria and conditions for the advance of knowledge, non-scientific and scientific. A theory of this kind has the added advantage that it can be tested by, and can serve as a guide for, empirical studies of sciences and of knowledge generally. The paper also suggests that discussions about 'value-freedom' should be abandoned in favour of enquiries into the use of scientific and non-scientific values in scientific work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main object of this paper is to separate several strands in the relationship between the works of Marx and Max Weber. Max Weber has rightly been regarded as Marx's most profound intellectual critic. But there has been much confusion in subsequent literature over the nature and validity of Weber's critique of Marx. This perhaps stems, in part at least, from a failure to distinguish a number of different, although interrelated, themes in Weber's writings. Weber wrote not simply as a critic of Marx, but also in response to the writings and political involvements of the prominent Marxists of his day. Three partially separable aspects of Weber's views thus may be isolated: (a) His attitude towards Marxism in the shape of the main Marxist political agency in Germany, the Social Democratic Party. (b) His views upon the academic contributions of Marxist authors to history and sociology. (c) His views upon what he considered to be Man's own original ideas. These three aspects of Weber's thought may in turn be distinguished from the analytic problem of how far Weber's own understanding of Marx's theory of historical materialism was in fact a valid one. Some of Marx's posthumously published writings, unavailable to Weber, allow us to form a clear judgement on this question. The historical changes in the social and political structure of Germany from the middle to the latter part of the nineteenth century form an essential background to the whole of the paper: Weber's attitudes toward Marx and Marxism cannot be understood out of this context. Weber's work was written not solely in response to a wraith-like "ghost of Marx", but also in response to a force--Marxism--which played a vital political and intellectual role in Imperial Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the community situation of shipyard workers on Tyneside, certain aspects of their orientations to work and general social perspectives, and the relationship of these to each other and to the structure of social relations at work. In terms of their community situation shipyard workers would seem to come close to Lockwood's traditional proletarian type of worker. There is evidence to suggest, however, that these workers' social perspectives are not at all clearly traditional proletarian. The explanation for this is found, at least m part, m the much greater complexity of social relations at work than are accounted for in the model of traditional proletarianism. The paper suggests that existing typologies of the orientations and social perspectives of workers need to be refined by more detailed studies of the structural and relational aspects of both work and community situations. The paper concludes with a brief examination of changes in both industry and community and the likely effect of these on the social perspectives of shipbuilding workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is intended as a contribution to the formal theory of stratification systems. The paper has five sections. In Section I, a method for analytically inducing an order over a multi-dimensional status is discussed. It is believed that such a technique can aid in the specification of conceptual tasks within stratification theory, as well as serve as a baseline in actual measurements. It is subsequently employed in the axiomatic work of Sections 3 and 4. In Section 2, there is a brief discussion of the axiomatic method as a prelude to the system developed in the following two sections. In Section 3, the axioms are stated. In Section 4, various elementary consequences of the axioms are shown; most importantly, various concepts which are intuitively important in stratification theory are shown to be definable (e.g., a class system with a determinate number of classes). Finally, in Section s, there is a concluding discussion of the picture of stratification which emerges within this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IN A RECENT paper Mr. Runciman concludes by inviting replies to his argument that it is logically and conceptually useful to employ the tripartite distinction between `class' `status' and `power' in the analysis of social stratification. Mr. Runciman does not, of course, deny the existence of links between these three dimensions, but suggests that such links must be seen contingent empirical relationships and not necessary logical ones. I hope that the following paper will provide such a reply. It must be clear that the following criticism is directed, in the main, to those parts of the paper in which Mr. Runciman is concerned with the logical and conceptual problem. The essay in question also contains a clear and valuable assessment of the problems encountered in any attempt to measure the three types of inequality. In the first part of the paper I propose to give a critical assessment of certain central aspects of Mr. Runciman's argument and, in the second part, I will put forward a very brief formulation of what I consider to be a more meaningful alternative view of the relationships between class, status, and power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a procedure for constructing a city theology which effectively deals with the two major problems confronted in developing such a typology (1) the selection of dimensions 'along which cities vary in a relatively uniform way, and (2) the formation of homogeneous groups of cities on the basis of these dimensions jointly considered. The procedure suggested in this paper consists of uniting findings from previous research on the "selection of dimensions" problem with hierarchical grouping cluster analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable attention has been given recently to the perplexing problem of the relationship between attitudes and behavior (Ehrlich, 1969; Deutscher, 1969; Warner and DeFleur, 1969; Ajzen et al., 1970; Lastrucci, 1970; Tarter, 1970). Methodological issues have been debated, the lack of congruence between attitudes and behavior has been examined, and a variety of solutions have been offered. We are told, for example, that the continuing poor correlation between measured attitudes and overt behavior requires us to search for the intervening variable or variables which apparently obtain (Ehrlich, 1969); or to employ the "direct observation" of the phenomenon under investigation rather than try to extrapolate from paper-and-pencil tests to behavior (Deutscher, 1969); or to develop theories that, in turn, enable us to find indicators that are more valid than the paper-and-pencil type (Lastrueci, 1970); or to simply admit that attitudes as "presently conceptualized play no real role in behavior" (Tarter, 1970). A number of important aspects of attitude research, however, have been obscured or omitted in these discussions. For the surprising aspect of the situation is not, as has often been implied, the lack of congruence between attitudes and behavior, but the persistent use of research designs that are inappropriate for the complexity of the subject under investigation. Further, it is surprising that researchers have failed to draw out other important implications of their research. That is, the fact that an attitude does not lead directly to a behavior does not justify the assertion that attitudes play no role in behavior, or that attitude research lacks significant implications for social life. The basis for this latter statement will be shown below in a discussion of the values of attitude research. It may be that inadequate research designs, valued for their simplicity rather than their appropriateness, are a manifestation of the "publish or perish" syndrome. In any ease, this paper attempts to outline the problems and the values of attitude research, and to demonstrate thereby that such research is of great significance for the understanding of social phenomena. If that significance seems minimized by those studies that have found poor correlation between attitudes and behavior, the fault lies both in the failure to create research designs that reflect the complexity of the problem and in the tendency to exalt the importance of the proximate causes of overt behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is hard to disagree with J. A. Jackson when he writes in a recently published volume of papers concerned with migration: "It is clear that it may still not be possible to provide a completely satisfactory sociological model of migration which can adequately embrace its various types and implications" (Jackson, 1969:10). Though a vast amount of empirical work has been produced on such topics as rural-urban migration, international migratory movements, and the process of assimilation of migrants, an adequate integrating theoretical perspective is still to be established. This paper attempts to use the action frame of reference to provide a conceptual framework which can help to remedy this deficiency. Students of action theory may find it interesting to examine the extent to which this frame of reference bears fruit in an important field in which it has not been previously systematically applied. Initially, the attempt is to provide a distinctively sociological definition and typology of migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development has long been a dominant topic in sociology. Since Marx' and Weber's initial insights, sociologists have been unraveling the complex relationships in this ubiquitous process. Recent conceptual work (Smelser, 1959, 1963; Parsons, 1966; More, 1964; Eisenstadt, 1964, 1965; Rostow, 1963) has attempted to isolate critical variables and relationships among them in the process of economic development. One of the consistent attempts of this literature is predicting when, where, and how fast economic development will occur in modernizing Third World nations. Drawing upon this growing body of literature, this paper will outline an analytical model of economic development. This model is especially relevant to developing Third World nations, although it is sufficiently abstract to encompass economic development in other types of historical and contemporary societies. The term model has an ambiguous meaning. In this paper, a model is a map or grid of relationships among analytically important units. The model presented here is cybernetic, denoting key feedback processes, both negative (Weiner, 1954; Nadel, 1953) and positive (Maruyama, 1963). Ideally, a model should assign differential weights to various relationships, but in the model to be presented, only general weights will be assigned to some relationships. As will be emphasized, feedback relationships among units will be considered to carry more weight than other relationships in determining rates of economic development. Beyond this, existing data do not warrant further weighting. But an attempt will be made to delineate those variables within and outside the economy affecting the weights of any particular relationship in the model. In doing so, elements in the model can begin to approximate a set of propositions in a more general theory of economic development. For the purposes of analysis, the economy can be divided into two general sectors (Moore, 1967): (1) the productive; and (2) the distributive. Production concerns those structures and processes involved in gathering resources from the environment and converting them into goods and commodities, while distribution refers to those structures and processes dealing with the dissemination of commodities throughout a social system. The model presented in this paper will focus on relationships between and within these two general economic sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the name suggests, social-psychology is a bastard field. It consists of such a variety of peoples doing so many different things in different ways, that it defies definition—at least for me. In spite of the neat delineations which are made in textbooks and the scholarly historical treatments which appear in encyclopediae and symposia, I find it difficult to grasp a concept of "social-psychology" which is anything more than the operational definition: "Social psychology is what people who call themselves social-psychologists, do." That is not much help, but it is all we have got. I mention my own confusion in this matter, not with the aim of confusing others, but by way of explanation: some of the issues I will touch upon in this paper may infringe upon what readers consider to be other areas of sociology. I regret such territorial invasions. But in my own quest for understanding why people act as they do, I have increasingly found that the traditional "fields" in the discipline and the traditional courses in the catalogue do not provide appropriate categories with which I can explain to colleagues and students what it is I am discovering. Having said all of this, let us get down to business. It is a decade since Dennis Wrong published the paper in which he challenged "The oversocialized conception of man in modern society" (1961). Reacting to a determinism which pervaded the social sciences and which seemed to be seeping into popular currency, Wrong asked if man were in fact as constrained by a monolithic culture as we social scientists would have it. A few years later Harold Garfinkel referred more bluntly to the models of men constructed by the various social sciences: he called them "judgmental dopes." The cultural dope and the psychological dope are, respectively, the man in the sociologist's society and the man in the psychologist's society (1967:67-68). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines some theoretical and empirical problems in local-cosmopolitan analysis. Although this distinction has been popularized through exploratory studies conducted by Merton (1957), Gouldner 1957-58), and others, the theoretical status of this distinction and empirical knowledge acquired through its use remain obscure. Judged by the frequency with which this distinction gets used in ad hoc interpretation of research findings (e.g., Glock and Stark, 1965:280), it would appear that localism-cosmopolitanism constitutes a well-established explanatory principle in sociology. In fact, frequent use of the local-cosmopolitan distinction is a poor indicator of either explanatory power or empirical knowledge about the social relations or processes these terms may be taken to represent. Usage is often vague, e.g., regarding the nature of the theory or what, if anything, is to be explained by it (cf. Blau and Scott, 1962:64-71). This paper makes problematic what is sometimes assumed about localism-cosmopolitanism, and attempts, through analysis of empirical findings and propositions, to assess the prospects for a theory of localism-cosmopolitanism. Of concern here are: (i) whether writings on localism-cosmopolitanism consist only of an elaboration of an insightful distinction, or whether these writings contain empirical discoveries that through refinement can be worked into a theory of explanatory power; (ii) whether various interpretations of social events in terms of localism-cosmopolitanism focus on some common empirical referents about which a single theory is appropriate; and (iii) what the content and nature of local-cosmopolitan theory should be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is the thesis of this paper that the theoretical trend within the sociology of science during the past three decades has increasingly embraced an implicit organic model of science and this is an incorrect model of science. It is further hypothesized that a mechanical model is more appropriate, and many of the empirical "facts" which have supported the organic approach are equally valid for the mechanical. This paper presents an argument to support these hypotheses composed of the following parts. First, the organic and mechanical models are described and discussed as a composite of the famous typologies of Durkheim and Toennies. In addition, those aspects of these models which have undergone conceptual transformation since their early formulation will be discussed insofar as they have a bearing upon the application of the models to the scientific community. Second, the theoretical history of the sociology of science will be presented and critically examined to illustrate exactly how components of the organic model entered this history at various times and in various guises. Third, the social characteristics of science will be compared to the organic and mechanical models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports some observations and findings resulting from a pilot study of the use of nude models posing for art classes. What happens, simply, is that for certain art classes it is thought desirable to employ persons who will model in the nude for the students in the course. When instruction of this type is offered, the college or university must employ such a model. In this paper we will discuss some of the problems of finding and maintaining him or her, and the conduct of the students and model toward one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to outline and examine a few basic functions which ideology performs for the individual and for society. In order to progress in this direction, it might help to agree on some basic conceptual definitions. To begin with, some effort must be made to arrive at a satisfactory definition of ideology, since that term occupies a rather central place in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has tried to make as explicit as possible the many problems involved in creating typologies in criminology. Initially the paper presented some logical and methodological requirements for typologies in general and some illustrations of how existing typologies in criminology fail to meet particular requirements. Following this, five typologies of criminality were assessed in detail. The minimal scheme of the criminal, the victim, and the act, presented at the end of the paper, is an effort to find a universal framework for analyzing criminality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the preceding pages we have described alternative methods of measuring the extent of goal agreement between a husband and a wife and the extent to which this agreement changes over time. Two different methods of measuring an individual's goals, the forced-choice response and the open-end response types, were shown to be amenable to measurement of agreement between the individuals. It is not the purpose of this paper to discuss the validity of either or both measures of an individual's goals. The methods of measuring husband-wife goal agreement and goal agreement change presented in this paper admittedly do not represent a high degree of methodological sophistication. At the same time, they do seem to represent a not too difficult procedure for operationalizing what could otherwise be some rather fuzzy variables. Often times, the inability to operationalize sociological concepts is a barrier to effective research. To the extent that the methods presented in this paper help to remove such a barrier from conducting research in the area of husband-wife goal agreement, the efforts have been warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the history of science it has often happened that a scholar's ideas are denied full recognition because of that scholar's real or assumed connection to some controversial ideology. The position accorded to Vilfredo Pareto is one illustration of such practice in present-day sociology. This scholar is often said to have been a "Newton of the Moral World," or altogether a fascist ideologist. So Faris informs us that "The book [The Mind and Society] formulates the implicit philosophy of Italian Fascism, advocating the right of the strong to take what they want without apology or appeal to moral principles." In tracing the development of social thought, Bogardus devotes an entire chapter to "Pareto and Fascist Thought," and authoritatively argues that "While fascism has some of its roots in Nietzsche's concepts and other roots in Machiavellianism, yet Pareto's ideas come even closer to giving an adequate basis." Zanden, in turn, interprets Pareto's sociology to be "a philosophy of society, a social creed, determined mainly by violent and ever purely personal passions. The logical fulfillment of this political manifesto is fascism." We need not continue further; analogous affirmations are bountiful in the literature. To be sure, not all sociologists accept this view, but to date little or no systematic effort has been made to resolve the controversy, with the result that many students of sociology are unwitting victims of one of the most cruel intellectual hoaxes perpetrated against their discipline and one of their kind. The present paper proposes to offer a clarification with respect to the alleged connection between Pareto's sociology and fascist ideology. Our approach takes us in two major directions: first, an examination of Pareto's Treatise, his chief sociological work, and second, an examination of a series of letters written to his great friend Pantaleoni during the period when fascism was a political reality in Italy. Before proceeding to present our argument, it may be useful to inquire briefly about the meaning of "fascism," as his critics tend to use that word. A rapid glance at the literature reveals that the following are generally believed to be among the chief characteristics of fascist ideology: distrust of reason, a code of behavior based on "race" and violence, belligerent nationalism, government by an elite, and totalitarianism. Characteristically, these then provide the basis for accusing Pareto of "antirationalism," "anti-intellectualism," "contempt for democracy," and approval of the use of force at all costs. The major portion of this paper will be concerned, therefore, with explicating Pareto's position on these four issues. We shall begin by considering Pareto's alleged antirationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is an attempt to apply modern sociological thinking to the analysis of the descriptive materials that have been accumulated on the subject of romantic love. In this sense then it is offered as a partial contribution to the understanding of the general phenomenon of love. More specifically, however, it is offered as an analysis of the place of love in modern American society. Following the lead of the family sociologists and marriage counselors, love will be treated not in the philosopher's or poet's sense of a "sweeping experience," not in the psychologist's sense of a universal physical power, and not in the sociologist's sense of a universal attribute of man. Instead, love shall be looked upon as a part of society, as a distinctive pattern of social behavior—as a specific culture trait. Thus we shall take the word to mean a given behavioral complex that exists in a specifiable social context. In this sense, our approach is ethnographic and synchronic. In this paper, therefore, the term love will be used to refer to a specific culture trait that has been described in modern American society. Whether or not it exists in other societies—or in all human societies—in the same or a modified form is a matter to be demonstrated ethnographically and not assumed a priori. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We want to do three things in this paper: (1) to propose a more general probability model than the one considered by Toby or Davies for dealing with the number of buses a student would see, on the average, going in the wrong direction; (2) to show that, with this general model, one would not see more wrong-direction buses, or the same number of wrong-direction buses, as suggested by Toby and Davies, but fewer wrong-direction buses; (8) to question the advisability of using a student's experiences with wrong-direction buses as the way to shake his faith in the validity of personal experience. As Davies has said, clarification is especially necessary now that Toby's paper has appeared in books of readings designed for the course in introductory sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Culture and Social Character, several authors have written essays primarily devoted to a criticism of The Lonely Crowd. An unfortunate aspect of the former book is that it is most difficult to ascertain whether the total impact of the criticism is to destroy the concepts of inner- and other-directedness or whether the analysis has enhanced their meaningfulness by correcting flaws in methodology and emphasis. Also, if the latter is true, there is the further problem of a consistent use of the Riesman topology. In the first part of this paper I will bring together various statements from Culture and Social Character that put the question of the validity of the concepts in better perspective, define the terms inner- and other-directedness more rigorously, and show the usefulness of the concepts in their sociological context as action (behavior) patterns coming about in response to differing structural settings. The first section of the paper will in a sense establish benchmark of meaning for the concepts by solidifying the argument for their use in describing particular types of action patterns. In later sections I will speculate as to the psychological and historical bases of the Riesman topology relying on work that has been published after The Lonely Crowd. Since my discussion will range over several areas, it seems appropriate to offer first a rather lengthy sketch of my entire argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this essay is to examine some of the uses and abuses of rhetorical devices in sociological analysis and inquire into their function in applied research. Implicit in this inquiry are the following assumptions: (1) that sociological analyses and explications are based upon rhetorical devices; (2) that sociologists would be better sociologists if they understood rhetoric; (3) that a study of the rhetoric of sociology would prove immensely useful to the discipline. This paper is meant to be suggestive of the directions which could be undertaken in a more extended study. Rhetoric is defined here to mean on the one hand the principles which guide the effective use of language and on the other hand the forms and sequence of forms which structure a language. It is to the latter area, the study of rhetorical forms, that this paper is directed. Some rhetorical devices which have been a basic part of literature are metaphor, simile, analogy, allegory, irony, satire, caricature, metonymy, synecdoche, understatement, overstatement, paradox, allusion, personification, parable, epigram, epithet, oxymoron, catachresis, kenning, periphrasis. This paper can explore briefly only two devices: the metaphor and irony and forms closely associated with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ordinarily an anniversary occasions the reification of an artificial period. In this case however, there is a certain juncture in the history of the point of view which makes of the past quarter-century something worthy of consideration for symbolic interactionism as well as for our celebration of the founding of the Midwest Sociological Society. The year 1937 lies virtually in the middle of a four-year period which saw the publication of Mind, Self, and Society, Movements of Thought in the Nineteenth Century, and The Philosophy of the Act. It would represent the greatest naiveté to suggest that thus the year 1937 represented the introduction of symbolic interactionism. We are all aware of the long development: from James, Baldwin, and Cooley to Thomas, Faris, Dewey, Blumer, and Young. Even the Tardean imitation and suggestion which underlay Ross's Social Psychology contributed a good deal ordinarily not credited to him in the development of interaction theory. Nor is it the fact that Mead represents the fullest development of the orientation that makes so significant the posthumous publication of his works (for which we may conveniently take 1937 as an anchoring point). Mead's ideas had been known for a very long time. He had taught University of Chicago students from 1893 to 1931. His notions were bruited about in classes and seminars wherever there were professors conducting them who had studied at the University of Chicago—not least in the great heartland included in the Mid-west of our Society. Some of Mead's students had published their versions of his ideas or quotations from some of his philosophical papers—Kimbali Young's Source Book in Social Psychology of a decade earlier contained a paper by Mead, and his Social Psychology bore the strong imprint of Meadian interactionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symbolic interaction theory as derived mainly from the work of George Herbert Mead views the self-concept as a structure of attitudes which arises in social experience and organizes the individual's perception of his social milieu. Recently, tests based upon this symbolic interaction orientation have been developed for the elicitation of self attitudes. One such test frequently used is the Twenty Statements Test (TST) constructed by Manford Kuhn and Thomas McPartland. The TST attempts to ascertain the specific statements respondents use to identify themselves to themselves. The applicability of the TST to problems of self theory is indicated by the rather wide use which has been made of the instrument. Investigations using the TST have focused upon the following: self-concept and social position; a self-concept and behavior; and the self-concept and attitudes toward other social objects. While TST results have been of substantive interest, little attention has been given to the methodological issues involved in the instrument and its use. For example, little is known concerning the validity and reliability of the test and its scoring procedures. If substantive assertions based upon TST results are to be considered as sound, judicious concern should be directed toward basic methodological issues. It is the purpose of this paper to consider empirically one methodological aspect of the TST. The focus is upon the test format itself. The question is posed: Do variations in the TST format produce variations in individuals' response patterns? Specifically, does the length of the test influence the number and the nature of statements made by respondents? This paper is directed toward answering this question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of some common foci of attention among behavioral scientists, with particular respect to social systems and self systems. Clearly, the relationships between the elements of social systems (which has seemed to be the traditional concern of sociology and social anthropology), the relationships between the individual actor and the social system (which many suggest to be the fundamental concern of social psychology), and the relationships of stability to change (which would seem to be necessarily an interdisciplinary concern) have not been fully explained. This paper will not offer such explanation; it represents, rather, an attempt at conceptual analysis. Conceptual analysis is, of course, a primitive undertaking but, as Merton has suggested, vital to the fledgling sciences. Conceptual analysis represents a concern with definitions, and definitions in sociology are legion. Perhaps we have too many; it may be, however, that the plethora of definitions is in inverse relationship to their adequacy. Without attempting to pick and choose from the many definitions already available, I would like to propose the following tentative working definition: A social system is a collectivity in organized pursuit of consensually carried goals. I will suggest some possible aspects of these goals later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the organizational context of medical practice, help-seeking, and illness behavior in a manner which attempts to show their relevance to more extensive sociological issues. In the first part of the paper, both the advantages and costs of bureaucratization of medical practice are discussed in relation to changes in society itself. The second part of the paper deals with the strategy for developing a social psychological help-seeking model. Although the entire paper attempts to identify strategic areas for research in medical sociology, the third part of the paper is more specifically directed to needed areas in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article responds to author's commentaries on the article "The Study of Organizational Effectiveness," by J. L. Price. The basis of simplistic approach rests with three assumptions supposedly made by the paper. First, the paper, according to the authors, assumes uniformity in the meanings that respondents attach to words designating core organizational activities. The paper assumes that respondents possess knowledge and competency with respect to the evaluation of nursing care within their limited spheres of involvement in the hospitals. Although, it may be desirable to have a general measure of organizational effectiveness for the reason suggested in the paper, this may not be possible. Some scholars believe that organizational effectiveness is so specific that a general measure cannot be developed.

The author clarifies the points made by critic Leonard Beeghley about his sociological research on four function paradigm. The critic is correct in his contention that the paper missed the point on the dual application in the four function paradigm. The reasons why the paper never went too far with the argument is the lack of necessity to do so. However, the author examined the propositions upon which the four function paradigm is based and finding them contradictory, felt there was no need to deal with the applications of the paradigm that depended upon the validity of the propositions. Furthermore, the difficulties in the paradigm are so abundant that quite independent additional arguments can be advanced against it. Thus, while the argument presented in the research that the paradigm's foundational propositions are contradictory, the arguments presented in the research is quite sufficient.

The paper examines the ways in which language use contributes to the perceived orderliness of social settings. An analysis is made of the accounts made by `progressive' clergymen of their occupations in order to demonstrate the techniques by which the clergymen established, maintained, and legitimated the appropriateness of their occupations. The purpose is to show that the clergymen's very presentation of the facts of their social setting established a context in which what they defined as their occupation became demonstrably rational. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common phenomenon in sociology (and in other disciplines presumably) is that of the 'taken_for-granted reference'. This is typically an original empirical study, the findings of which become accepted and thereafter acknowledged as valid evidence in support of argument or for the generation of new hypotheses or counter hypotheses without presentation of critical re-evaluation. The extent to which this occurs and how and why it does occur are largely uninvestigated. In this paper, one case of the taken-for-granted reference, which is widely used in studies of social mobility, is subjected to critical re-evaluation in the light of original empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first reviews the descriptions and structural explanations for variations, in urban population densities in the United States over several decades. The research reviewed focuses on shifts in the technology and economics of travel as being the major influences on urban density distributions. These variables appear to be somewhat less adequate as explanations of the process in recent decades. After reviewing these findings and suggesting several research questions, we attempt to assess the evidence relating variations in population density to several other aspects of human behavior. A review of the research relating high population densities to various "social pathologies" indicates that little of the variance in rates of these pathologies can be attributed to density independently of other social structural variables. Some important consequences of population density have been reported, however, and possible research directions are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an attempt to analyze the fundamental components of Gramsci's Marxist theory: the assertion of absolute historicism and humanism over economic determinism, the primacy of superstructural over infrastructural activities, the primacy of ideological over political hegemony and the subjective over the objective dimension in Marxist theory of history and society. Furthermore, after reviewing the historical development of the sociology of knowledge and contrasting Marx, Mannheim, Stark, and Gurvitch with Gramsci's theoretical positions, an attempt is made to delineate a Gramscian sociology of knowledge. In its basic framework, the ideologization of thought is pressed to its extreme; the theory of knowledge becomes the theory of ideology; the totality of sociocultural phenomena is ultimately subordinated to the hermeneutic criterion of "critical consciousness" of subaltern classes developed in their ascendant movement toward idological and political hegemony, and the success of positivist methodology is explained in terms of the masses' lack of critical consciousness. In conclusion, the Gramscian sociology of knowledge becomes a form of critical consciousness. Its validity resides in its ideological function of intellectually organizing the experiences of the masses. Thus, ideologies cease to be viewed as intellectual processes mystifying social reality as in Marx and Mannheim and acquire true historical, psychological, and gnosiological value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the contingencies and stages of the ironworker apprentice career. The analysis of nine months of participant observation data, most of which was collected by observing ironworkers throughout the construction of a twenty-one story office building, indicates four critical career stages that ironworker apprentices must successfully negotiate in their movement towards acceptance as trusted co-workers. Each of the career stages: sponsorship, "punking," initiative taking, and "getting scale" involves the work group or its representatives testing and assessing apprentices. These evaluations are communicated to the apprentice and other ironworkers and provide the apprentice a basis for assessing his progress and gauging his suitability for more responsible and often times more risky demonstrations of competence. Ironworkers perceive their work as extremely perilous and their danger increases while working with inexperienced neophytes. The workers must rely on the coordinated and trustworthy actions of co-workers and the ever-present threats to their safety lead them to develop and enforce processes of continuous surveillance, testing, and evaluation of all workers. These processes are most stringently applied to apprentices but apply throughout the ironworker career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The late 1960s saw the emergence of a few "super gangs" whose political and economic activities attracted much attention. More recently, gangs apparently similar to those of the 1950s have become newsworthy again in several major cities. This paper surveys these developments against the background of a variety of macro- and microsociological processes. Research conducted in Chicago and elsewhere during the late 1950s and early 60s suggests that delinquent gangs were rather "innocent" participants in the broad social trends of the times and that most gang members were relatively unaffected by the ideological currents associated with them. The primary effect on gangs was indirect, by changing the perceptions and attitudes of others toward gangs, and their behavior in relation to them. Gang life for most members of most gangs, individually and collectively, appears to have changed little in recent years. The prospects for channeling the energies of gangs into socially constructive programs seem bleak, because of the operation of group processes, and the limited experiences and social abilities of most gang members. Basic structural limitations on opportunities for the poor and the powerless to achieve economic and political power provide the framework within which these processes operate today as in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests possible implications of a study of clothing fashion leadership for current sociological theory in regard to the process of fashion diffusion. Theory of the diffusion of innovations was chosen as the framework for the investigation. Fashion innovativeness and fashion opinion leadership were studied in relation to selected social, psychological, and economic variables. Since the test of collective selection occurs in the local social system it would seem appropriate that theories regarding the operation of the fashion process account more fully for the rate and degree of acceptance and rejection of innovations in the local social system, and for the functions of local participants in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major gaps in research in TST measured self-conception is data relevant to the assumption that self-conception is a stable structure of meanings attached to self. This paper indicates the inconsistency between current theoretical and empirical orientations in the area of self-conception and outlines three basic models of the processual characteristics of self-conception found in the literature. Using a ten wave panel design in which self-conception is measured repeatedly throughout the subjects' daily interactional routines, specific hypotheses derived from the models are tested. Results suggest which model is most appropriate for the description of the processual characteristics of various aspects of self-conception and the possible errors involved in the continued use of current self-conception research designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a theoretical and empirical stance towards careers and professional socialization as subjective experience. Focusing on the problematic features of mobility, entrapment, and organizational commitment in the orchestra world, it shows how the analysis of career concerns in the "minor leagues" of organizational sets can reveal the meaning of status passage, definitions of time, and experiential turning points. Some adaptations to failure and the process of making commitments are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the work of sociologist Vilfredo Pareto. The paper attempts a conjunction of the two perspectives in the case of Pareto's sociology. The first refers to Pareto's role in relation to the crisis of the utilitarian-positivistic model of social action and the second concerns the "subjectivistic" crisis of both social and "natural" sciences. Pareto's recognizing the predominance of the non-logical element in human action has counterparts, even if couched in different terms, in the works of diverse scholars. More than any one else, Pareto then endeavors a super-historical generalization. It is this effort that allows him to recognize the importance of the immutability of the domination of some men over others and also to direct attention to the cyclical nature of human affairs, precisely at a time when the fashion was the search for linear directions in human evolution. The contradictions that may easily be brought to light through a reading of Pareto are, however, the very same one find in more recent authors.

The article discusses various issues related to welfare research. One of the biggest conceptual dilemmas in welfare research is the definitional problem. A few social scientists have stepped back from empirical data and have developed a panoramic view of the welfare system or have struggled to provide a conceptual framework for a field one might term the social science of welfare. These analysts have not been content with the everyday situation. Even among those who have made important contributions toward delineating a science of social welfare there is as yet no agreement on what should or should not be included in definitions, and by implication social science analyses, of social welfare. Despite definitional limitations, current welfare research has developed substantial information about public assistance programs and recipients. Several research papers, particularly that of economists, have zeroed in on the determinants of work-welfare choices. In spite of the growing literature on recipients little attention has been given to demographic or ecological analysis. Since public assessments have accentuated speculative propositions linking demographic change to welfare problems, it would be appropriate for more social scientists to undertake such analysis.

Recent attempts to develop symbolic interactionist methodologies have sought to treat the interview as an object of sociological enquiry as well as a research instrument. But their accounts in terms of interactional rules and presentation of selves are primarily concerned with reactions to interviews, and the display of the interview setting in talk is treated as a resource rather than as a topic for investigation. Since such a reliance on the availability of phenomena is also a feature of the `natural attitude', lay and sociological usages of the interview share striking similarities. More specifically, both employ the documentary method of interpretation and, in order to claim a correspondence between theft accounts and some external reality, use remedies to counter misunderstandings. On the basis of tapes of selection interviews, the paper examines the competences and policies routinely adopted to provide for the contexting of talk as interview talk. Given that talk serves to display its setting (this is its reflexive character), talk becomes interview talk as members' managed accomplishment of a knowable context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analytical methodologies assume 'resolution into simple elements' as a necessary preliminary stage of scholarly investigation. They explicitly, or more often implicitly accept, therefore, that the conclusions reached reflect not only the phenomena analysed, but also the applied system of analytical subdivision. The paper explores and compares the main systems of analysis in current sociology: institutional, class and communal. It suggests a taxonomy of analytical systems and a cross-classification which is introduced to throw light on their conceptual properties at the societal as well as the individual level. It proceeds by discussing the issues of: (A) The societal roots of selection of analytical schemes in sociology; (B) The advantages and blind spots of the specific analytical systems; and (C) Attempts at the integration and reduction of analytical systems in contemporary sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the influence of the policy of local education authorities upon educational attainment. We suggest that the influence of local policy has been neglected in the sociology of education and hypothesize that policy variables are likely to be of major importance as determinants of attainment. Evidence drawn from correlations of policy, provision and social-class variables with each other and with various measures of attainment tends to validate this suggestion, and indicates that two `policy- models' of local authority activity may be appropriate: viz, the elite-orientated authority model, in which resources are differentially concentrated on a sponsored elite with consequent high attainment of this elite; and the egalitarian authority model where resources are more evenly spread throughout the school system with consequent `inferior' attainment of an elitist kind, but where the evidence suggests there is higher overall attainment of the total school system product. It would also appear that the determinant of the policy set pursued by an LEA. is the social class background of the area it covers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The core problems of sociological and philosophical theories of knowledge remain insoluble and unrelated as long as both theories start from static models. The problems can be solved, and the respective theories related to each other, without undue difficulties if the acquisition of knowledge is conceptualized as a long-term process which takes place within societies also considered as long-term processes. This approach has the added advantage of being in closer agreement with the evidence. The paper indicates what needs to be unlearned and what to be learned in order to prepare the way for such a unified theoretical framework which can serve as a guide to, and which can be in turn corrected by, empirical sociological studies of all types of knowledge, scientific and practical as well as non-scientific or ideological. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sociological Research Unit of the Department of Sociology of Education has been engaged for the past five years upon a study of variations between and within social class in familial patterns of communication and control. This paper examines social class differences in maternal reports of various contextual usages of language. The findings, obtained from a sample of 100 mothers, indicate social class differences in adult-adult and mother-child communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the second of two papers on measurement models in sociology. The concepts of Ordinal Graph and Ordinal Simplex are elaborated and their applicability to some major theoretical problems outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the basis of urbanism in Texas. The paper presented in the article is in the nature of a preliminary report of a study begun some months ago on the subject of urbanism in Texas. While it is necessarily incomplete, the facts already secured justify presentation of certain conclusions as to the causal factors involved in the location and development of cities in this state. No particular method is utilized in the study to the exclusion of others. Geography is consulted for the facts about the natural environment, to which human life must inevitably adapt itself. History yields information about events, many apparently accidental, which have figured in the location of settlements, later expanded into cities. Statistical correlations show connections between various phenomena, from which the relationship of cause and effect may be inferred. Case studies of selected units give the necessary detail for a sympathetic understanding and appreciation of the interplay of forces between individual and community. The plan of the study as a whole is cast on broad lines. Taking aggregation of population as the prerequisite of urbanism, the investigators have undertaken, as their first task, to present a picture of growth of urban population in Texas. This is obviously necessary for a delineation of the field. The second task involves the discovery, classification and evaluation of the factors responsible for the location and increase of urban aggregations.