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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]

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]

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]

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 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]

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 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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.