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The paper written by Professor Delbert Miller about the future direction of industrial sociology is critiqued. Miller addressed the related two related themes which are the need for sociology departments to remodel offerings to compete for students in the educational marketplace and the importance of sharpening the discipline's identity as a specialization directed at business and industry. As a result of the proposed changes in the discipline, students would become viable candidates for personnel, human resources and industrial relations positions. Miller was not suggesting that sociology departments or industrial sociologists have absolutely avoided applications. Rather, neither has sufficiently developed such programs to brake the loss of sociology majors to university units that promise more marketable training.

In Culture and Social Character, several authors have written essays primarily devoted to a criticism of The Lonely Crowd. An unfortunate aspect of the former book is that it is most difficult to ascertain whether the total impact of the criticism is to destroy the concepts of inner- and other-directedness or whether the analysis has enhanced their meaningfulness by correcting flaws in methodology and emphasis. Also, if the latter is true, there is the further problem of a consistent use of the Riesman topology. In the first part of this paper I will bring together various statements from Culture and Social Character that put the question of the validity of the concepts in better perspective, define the terms inner- and other-directedness more rigorously, and show the usefulness of the concepts in their sociological context as action (behavior) patterns coming about in response to differing structural settings. The first section of the paper will in a sense establish benchmark of meaning for the concepts by solidifying the argument for their use in describing particular types of action patterns. In later sections I will speculate as to the psychological and historical bases of the Riesman topology relying on work that has been published after The Lonely Crowd. Since my discussion will range over several areas, it seems appropriate to offer first a rather lengthy sketch of my entire argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective behavior has been a long standing focal point of sociological interest. From its earliest use by Robert E. Park, the concept has been an expression of the sociologist's concern with various dramatic processes of social control, especially those manifesting rapid social change. While the work of specialists in collective behavior has emphasized the study of very specific and delimited events such as crowds, fashions, and fads, the subject matter of collective behavior has come to include the most crucial society-wide movements and upheavals. Moreover, empirical work in this field has reflected a sophisticated understanding of the difficulties of observing and recording complex aspects of social reality which envelop the observer and resist simplified coding and data-reduction techniques. By contrast, the theoretical relevance of the collective behavior framework has been problematic until recently and open to extensive debate. In fact, there was a period of time, after the initial contributions by Robert E. Park, in which the theoretical disputations about the nature of collective behavior appeared to divert creative energies. As a specialized orientation collective behavior became encapsulated and immune to the theoretical developments in other aspects of sociological thinking. In recent years, say the last five years, there has been a renewed interest in the collective behavior approach. The following papers by Neil Smelser and Ralph Turner, which provided the basis for an American Sociological Association panel, give expression to the search for a new balance between theory and empirical enterprise. These papers and the immediate discussion they provoked indicate that some sociologists are using the rubric to focus on crucial substantive issues of contemporary social change. In part, the dramatic events of the civil rights movement in the United States and the equally dramatic transformation of social structure in the new nations have contributed to this renaissance. In part, the response is defensive against the persistent criticism from outside disciplines concerning the excessive expenditure of intellectual energies on trivial processes of social control. What is important in any case is that collective behavior, although strictly sociological in its approach, supplies a link to the interests of political scientists and historians who have long been concerned with revolutions and mass movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to assess the utility of the transactional model of individual stress. According to the logic of the model, whether persons manifest stress is a multiplicative function of both situational and individual characteristics. The paper briefly discusses possible advantages of the perspective over other frames of reference. Then it describes a pilot study designed to determine whether hypotheses based on the transactional model could be supported empirically. Utilizing interview data from a small probability sample of all adults in the state of Missouri, scales were constructed by an improved method of item analysis for use as indicators of variations in stress and the situational and individual factors. Comparing stress scores by situational and individual variables produced results indicative of a multiplicative relationship and thus supportive of theories derived from the transactional perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research and theory relative to the lower class adolescent male peer group has focused largely on the culture and behavior of group members. Further, the focus has been on the different types of behavior characteristic of different groups. While this analysis has been quite fruitful, it has led us away from attempting to place all such groups on any single continuum which might involve structure as well as culture. Specifically, the concept of "gang" has either been used loosely to include all groups of lower class male adolescents or has been omitted altogether. This paper maintains that the concept of gang still has considerable utility as a category for research. This paper will be presented in five parts: (1) an analysis of the concept as used in the past into a set of empirical variables; (2) a description of a method used to get data on these variables; (3) a presentation of data relative to these variables; (4) an analysis of the correlation of these variables; and (5) an attempt to place gangs on continue representing variables found in small groups in other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article replies to David L. Hull's article entitled "Systemic Dynamic Social Theory". It was observed that Hull deplores the assertion that underlying processes cannot be inferred from single overt performances. Overt performance is a small part of total behavior, thus, process-performance relations are not invariant. Contentiously, Hull transfers complexity-intensity relations, posited for psychological phenomena, to societal phenomena. Wave length is related to color - for light waves, but not for radio waves. Similarly, complexity applies to societal and psychological, intensity only to psychological phenomena. Constancy of societal complexity, given invariance of biological base, is a theoretical conclusion.

In this paper we propose a macro level model for analyzing the creation of deviance rules. We begin by placing the phenomenon within the context of the social factist and social definitionist sociological traditions, identifying the insights and difficulties the social problems literature presents for explaining deviance rule creation. We suggest that the theoretical difficulties can be resolved by placing the process within a sociology of knowledge framework. The consequent dialectical model of deviance designation is based on the assumption that society is composed of a number of general interests in varying degrees of conflict with prevailing definitions of deviance representing outcomes of previous contests. This balance or accommodation becomes vulnerable with the introduction or increase in strain which is a potential resource for interest groups desiring a new definition. The outcome of the ensuing conflict is seen as dependent on the ability of the combatants to employ resources in the battle. We conclude by identifying the advantages the model has for studying the deviance rule creation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically examines the claim that many theories of deviance only have utility for explaining deviance committed by males because their conceptual development was tainted with inattention to females. Five variables representing the essence of major theories of deviant behavior are measured for a self-report sample of 1993 cases. Each variable is tested to determine how well it can account for deviance among females compared to males. In volume of deviance more males than females were classified as deviant but the underlying processes which the five theoretical variables address operated equally for members of both sexes. These findings support the position that the processes by which females come to commit deviance is similar to the processes for males. The findings suggest that exclusive focus on females is unlikely to yield more adequate explanations of female deviance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important contributions of recent social problems theory is the insight that social problems are inherently political phenomena. Existing scholarship on this characteristic has not dealt systematically with (1) the degree of overt politicality of social issues, or (2) the dynamic element of this politicality. This paper first reviews recent literature in the "medicalization of deviant behavior," and suggests that this literature illustrates how the political element of social problem phenomena can be suppressed and replaced with a seemingly apolitical and technical perspective. Then it is proposed that interpretive social problems theory might deal more adequately with this pattern by incorporating a continuum ranging from "open" to "closed" social problems and analyzing the dynamics of social problem "enclosure," and that certain sorts of claims—cognitive as opposed to normative—are especially conducive to the depoliticization and enclosure of social problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes an initial statement on the importance of the concept of the other in sociology and social psychology and then examines the place this concept plays in the essential thought of Alfred Schutz, G. H. Mead, and C. H. Cooley. It is argued that the concept is not a fundamental part of the thought of Schutz, that it is used merely as a convenient loophole at various strategic moments in the argument, whereas in the work of Mead and Cooley it is conceived as an active and embodied entity that plays a crucial role in their respective theories of socialization and human conduct. The work of the labeling theorists is then taken to illustrate the value of the concept as used by Mead and Cooley, with some changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first reviews the descriptions and structural explanations for variations, in urban population densities in the United States over several decades. The research reviewed focuses on shifts in the technology and economics of travel as being the major influences on urban density distributions. These variables appear to be somewhat less adequate as explanations of the process in recent decades. After reviewing these findings and suggesting several research questions, we attempt to assess the evidence relating variations in population density to several other aspects of human behavior. A review of the research relating high population densities to various "social pathologies" indicates that little of the variance in rates of these pathologies can be attributed to density independently of other social structural variables. Some important consequences of population density have been reported, however, and possible research directions are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is not offered, even by implication, as an explanation for urban riots and confrontations. It is an exposition of a point of view, a methodology, and a body of evidence which hopefully may shed some light on this complex and pressing social problem. Within the social sciences several levels of analysis exist, each appropriate to the study of a certain type of problem (Devereaux, 1963; Bendix, 1963). Experimental approaches to social psychology have been particularly valuable in the analysis of individual behavior in a social context; emphasis has been on finding both the social determinants and the social implications of the behavior of an individual. While we believe that part of the explanation of collective phenomena, such as urban revolts, lies in the analysis of the behavior of individuals (cf. Brown, 1965), we do not advocate naive reductionism. We propose only to use data from the laboratory to form some operational definitions and hypotheses to guide further study and interpretation of collective events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small group research has dealt at some length with the phenomena of competition and cooperation. Task performance and, to a lesser extent, group structure have been examined under different conditions of competition and cooperation. The two group-types most frequently encountered in the literature are the intra-competitive group in which the members of a group compete with each other for a reward which only one of them may obtain, and the intra-cooperative, inter-competitive group in which the members are competing as a unit against another group. In the course of a recent experiment, the behaviors and attitudes of two additional group-types have also been studied. One of these types, the Intra-Aud-Inter-Competitive Group shall be the focus of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical evidence for an insulating "self-factor" would be a valuable complement to the large body of recent theory and research in the sociology of crime and delinquency which stresses structural factors as sources of deviant behavior. By attempting to answer the question of why "good boys in high delinquency areas" are steered away from involvement in law-violating activities, the critical problem of why the majority of persons in groups which are presumably exposed to structural pressures toward deviance is addressed. In its basic orientation then, this research considers nondelinquent behavior, as well as delinquent behavior, to be problematic.

It is not unusual, in fact, it is commonplace, that in the development of a body of knowledge a particular mode of thought, while responsible for the discovery and ordering of important facts, is at the same time responsible for the obstruction of equally important truths. This appears especially to be the case in the sociological study of criminal behavior. There has been the overwhelming conception of criminal behavior (and deviant behavior in general) as behavior that is produced by a variety of impersonal, deterministic forces rather than by voluntaristic, purposive action. The former perspective found in much of criminology today results from a particular conception of man and society. The object of this paper is to explore the possibility of an alternative conception of man and society for criminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I shall set down a few ideas that I consider central in the study of collective behavior and conflict, and indicate a few similarities and differences between my views on these subjects and the views of others. I shall organize my remarks around the following questions. (1) What are the defining characteristics of collective behavior? In addressing this question I shall simultaneously be talking about what I consider to be the scope of the field. (2) What are the central problems in this field? (3) What are the ways in which these problems can be most adequately handled? Here I shall outline the "value-added" approach to explaining collective outbursts and movements. (4) To conclude, I shall focus on social movements with political aims, and ask two questions: When is a movement likely to become revolutionary? When is a revolutionary movement likely to become violent? In discussing these final questions, I shall apply some of the variables of the value-added scheme, and introduce the subject of conflict explicitly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title of this study is that given to the review of a book in a recent issue of Commentary. It also refers to an important contemporary social movement, namely, mental illness. This is a movement that accords to irrationalism a constantly increasing respectability. An enormous increase in the kinds of conduct classified as irrational has resulted in the past few decades from the work of some of the most highly educated and intellectual students of human behavior. One corollary is a decrease in the kinds of behavior classified as rational. This has been accompanied by a violent attack upon the concepts of reason and individual responsibility, and by attempts to substitute the concepts of irresponsibility and exculpation. These attempts have been successful to a great degree. This paper will concern itself with two problems that mark this social movement. The first problem is that of definition and counting. The second is that of resolving the paradox of irrationalism. It would be tedious to summarize the studies of the past twentyfive years that show that the interest in mental illness is a social movement rather than a scientific development. One of the first, by Kingsley Davis, showed that it possesses a characteristic essential to any social movement. Its proponents conceive it to be a panacea. As a social movement it is in many respects the functional equivalent of religion in the system of traditional middle-class values. The movement is today continuing to propagate middle-class values and ethics under the guise of science. It presents the prototype of the middle-class or upper-class person as being in all important respects equivalent to that of the mentally healthy person. Thus it is not to be wondered at that when psychiatrists and other clinicians (who are professional and upper class ) interview and otherwise "examine" lower-class children, especially delinquent boys, they find that the boys are "emotionally disturbed" or "mentally ill" in some form and to some degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on basic difficulty in historical sociology. The newly reawakened interest in the sociological study of historical events makes it worthwhile to raise again the question whether such a study is scientifically feasible at all. Obviously, all data anybody can deal with are historical data, events of the past. Science is a form of ratiocination dealing with past events and so all science is historical. Those who are interested in historical sociology are generally not interested in this kind of work, which falls into the province of general sociology. The historical sociologist tends to look at history not in the sense of the totality of all past events, but in the sense of recorded history. In other words, he tends to look exclusively, or at least primarily, to the works of the historians as his source of information about unique sequences of past events, which he tries to use as raw materials for the development of generalizations about interhuman behavior. It is the intention of this paper to show that the writings of the historians can be used for sociological purposes only with the greatest caution.

Comparisons of factor analytic results based on a matrix of total (individual) correlations and three matrices of between-groups (ecological) correlations revealed fundamental differences in factor patterns when the unit of analysis shifted from individuals to aggregates. The major difference involved the marked tendency for a highly individualistic General Ability Factor derived from the matrix of total correlations to become more and more sociological in content as individuals were aggregated. Results are discussed in terms of their bearing on the problem of determining the "appropriateness" of a given unit of analysis, individuals vs. aggregates, for certain levels of inquiry, i.e., psychological vs. sociological. It is concluded that whether the researcher should heed the traditional warning about the use of aggregate data relationships as a basis for making inferences concerning individuals ought to depend in part on whether his interest is in psychological or sociological propositions about individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this note is to present data testing the hypothesis that the more theologically liberal a Christian clergyman is, the more politically liberal he will be, and the more theologically conservative a Christian clergyman is, the more politically conservative he will be. In so doing, these findings will be related to the studies just cited, but this study is significantly different in several ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serious chronic illness undermines the unity between body and self and forces identity changes. To explicate how the body, identity, and self intersect in illness, one mode of living with impairment, adapting, is explicated in this article. Adapting means altering life and self to accommodate to bodily losses and limits and resolving the lost unity between body and self. It means struggling with rather than against illness. The process of adapting consists of three major stages: (1) experiencing and defining impairment, (2) making bodily assessments and, subsequently, identity trade-offs, as ill people weigh their losses and gains and revise their identity goals, and (3) surrendering to the sick self by relinquishing control over illness and by flowing with the experience of it. Adapting seldom occurs only once Rather chronically ill people are forced to adapt repeatedly as they experience new losses. The data consist of 115 interviews about experiencing chronic illness and 25 more focused interviews about the body in chronic illness. The strategies of grounded theory provided the methods for completing the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of a transformation explanation for collective behavior is traced from LeBon's theory of crowd mind, through Park's dissertation on rational and critical discussion in publics versus psychic reciprocity in crowds, to Blumer's distinction between symbolic interaction in routine social life and circular reaction in collective behavior. The LeBon-Park-Blumer hypothesis holds that crowds transform individuals, diminishing or eliminating their ability to rationally control their behavior. The accumulated logical arguments and empirical evidence against the transformation hypothesis are reviewed. Some theoretical and methodological paradoxes are noted in Blumer's adoption of Park's rather than Mead's explanation for human behavior in problematic situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One thing is certain, a man might feel: the building of this bridge will never be completed, but my life will surely have its end. A man might therefore risk a running leap from the unfinished edge to the shore that he thinks he sees ahead. Perhaps he has seen right and has estimated his own powers correctly. In which event, applause. Perhaps he has badly miscalculated on both counts. In which event, a certain dampness sets in. Maybe he can swim back to safety, even if somewhat less than applauded. In any event, he has found out how far he can see and how well he can jump. Even if he is never heard from again, perhaps those who are still dawdling at the edge will learn something useful (Gouldner, 1973). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on sanction threat-behavior relationships has suffered because investigators, using cross-sectional data, have failed to meet methodological requirements concerning the causal order of variables and the statistical control of other relevant variables. We estimate several models of a social-control process that meet these requirements, using longitudinal panel data from a sample of 265 adolescents. Our models consider the relationships among an inhibitor (threat of sanction), a generator (peer-group influence), and a measure of deviance (use of marijuana). The results obtained from the best-fitting model indicate that sanction threat does not exert any long-term effects (at least of one year), although there was evidence that it has modest instantaneous effects on deviance. Having marijuana-using friends has the greatest effect on marijuana use. The pattern of coefficients suggests that peers may initially be selected because of their deviant conduct, and that once chosen, they exert independent generative (or causative) influence on deviance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several issues in the study of deviance are discussed: the definition of deviance; the significance of the deviant act; cultural relativism; the influence of social structures and causation. By using departures from rules to define deviance, sociologists may repeat fallacies of formalistic jurisprudence. Deviance is best left undefined, and preferably delimited ontologically in terms of middle range theory. Spector and Kitsuse's revisionist theory is judged insufficient for macro-analysis of deviance because they fail to reconcile the influence of objective and subjective factors. Cottrell's choice and feedback model is advocated as a means to study the dynamic process wherein values are aggregated in the social definition of deviance. The problem of bringing objective factors into this analysis is solved by showing how changing costs alter the order in which values are satisfied and thus change the overt pattern of societal reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In sociology today, a consensus exists that the human self is exclusively socially determined. Many sociologists maintain that any considerations of the biological basis of human behavior are irrelevant. The arguments which are made today in favor of the social determination of the human personality use the theoretical insights of the Pragmatists and Symbolic Interactionists as their source of reference and proof. All of the various Pragmatic and Symbolic Interactionist theories use a number of assumptions about the biologically innate nature of human nature. To show that the theories which have presented a social deterministic view of man are themselves deeply immersed in biological assumptions demonstrates that the irrelevance of biological factors as determinants of the human self has not been convincingly proved yet. Also it suggests the possibility that theories dealing with man's social nature and those concerned with innate species-specific characteristics may not necessarily be mutually exclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists have tended to neglect vindication, the process by which deviant behavior becomes redefined as respectable or legitimate. The few studies emphasize the importance of moral persuasion in bringing about vindication. Tobacco's early history suggests that economic interests can also play an important role. In the early seventeenth century, Europeans viewed tobacco as a deviant drug; but in spite of continued moral opposition, it was vindicated by the end of the century because powerful persons and agencies discovered that supporting the trans-Atlantic tobacco trade was in their economic interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ritzer (1975) suggests that biological explanation may emerge as a new paradigm in sociology but incipient work in this area has not had much impact on the discipline. Some forms of biological explanation seem sociologically trivial, but at least three forms of explanation common in the discipline of biology have meaningful homologues in sociology: (1) species-wide human behavior may be explained as the result of biological evolution; (2) behavioral differences between humans, or between groups of humans, may be explained by genetic differences between the individuals or groups; and, (3) social interaction may be explained neurophysiologically in terms of organ systems, nerve impulses, hormones, etc. Each of these forms of biological explanation is meaningful in a sociological context, but each has severe limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The failure of the labeling perspective to account for informal reaction processes is noted. Viewing informal labeling in terms of emergence and the documentary method, definitional processes are divided into two categories: (1) intra-situational definitions concerning the practical problems of negotiating an interactional encounter, and (2) frans-situational definitions in which the actor is evaluated in terms of cultural knowledge and prior experience. A repeated measures experimental study is discussed which indicates that intra-situational and trans-situational definitions are differentially responsive to variations over time in the typicality of an actor's behavior. Implications for the concept of "aligning actions" are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opening refers to the activity of two or more persons moving from a condition of behavioral independence to one of interdependence. It is thus the first necessary activity that any two persons must perform successfully if they are to do anything else together. Two empirical studies focusing on this social activity were conducted with four elements of opening being delineated: (1) reciprocally acknowledged attention, (2) mutual responsiveness, (3) congruent functional identities, and (4) shared focus. Each of these elements must be constructed and maintained if concerted behavior is to occur. Evidence includes both successful and unsuccessful attempts at opening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the publication of Taylor, Walton and Young's New Criminology (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972 and New York: Harper Torch Books, 1974), the Quarterly asked Anthony Platt, Richard Quinney and Paul Rock to write reviewessays which were subsequently published in the Quarterly in the Autumn 1973 issue. These reviews elicited the following response by Stephen Mugford. It was circulated to the authors of the New Criminology. who declined to comment, choosing to formulate a general response to the many review comments the book has generated. Mugford's comment was also sent to the original reviewers, and Paul Rock's reply follows. The editor would like to encourage such free interchange, and will attempt to facilitate comment by circulating manuscripts and soliciting commentary. (Perhaps a format similar to that employed by Current Anthropology will emerge). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Replication is one of several methodological techniques that contributes to the verification of survey research data. A critique of the literature on replication reveals that limited systematic attention has been given to its various functions in the process of verification. A replication paradigm is formulated to clarify terminology and functions. The paradigm consists of four major replication types: retest, internal, independent, and theoretical. These are analyzed and illustrated by published replication studies. An argument is offered in favor of the increased use of replication in survey research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years many social scientists have attempted to explain why police behave the way they do in performing their duties. What follows is a review of some dominant themes running through the myriad of articles and books which have appeared on this subject in the last few years. This survey does not purport to offer an exhaustive coverage of all relevant literature but is intentionally selective to highlight some observable patterns. After this review, some observations will be made regarding the theoretical and empirical weaknesses in this research, and an analysis of some reasons for these deficiencies will be discussed. Finally, some suggestions will be made for profitable new directions for future research on police behavior. [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 forms of social change are myriad: a revolutionary movement overthrows a ruling elite, an empire falls to barbarians, the rise of a business class transforms a traditional society, a criminal organization gains control over the life of a community, patterns of romantic love replace arranged marriage, intergroup hostility rises and falls. In such ways do the basic patterns of social life change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of studies dealing with status consistency were reviewed and certain assumptions made. Signal among the assumptions is the idea that achieved statuses may be viewed as goals and ascribed statuses as literal means to those goals. By employing Merton's modes of individual adaptation typology, a theoretical framework was constructed which it is believed will allow the prediction and explanation of behavior associated with various configurations of status inconsistency. It was concluded that individuals with high-ascribed and low-achieved status may, when incapable of attaining high-achieved status, engage in ritualism as a mode of adaptation. Over time, if awareness of status discrepancy increases, a re-evaluation of the desirability of ascribed status as a means to achieved status may result in rebellion. It was also concluded that individuals with low-ascribed status may engage in retreatism as a mode of adaptation, but this mode may be rejected in favor of high-consistent status, which requires innovating. If stress caused by the social context persists, rebellion may result. [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]

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]

Several studies have looked at the relationships between statuses used for self-identification, and how humans organize their behavior. It is implied that if a person does not use an assigned status for self-identification, we will not find those statuses relevant to explaining his behavior. In contrast, there are several studies that support the idea that occupancy of a status, without being attached to the status, has consequences in how the person organizes his behavior. Many of the latter studies have been conducted under the umbrella "alienation"—a term with many meanings. The vagueness of the concept and the wide variety of ways in which it has been used do create problems in applying the concept to research. Seeman specifies five meanings for the term alienation. One of these is "self-estrangement." Yet even self-estrangement, or self alienation, appears to be vague and difficult to measure. But it does appear possible to conceptualize and measure "attachment to" or "alienation (estrangement) from" statuses assigned to self by others. If the proposition that an important part of the acquisition of self is the internalization of statuses and roles assigned an individual by others is accepted, it follows that measures of the degree of internalization of the statuses and roles assigned would tap an important dimension of human behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Edward E. Harris explored the association between a nationally derived scale of socio-economic status and the variables of prestige, reward, skill and functional importance. He attempted to provide a view on the functional theory of stratification as stated by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore. Prestige refers to a sociopsychological phenomenon. The Davis-Moore theory argues that prestige is dependent on functional importance. The Davis-Moore conceptualization failed to become an explicit theory of human behavior.

The article presents an analysis of functional behavior in case of a disaster. To the few hundred people directly involved, the tornado spelled tragedy. But for many of the remaining million residents of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area it spelled excitement and entertainment. To the sociological observer, viewing the event as collective behavior, several latent functions of disaster appear. it is suggested here that the storm which descended upon the fringe of the city appeared to provide thousands of spring-fever stricken citizens with recreation, occupation, relaxation, and a sense of fulfillment, the kind of collective excitement which offers a welcome respite from the monotonous routine of urban living. The unanticipated and frequently unrecognized consequences of a disaster need not be dysfunctional from the perspective of all of the groups concerned. It is suggested below that there may be important latent functions of a disaster. For example, it would be difficult for anyone to admit to himself that he could find pleasure in the tragedy of others although this is apparently what happened.