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Sociology and psychology are no strangers in the theoretical world of self and identity. Early works by William James (1890), a psychologist, and George Herbert Mead (1934), a sociologist, are often taken as a starting point by investigators in both fields. In more recent years, with the development of a number of identity theories in both fields, several investigators have directly addressed both the areas of overlap and the distinctions between sociologically based and psychologically based theories. In this paper, the authors point to three areas that seem to be of particular interest when one thinks about the ways in which sociological and psychological perspectives on identity converge. Although these topics vary in the degree to which they have attracted the interest of scholars in the two disciplines, and have been addressed with different emphases and interpretations, the authors believe that each topic holds promise for future research and development. The three topics that they have selected are (a) motivational bases for identity processes; (b) integration of the different bases of identity; and (c) multiplicity of identities.

Traditionally, emotion is a topic more central to psychology than to sociology. The "Annual Review of Psychology" has almost 400 articles that mention emotion since 1975, while the "Annual Review of Sociology" has roughly one-third as many in that period. Rather than bridging the two disciplinary canons, the early literature in sociology was focused on establishing that it had something distinctive to say about this apparently individual phenomenon. During that time, the study of emotion in psychology, on the other hand, was focused on the relationship between emotion and cognition, and the nature-nurture type of questions like physiological specificity of emotions and the universality of facial expression. Most of the cross-citation was from classic sources like Schachter and Singer (1962) in psychology and Goffman (1959) in sociology. As the modern literature in both fields matures, the authors hope there may be more potential for mutual interest. In this paper, the authors briefly review some developments in both fields, and offer a research agenda that may be beneficial to both disciplines. (Contains 1 footnote.)

This article is intended to identify research opportunities for gender scholars in all disciplines. The authors explain why a truly interdisciplinary approach is necessary to study gender and offer their current thinking about how to pursue this goal. They first provide a description of gender as it plays out at the individual, interpersonal, and societal levels. They then give examples, drawing from wage disparities and from rates of sexual maturation, to illustrate the value of treating gender as comprised of inherently linked processes operating at multiple levels of analysis. They argue that gender inherently is a multi-level phenomenon, but that social psychologists from both disciplines tend to limit themselves to certain levels of this analysis in their theoretical and empirical investigations. Finally, they provide some initial thoughts on how to study the interconnectivity across individual, interpersonal, and societal processes.

Views of culture in psychology and sociology have converged markedly in the past two decades. Both have rejected what Adams and Markus (2004) refer to as the "entity" conception of culture--the view that culture is coherent, stable, and located in the heads of collectivities' members--in favor of more supple and dynamic constructs. Culture, in this new view, entails dynamic interactions between mind and environment, each of which serves as a selection regime for the other (mental structures selecting aspects of the environment as salient, and environments selectively reinforcing mental representations). In this article, the authors talk about the converging perspectives of culture and social psychology. They discuss the culture and social psychology in both psychology and sociology. They also discuss the notable convergence between psychological and sociological social psychologists in definitions and approaches to culture.

Charles Tilly, who died in 2008 just before reaching the age of 79, was one of the great historical sociologists of the last half century. Along with Theda Skocpol, Michael Mann, and a few others, he carried out a revolution in people's understanding of social movements, revolutions, the rise and effects of the modern state, and social conflict or public contention generally. In this article, the author will focus on how Tilly, especially in his later work, converged with modern microsociology. Tilly's emphasis on identities, performances, and repertoires resembles a much more historically rooted Goffman; Tilly's concern for the mechanisms and dynamics of contention shows everyone a world as processual and as interactionally constructed as that of latter-day symbolic interactionists, although rather more conflictual.

Social psychological investigations of hierarchy formation have been almost entirely confined to the case of task-oriented groups and hence have produced theories that turn on the existence of such a task. But other forms of vertical hierarchy may emerge in non-task groups. One form, orderings of dominance, has been studied among animals using systematic behavioral observations, but almost never among humans, despite many discussions of such structures existing among adolescent males. Using stochastic models, this paper examines change in vertical orderings for data on dominance encounters among same-sex adolescent campers. There seem to be different paths for stabilization of vertical hierarchies for boys and girls, both of which involve the emergence of special roles, the top boy or the bottom girl. Further, stabilization seems to be greatly facilitated (at least for boys) by members adopting Roger Gould's theory of dominance encounters and turning their attention to those close in rank. (Contains 6 figures and 13 footnotes.)

Recently an article in "Personality and Social Psychology Review" urged social psychologists to reacquire their "sociological imagination" and incorporate broader, structural factors in their work (Oishi, Kesebir, and Snyder 2009). Studies of social inequality in particular seem ripe for this kind of collaboration. Psychological investigations relating to inequality typically center on interpersonal prejudice, stigma, or power relations. To some extent, these perspectives incorporate sociostructural factors, but only rarely. In contrast, sociology has much to offer in explaining how dimensions of stratification (e.g., race or occupation) drive psychological reactions between people at the face-to-face level. In this article, the authors discuss where the future (understanding) of inequality lies.

As indicated by Deaux and Burke (this volume), sociology and psychology have shared a tradition of discourse allowing social psychologists to build upon each other's ideas. A conversation between social identity theory and identity theory was initiated fifteen years ago and addressed the similarities and differences between these theories. This type of communication between the fields can further define their theories through gaining a new perspective. Social psychologists may also advance identity research by working together on areas that need development in current theories. Deaux and Burke (this volume) have described three possible areas of focus. In this article, the authors focus on a fourth area which is identity change. One way to explore the conditions of identity change is to examine discrepancies or what occurs when one's identity, whether social, role, or biosocial individual, is challenged in a situation. The authors point out that, though collaborative theory and research may aid in bridging identity theories by gaining new perspectives, one can also achieve advancement through focusing on common areas in need of development in current theories of identity.

This paper argues that organizations with a particular social network structure are more effective than most organizations in responding to crises. Further, it is argued that the effective structure does not occur naturally, but must be designed consciously and carefully. A theory is developed based on well-founded principles of social science, most notably work on formal structure, conflict, friendships, and organizational crises. The paper concludes with an experimental test of one of the four propositions deduced from the theory. Six trials of the experiment found significant support for this proposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has two complementary agendas. One is to develop a formal analysis of temporal ambiguity in self-identification. This refers specifically to having two conflicting orientations toward the future with regard to one's identity (e. g., a temporary expecting orientation and a permanent accepting orientation). I use the recovery identity (e. g., alcoholic, anorexic, agoraphobic) as a temporally ambiguous case because this identity is established as a means to an end but is susceptible to becoming an end in itself through identification with the disorder label. My analysis is based on the recovery narratives of individuals who have disidentified with their disorder labels; this allows for a consideration of the entire recovery career, from entry to exit. My second agenda is to explore the underresearched phenomenology of exiting from recovery identities specifically. Both of these agendas contribute new insight into identity research, labeling theory, and the sociology of mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances a line of work on an expected-value model of social exchange, in which a power structure indicates opportunities for exchange and a sample space of exchange networks. When the probability distribution of the networks in this sample space is known, the expected-value model provides an excellent account of the distribution of benefits among actors in a variety of power structures. The model would be more elegant if it also predicted the probability distribution of exchange networks. Furthermore, in its current form, the model fails to account for the observed exchange payoffs in the Kite, a structure that has attracted considerable attention among exchange theorists. Here I advance the expected-value model by deriving the probability distribution of exchange networks from a simple process in which the probability of an exchange at time t depends on the value of an exchange at time t-1. I show that this approach addresses the anomalies posed by the Kite structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural equation models of individual action typically do not take into account the network of interpersonal influence that appears, in virtually all of the fields of social psychology, as an important determinant of individuals' actions. It is not sufficiently appreciated that a proper test of a causal model is placed in jeopardy when this network is ignored. Some research has dealt with methods of estimating the causal impact of a network of interpersonal influences, once such a network has been made a part of a causal model. Hardly any attention, however, has been given to the theoretical foundations and implications of extending the general linear model to encompass a network of interpersonal influences. This paper is concerned with these foundations and implications: its goal is to make the network approach to individual action accessible to a larger audience of sociologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using as data videotapes of conversation in natural settings, this paper investigates (1) how displaying uncertainty is organized as interactive activity, (2) how this activity can be used to modify the participation framework of the moment, (3) the consequences this has for subsequent interaction and (4) how such events can invoke larger social identities in the midst of moment to moment interaction. Alternative syntactic and paralinguistic techniques for displaying uncertainty make relevant different types of responses from recipients. Such structure provides speakers with resources for shaping emerging interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore the validity of a survey question commonly used for measuring generalized trust. Trust has become a key variable in a variety or fields, including sociology, social psychology, political science, and economics; therefore the accuracy with which it is measured has profound implications for many studies. We suggest that ambiguous wording on this survey item has led to misinterpretations concerning actual trust levels, especially in a cross-cultural context. To test this claim, we conduct an extensive survey of students at UCLA and at Hokkaido University, Japan. Results strongly suggest that the survey question measures differences in caution levels rather than in trust. Implications of this research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper elaborates and refines a theory of evaluations and expectations by Fisek, Berger, and Norman which is an integration of status characteristics and expectation states theory with source theory. The elaboration of evaluations and expectations theory is achieved by incorporating ideas from Moore's role enactment and second-order expectations theory. The new formulation can generate predictions for situations where the sources of evaluations are not only designated evaluators but also interactants; it also can differentiate between situations where enactment of evaluations does and does not occur. The formulation is tested against data from five experimental studies and agrees well with the results of these studies. Among other results, our research shows how a theoretical formulation that deals with a classic sociological problem, one concerned with the effect of others' evaluations on actors' behaviors, can be formalized mathematically and investigated experimentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a small set of interlocking definitions, this paper presents a generally applicable conceptualization of social structure developed from recollections of Merton's late-1950s formulation. A brief review of the literature supports the view that the proposed conceptualization provides sociological researchers with a relatively simple and logically consistent overall framework, generally continuous with past theorizing, in which to place their own findings. The paper pays particular attention to how social structures are related causally and epistemologically to more micro-level psychological and more macrolevel sociocultural phenomena. Theoretical considerations and empirical evidence suggest a decrease in the likelihood and speed of change as we move from psychological- to social structural- to sociocultural-level phenomena. Although they require proof in each instance, these postulated differences in the relative speed with which psychological-, social structural-, and sociocultural-level phenomena tend to affect each other provide a new and potentially useful tool for unraveling the knotted causal connections among these different-level phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although scholars have called for greater inclusion of children's understandings in sociological research, most studies of family roles and relationships are still adult-centered. In this paper we explore children's perceptions and evaluations of maternal and paternal roles by content-analyzing more than 3,000 essays in which children explain why their parent is the "best" mother or father. The parental qualities and activities children value and how children frame familial relationships document the salience of gender and gender processes in families. These patterns generally complement and expand upon patterns found in studies on parenthood conducted from adults' perspective. Yet some important differences exist as well, such as the relative unimportance of labor force participation in children's appraisals of their fathers and children's greater focus on mutuality when describing relations with their fathers. To assess the degree to which children's perceptions have changed, we also compare essays from 1979-1980 with those from the early 1990s and find a clear shift in emphasis from a caretaker/provider role to a more recreational role; this shift, on closer inspection, is more applicable to fathers than to mothers. These findings underscore the need of family, gender, and social psychological research to incorporate children's perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study combines two of the major theoretical perspectives in social psychology: social exchange and attribution theory. We propose a theoretical model that depicts the influence of two fundamental social factors--structural power and outcome equity--on causal attributions for exchange outcomes, which in turn mediate behavioral reactions to the exchange outcomes. We manipulate the social factors in a vignette describing an exchange between a female typist and another student (male or female) who needs a paper typed. Female subjects play the role of the typist and respond to a series of questions about their perceptions of the situation. Findings support the hypothesized positive relationships between structural and perceived power, and between outcome equity and perceived fairness. The effects of perceived equity on attributions appear stronger than those of perceived power. Also, there is some support for the role of self attributions in mediating reactions to exchange outcomes in opposite-sex dyads, but such mediating effects are less robust in female dyads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the intersection of race and gender in contemporary American society by exploring how one aspect of gender relations, the degree of agreement between men and women in their attitudes toward gender stratification, varies between blacks and whites. Both black men and black women tend to express more criticism in their gender-related attitudes than whites, and the level of agreement between the sexes is greater for blacks. I interpret this greater agreement in the context of the resistance to racial inequality, levels of exposure to gender inequality, and the degree of interdependence between the sexes among blacks. I consider the implications of my results for understanding how race and gender interact in shaping attitudes toward gender inequality and how men's social dominance and women's dependence influence the degree of agreement between men and women in their criticism of gender stratification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerson's exchange theory builds from the micro-social toward the macro-social level of conception, observation, and analysis. Yet although this theory is important, some of its main concepts were formulated originally in simple, categorical terms and require refinement. Some progress toward such refinement is evident in recent research on the measurement of positional power. Aiming toward further progress, the present paper proposes a procedure for measuring power imbalance at the exchange network level, reports exploratory experimental data testing the measure in a hypothesis implied by Emerson's theory, and suggests a direction for future research using the measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's experiences during the first grade, as they pass through a key life-cycle transition, are an especially critical but generally neglected period in the sociology of child development. This paper examines the process of educational achievement for a birth cohort of Baltimore children followed prospectively over their first-grade year. Employing a social-psychological model of the early schooling process. the analysis identifies some of the personal. interpersonal, and situational factors that influence cognitive development during this period of transition from "home child" to "school child." Gains on standardized tests of verbal and mathematical competence are used as achievement criteria. Black children experienced more transition shock than white children in making the move into full-time schooling, as indicated by their lower initial report card marks and slower pace of cognitive growth during the year. The processes determining the achievement of the two groups also were somewhat different. Personality/temperament variables turned out to be very important for early schooling: evidence was found as well for the efficacy of parents as "significant others." Self-expectations had effects only on verbal test performance; there was no indication of peer influence during this important settling-in period. Implications of these findings for models of development and for understanding the social psychological basis of the achievement process are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power-dependence theory and the social exchange framework on which it is based have been restricted to the analysis of rewarding exchanges. The only costs considered have been the "rewards foregone "from alternative exchange relations. This paper reports the first in a series of experiments studying power use in social exchange when actors have control over both positive and negative outcomes for one another. The relative effects of balance and imbalance in power over positive outcomes (reward power) and power over negative outcomes (punishment power) are compared in a laboratory experiment in which two real subjects and two computerized actors are connected in four-person exchange networks. Analyses of the distribution of exchange between the two real actors found that only imbalance in reward power affected power use. Punishment rarely was used and power use was no greater when punishment power was imbalanced than when it was balanced. An explanation for these findings, which suggests that imbalances in reward and punishment power are likely to affect behavior under different structural conditions, is proposed and hypotheses are offered for future testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research on intransitive or unbalanced sentiment relations focused on the incidence of intransitivity in triads embedded in a larger social network. The theoretical explanations for in transitivity, however, are directed toward the attitudes and sentiments of an individual rather than toward the structure of triadic configurations and the global properties of groups. This paper argues that intransitivity should be studied at the individual level, with the person experiencing the intransitive relationship as the focus of attention. Analyzing longitudinal data on 2,175 intransitive sentiment triplets from fourth- and fifth-grade students, we show that individuals' personal characteristics and the structural properties of their dyadic and triadic ties affect both their tolerance for in transitivity and the manner in which they resolve intransitive friendships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we argue that the organization of citizen calls to emergency services reveals how the sequential machinery of conversation is adapted by speaker-hearers to organize, coordinate and exhibit to one another their knowledge and purposes on particular occasions. It is in the way such knowledge is brought to bear, and purposes at hand made evident, that recurrent sequences of interactionally and institutionally relevant activity are built out of local and particular materials. Thus, the sequential organization of conversation is a fundamental resource for social activities directed to matters outside of, but addressable through talk, and for achieving regular, recurrent patterns of action in the face of varying details and circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the interpretive conception of social interaction and examines it in terms of the mode of description required for deductive explanation. It is argued that interpretive descriptions of interaction cannot satisfy the requirements of literal description imposed by the logic of deductive explanation. The consequences of this for interpretive conceptions are outlined. In particular, attention is given to the suggestion that the process of interpretation itself be taken for investigation, as proposed in the study of sociolinguistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the structural differentiation model of social power presented by Gray and Sullivan (1978). That early model assumed that differential external reward contingencies would produce differentiated group structures. This paper argues that the Gray and Sullivan model is incomplete and insufficient to produce structural differentiation in more general situations. We argue that more complex learning mechanisms are involved and present an alternative formulation. The results support the revised model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grant and Holmes (1981) present an investigation of the effects of stereotypic beliefs about Chinese and Irishmen on judgments of individuals. On the basis of their analysis of their data, they conclude that social stereotypes strongly influence judgments of individuals even when case information is available. As they emphasize, this conclusion runs counter to the results of a series of experiments by Locksley and her colleagues (Locksley, Borgida, Brekke, and Hepburn, 1980; Locksley, Hepburn, and Ortiz, /982), which demonstrate that the presence of case information significantly and substantially reduces effects of stereotypes on judgments of individuals. The contention of the present paper is that this apparent difference in results is not real. It is established that the design of Grant and Holmes's study does not permit evaluation of the argument advanced by Locksley and her colleagues, thus precluding comparisons between the two sets of data. Moreover, reanalyses of the Grant and Holmes data demonstrate that their subjects relied more heavily on case information than on social category information to make target judgments, and did not adjust the weight they assigned to case information as a function of social category information. Both of these effects are consistent with the line of reasoning developed by Locksley and her colleagues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a temporal model describing the relationship between environmental feedback and the differentiation of internal reward structures in groups. The model is subjected to laboratory tests and found to be a good predictor of the phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how consistently-evaluated performance and status characteristics structure .social inequalities. Berger, Fisek, Norman. and Zelditch (1977) have presented a theory of expectation formation in multicharacteristic situations. The present paper extends the scope of that theory in addressing the problem of whether status stereotypes are reinforced by information concerning the competence of an actor. We argue that actors strive to validate inferences formed on the basis of differential evaluations associated with status characteristics. When this occurs, differential evaluations are strengthened and the organizing influence of status characteristics is increased. In this manner, validated status stereotypes may exacerbate inequalities in social interaction. Experimental results are consistent with the theory's predictions: inequalities in influence created by performance or status differences alone were significantly exacerbated when subjects were distinguished by consistently high or consistently low evaluations on both characteristics. Implications of this study for expectation states theory and for practical attempts to resolve inequalities in contemporary society are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human judgment of wrongdoing is a potential meeting ground for sociological models of norms and psychological models of cognition. The present paper discusses the approach to human responsibility judgments that has dominated psychology since Jean Piaget and expands on that theory from a sociological perspective, arguing that judgments of responsibility are functions of both the deeds an actor performs and the social expectations of others for the actor. Socially differentiated expectations-social roles-should therefore play a crucial part in the judgment of wrongdoing, serving as normative contexts that determine how other information is weighed and used. We identify two dimensions of roles that may be determinants of responsibility judgments the hierarchy and the solidarity of the actor-victim relationship. We report results from a survey in which experimentally varied vignettes included consideration of role relationships as well as traditional psychological factors (such as the actor's mental state). Results show that roles alter the interpretation and judgment of wrongdoing, including the use of information about mental state. In particular, the normative model for judgment of persons in authority over victims differs substantially from the model for judgment of persons who are equals with their victims. It appears that, as predicted, no model of how humans judge responsibility is complete without consideration of social roles and their normative demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last two decades, sociologists and social psychologists have directed increasing attention to language and its use in social contexts. In fact, from a variety of subdisciplines including cognitive sociology, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, the ethnography of speaking and interpretive sociolinguistics, social scientists have produced a large corpus of work that addresses, in new ways, core problems in sociology and social psychology. To date, however, much of this work has appeared in relatively obscure specialty journals and edited volumes. The special issue of "Social Psychology Quarterly" (SPQ) was commissioned with several purposes—to introduce the data, analytic apparatuses and theoretical perspectives of scholars in the area of language and society to other readers of the journal, and to demonstrate ways in which these data, apparatuses and perspectives may inform the research of these other readers. These purposes are consistent with a recommendation that an ASA Committee on Publications review board proposed for SPQ in 1984 to encourage submission of theoretical manuscripts and those representing nontraditional methodological and substantive approaches within social psychology.

Individuals routinely satisfy borrowing needs by transacting in the market or by relying on social relations. In the market domain, price logic leads borrowers to choose the cheaper option; in the interpersonal domain, role-matching logic leads borrowers to choose the relation best matched to the act. But how do individuals choose when faced with options from each domain? Drawing on theories in economic sociology that assert the economic and the social are mutually constitutive, we posit that when market and interpersonal options appear in the same choice set, the characteristics of one option inflect how people assess the other. Through two survey experiments, we show that price sensitivity toward the market option is less when the interpersonal option is role mismatched and that concerns about interpersonal borrowing changing or damaging the relationship attenuate when the market option is expensive. We discuss the implications for studies of stratification and financial decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article throws light on William H. Sewell, professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin, the Recipient of the 1988 Cooley-Mead Award. The Cooley-Mead Award is given annually by the Section on Social Psychology of the American Sociological Association; it is made on the basis of lifetime contributions to social psychology, recognizing distinguished long-term contributions to the intellectual and scientific advancement of social psychology. Sewell has made his primary research and scholarly contributions in the study of socialization, social structure and personality, and the role of social psychological factors in social stratification and inequality, as well as in the application of empirical quantitative methods of research. One of Sewell's earliest and most significant contributions to the understanding of socialization processes occurred with the publication of his 1952 paper, "Infant Training and the Personality of the Child," published in the American Journal of Sociology and later reprinted in six or more books of readings or sourcebooks on the sociology of the family.

A review of recent survey research suggests that the importance of the reflected-appraisal process has been exaggerated by the symbolic interactionists. Communication barriers make it difficult to make accurate reflected appraisals and for some attributes, institutionalized indicators of performance are used rather than the reflected (or perceived) appraisals of others. In the second part of the paper, data from children in fourth- through eighth-grade classrooms are reanalyzed in order to estimate the effect of the reflected appraisals of peers on self-appraisals of physical attractiveness. The results suggest that the reflected appraisals of peers are an important source of self-appraisals of physical attractiveness, and reflected appraisals are likely to be more important for attributes that are defined in terms of the perceptions of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt to conceptualize social structure must ultimately confront the dilemma posed by the problem of agency. The emerging consensus among sociologists is that society consists of both powerful, determining structures and actors that possess a degree of efficacy, freedom, and creative independence. This paper is an attempt to aid in developing an approach to role theory that is more versatile and more capable of addressing the agency-structure duality. First, a definition of role as a "cultural object" is proposed. This new conceptualization views roles as resources in the production of both agency and structure. Second, two dimensions of role variance are introduced: role type and role use. It is argued that this distinction between the types of resources and the uses of resources can serve as a theory of the middle range, directing and enhancing empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural explanations of the production of inequality in organizations often mimic economics in their choice of both variables and theoretical accounts. The "new structuralism" typically has neglected important social psychological processes such as social comparison categorization, and interpersonal attraction and affiliation. This paper illustrates how some basic social psychological tenets can substantially enrich the analysis of the division of labor in organizations, the assignment of wages to positions, and the process through which individuals are matched with work roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the lack of theoretical work on young children in sociology by presenting an interpretive approach to childhood socialization. This approach emends traditional psychological views of human development by demonstrating that socialization is a collective process which occurs in a social rather than a private realm. The interpretive approach argues that children, through their participation in cultural routines, creatively appropriate information from the adult world to produce their own unique peer cultures. This process of interpretive reproduction enables children to become a part of adult culture--that is, to contribute to its reproduction and extension--through their negotiations with adults and their creative production of a series of peer cultures with other children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that people are aware of who is affiliated with whom in their immediate social world. Their perceptions of the patterning of affiliation, however, do not correspond to the patterning actually displayed by interacting humans. Affiliation is not categorical; perceptions of affiliation are, however. On the basis of experimental evidence about errors in learning simple social structures, a theory that accounts for this discrepancy is proposed. This theory suggests that people impose a categorical form on noncategorical affiliation patterns by a process of "filling in the blanks" in their experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier work suggested that `frame," "schema" and related terms could be understood as "structures of expectation." Suggesting now that there are two distinct types of structures of expectation to which such terms have been applied, we use `frames" to refer to the anthropological/sociological notion of interactive frames of interpretation, and "schema" to refer to the cognitive psychological/artificial intelligence notion of knowledge schemas. Drawing on and expanding earlier analysis of talk in a pediatric interaction, we show how frames and schemas interact. Balancing and shifting examination, consultation and management frames accounts for the burden on the pediatrician who examines a child in the mother's presence. Mismatches in the pediatrician's and mother's schemas for health and cerebral palsy account for the mother's discomfort and recalcitrant concerns, and consequently for her frequent questions which trigger the frame switches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both participants in ongoing interaction and analysts who subsequently may examine records of such are continually required to interpret the ongoing interaction, to disambiguate behaviors which are unclear both as to producer's intended "meanings" at different levels and producer's interactional goals, and to adjudicate among possible interpretations of "literal meaning" and "speakers utterance meaning" (i.e., illocutionary point/illocutionary force). Work about interactional accomplishment in conversation is necessarily also about disambiguation of meanings of social acts; it must necessarily also attend to the positive role of ambiguity in the maintenance of harmonious social relations. I have used a heuristic `facet sentence" to identify: (1) principal varieties and sources of interpretive ambiguity for participants and for analysts: (2) possible effects of the several varieties; and (3) possible participant and/or analyst responses (i.e., attempted disambiguation or inaction) and resources for disambiguation. Two fragments of talk from a dissertation defense are used as illustrative texts. Partial analyses are presented and some implications briefly discussed. I attempt to demonstrate three points: (1) that ambiguity is endemic in at least some talk: (2) that ambiguities are differently perceived by analysts and participants; and (3) while not all ambiguities perceived by cointeractants need be resolved for talk to continue, and while some resolutions are only partial, some ambiguities require resolution and may, for the short term, become foci for interactional attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two models of repetitive choice, the "discrimination model" developed by Lindenberg, and the "satisfaction balance model" developed by Gray and Tallman are examined. It is shown that the two models yield different directional predictions under certain choice situations. An experimental design is developed involving four treatments which allow for examination of the two models. Results of a regression analysis strongly support the satisfaction balance model as the more general and more accurate model. Implications of this finding for the development of cognitive theories of choice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following Simmel, Blau, and Coser, we assume that people are segmentally drawn into a web of institutional affiliations and involvements. The major objective of this paper is to describe the interconnections among people's commitments to various institutions. Specifically, we focus upon how commitments to particular institutions either transcend an institutional realm and effect other institutional commitments or are compartmentalized (i.e., inconsequential). Data are obtained from a probability sample of connecticut adults drawn in 1981 and reinterviewed in 1982. The results of varied analyses are consistent in suggesting that people's commitments to economic, educational and political institutions are interconnected. They are also important antecedents of a more general and diffuse sense of alienation. People's familial and religious commitments, by contrast, appear to be consequential neither in relation to other institutional commitments nor as antecedents of alienation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the influence of two social psychological perspectives-efficacy-trust and relative deprivation--on individual participation in anti-busing protest in a survey of South Boston residents. Previous works relating attitudes to the protest participation decision do not recognize that different types of protest are available and therefore fail to clearly discern the effect that particular attitudes have on specific protest activities. Findings include: (1) that support exists for identifying three separate types of protest: individual instrumental protest, individual expressive protest, and collective protest; (2) that the political efficacy-trust perspective best predicts individual instrumental protest; (3) that relative race deprivation best predicts individual expressive protest; and (4) that relative status deprivation best predicts engaging in collective protest. These results support viewing the two attitudinal perspectives tested here as complementary rather than competitive in explaining protest participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists have generally contended that high-status members of a group are less likely to incur sanctions for deviant behavior than are low-status group members. Traditional explanations for this phenomenon do not adequately specify the processes which underly such differential treatment, nor can they account for the less frequent instances in which high-status individuals are actually more harshly sanctioned. This paper focuses on the perceptual work facing the potential sanctioner, and uses attribution theory as a framework for understanding the specific areas of advantage enjoyed by high-status group members. An examination of each stage in the attribution process allan's a reconceptualization of the sanctioning process as dynamic, and context-bound. Thus, using the same theory, we also specify the conditions under which we would expect the potential sanctioner to levy more harsh sanctions against the high-status deviant. Finally, factors which increase the likelihood of bias or distortion in the attribution process are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to the issue, which is concerned with the relationships between the sociology and psychology branches of the field of social psychology.

A fundamental task for sociology is to uncover the mechanisms that produce and reproduce social inequalities. While status characteristics theory is the favored account of how social status contributes independently to the maintenance of inequality, it hinges on an unobserved construct, expectation states, in the middle of the causal chain between status and behavior. Efforts to test the mediation mechanism have been complicated by the implicit, often unconscious, nature of status expectations. To solve this "black box" problem, we offer a new conceptualization and research approach that capitalizes on the accuracy and precision of neurological measurement to shed new light on the biasing role of expectations in the status–behavior relationship. Results from an experimental study provide a unique illustration of ways in which social status is inscribed in the brain and how, in turn, these inscriptions are related to behavioral inequalities that emerge during interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the life, work, and social theories of sociologist Charles Tilly. His theories about microsociology, social interactionism, and social movements are discussed. Other topics include social performance, the repertoire of social structures, and social interaction theory. A comparison of Tilly's theories with those of sociologist Erving Goffman is presented. Works by Tilly such as the books "Sources of Social Powers," "The Contentious French," and "Contentious Performances," are also mentioned.

The article focuses on the theories and writings of sociologist Philip Rieff. It states that the most influential of Rieff's writings were "The Triumph of the Therapeutic" (Triumph) and "Freud: The Mind of the Moralist." It mentions that his novel on Sigmund Freud examined Freud's work from early case studies up until the last works on culture, religion, and society, while Triumph examined the therapeutic mentality that Freud and his contemporaries had promulgated. It comments on the progression of Rieff's work, with transitions from an intellective mode of thinking to evaluative, from clarity to obscurantism, and on his methodology. It states that culture is Rieff's fundamental unit of analysis and examines how Rieff viewed culture.

We explore the capacity of positive sentiments, those enduring affective states one achieves when one likes another, to impact status structures. Do positive sentiments combine with existing aspects of interaction to create status hierarchies and potentially change the social order, or do they moderate the effects of extant structure by dampening the magnitude of status differences? Using the theoretical framework of Status Characteristics Theory (SCT) and the Camilleri-Berger model of decision-making, we designed an experiment to adjudicate between these two potentialities. Participation in the study consisted of 168 students. Results found support for the notion that positive sentiments moderate the effects of structural factors on indicators of social status; interestingly, this moderation effect varies by gender. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings, and new directions for research concerning sentiment and status processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expression of surprise—at something unexpected—is a key form of emotional display. Focusing on displays of surprise performed by means of reaction tokens (akin to Goffman's "response cries"), such as wow, gosh, oh my god, ooh!, phew, we use an ethnomethodological, conversation-analytic approach to analyze surprise in talk-in-interaction. Our key contribution is to detach the psychology of surprise from its social expression by showing how co-conversationalists collaborate to bring off an interactionally achieved performance of surprise. Far from being a visceral eruption of emotion, the production of a surprise token is often prepared for several turns in advance. We also show how surprise can be recycled on an occasion subsequent to its initial production, and how surprise displays may be delayed by silence, ritualized disbelief, and other repair initiations. Finally, we consider some of the uses of surprise as an interactional resource, including its role in the reflection and reproduction of culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]