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Tins Is the second of two papers dealing with the relationship between voluntary social participation and happiness. The earlier paper/ which like the present one was influenced by the work of Norman M. Bradburn and his associates on the 'happiness" project at National Opinion Research Center and by the theoretical writings of George C. Homans,2 examined the influence of voluntary social participation upon people's self-reports of happiness and explored the mechanisms through which this relationship was established. Analysis of data from a sample of 600 adults revealed that, as hypothesized, happiness was highly related to social participation? The greater the extent of participation, the greater the degree of happiness reported. This relationship was shown to emerge from the following: (a) positive feelings were directly correlated with social participation, (b) negative feelings were generally unrelated to social participation, and (e) the difference between the scores on the positive and negative feelings indices which Braclburn termed the Affect Balance Score 4--was a major determinant of happiness. That is, the greater the preponderance of positive over negative feelings, the greater the probability that an individual would report being "very happy." Conversely, the greater the preponderance of negative over positive feelings, the greater the likelihood of an individual's being Knot too happy." To explore the stability of these relationships, they were examined under several different control variables. For the most part, the original relationships were maintained within these various subgroups. Before proceeding to the main concerns of this report, it is useful to restate the hypotheses tested in the earlier paper and to explain the reasoning behind them. The first hypothesis—the higher the extent of voluntary social participation, the greater the number of positive feelings —was derived from consideration of Homans' general proposition that individuals tend to repeat those activities that were found to be rewarding in the past and to avoid those activities that were found unrewarding. Hence, if an activity is not rewarding or is punishing, individuals sooner or later will look for some alternative source of reward—if they are free to do so. Since with voluntary social participation men are, by definition, free to look for alternatives, it was hypothesized that a greater extent of social participation leads to a higher level of positive feelings. The second hypothesis—that negative feelings are unrelated to extent of social participation—also follows from the above argument. For as long as they are free to do so, we should expect individuals to withdraw from any social activities that are unrewarding or result in negative experiences. The third hypothesis—the greater the extent of voluntary social participation, the greater the degree of happiness—was derived from the first and second hypotheses and from the work of Bradburn which showed that the difference between the scores on the positive and negative feeling indexes is a good indicator of an individual's current level of happiness. Thus, the earlier paper concentrated mainly on testing these three hypotheses. It also was concerned with the stability of the relationships within each of several control groups and not, for the most part, with differences among groups. In this paper, however, the main focus is on examining the effects of socioeconomic status upon the relationships between social participation and positive and negative feelings, and participation and happiness. A further interest is in "interaction-opportunities" and "investments," two concepts which are utilized to account for patterns of relationship between social participation and the various dependent variables listed above: positive feelings, negative feelings, and happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is an attempt to apply modern sociological thinking to the analysis of the descriptive materials that have been accumulated on the subject of romantic love. In this sense then it is offered as a partial contribution to the understanding of the general phenomenon of love. More specifically, however, it is offered as an analysis of the place of love in modern American society. Following the lead of the family sociologists and marriage counselors, love will be treated not in the philosopher's or poet's sense of a "sweeping experience," not in the psychologist's sense of a universal physical power, and not in the sociologist's sense of a universal attribute of man. Instead, love shall be looked upon as a part of society, as a distinctive pattern of social behavior—as a specific culture trait. Thus we shall take the word to mean a given behavioral complex that exists in a specifiable social context. In this sense, our approach is ethnographic and synchronic. In this paper, therefore, the term love will be used to refer to a specific culture trait that has been described in modern American society. Whether or not it exists in other societies—or in all human societies—in the same or a modified form is a matter to be demonstrated ethnographically and not assumed a priori. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]