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The article presents information about several journals. The International Journal of Psychology, which started publication in 1966, is devoted to cross-cultural comparative and co-operative research in general, genetic and social psychology throughout the world. It reports on comparative field or laboratory studies, inquiries, experimental replications, critical reviews, theoretical or methodological papers in relationship with cross-cultural research, projects or cross-cultural studies are also published. Sociological Studies will be international in scope and will offer a professional, coordinated and disciplined review and appraisal of research trends in different areas of sociology. Each issue will consist of a collection of papers integrated around a particular theme. In particular it is hoped to provide an avenue for the publication of longer working papers which are at present too extensive for most journals. Sociological Studies will be published annually in English by the Cambridge University Press. The first issue will appear in 1968.

This paper examines two significant moments in sexual minority citizenship in England and Wales in relation to one of the Marshallian sets of rights, namely, civil or legal rights, focusing specifically on the Sex Offences legislation and policing practices. The first moment that will be examined here is the process whereby homosexual acts were decriminalized in the 1950s and 1960s: here special attention will be paid to the recommendations made by the Wolfenden Committee. The second moment is one we are currently experiencing, which is associated with the inclusive policing of sexual minority communities (especially lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities) under the provisions of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and in the review of Sex Offences, especially in the consultation paper (Home Office 2000) and White Paper (Home Office 2002) associated with this review. Privacy and toleration dominate the first moment, at the same time it shall be demonstrated that privacy is also central to the British Sexual Citizenship literatures that have emerged in sociology in the post Wolfenden context. However, as the title suggests, the second moment under examination points to the emergence of a rather more extensive sexual minority citizenship beyond the boundaries of ‘homosexual privacy’ (which British Sexual Citizenship Studies is not currently engaging with) and perhaps even beyond the boundaries of toleration through ever more ‘inclusive’ policing strategies and through the review of sex offences in which many discriminatory laws are being ‘de-homosexualized’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the paper of sociologist Serge Moscovici on social psychology. Moscovici believes that social psychology was once becoming an influential crossroads discipline, one that could shape and nurture other social sciences such as economics, anthropology and sociology. Moscovici's solution to the problem of how to become a powerful discipline seems to be along the lines of getting back to basics. Throughout his paper, Moscovici urges other social psychologists to consider the importance of creating rich descriptions garnered through careful, painstaking observations. In various ways an inductivist model of science within a positivist-empiricist framework informs Moscovici's views of the ideal social psychology. Moscovici seems to believe that the positivist-empiricist mode of scientific method is unchallenged within social psychology and sciences more generally. The author stresses the similarities between Moscovici's philosophy of science and that of the most traditional mainstream laboratory social psychologist.

Because women are the majority sex, it has been easy to avoid seeing gender discrimination as an example of prejudice. As men and women are in constant contact with each other, it has been possible to avoid viewing the problems of discrimination in a vein similar to those of racial discrimination. Yet if we refer to Allport's 1954 contact hypothesis, we see that he said, "Prejudice . . . may be reduced by equal-status contact between majority and minority groups in the pursuit of common goals. The effect is greatly enhanced if this contact is sanctioned by institutional supports . . . and if it is of a sort that leads to the perception of common interests and a common humanity between members of two groups" (p. 281). The essay on which I have been asked to comment (Capshew & Laszio, 1986) includes clear examples of how the contact between male and female psychologists during World War II was far from "equal-status." Therefore we should not be surprised that it did nothing to integrate female psychologists into a presumed egalitarian profession. In all examples given in the paper, it is clear that both the males and the females involved perceived the males as having a dominant, as well as a dominating, role. There was little of the "perception of common interests," nor even of the "common humanity" Allport felt was necessary for the intergroup contact to lessen prejudice.

In this article, the author describes how Leo Pfeffer, the author of the paper entitled, "Issues That Divide," has contributed among other things a unique, highly useful, and systematic cataloguing of the principal issues around which Catholic-non-Catholic tensions and conflicts have developed and exist in America today. This brief postscript to his paper is intended to highlight some of the sociological and social psychological implications of what he has to say on this subject. As it is implied, the essential nature of Catholic-non-Catholic conflict makes it unlikely that such conflict will disappear in the natural course of events in the foreseeable future. Its control requires a more adequate understanding of its process than the social sciences can supply at present.

This article presents Peter M. Hall's response to Rosabeth Moss Kanter's comments toward his article "A Symbolic Interactionist Analysis of Politics," published in the 1972 issue of "Sociological Inquiry." The author concludes that Kanter misunderstands his perspective by subsuming it under American liberalism. If there is anything that he is not, it is an American liberal, and if there is anything he is criticizing in American sociology, political sociology, and symbolic interaction, it is consensual, pluralistic, and liberal bias. Hall also does not deny the need to see the totality of the society, its interdependencies, feedbacks, and impacts, in short, society as a system. To settle misconceptions, Hall emphasized that his paper had a special focus and set limits as to its goals and coverage. It was not intended to be a complete analysis of politics nor a complete analysis of American politics.

In this article, the author comments on methodologies in social psychological work proposed by participants of the roundtable discussion conducted by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issue in the U.S. The techniques of surveying, has had exceptional use in solving the practical problems encountered in administrative work. With regards to the dynamics of face-to-face human groups, the clinical approach to social psychological problems was appropriate in that the former isolation between social psychologists and clinicians has been breaking down. The author suggested that there are no really unique methods in the field.

The focus of this paper is on the notion of ‘addictive consumption’, conceived as a set of discourses that are embedded within wider socio-historical processes of governance and control. It examines the discursive convergences and conflicts between practices of consumption and notions of addiction, which it notes are consistently represented in terms of the oppositional categories of self-control vs. compulsion and freedom vs. determinism. These interrelations are explored with reference to the development of notions of addiction, and their relation to shifting configurations of identity, subjectivity and governance. Finally, it suggests that the notion of ‘addiction’ has particular valence in advanced liberal societies, where an unprecedented emphasis on the values of freedom, autonomy and choice not only encourage the conditions for its proliferation into ever wider areas of social life, but also reveal deep tensions within the ideology of consumerism itself.

The paper starts by outlining a general perspective in social psychology. It may turn out that social constructivism, the perspective outlined in the early sixties is one of the major contributions of European social psychology to social sciences in general. Whatever its fate, some particular points are made: a) physics is not the only model we have to follow b) the existing ways of explanation can and must be upgraded c) more complex theories are required d) changes in methodological and statistical criteria are expected in order to deal with new and complex phenomena. Nevertheless the main problem today is description and not explanation. That is the discovery and observation of a wider range of new social phenomena. How successful we will he in this endeavor decides if social psychology becomes a major science or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their paper, "Academic Freedom, Civil Liberties, and SPSSI," S. Stansfeld Sargent and Benjamin Harris (1986) give an account of the threat to individual liberties that characterized SPSSI's early years. Based to some extent on my personal experience during the post-World War II peak of this threat (i.e., the era of Senator Joseph McCarthy), I add a brief supplement to Sargent's and Harris's account, I provide a description of initial attempts by SPSSI members to discover the social psychological principles that help to understand the erosion of individual rights and freedoms that took place in those years.

This paper is an advocacy for the employment of psychoanalytical concepts within sociological theorizing about the individual. Through an exposition of Freud's views on the development of intra-psychic structure and a critique of Parsons' reduction of psychoanalysis to a branch of learning theory, I attempt to show that the sociological approach to the individual is implicitly behavioural and imprisoned in a series of assumptions which, among other things, treats subjectivity as epiphenomenal and identity as an unmediated reflection of some external reality. In contrast, psychoanalysis presents to us a picture of the individual as flawed and ambivalent in his relation to society, formed by but at odds with the demands of culture. In particular, the psychoanalytic concept of identification reveals that the acquisition of identity is a hard-won achievement marked by the renunciation of lost and forbidden objects. I argue, following Freud and Lacan, that the ego, far from being an agency of reason, somehow directly ‘plugged into’ reality, constitutes itself in the fantasied image of another and that the quality of this identification crucially affects the way the world is experienced and believed by the individual. This argument is elaborated through a discussion of Peter Berger's remarks on the social causes of identity crisis which, when set against the work of object-relations theorists on those suffering from disturbances of identity such as, for example, schizoid personalities, are shown to be both superficial and misleading. I conclude the paper by arguing that while psychoanalysis can enhance our understanding of the way in which the individual is formed by and through culture it also cautions us against making simple generalizations about the impact of culture upon the person, showing that the individual never submits himself unequivocally to its demands and interdicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author offers some historical notes on relevant social science. There are several issues that have been pointed out while exploring policy analysis literature. Policy analysis seems to draw on economic and political science to the neglect of relevant sociological and social psychological thinking and research, and it seems to remain committed to positivist assumptions and quantitative research methods. The utility of social psychology and empirically based sociology maybe related to their practical origins and continuing commitments. The author provides policy analysts with a rationale for the use of interactional-person-context concepts and propositions,drawn from sociology and social psychology.

This article presents Sidney R. Waldman's comments to David Easton's article "Some Limits of Exchange Theory in Politics," published in the 1972 issue of "Sociological Inquiry." In rebuttal to Easton's suggestion that the author is not clear as to the nature of the five propositions that form the core of exchange theory, Waldman emphasizes that exchange theory does not imply that men consciously calculate costs or benefits, that they consciously try to satisfice, or that they consciously calculate the probable outcomes of the various actions they see open to them. Also, Easton argues that exchange theory, despite its claims, is only a special theory which attempts to explain variation in support for political institutions and practices. However, in the author's opinion, a reading of the basic propositions should readily convince the reader that the theory is intended to explain all behavior, not merely behavior that involves support for regime, government, political party, or other institutions.

In his Tree of Knowledge (ToK) System, Henriques (2003) posits that the human ego or “self” has evolved because human beings are the only animals that have had to justify their behavior to others. This essay provides evidence for this Justification Hypothesis (JH) from everyday life sociology, starting with the work of George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley, and focuses on research related to the concept of the “looking-glass self.” Special emphasis is given to the pragmatics of speech acts, the presentation of self in interaction rituals, the accounts given by actors in justification of their actions, and the role of social norms and conformity in the large-scale justification systems commonly called “culture.” © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An element of the contemporary dispute amongst evolution minded psychologists and social scientists hinges on the conception of mind as being adapted as opposed to adaptive. This dispute is not trivial. The possibility that human minds are both adapted and adaptive courtesy of selection pressures that were social in nature is of particular interest to a putative evolutionary social psychology. I suggest that the notion of an evolved psychological adaptation in social psychology can be retained only if it is accepted that this adaptation is for social interaction and has no rigidly fixed function and cannot be described in terms of algorithmic decision rules or fixed inferential procedures. What is held to be the reason for encephalisation in the Homo lineage and some of best atested ideas in social psychology offers license for such an approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In successive editions of the Handbook of Social Psychology (Lindzey, 1954), the focus of the history of the field shifted from the substantive ideas of nineteenth-century thinkers to the successful emergence of a psychological experimental social psychology in the twentieth. Countering this whiggish account, the dominant themes in the present issue involve attempts to portray two parallel paradigm shifts: from a “social” to an “asocial” social psychology, and from a broad-ranging theoretical-philosophical subject to a narrow experimental (psychological) science—changes initiated by Floyd Allport. But such a formulation may be called into question as another version of retrospective history—with inverted, anti-Whig valuations. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a study which examined adolescent views on social contract, the concepts of the relationships between individuals and society. The study is based on the assumption that values and beliefs developed by children and youth about rights and responsibilities and about social justice are related to their societal systems; in particular, to the distributive policy on a public political level and to the phase of welfare and modernization reached by the society. With this assumption, youth values and expectations could have predictive value. This is a reason to listen seriously to the young generation.

The article presents a study in which social psychologists in the United States and psychologists in other countries, were asked to include qualitative methods in their research repertory. The authors begin with a recollection of some classic, studies of social psychology, recognizing with pleasure and some astonishment how steeped the field has been in qualitative work. A qualitative stance invites broad-based inquiry into spaces that are undocumented in other studies. Unlike a hypothetico-deductive stance, in which a fixed set of hypotheses constrains the field of investigation, a qualitative stance allows researchers to pry open territory about which they have only vague hunches. Instead of specifying at the outset the variables whose main effects and interactions will be tracked, qualitative workers begin with a period of exploration and immersion, and then narrow their focus. Propelled by a desire to know what is unknown,to unravel mysteries, to be surprised and jostled by what turns up, qualitative researchers embark on an intellectual adventure without a map or even a clear destination. This way of working requires giving up control, going along for the ride, not always having hold of the steering wheel, and still taking goodnotes.

The article recommends key steps in risk communication and hazardous-facility siting that are aimed at dealing with social distrust. Trust is a concept widely identified as important to social interactions, but rarely well defined or characterized. The social importance of trust stems, in large part, from its contribution to cooperative behavior and information flow. Intellectual perspectives on trust emanate from diverse academic quarters— psychology, sociology, political science, economics, and mass communication. Theoretical conceptualizations from these disciplinary perspectives share a number of common features and dimensions, as well as a considerable amount of loose use. The commonalities can shed light on different types of trust and how they develop among people in social interactions. While successful risk communication and siting programs will always depend upon both historical experience and the regional political culture and institutions, the strategies outlined above are sensitive to a context of high social distrust and provide some potential for success under what are inevitably very inimical conditions for addressing controversial public decisions.

Collective violence is often social control: self-help by a group. It typically defines and responds to conduct as deviant. When unilateral and nongovernmental, it appears in four major forms-lynching, rioting, vigilantism, and terrorism-each distinguished by its system of liability (individual or collective) and degree of organization (higher or lower). Following Donald Black's paradigm of pure sociology, the central assumption is that collective violence varies with its location and direction in social space-the conflict structure. I offer ten propositions that predict and explain the likelihood and severity of collective violence in general and the four forms of collective violence in particular Conflict structures with a high degree of relational distance, cultural distance, functional independence, and inequality between the adversaries are associated with collective violence in general. Each of the four forms depends on the degree of social polarization between the parties as well as the continuity of the deviant behavior to which the violence responds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The centrifugal forces and the jumble of polemics that have allegedly fragmented sociology today are shown to have existed also in the 1920s and the 1930s. The sharply contrasting visions of our field are illustrated in the debates among Ogburn, Maclver, Lundberg, and others. The logical analysis of certain persistent themes of intradisciplinary polemics shows them to be pseudo-issues-for example, differences in findings can be caused by differences in latent questions addressed by writers. From a cognitive point of view, the different approaches are frequently complementary rather than conflicting. The social conflict is caused by competition of various schools for scarce resources. This article proposes a two- pronged intellectual agenda that might clarify the complementarity of some orientations and strengthen the thrust towards theoretical integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The editor of JSI's 1948 special issue on the social psychology of physical disability recalls some of the circumstances associated with its creation. He epitomizes the Zeitgeist in this field in 1948 and 1988, speculates on the influence of the JSI issue in the changes that occurred over those 40 years, and discusses several variables that may influence further developments by the year 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A collective biography of the members of SPSSJ Council from 1 936-1986 was done and a comparison made to findings about SPSSJ presidents of the same period If. H. Capshew (1986), "Networks on Leadership: A Quantitative Study of SPSSI Presidents, 1936-1986," Journal of Social Issues, 42(1), 75-106]. The results for the two groups are remarkably similar. Relatively few nonwhites and, until recently, few women have been elected to leadership positions. Clusters were found for geographic location as well as institutional affiliation. A distinct demographic trend was also found in terms of increasing identification with social psychology as both an area of training and major field of interest. These data suggest that professional networking has been a major factor in the emergence of SPSSI leadership at all levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article begins with a discussion of the functions that publications serve, and ends with speculations on the future of SPSSI's publication programs. The five main sections of the article describe the SPSSI book publishing program, separately review the history of both SPSSI-sponsored books and SPSSI's journal publications, provide a citation analysis of the Journal of Social Issue (JSI), and comment on recurrent themes in SPSSI's publishing activities. Included in tables are lists of all SPSSI-sponsored books, all JSI editors, the most frequent contributors to JSI, the most cited JSI articles (1965-1979), and the most cited JSI issues (1965-1979). Oriented toward academics and students, SPSSI publications have typically either focused on such social issues as prejudice and peace or been social psychological textbooks. A small set of elected SPSSI officers have played a key role in organizing and guiding the Society's publication program. The intellectual roots of JSI articles are primarily in psychology, but the journal's impact is multidisciplinary. Despite the difficulties inherent in the publishing process, JSI and SPSSI-sponsored books have contributed greatly to SPSSI's identity and economic well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the suggestion of the authors that the least adequate definitions in social psychology are those real definitions which state the essential nature or attributes of some entity or theoretical construct. Emphasis on the concept of altruism; Suggestion that the necessary components for a complete description of an intentional act include what the actor wanted, what he knew, what he knew how to do, his performance, and the actual achievement of his behaving; Problem on the explanation of the development and maintenance of altruistic behavior.

The environmental crisis in human dignity lies not just in the overuse, the misuse, and the decay of physical settings, but far more significantly in how we conceive of the individual in relation to any such setting. In the design and organization of physical settings, the human properties of the individual are ignored, oversimplified, or implicitly assumed, because of the influence of such socioenvironmental values as scientific-technological progress, urbanism, pseudoprogress (novelty and change), and the value placed on an ever increasing acceleration of technological change. Spaces and places are improperly designed not only in physical terms; designs overlook human needs for privacy, territoriality, freedom of choice, etc., and the conceiving of the individual as a simple ‘machine man.’ Unintended consequences are often ignored and no attempt is made to evaluate just how well the setting actually works. The danger is that the person will adjust and at the price of a continuing erosion of the properties that make him distinctively human. It is imperative that as behavioral scientists turn to the systematic study of man/environment problems they recognize the need to maintain the contextual reality and integrity of any such problem as it evolves, develops, and becomes modified in the time framework of a complex society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier research indicates that the ‘academic hierarchy’ encourages and reflects both meritocratic standards and long-standing status distinctions. Using a nationwide survey of graduate and professional students, this study considers the relative and independent influence of students' social class, sex, race, undergraduate achievement, and rank of undergraduate institution attended on rank of graduate or professional school they attend. Students in the total group, universities and colleges, as well as public and private institutions are examined. Analysis of covariance results suggest that undergraduate rank is the strongest predictor of rank of institution attended. Attendance at highly ranked undergraduate institutions predicts appropriate location at prestigious graduate and professional schools. Level of undergraduate achievement also has independent effects. Higher achievement predicts attendance at both highly ranked and slightly lower ranked institutions. Social class influences location in the academic hierarchy, but in an unexpected direction. Working class students often attend higher ranked schools than their upper middle and middle class counterparts. Findings show that men and women attend similarly ranked institutions, and female students attend higher ranked schools than males. The independent effects of race also indicate that racial groups attend different as well as similarly ranked institutions. Finally, limited interactions of three independent variables show that expected merit, social class, and sex advantages do not persist for all students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A two-dimensional model of inner and outer self-esteem is discussed whereto inner self-esteem is hypothesized to be an outcome of self-evaluations of performance in prominent role identities. Outer self-esteem is hypothesized to be related to self- evaluations of both prominent and nonprominent role identities. The research context is a comparison of the different processes facilitating self-esteem in innovative schools (emphasis on student-initiated activities and control) and traditional (emphasis on pre-determined curriculum and teacher-administrator control). Data across school type demonstrate a modest correlation between positive self- evaluations of performance in prominent role identities and both types of self-esteem. The data suggest that high evaluation of performance in nonprominent role identities is related to outer self-esteem but not to inner self-esteem. Further empirical clarification of the concepts was established by viewing the relationships within school type. In the innovative schools both types of self-esteem were predominantly related to positive evaluations of prominent role identities, whereas in the traditional schools both types of self-esteem were related to both performance in prominent and nonprominent role identities. Thus the theoretical distinction gained partial support while the process of gaining self-esteem was shown to be essentially different between alternate school structures. Controls for social desirability, race, sex, and father's occupation did not change these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weber's interpretive sociology requires the understanding of motives, affectual states, and actions. These are understandable because they themselves represent or embody interpretations. The Weberian statements are shown to be compatible with a conception of the human individual as a being who interprets subjective experiences in terms of cultural categories and guides his conduct by such interpretations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article was based on the fact that rural-urban behavioral differences have not been adequately conceptualized in terms of sociological theory. A relatively new approach is followed which defines roles as parts of social positions, which in turn make up situses, which in turn make up stations (the sum total of an actor's status positions within a community setting). Action systems made of roles dedicated to an institutional function are viewed as the key to behavioral differences. These systems are construed as varying in character depending on the structural qualifies of the roles. Seven of these qualities are identified, each providing a range of structural alternatives which account for patterns of social relations. Societies can thus be classified according to the structural alternatives to behavior which characterize their makeup. The role theory approach outlined may provide a more precise set of conceptual tools for delineating and understanding rural-urban differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New emphases coming from the medical and health professions as well as from the social sciences point up the need for more scientific study of emotional, social, and cultural factors as explanatory principles of human health and illness. In line with social-psychological theory, health of the human personality may be conceptualized in terms of competency in interpersonal relationships. This approach is in harmony with other major approaches including psychodynamic theory, culture theory, field theory, and constitutional theory. This orientation toward health research presents a set of challenging tasks to social scientists, who need to develop hypotheses and workable designs for research which will add to knowledge in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A before-and-after analysis of farmers' attitudes in a conflict situation involving farmer-hunter relations revealed that most farmers were not greatly influenced by a group organized to influence opinion and action, despite a vigorous campaign by the group and even though the farmers found themselves in an ambiguous, not previously experienced situation. Farm ownership and previous traumatic experience with hunters were the only characteristics of farmers found to be associated with decisions to restrict hunting. The data seem to confirm the hypothesis that actual experience with a situation tends to reduce prejudice against it. The present findings are compared with some findings of Lazarsfeld et al. For the present sample it is concluded that (1) attitudes, if defined as internalized predispositions to act, tend to be stable, although verbalized responses tend to be unstable; (2) changes in attitudes involved, in many cases, the activation of previous experiences; (3) predispositions to act were not necessarily more typical of individuals in whom cross-pressures operate; and (4) opinion-leaders, either self-appointed or otherwise, did not influence the decisions of most farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why isn't more known about Negro American personality? Three answers to this question are: (1) the narrowness and ‘practical’ orientation of many of the studies on the problem; (2) the methodological difficulties inherent in this research and the widespread failure to overcome these problems; and (3) the need for a broad social psychological theory of Negro American personality. The type of theory required must treat not only the unique historical and socio-cultural forces behind the group and the subtle reflections of these forces within the Negro's personality, but it must also specify the mediating mechanisms transmitting the interpenetrating effects of each of these sets of factors upon the other. A better understanding of the Negro American personality, then, will require more broadly-conceived, methodologically-rigorous, and theoretically-guided research. Hopefully, such attention will be attracted to this area, for the study of Negro personality not only offers unique opportunities for attacking basic problems in the general field of personality but also contributes to a specific area of maximum social importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the cold war mentality. The interesting point is that both the United States and Soviet Union have been making tentative unilateral gestures over the past few years. These gestures have been largely abortive because they were not graduated and continued as part of a consistent, carefully thought-out policy, rather they were used more as ammunition in the cold war; they were not publicly announced in advance of their commission; the possible forms of reciprocation were not spelled out. Graduated reciprocation in tension-reduction seeks its justification in social science considerations. It assumes that if carefully graduated unilateral actions were maintained over a sufficient period, pressures of public opinion both internal and external would force reciprocation.

This article explores some areas related to the family in later maturity. The analysis of around 1500 cases has indicated that there is a higher degree of family solidarity as measured by our indices than has been noted by other writers. We found that older persons accept the importance of achievement norms for their children, although they are aware of ways in which social mobility may adversely affect family relations. Retirees tend to place less emphasis upon status-striving than do persons who are still gainfully employed. The data also suggest that family solidarity is not adversely affected by social mobility. The high degree of family cohesion between older parents and their children is also shown by the fact that there is a high degree of congruity between parental expectations for their children and the children's behavior. In the minds of older parents, affectional ties are more important than financial assistance, although, as one might expect in view of their greater economic deprivation, retirees tend to stress the importance of financial assistance more than older parents who are still working.

Despite formidable difficulties being encountered in the study of national character, substantial progress was nevertheless being made. This article deals with the current emphasis on ways in which national character is modified. This emphasis permeates the approach of each social science discipline to national character. In each discipline empirical methods have been employed to study the process of change.

The author attempts to indicate some of the limits of Peter M. Hall's usage of symbolic interactionism, by looking at the issues which he does not address very well in his article, "A Symbolic Interactionist Analysis of Politics." Two traditions in political sociology can be identified: the behavioral and the systemic. The behavioral approach considers the interactions and exchanges among political actors as they struggle for power and influence. The systemic approach, on the other hand, considers the system as a whole, the relation of system parts to one another, and how the overall system maintains itself or disintegrates over time and regulates conflict. The limits of symbolic interaction theory as a paradigm for political analysis can be understood, then, in contrast to a systems perspective. Meaning, that the level of analysis of symbolic interaction theory is micro-sociological because it deals with the behavior and interactions of elements of a system rather than considering the system as a whole.

The purpose of this article will be to outline a symbolic interactionist approach to the study of politics in the United States. In the course of this presentation, the basic assumptions and concepts of the interactionist perspective will be presented, culminating in a model of society as a negotiated order. This model in conjunction with definitions of power and politics will provide the basis for analyzing the processes of power. The article will focus on and emphasize two mechanisms of power, information flow control and symbolic mobilization of support, which have previously been unrecognized and unanalyzed. In the conclusion, the strengths and weaknesses of the approach will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

George Homans' numerous claims that sociological propositions could be reduced to psychological propositions are examined in terms of the various ways Homans has used the word ‘reduction’ and in terms of the development of Homan' reductionist position over the course of his career. Attempts to answer Homans' reductionism are reviewed and Homan' challenge to his critics is presented. A general sociological proposition is then presented as an answer to Homans' reductionism and to his challenge. It is then shown that the sociological proposition is not less general than psychological proposition cannot be deduced from psychological propositions, and cannot be analyzed without residue into the behavior of individual men. It is shown that psychological variables may be used as independent or intervening variables in such a proposition but that such an inclusion of psychological variables would not constitute psychological reduction. Some implications of a distinctive sociology are then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article sheds light on the response generated by the work of sociologist George Homans. There is no lack of reviews, summaries and analyses of the work of sociologist George Homans, yet Homans himself would probably agree that the influence of a leader is to be seen in the response of his followers, rather than in the activity originated by the leader. Probably this response is never completely what the leader intended. The scope of this review is limited to all footnoted citations appearing in six journals, "The American Sociological Review," "The American Journal of Sociology," "Sociometry," "Social Forces," "Sociology and Social Research," and "Human Relations," over the period from 1951 through 1962. The approach does not take account of implicit influences and of general references to Homans in text, without footnote. Books and monographs have been excluded from the analysis largely because of the difficulty of defining a universe feasible to study. Certain journals have been omitted either because they have changed significantly in twelve year period or because they are not primarily sociological in orientation or sponsorship. The listed journals are surely representative of at least one level in the continuing discourse of the discipline and it is the fate of Homans' ideas in this universe that the article examines.

The article presents information on the sentimental basis of group solidarity. Ascertaining the conditions of group solidarity is one of the perennial problems of sociology. Some groups are able to maintain their identity and way of life even when others around them collapse and disappear. When confronted with adversity, the unity of some groups is enhanced, others disintegrate into bickering factions. In conjunction with other hypotheses on organizational patterns, ideologies, conflict with external foes, and special techniques of social control, however, statements about interpersonal relations may provide an important segment of a theory of group cohesion. The importance of sentiments is widely recognized in daily life, and the literature of the world abounds with descriptions of love, hatred, jealousy, resentment, pride, and hero worship. Since sentiments are so difficult to define and to measure, social scientists on the whole have shied away from them. It is apparent, then, that sentiments play an important part in sociologist George Homans' treatment of group solidarity. What is his conception of sentiments? In his earlier work he defines the term very broadly, using it to include various "internal states of the human body." He includes drives, emotions, feelings, affective states, attitudes, and "more complicated psychological states as liking or disliking for individuals, approval or disapproval of their actions."

Since Robert Merton reprinted his well known essay on "Social Structure and Anomie in Social Theory and Social Structure" a good deal of work has been done both in elaborating the theory and in trying to test it out. A recent volume not only surveys the existing work very competently, but adds some new evidence and a comment by Merton upon what he emphasizes is the developing theory of anomie. In his article Merton refers to some discrepancies between sociologists in their interpretation of the term anomie, and he is wise to do so as a glance through a number of sociological texts will show. R. M. Williams, for instance, quotes the Mertonian cultural goals-structural limitations analysis as one type only of anomie, and refers to cultural apathy with respect to standards of conduct; which seems to imply withdrawal. He also, however, refers to conflict situations in general. Hermann Cohen, using the analogy of a game the rules of which may not be observed, also seems to equate anomie with complete breakdown.

The article begins with a discussion of the influence of a follower upon a leader. It shows how the leader may become entrammelled in the very source of his legitimacy. It also discusses implications of this approach for an understanding of that most exacting and non-ritualistic form of leadership, sometimes known as democratic leadership. Success in leadership does not merely depend on having certain abilities, nor does it depend only on having any very specific personality characteristics, but also on a third requirement, leaders attitude to his own position. This is not unrelated to personality characteristics but differs in that an individual can perform well in a position that he feels he has a right to, and yet badly in one he feels he has no right to. The difference between these last two is brought out by what may well be considered a cautionary tale. The leader must adjudicate amongst his jealous followers, for it is he who must uphold the authority, which is the basis of his legitimacy.

This article examines some of the functions of social conflict in the process of social change. Conflict not only generates new norms and institutions, it may be said to be stimulating directly in the economic and technological realm. Conflict within and between bureaucratic structures provides means for avoiding the ossification and ritualism which threatens their form of organization. Although conflict is apparently dysfunctional for highly rationalized systems, it may actually have vital latent functional consequences. However, not all social systems contain a degree of conflict and strain. Nevertheless, it is noticeable that the rigidity of the system and the intensity of conflict within it are not independent of each other.

This article outlines the focus of the Cornell Study of Occupational Retirement based on the preliminary findings of the project. The composition of the sample used in the research is of prime importance of evaluating the report findings published in the May 1958 issue of "The Journal of Social Issues." The self-employed, with the exception of some professionals, are not included; the industrial workers in the sample are drawn only from large organizations; there is some self-selection of respondents; and in the course of the study, there has been a tendency for those in the lowest education and income levels to drop from the panel. The investigators make no generalizations outside their sample but focus instead on the comparisons of those men in their panel who are still working and those who have retired. The consistent patterning of the findings as different factors are held constant suggests that certain of the conclusions of this study may prove to be valid for other groups within the older populations of the U.S., despite any sample bias.