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

Utilizing replies from a selected sample of contributors to the literature of symbolic interactionism, this paper examines the nature and extent of institutional ties among respondents holding similar views as to appropriate methodology in sociology. The specific institutional ties examined are those as: (1) fellow graduate students, (2) teachers and students, and (3) departmental colleagues. The methodological differences between the Chicago and Iowa schools, described in other studies, manifest themselves in the present sample, as do other views not neatly classifiable within either of these schools of symbolic interactionism. The more unconventional the conception of methodology held by a respondent, the more likely is the respondent to have been a fellow graduate student, a departmental colleague, and/or involved in a teacher-student relationship with other symbolic interactionists favoring the same conception. Respondents preferring the more orthodox methodological stances in modern sociology are less likely to have shared in such institutional flea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an exploration of the relationship between members' role performance and the benefits they receive from their organizations. The general relationship is interpreted in the context of a "social exchange model" for voluntary associations. Data for the analysis pertain to members of four voluntary farm organizations: Farm Bureau, Farmers Union, National Farmers Organization, and Grange. The data were obtained in a state-wide survey of Wisconsin farm operators in 1965. In general, the data show a moderate relationship, in a positive direction, between benefits and role performance. The benefits tend to differ in the magnitude and, in some instances, in the direction of their relationships to such performance. The findings indicate the importance of taking into account magnitude and direction of relationship, as well as interaction among the benefits and among costs, in order to devise a viable social exchange model of cost benefit relations for voluntary associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review of but a small amount of the empirical and theoretical research should suffice to indicate the areas of focus and concern in relating family and home environment with juvenile delinquency. It is evident that significance is attached to family cohesion, affection and adjustment both between the parents and between parent and child. Many authors (Udry, 1966; Blood and Wolfe, 1960) maintain that communication is a basle ingredient for a successful marriage. The open communication between spouses facilitates an understanding of expectations, interests, and frustrations. A marriage void of communication may lead to inhibited and ritualistic discussions, inner frustrations, and an absence of expectations and desires. If one accepts this position concerning communication between spouses, then there is reason to believe that based on the above-cited works, facilitation of the channels of communication within the family may influence the delinquency of the children. It appears plausible that a child who perceives the channels of communication within his family to be dosed may feel alienated from the family as a primary group. Without communication, the child may feel that the parents are not interested in his ideas and behavior, that the parents underestimate his desires and expectations, and that the parents reject him. Without communication the parents may not, indeed, be aware of the child's desires, values, and actions and may not succeed in transmitting their own values to the child. Although the parents would not condone delinquent behavior, as a result of their lack of communication with the child the parents may, by remaining silent, be sanctioning behavior of which the child feels the parents are aware. That is, if the child engages in delinquent behavior and feels that the parents are aware of that behavior, then he expects some negative sanctioning by his parents; due to the lack of communication, the parents may not be aware of the behavior, they do not sanction the child, and thereby reinforce his delinquent behavior. A lack of communication of this nature indicates a misunderstanding between parents and child concerning acceptable behavior and values. With the assumptions set forth above, it is of value to investigate the relationship between communication within the family and the delinquency of the child. It is the intention of this paper to ascertain: (1) the degree of communication that exists between the parents and the child concerning the child's participation in various forms of delinquent behavior; (2) the degree of communication that exists between the parents and the child concerning the punishment to be meted out for such behaviors; and (3) the effect of this communication on the child's participation in delinquent forms of behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists and social psychologists, perhaps more than some of their fellow social scientists, have striven for what is in many respects one of the most elusive aims of science—valid generalizations. Examination of the results of the past thirty years of research are, however, far from encouraging. Arnold Hose, in addressing himself to the problem of generalization in the social sciences, is tempted to raise the question as to whether or not there has been considerably more striving than achieving. Certainly it is apparent that the replications often do not verify the original study. The data presented in this paper are drawn from a study of delinquent behavior which I conducted in New Zealand. My research in this field constituted in part a replication of research conducted by Nye and Short in the United States. The data from these two studies provided an opportunity for fruitful cross-cultural comparisons in the area of delinquent behavior. The rationale presented in this paper may be interpreted as a modest attempt to pursue what Rose has called "generalizability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a purely exploratory attempt to locate the role-specific-significant others (Sullivan's significant others) and the orientational others of a small sample of college students enrolled in a large midwestern university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This paper reports on the first of a series of investigations we are attempting on this topic. Because games are social in nature, we assume that they mediate and shape the mutual socialization which is occurring in peer groups. Hence the type, frequency, and social context in which games are played may be important for understanding differential socialization outcomes. Given that there are important differences in the socialization process within racial groupings, it was decided to ask whether similar differences occur with regard to games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significance of occupational status and income for suicide is not clear. One study indicates a positive relationship; five reveal a negative relationship; two show a higher suicide rate for very high- and very low-status occupations than for middle-status occupations; and the combined results of a study of three English cities are inconsistent. Although evidence is strongest for a negative relationship, no definitive conclusion can be made. Very likely, the relationship varies depending upon other conditions. In particular, it may vary with employment status; income may be directly related to suicide under conditions of unemployment, but inversely related under conditions of employment, or vice versa. In this paper an attempt will be made to determine whether and in what way employment status may influence the effects of income. In addition, effort will be made to determine whether unemployment is related to suicide at all income levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major purpose of this paper, therefore, is to develop a more general model of compliance-gaining behavior. Particular emphasis will be placed on those variables which differentiate among individuals with regard to the compliance-gaining techniques they use. In this discussion we shall attempt to specify a preliminary list of interpersonal strategies which will encompass the wide range of compliance-gaining behaviors. Finally we shall illustrate the usefulness of the model by discussing one problem to which it may profitably be applied, the relationship between social class and the generation of school-children defined as "behavior problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning with Ogburn, the place of economic factors within the modem conjugal unit has been minimized. It has been argued that the major dimension of the current nuclear unit is the affective, the emotional, the expressive. The very term "marital adjustment" connotes that external constraints are less vital than the "ability" of the couple to "work out" interpersonal problems. The observers leaped from the data-the decrease of joint economic participation between husbands and wives-to the inference that modern marriage coheres or collapses almost solely on the basis of affective elements. Parsons has recently restated and expanded this position by asserting that "it is of course a commonplace that the [my italics] American family is predominantly … an urban middle-class family … there has emerged a remarkably uniform, basic type of family." For Parsons, this "uniform family" rests chiefly on personality variables which he analyzes in a psychoanalytic context. It may be that except at the most general structural level, Parsons' "uniform family" may be as unfortunate a term as was his "isolated family" of a decade ago. For it is also possible to leap from the data to the alternative hypothesis that economic factors still play a vital role within the conjugal family albeit in a differentiated form. Is it not strange to realize that an inherent feature of modern society is complexity, specialization, and differentiation, and that this can be seen in every part of society-every part, that is, except the conjugal family system? Here we are told that there is "remarkable" homogeneity based on the "indispensable function" of expressive gratifications. It seems just as simple and perhaps more logical to assume the opposite, viz., that increasing societal complexity should be related to a more complex family system. In any event, given the ever increasing complexity of our society, the burden of proof is on those who argue that the conjugal family is going the other way occupations of the last century. Yet while agricultural occupations were supposedly inextricable from the family, the impact of modern occupations is largely ignored and thus unexplored.Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to set forth a conceptual schema which indicates that there is significant differentiation among types of conjugal families, and that this differentiation is based on differing relationships to the occupational structure. First, we will outline the five sets of variables within our schema; second, we will attempt to present a rationale for these particular kinds of variables; and finally, we will try to link them in ways that meaningfully demonstrate differentiation between conjugal families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to report on the relationship found between a variety of content dimensions of the self and the expectations of each of four biographically significant others. The subjects whose self-conceptions are examined are 256 business executives and managers, and the four significant others whose expectations are perceived are wife, boss, a colleague, and father. Before turning to the findings it is necessary to discuss at least three methodological questions: (1) How do we know who is a significant other? (2) How do we measure the self? (8) What forms the link between others and the self? These issues are discussed in order below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The instrumental-expressive differentiation, employed extensively by Talcott Parsons, has been applied to the field of voluntary associations by several writers. Thus, Lundberg, Komarovsky, and McInery wrote of instrumental, mixed, and leisure associations in an early study, and Rose concerned himself with two types of associations, the social influence group and the expressive group. This means of classifying voluntary associations has appeared recently in at least one introductory sociology textbook. A recent impetus to the use of the instrumental-expressive categorization in this field was the publication by Gordon and Babchuk of a typology of associations utilizing this concept. They define the ideal type of instrumental association as differing from the ideal type of expressive association in the following three ways. (1) The member of the expressive association achieves immediate and continuing gratification from taking part in the organization's activities. The instrumental association member may even find the group's activities distasteful, but he will get satisfaction from the knowledge that they help to accomplish certain long-range goals. In other words, personal gratification is more remote (in terms of time) from participation in the group's activities for the member of the instrumental group than the member of the expressive group. (2) The activities of the instrumental association tend to be externally oriented, whereas those of the expressive association are focused inward. Expressive organizations "perform a function primarily for the individual participants through activities confined and self-contained within the organization itself…. In contrast, the major function and orientation of the instrumental organization are related to activities which take place outside the organization." (3) The activities of members of expressive associations represent ends in themselves, while, for instrumental association members, participation in the group's activities is seen as a means of accomplishing external, long-range goals. The major questions raised in this paper are whether members of instrumental associations differ predictably from members of expressive associations regarding (1) the manner in which persons become members of associations and (2) their involvement in primary group situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a comparative study of the inter-group conflict. The comparative study of cultural behaviors has taken two forms: (1) a description of one or a few other societies, implicitly or explicitly contrasted with what is assumed to be authors' own; (2) a systematic comparison of a limited set of related behaviors in a great range of societies. The present study uses the latter approach. Outstanding previous users of this approach have been those who have worked with the Human Relation Area Files at Yale University, Connecticut. Authors' study differs methodologically from the Yale studies in that practically all of their data come from literate societies, while practically all of the Yale data come from preliterate societies. Most of the literate societies known to the author in whom separable and distinctive minorities are or were living in a majority population were included in the analysis. Sometimes a society changed so much in historical time that it was analyzed as two separate societies.

Like all interpersonal behavior, violent behavior is constructed within a situation by its participants. Structural determinants have insufficient explanatory power precisely because they do not account for the large amount of variation among actors and between situations. Aa an alternative, the violations of relational rules are examined, for such violations may be perceived as threats to the situated identities of the participants. The subsequent negotiation of identities and implementation of threat-reduction tactics precede and facilitate violent encounters. The movement from a heightened identity threat to the initiation of violence as a threat-reducing tactic may then be accounted for in terms of the following structural variables: subculture of violence, experience, intoxicants, audience, cost of failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conceptual structure for commitment is presented, specifying and clarifying the various meanings of the term as it has been used by sociologists and social psychologists. The possible importance of the concept for social psychology is illustrated by the interpretation of a number of social psychological experiments in terms of commitment processes. The utility of the concept of commitment for the analysis of courtship systems is discussed and the application of the concept of commitment on the level of social systems is illustrated by the use of the proposed conceptual structure in research on cohabitation on a university campus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of general propositions are proposed concerning the manner in which reference-others and ethnic attitudes influence intergroup behavior. In a laboratory setting, it is shown that the influence of individual reference-others upon behavior is partially determined by certain structural properties of these others which are labeled importance, visibility, centrality, legitimacy, and control. Among other findings, it is also shown that the relative influence of the two predictor variables depends upon the type of activity considered. An explanation for these results is framed in terms of the reference-other properties mentioned above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method of analyzing social interaction is proposed which: (a) delimits the number of categories by reference to previous work supporting a two-dimensional model of interpersonal relations, (b) uses a molar rather than molecular definition of the unit act, and (c) classifies each act on both dimensions. Data from husband-wife pairs are analyzed using this system. Patterns of both intra- and interpersonal action tendencies are noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral scientists have acquired an expanding knowledge and appreciation of the significance of projection, not only as an individual mechanism for dealing with potentially troublesome unconscious wishes and emotions, but also as a socially shared group process (Horwitz and Cartwright, 1963; Henry and Guetzkow, 1951). Fantasy is an important dimension in the life of a group in that it provides members with an opportunity to communicate about latent emotional problems confronted in the group without making them explicit, and therefore, potentially disruptive (Mills, 1964a; Slater, 1961; 1966). By displacing feelings and wishes generated in the group on characters and situations depicted in stories, participants may reveal sentiments normally suppressed and hidden from view. The analysis of fantasy material would therefore seem to be particularly valuable in approaching the emotional dynamics of interracial groups, not only because it gives the researcher access to information usually denied him through other methods of inquiry, but also because it gives the group member an opportunity to reveal sentiments that he may ordinarily feel socially inappropriate. In interracial groups of fairly extensive and intimate contact, blacks and whites, perhaps for the first time, encounter a situation that is not easily grasped in terms of their pre-existing cultural models of the interpersonal world. How do they go about making emotional "sense" out of this situation and their relations to other people in it? Are there any observable regularities in the emotional mechanisms that come to play in the interpersonal relations in groups of a particular racial and sexual composition? This research attempts in a preliminary way to answer these questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In summary, then, social acts are complex patterns in terms of which participants structure their activity. These unit acts are conventional and are in most cases named. Their observation requires the development by the observer of a set of descriptions of these acts against which he compares the observed activity and in terms of which he records his observations. Social acts are thus different units of action than behavior which is the observation of activity with quite a different set of descriptions. The essential character of the procedure is that the observer make the judgment that what he sees does or does not agree with a previously developed description of acts or catalog of meanings. Whether the degree of reliability required necessitates the externalization of the list or permits it to remain as part of the professional skill of the observer depends upon the requirements of the research problem. This is neither a new conception nor a new method. Competent field workers in sociology and anthropology have been using this procedure for many years. I have attempted merely to formalize the conception and to make the method explicit in the hope that we can reduce some of the irrelevant arguments over the objectivity of the sociological enterprise. Furthermore, the recognition of the essential criteria of the method and especially the separation of the verstehen inference from the observation of meaning should have some extended implications for our theories of action and of meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The view of Mead (1934) that the self has its origin in the process of social interaction is fundamental to all sociologically-oriented social psychologists. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that so little attention has been given to analysis of the nature of this "social process." Mead himself assumes, as Glaser and Strauss (1964) have pointed out, that the encounter of the person with others occurs in what these authors have called an "open awareness context" in which "each interactant is aware of the other's true identity and his own identity in the eyes of the other." Mead goes further to argue that, not only are persons thus aware of their identities in others' eyes, but that they see their own identities as they perceive these others to see them: The individual experiences himself as such, not directly, but only indirectly, from the particular standpoints of other individual members of the same social group, or from the generalized standpoint of the social group as a whole to which he belongs. For he enters his own experience as a self or individual, not directly or immediately, not by becoming a subject to himself, but only insofar as he first becomes an object to himself just as other individuals are objects to him or in his experience; and he becomes an object to himself only by taking the attitudes of other individuals toward himself within a social environment or context of experience and behavior in which both he and they are involved (Mead, 1934:138). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of male sex aggression, a sex conduct norm violation in dating-courtship relations, amply suggests the fruitfullness of reference groups in the analysis of one type of deviant behavior. Viewing college friends as reference groups, our data show that it is the aggressive rather than the nonaggressive male who is most apt to have associates encouraging the acquisition of sex experience. Moreover, these same associates are found to devalue male virginity. It is clear that these aggressives, in spite of their more abundant sex experience, also evidence a more pronounced degree of dissatisfaction with their sexual existence. Erotically oriented reference groups with their apparently high level of erotic aspiration give rise to a state of relative deprivation. Although the values of the current membership group (college friends) are compatible with the values held by the individual members of the group, evidence is available to show that these values are not basically a function of that particular group. The evidence is striking in demonstrating that sexually aggressive orientations are acquired prior to the existence of these current groups. Consequently, it is argued that the major functions performed by these reference groups consists of supporting and sustaining earlier acquired values. The final consideration of the influence of reference groups on these aggressive males involves an adjustive function. That is, males who have friends strongly encouraging sex experience are most apt to provide justifications for their aggressive activities. On the other hand, males with friends who provide little or no encouragement for new sex experience are least capable of providing justifications for aggressive conduct. Groupings which strongly stimulate deviant sexual behavior—and premarital coitus can be viewed as deviant from the norms of the larger society— are groupings which also equip their members with a vocabulary of adjustment enabling the group-championed activity to be also psychologically profitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutions are a collective device by which we gather up the many loaves and fishes of the facts of social living into the miracle basket of conceptualization. More than that, institution is a word with strongly externalistic connotations which belie the largely internalistic character of the institutional phenomenon. The concept, "institutional behavior," refers to shared and public aspects of an incredibly diversified subjectivity; it is, at bottom and throughout, a personal experience word but a word which nonetheless describes the public behavior of individuals. In this discussion institutions will be considered-after the manner of Cooley, Bernard, Arnold, among others-as a behavioral complex of people, roles, effort, norms, equipment and symbols. These components of the institutional complex will be regarded as a corresponding set of analytical dimensions-associative, dramatistic, economic, normative, instrumental and communicative-each of which will be briefly discussed in turn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three central and related tasks in professional socialization, shared mutually by students, faculty, and the socializing institution, are (1) to bring the student to awareness of what is required in the professional role; (2) to lead him to recognize himself in this role; and (3) to foster in him the capacity to properly communicate about himself as a professional. Presumably, successful accomplishment of this triple-identity objective yields a professional who recognizes that he is separated from laymen by virtue of being aware of special knowledge, skills, and insights that accrue to his occupation and who is able to communicate that recognition of himself to others. Emergent student awareness in professional socialization has been explored in various sectors of the socialization process, assessing the contribution to awareness of such factors as student culture, institutional arrangements, role relationships with clients, anticipatory socialization, and the student's postinstitutional experiences. Our own interests in student awareness both incorporate and transcend these variables which have been previously utilized: in this essay we shall try to add another perspective to these earlier inquiries with an analysis of faculty-student interaction in small face-to-face groups. We shall be particularly concerned with how the give-and-take of such interaction brings students to awareness of their new role, themselves in that role and their communication about the role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student career commitments of the University of Minnesota Law School were analyzed to test the relationship between two of the attributed functions of an individual's reference group. Although these different functions have been the subject of much discussion, their interrelationships have not been subjected to empirical test. Such an analysis might give an indication of the utility of conceptualizing these functions as behaviorally distinct. The second objective of the research was to test the utility of the reference group model in providing an explanation for occupational role socialization. Although behavior related to occupational systems has been and continues to be extensively treated in sociological literature, it has often been done outside the framework of currently existing theories. The author was of the opinion that socialization into an occupational role represented a process of behavioral change which could be usefully subjected to the reference group model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of self has become a stimulus for a great deal of research in recent years. However, a theory is still lacking which adequately explains the processes by which changes in the self occur. Festinger's dissonance theory seems to offer a potential explanation of self-changes, although, in its present form, dissonance theory may be thought of as dealing primarily with changes in attitudes toward social objects other than the self. The basic assumptions of dissonance theory are that individuals tend to maintain an internal consistency among cognitions and that behavior tends to be consistent with existing cognitions. The literature is replete with evidence that these assumptions are met in the phenomenon of self-attitudes. Previous studies reveal a tendency for consistency among self-attitudes and a similar tendency for consistency between self-attitudes and relevant behavior. Therefore, on this level of reasoning, it may be concluded that the hypothesis of dissonance theory regarding changes in social attitudes may be applied to changes in self-attitudes. Furthermore, Bergin reports success in an empirical test of the application of Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory to self-attitudes in a study of the effects of dissonant communications upon changes in self-referring attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social dancing, although a discreetly public and legitimate activity, is one form of intimate human interaction that sociologists have not yet examined fully. This observational study of American social dancing patterns is an attempt to describe systematically styles of contemporary dancing and patterns of social behavior which attend dancing. In addition, the origin and development of styles will be investigated along with the function that dancing reputedly serves for the participants. Before observing, we assume that social dancing, like many activities, is imitative. One may first choose to engage in any dance and, through imitation, may select more personalized techniques. But individual techniques are going to change as groups selectively retain certain forms and exclude others. Dancing, then, will undergo changes as groups impose their personal and social preferences upon dancers. The inherent intimacy, however, makes dancing uniquely different from most other observable social interaction. Not surprising, dancing takes on different forms in the upper, middle and lower classes. Upper-class dancers, for the most part, demonstrate formalized skills, perform similar dances over time, and maintain a restraint in action particularly in the masking of sexual aspects of dancing. Elites are characterized by group allegiance, traditionalism, and a de-emphasis of intimacy. Middle-class dances, considerably freer in their actions, manifest fewer conflicts regarding sexual overtones in dancing. Eager to experiment with new steps and leaving invention to others, they are characterized by expressions of individual interpretations and a desire to derive personal and private gratifications from dancing. This tends to produce a quality of erotic aloneness. Lower-class dancers demonstrate the greatest degree of invention and innovation. Their constantly changing repertoires include the most overt expressions of sexuality and their gratifications derive from the pleasures they both give and receive while dancing. Our study is not an investigation of leisure or recreational activities. Nor do we wish to push too far the differences of class. Our findings indicate, however, that many of the differences between populations do reflect the control of class patterns upon freedom of form in social engagements. The plan employed in the study necessarily emphasizes these differences in class patterns but we acknowledge as well the many similarities extant in the three groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In current definitions of social structure, one particular difference in emphasis appears outstanding. Stogdill, for example, emphasizes differentiation and interdependence of parts when he says: "By structure is meant that the system is so differentiated or ordered that member A is not identical with member B, and the reaction of A to B is not identical with the reaction of B to A." In a somewhat broader frame of reference, Johnson, on the other hand, places primary emphasis on the element of continuity or relative permanence when he says, "The 'structure' of anything consists of the relatively stable interrelationships among its parts; moreover, the term 'part' itself implies a certain degree of stability." This latter characteristic-stability-Stogdill refers to as identity because it is this characteristic which "permits the system to be recognized as the same group during successive periods of observation."The central tendencies of these and similar definitions can be expressed in a definition of structure as a stable pattern of relationships among differentiated parts. Differences in emphasis suggest, however, that such a definition contains two key elements: differentiation of function on the one hand, and consistency in the allocation of these functions on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are primarily concerned with exploring the dynamics of symbol strategy as a device for conceptualization of social structure. We have tried to indicate their relevance for social relationships in three divergent contexts. Much systematic conceptual and empirical analysis remains before the value of this approach can be determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of the primary group as a part of sociology. The position of this article is that the social-psychological dimension is critical and defines, the concept. It includes two elements, namely, member orientation toward other members in actual or potential activity and the affective aspect of intermember orientation. Formal systems are breeding grounds for primary groups in that they provide conditions under which the first steps, toward primary relations may be taken. Thus the fullest expression of the primary group requires that the members have a unity the existence of which is not contingent upon affiliation with any single formal system. The other element of the social-psychological dimension concerns the emotional quality of the relationship. A simple way of characterizing the emotional quality of a primary group is to say that, over time, there is a strong predominance of feelings of attraction between the members. Groups such as the informal work association, the family, or the play group have been indiscriminately called primary groups because such groups have either been small or have persisted in time, or because the members have mutually engaged in a wide range of activities.