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Institutional settings in which large numbers of participants have the right and in some cases the responsibility to contribute to the proceedings pose particular challenges to the order and allocation of turns. These challenges are organizational, how to enable and order participation between large numbers of people, as well as moral and political—the fair, transparent, and even distribution of access to the floor. In this paper, we address two very different institutional settings—one political and the other economic—and consider how participants are provided opportunities to contribute to the proceedings in a fair and transparent manner. Drawing on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, we examine the systematic management of turn allocation and demonstrate how multimodality is critical to understanding how particular institutions achieve their principal aims and outcomes. This study is based on the analysis of a substantial corpus of video recordings of public consultations concerned with the discussion of major public and private sector initiatives and auctions of fine art and antiques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although evidence reveals that the social exchange process and identity verification process each can produce social bonds, researchers have yet to examine their conjoined effects. In this paper, we consider how exchange processes and identity processes separately and jointly shape the social bonds that emerge between actors. We do this with data from an experiment that introduces the fairness person identity (how people define themselves in terms of fairness) in a negotiated exchange context. The findings reveal how both exchange and identity processes operate in an independent as well as contingent manner to influence the development of social cohesion at the micro level. The contingent nature of the results suggests both exchange and identity theories need to be modified to account for these contingencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do individuals escape embarrassing moments in interaction? Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and video recordings of weekly street corner ciphers (impromptu rap sessions), this paper expands Goffman's theory of defensive and protective face-work. The findings reveal formulaic and indirect dimensions of face-work. First, this paper shows how individuals use prescripted techniques and other canned resources to overcome embarrassing gaffes in interaction. Specifically, rappers use “writtens” (prewritten rhymes) when they are close to “falling off,” a local term for messing up and stopping abruptly during a “freestyle” (improvised) rap performance. Second, this paper describes how shared pressures to sustain an interaction can lead to collateral face-saving. In the cipher, surrounding peers “jump in” and begin rapping when somebody else falls off. Although this protects the person who is falling off from embarrassment, it is often done to “keep the flow going” in the cipher. At the end, this paper also outlines situations in which individuals withhold face protection from others. These findings point to other social situations in which individuals escape embarrassment with canned resources and through collateral face-saving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops an interactionist explanation of gender differences in the processes leading to juvenile delinquency. Drawing on principles of symbolic interactionism and on research on gender differences in interactions, the paper specifies a theoretical model that generates predictions about similarities and differences across gender in the relationships between commitment to reference groups, role-taking, and delinquency. It then tests hypotheses using data from a national sample of youths, and finds that an interactionist theory of delinquency is supported for both females and males. The findings also show gender differences in the role-taking process leading to delinquency; indeed, these findings suggest an important difference in the process by which group social controls are transformed into self-control in delinquent situations among girls as compared with boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Status construction theory (SCT) has established a set of sufficient conditions for the formation of status characteristics that define informal hierarchies. However, while it has proven successful in explaining the development of status-laden personal characteristics in the laboratory, relatively less attention has been devoted to its predictions at the societal level. This paper alters the current state of affairs by examining the predictions of status construction theory using the 2001 International Social Survey Program's networks module. This data source allows the comparison of a macro-level distribution of a goal object (authority positions) with a novel measure of status derived from the social networks literature. The results are consistent with the predictions of SCT, supporting the theory outside the laboratory and cross-nationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The peer group is an important developmental context for children. In this paper we present a method to operationalize a child's integration into the classroom by their informal social classroom roles, which we obtained using a blockmodel analysis based on role equivalence. This method differs in several respects from the common sociometric status approach. Analysis of multiplex social relationships of 1,241 first-grade children in 71 classrooms showed nine empirical classroom roles. The roles were not associated with physical attractiveness not with ethnic ancestry, were associated only weakly with age, sex, and intelligence, and were associated strongly with school adjustment. Classroom roles and sociometric status were clearly associated, but measured different aspects of a child's integration into the classroom. For all school problems except academic performance, classroom roles explained a much larger proportion of the variance than did sociometric status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the process of offering and responding to attributions in social interaction. Analyses of audio and video recordings of patients' visits to an outpatient general internal medicine clinic reveal the ways in which patients offer their own explanations for their health problems, and how doctors respond to these explanations. In these explanation-response sequences, patients and doctors collaboratively enact an asymmetrical social organization wherein patients are authorities about their experiences but not about why their health problems occur. Patients exhibit caution when they offer explanations; they downplay their knowledge and they avoid setting themselves up for disaffiliative responses. Patients do not compel doctors to interrupt information gathering to assess their explanations. Doctors take these opportunities to focus on patients' symptoms. Patients" authority is thus restricted to the empirical realm rather than encompassing the analysis of empirical facts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on a particular type of emotional display known in the vernacular as "hysteria," and on the "socio-logic" of such an affective state. Using calls to 9-1-1 as a case study, we discuss the ways in which the notion of "hysteria" is used in a particular occupational milieu and in certain situations to assess and account for a person's conduct. In that milieu, behaviors that might be deemed "hysterical" are those brought to the foreground by the interactional demands of the work situation. Someone is hysterical when he or she cannot cooperate in the accomplishment of some task required by the situation (as defined by those having or assuming a responsibility for what transpires in that situation). More generally, then, what might be termed a strong expression of sorrow, distress, or grief in one social context may be "hysterical" in another. Thus "hysteria" is as much interactional and (in certain institutional or work settings) organizational as emotional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper we use identity theory as a multilevel control system to investigate stability and change in identities. According to identity theory, change occurs when self-relevant perceptions become and remain inconsistent with the identity standard. Symbolic interaction theory suggests that change also may occur through the process of taking the role of the other; this process may facilitate the incorporation of aspects of role partners' identities into one's own identity. We investigate these ideas by studying the gender identities of newly first-married couples over a three-year period. The birth of a child results in a new source of self-perceptions that continuously disturb prior gender-relevant perceptions. We hypothesize that the parents' gender identities will change in the direction of the disturbance: Men will become more masculine and women more feminine. Insofar as husbands and wives each take the role of the other, we hypothesize that their gender identity standards will change in the spouses' direction: Men will become more feminine and women will become more masculine. Both of these hypotheses are supported, and we discuss the implications of these results for identity theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part of every toddler's development hinges on self-stimulating and self-soothing behavior--most commonly, running away from its caregivers, only to return a moment later. Recent neurobiological research shows that such attachment behavior is mediated in the brain by endogenous opioid activity, a relationship entailing reciprocal inhibition of the brain's noradrenergic system as well. Cycles of attachment and separation in the toddler's behavior point to a pattern of hysteresis associated with the lagged effects of these two brain systems, and highlight obvious behavioral discontinuities of the sort susceptible to conceptualization as catastrophes. Making explicit such discontinuities in attachment behavior, as this paper suggests, helps to isolate widespread equivalent patterns of catastrophe in all social interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we develop a formal, testable theory of problem-solving behavior with special relevance to individuals and small groups. The theory is consistent with principles drawn from operant behavior and social exchange theories but also incorporates elements of cognitive psychology. Problem solving is defined as a nonroutine activity oriented toward changing an undesirable state of affairs. The focus on change differentiates problem solving from coping, which is oriented toward relieving feelings of stress. A decision-making model is presented, which takes the problem-solving process through its latter stages. The theory is based on two axioms and three theorems pertaining to the process of decision making. These axioms and theorems serve as the foundation for deriving 14 theorems that establish the antecedent conditions affecting decisions relevant to each of four stages in the problem-solving process. This theory is distinguished from other problem-solving theories in its effort to account for conditions leading to awareness of problems and in its emphasis on generic problem-solving processes rather than on the effectiveness of problem-solving outcomes. [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]

In this paper we answer the question: Do people select interaction partners to enhance their self-image, or do they strive to maintain a stable view of self? Affect control theory, a quantified version of symbolic interactionism, predicts that individuals adopt strategies which maintain their identities in order to secure a stable definition of the situation. When individuals have low self-esteem, they select interactions that maintain this low self-esteem, even when these interactions cause negative emotions. Two Experiments examined the cognitive, affective, and behavioral effects of identity-confirming and -disconfirming information. Study 1, which assessed the cognitive and emotional outcomes of identity-relevant feedback, revealed that people with both high and low self-esteem feel good when praised and bad when they receive negative feedback on their performance. People with low self-esteem, however, think that the criticism is accurate, and like the critic more than do people with high self-esteem. Study 2 examined the implications of these responses for social interaction. Consistent with affect control predictions, subjects selected interaction partners who provided identity-consistent feedback. People with low self-esteem preferred to interact with a critic rather than with someone who said flattering things about their performance, even though the negative feedback made them feel bad. We discuss our results in terms of their implications for role stability and for the behavior of people with chronically negative self-identities. [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]

Verbal interaction is related to the task at hand. Language and other social practices are interdependent. Not all students of language use and social interaction, however, will concede that ethnographic material, participant attributes, and patterns of social organization that are constitutive of talk need to be included in studies of conversation or discourse. The researcher can exercise considerable discretion in what the reader will be shown or told about "context." In the present paper, / discuss two senses of "context" as it involves conversational interaction in a bureaucratic environment. This use of the term "context" includes an institutionalized framing of activities or ways that group-derived prescriptive norms pressure and/or channel people with designated titles, presumed competencies, duties or responsibilities into certain physical spaces at certain times in order to engage in a finite number of specifiable activities. Within this institutionalized context or framing of activities, emergent processes of talk appear that creates a more narrow view of "context" in the sense of locally organized and negotiated interaction. I have chosen a conversation between three physicians in a university medical center to underscore the importance of context at different levels of analysis. The analyst's decision to focus on particular sociolinguistic notions rather than the interrelationship between discourse and broader and narrow senses of social structure will frame different expectations for the reader and different substantive conclusions on the part of the researcher. [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]

The concept of "satisficing" is of central importance to many investigations of the social psychology of economic decision making. Through the examination of materials drawn from an actual business negotiation, this paper seeks to explore the interactional features of satisficing as a rational course of economic action. Two devices for accomplishing outcomes which satisfice are noticed and analyzed. Some implications of this mode of analysis for studies of decision making are proposed. [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]

The SYMLOG method of group analysis has been in use for more than ten years. During that time, very little data have been published concerning validation of its major instrument, the Adjective Rating Form. One version of that form, the Individual and Organizational Value Form, has been used in making more than 10,000 sets of ratings for bat/i research and consulting purposes. This paper presents item-to-scale correlations based on 6432 of these sets of ratings. Serious flaws in the scales are detected. A revised form is presented. Item-to -scale correlations based on 544 sets of ratings on the new form demonstrate substantial improvement over the earlier version. In addition, normative data are presented for both forms, showing greater differentiation through the use of the new items. Finally, parallel studies currently under way in Norway and Sweden are cited as an indication that the method proposed here ma)' be used for perfecting both original scales and translations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between gender identity and verbal behavior in same-sex interactions. Using structural symbolic interactionism (Stryker, 1980), it is argued that gender identity, as the set of meanings individuals attribute to themselves as modes or females, is more important for shaping role performance than gender per se. Using a technique developed by Burke and Tully (1977), the gender identities of 91 college undergraduates were measured. A sample of these students (30 females, 26 males) participated in dyadic role-playing exercises, and their conversations were recorded and coded for the use of overlaps and interruptions by the speakers. An event history model was estimated in order to assess the impact of the gender identity scores on the rate of overlaps and interruptions produced. Findings indicate that the more "male like" a person's gender definition, regardless of the person's sex, the greater the risk that the person will overlap or interrupt the speech of another. The findings of this study have implications for the analysis of structure and process in day-to-day interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of role-identity salience plays a critical role in many contemporary discussions of the self-concept. it has also been invoked, in one form or another, in a variety of other areas within sociology. However, there has been conspicuously little empirical investigation of the concept. This paper attempts to fill this void with an empirical examination of role-identity salience as it applies to the act of voluntary blood donation. The data are based on 658 responses to a mail questionnaire sent to a sample of blood donors. Analyses are organized into two sections. in the first section a number of hypotheses specifying correlates with salience of the blood donor role-identity are examined. Significant associations between salience and self-definition, a tendency to view others in terms of the role-identity, increased social relations premised on the role-identity, expectations from other, and future behavior, were found. In the second section, salience and the variables mentioned above are used to predict number of donations six months after completing the questionnaire. Results from a regression analysis find support for salience, self-definition, and social relationships as significant predictors. Implications and limitations of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a structural model of self-conception, this paper proposes a theory of personal consistency. This theory emphasizes certain parameters from distributions of identities in a meaning space (defined by personal attributes) and for an identity-salience dimension (reflecting the importance of an identity for self-definition). It is proposed that the clustering of identities on the salience dimension (when identities in the cluster are relatively salient) and the relative lack of clustering of identities in meaning space have beneficial outcomes for individuals (particularly in terms of perceived power, activity and well-being) by increasing potential and opportunity for complex responses to social stimuli, and thus the total reward value of interaction. Some initial empirical evidence 13 offered in support of the theory, and implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]