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Nothing the limited understanding of group dynamics among health reseachers using corrective group, this papers proposes that a number of principles already estalished in the field of small groups might be used facilite the processes of comformity and social control in correctve groups. An exploratory experiment designed to test the effects of several group charactiristics was conducted wth smoking cessation group. The experiment, with smoker wishing to quit, included four conditions: one with experimeter attention; a second with attention and simple group environment; a commitment, and goal interdependence. it was hypothesized that pressures toward comformity and control would increase with the addition of each successive characteristics, and that smoking reduction among the conditions would be ordered along this pressure dimension. The results of the experiment support the hypothesis; smoking reduction increased directly for use in corrective groups are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Comments on the efforts required to maintain the efficiency of operations and quality of articles of the "Journal of Health and Social Behavior" publication. Recognition of the contributions of the associate editors and the members of the Boyd Printing Company; Plan to continue the policy of viewing subject matters broadly; Aim to solicit papers dealing with social welfare and health; Focus on articles that emphasize matters on social policy; Acceptance of suggestions and criticisms from readers.

Three frequently used measures of well-being--the Life Satisfaction scale, the Social Isolation scale and the Willingness to Live scale - are evaluated in terms of their empirical similarity. The internal consistency of the social isolation items, it is found, does not exceed the cross-correlation between the social isolation and ¶e satisfaction items. A group factor analysis confirms the existence of considerable communality among the items of the two scales, suggesting they are largely redundant. The implications of this redundancy for health-related and gerontological studies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three investigations show that laymen presented with medical information recall best (a) what they are told first and (b) what they consider most important. The findings from volunteer subjects recalling fictitious information are confirmed with patients recalling real information. In the real-life situation, it was possible to manipulate recall of certain kinds of information by using the primacy and importance effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, social science has no theory of inter-organizational relations, of the formation of new institutions, from which can be drawn hypotheses for examination. This article summarizes a case study of organizational change. It examines the events occurring over a four year period which lead to the institutionalization of the innovation, and it presents possible explanations of why the innovation succeeded. Organizational innovation ix posited as a political problem, requiring strategies which will, among other things, provide the institution with resources: such strategies are identified and quantitative data is presented to support the analysis of effectiveness. Innovation may require the formation of new constituencies which transcend the boundaries of race, sex, community position and size. Evidence is presented which supports such developments and indicates the possibility that successful innovation may require such new ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the theory that one of the functions of social control is to protect the individual from potentially harmful acts and situations, it was hypothesized that the rejection of social constraints would result in a higher incidence of accidental injuries. This hypothesis was tested by analyzing the frequency of accidental injuries among representative samples of 1,067 high school and 495 college students in relation to a wide variety of measures of deviant behavior, attitudes, and self-image obtained through personal interviews and self-administered questionnaires. Statistically significant relationships were found between the frequency of accidental injuries and a wide range of social factors indicative of deviance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sufferers of leprosy in whom the development of the disease has been arrested by the use of sulfones elect to remain in confinement when eligible to return to the general community. Stigma and the effects of prolonged tenure in the settlement are held most probably to account for this reverse isolation in a total institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The epidemiological model of host, agent and environmental factors is applied to an analysis of the acceptance or rejection of an accident preventive measure among sugar cane cutters in Puerto Rico. The host factor of "personal readiness" as measured by attitudes towards prevention, concern about having an accident, belief in one's vulnerability, job satisfaction, general adjustment, fatalism, and health knowledge and behavior were found to affect acceptance of the preventive measure. The agent factor as represented by the negative and positive characteristics of the protective measure also strongly affected acceptance. While environmental factors related to exposure to mass media and social participation were found to be related to acceptance, attempts to utilize social pressures to secure acceptance did not prove as successful as direct health education. A model is proposed whereby these three factors of host, agent, and environment could be studied systematically in other community health campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]