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Reports on news and developments concerning social change and growth. Views of L.B. Wallerstein, staff economist at the Office of Environmental Policy, Federal Highway Administration in the United States Department of Transportation; Condensed version of remarks of Robert Mills French, a professor in the Department of Sociology at Florida State University, at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association; Department of Housing and Urban Development's sponsorship of a national meeting on Indian housing problems.

Three essential dimensions, which do not necessarily overlap, permit to differentiate the eight communes of the region under study, the rural-urban continuum, the conflict-consensus continuum, the power relations of three socio-political groups, for this purpose baptized radicals (the individuals desiring a radical change), reformists and integrationists. The numerous conflicts developing in this microregion depend mainly of three factors: the intensity of change, the social and cultural heterogenity, and the ecological dispersion. The economic and social transformations of these communes and of their region have modified the local power structure (disappearance of certain social actors and strengthened the position of others). The weakening of village autonomy in favour of the central government is another consequence of these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation and overall extention of producers co-operatives signifies the beginning of the organizational era for the peasant community, traditionally characterized by the lack of big formal organizations. Furthermore, ah intensive process of organizational development goes on: integrative organizations are built, crossing local restrictive boundaries and encompassing the rural population into ata increasingly complex system of formal organizational frameworks. The main integration trends in Romanian planned agriculture, ar supra-village and regional leveis, are delineated as well as the sociological implications of the new network. This deepening involvement of the village in the organizational era requires from rural sociology a change in its theoretical and methodological approaches, beginning with the application of the modern theory of organizations to the interpretations of the contemporary village. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports on a study dealing with emergent regionalization among veteran settlements in Israel. Regional organization is approached in a functional way, as a social system in a process of change and is considered in its micro and macro aspects. The focus of the analysis is threefold: the function of the region as a mechanism of developmental change in terms of social integration, increased participation and redistribution, and improved mobilization; the factors which influence the process of regionalization, in its initial emergence, and in its sustained functioning; and the relationship between different regional organization and social structure and institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the social construction of documentary reality. A documentary reality is fundamental to the practices of governing, managing and administration of this form of society. The primary mode of action and decision in the superstructures of business, government, the professions, and other like agencies, is in symbols, whether words, mathematical symbols or some other. It is a mode of action which depends upon a reality constituted in documentary form. The social scientist's ordinary knowledge of her society originates in and depends upon these documentary forms. This is more, much more, than merely her use of statistical and other information produced by census bureau, departments of health welfare agencies, internal revenue departments and the like. The organization which actuality acquires in the accomplishment of a fact is not simply an explication of an order which is already perceived, though it may sometimes be just that. But it is important to recognize that facts are constructed in a context of telling. The organization that is created aims at this telling and aims therefore at the purposes for which it will be told. The selection of categories and conceptual procedures expresses that structure of relevance.

Action theory's substantive image of social organization, theory building strategy, and methodological tenets are compared with those of interactionism. Despite polemics to the contrary, action and interaction concepts denote a similar image of social organization and personality. As is argued, the principle difference between the two perspectives revolves around the issue of the most appropriate theory building and methodological strategy. The ontological implications of this fact are examined and found not to justify the continued partitioning of social theory into antagonistic metaphysical camps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay attempts to identify some underlying commitments of ethnomethodology. The commitments explored are the idea of reflexivity, science, normal practice and the radical empirical stance—all of which are essential to ethnomethodology. Finally, it is argued that as an upshot of these commitments, ethnomethodology harbors a political implication which allows for its use as an instrument for de-objectification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prominent recent repetition of a widespread miscue on the date and description of Weber's magisterial Author's Introduction to the Collected Essays in the Sociology of Religion may serve as an apt point of departure for this essay which I happily dedicate to Talcott Parsons. Apart from his other writings to which only passing reference is made in the present essay. Prof. Parsons' Structure of Social Action and his annotated translation of Weber's Protestant Ethic offered me—and offered very many others—indispensable aid in uncovering the structure and meanings of Weber's pioneering investigations into the comparative historical sociology of the world religions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the speech of the sociologist Emile Durkheim, which was delivered at the beginning of the French university year 1887, to formally inaugurate the curricularization of the social sciences in the University of Bordeaux. He uses a developmental-analytical approach to demonstrate in what ways he thinks is possible for the science born yesterday to gain recognition, attain adequate maturity and set off distinctive lines of inquiry. He presented the sequence of transformations through which the social sciences have passed since the beginning of the century. According to him, the only way to prove the viability of sociology is to show that it exists and that it lives. There is a need to delimit and circumscribe the extent of research in sociology since it will finally put an end to the era of generalities. Each one of us has such an exaggerated sense of one's ego, that we no longer perceive the limits which restrain us from all sides. Deluding oneself about one's own power, each one of us aspires to be self-sufficient. That is why we place all our trust in differentiating ourselves as much as possible from each other. Sociology will make the individual feel that solidarity and dependence on someone else does not diminish him.

The 200 year old debate about convergence is indicted for one-sidedness in theory and lack of clarity in its propositions. A functional typology of solidarities is developed with predictions of convergence, divergence, and evolutionary invariance. Specific hypotheses for comparative survey research are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs a cybernetic model of a religious symbol system to explain the competition among Rabbinists, Hasidim, and Messianists in the Jewish communities of eighteenth-century Poland. Hasidism's ability to attract adherents is explained by the great flexibility of its constitutive belief, ‘communion with God’ when compared with Rabbinic Torah or the Messianic belief in the ‘lifting of sparks.’ This flexibility is traced through all levels of the cybernetic hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the speech of the sociologist Emile Durkheim, which was delivered at the beginning of the French university year 1887, to formally inaugurate the curricularization of the social sciences in the University of Bordeaux. Sociology, which earlier had salon and sectarian antecedents, emerged for the first time as an academic discipline with Durkheim. He envisaged, as well as symbolized, the shift of sociology from an unrecognized sectarian set of incipient social movements to a recognized public endeavor. According to him, sociology was to become public, an educational discipline and a thing to be imparted rather than to be proselytized. He went to Germany to inquire into the methods and content of German educational philosophy as well as the state of the social sciences. He said that the only means of demonstrating that sociology is possible is to advertise that it exists, that it lives. Sociology's justification is to be sought in its own form of life, in its own concrete developments and examples.

The article focuses on the definition of theory and its relation to an individual and the society in general. Theory arises out of, flows back into, exists in, and is an aspect of, an active, passionate and willful attempt to secure one outcome rather than another in an external and internal world. Theory is thus only an ingredient in action. It is an aspect of practice, of struggle and of praxis. Theory is what differentiates human from the rest, for humans themselves are in large part, theory. The society is a society constituted as to quality and determined as to degree by the suppositions or theories that individuals have about themselves. While true so far as it goes, society is more than that because individuals each have suppositions and theories about society. And with society, as with persons, the theory, belief, faith or supposition is neither outside nor really in any ordinary sense about society. Theory is therefore, not about an individual but it is the individual and it is not about the society but rather it is the society itself. Apathy, frustration, loneliness and despair relate to the personal and social theories within which people live.

Claims that sociology must be divided into closed ideological and paradigmatic camps are critically examined. Convergences among the major analytical approaches are considered and possible explanations explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the significance of women's movement in social history. The women's movement has given the society a sense of right to have women's interest represented in sociology, rather than receiving as authoritative the interests traditionally represented in a sociology put together by men. This article aims to explore women's perspective as a radical critique of sociology. From the point of view of women's place, the values assigned to different aspects of the world are changed. The world is taken as a model as it appears from the point of view of the afternoon soap opera. Supplementing sociology merely extends the authority of existing sociological procedures. The author suggests more reorganization which changes the relation of the sociologist to the object of her knowledge and changes also her problematic. According to the author the point to be considered is that bow sociology is thought, has been based on and built up within the male social universe. There is a difficulty of a disjunction between how women find and experience the world beginning though not necessarily from their place and their concepts and theoretical schemes available to think about it in.

Butler and Stokes' Political Change in Britain is reviewed, and criticised for focussing on a notion of electoral change which is singularly restrictive and which, moreover, has been noticeably absent in post-war Britain compared with other Western democracies. Three other kinds of electoral change. although ignored in the book, are shown to have been peculiar to Britain since 1945. These are (i) a persistent decline in the combined major party share of the electorate; (ii) a gradual fall in turnout; and (iii) an accelerating volatility of support between the two main parties. A more disturbing weakness in the study is that its general model of electoral behaviour, largely borrowed from the earlier Michigan studies, cannot account for these three electoral trends. Indeed, the model leads to predictions of electoral behaviour which are the very opposite of what has in fact taken place. In the light of the model's failure, some of its key concepts such as party jdentification, political generation and the model of partisan development as a learning process are subjected to critical scrutiny. No alternative model is tested, but plausible explanations of British voting behaviour since 1945 are offered which place a much greater emphasis on sociological and historical factors and on changes at the macro and elite level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we have dealt with a critical analysis pertaining to the notion of the informational influence. We hereby show that in every inter-actionary situation, the judgments emitted by the source (influence agent) appear to contain in formations on the judged objects from their elementary con rent and, at the same time, from their organisation, like indications on the source itself, on its purpose. In this manner, we have come to distinguish the instrumental influence from the symbolical influence. An experiment where the subjects have to judge the number of points appearing on the slides shows that this distinction reveals what happens in the process of influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews family sociology literature which is based on demographic or population data to base certain conclusions. The author discusses three reasons for the growing interest in family sociology and demography; those reasons include the theory that family units utilize natural interpersonal communication, interest in the observable effects of family dynamics on population growth and trends, and the growing amount of sociological literature on the family life cycle. The author provides several sources for further research into family sociology.

The article discusses the social orientation of children. The authors analyse responses from 482 sixth graders to establish characteristics determining peer versus adult orientation. The findings suggest that children who are peer-oriented tend to conform to undesirable social sub-groups out of necessity, which the authors argue is the result of parental passive neglect. The effect of peer groups on the socialization of children is examined, as well as interpersonal relationships among children within a classroom setting.

The choice of alcohol and narcotics and the prevalence pattern of dependence on these substances among the Chinese are found to differ significantly from those in the West. Possible factors responsible for the distinctive pattern in the Chinese are considered. Probably significant are cultural ideology sanctioning acquiescence, moderation, propriety conformity and intellectual control; historical totals leading to easy availability of opiates over a long period; and a high level of social pathology associated with culture change, economic hardship and easy accessibility to drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the author presents a sociological perspective in the study of international relations. The study of international relations is by definition an interdisciplinary one but it often leads one to confront with arguments for interdisciplinary co-operation in the study of international relations, arguments which are not always accompanied by a more detailed discussion of the role which various disciplines do or can play, of their limitations and advantages as well as of their mutual interdependence. It is an underlying assumption of this paper that perspectives of fruitful interdisciplinary co-operation in the study of international relations call for a clear definition of the place various social sciences occupy in this field and particularly of the specificity of approaches which distinguishes them from other disciplines concerned with the same object. As a political sociologist, the author approaches the problem from the point of view of his discipline. However, there is no assumption that the sociological approach is the only or the best one to the study of international relations. Contrary to certain recent publications in the so-called sociology of international relations, he prefers to consider the sociological approach more as a methodology in the study of international relations than as a contributing discipline. Whether there is a place for a sociology of international relations, seems to me much less important than whether a sociological approach can give new insights into the problem under study. In the article he defines how sociological theory can contribute to the study of international relations and not the technical questions of research methodology.

The article analyzes current trends in international relations research from the viewpoint of the historian, and declares that quantitative methods should follow theory and not precede it in determining the questions posed and the scope of the research. The incorporation of the historical approach in the study of international relations is emphasized while agreeing to maintain the fundamental objectives of formulating explanatory theories and analyzing recurrent patterns. Each of the four distinct types of data: attribute data, action data,articulation data and public opinion data, used in contemporary research, have been elaborately discussed in the article. Comparative analysis in the social sciences is an old and accepted technique. An important point to make about the comparative approach in general is that it enables the scientific analysis of historical data. The role of comparative analysis in sociology has an added dimension in international relations, the systemic or international level.

This article presents a list of books received by the journal "International Social Science Journal," and published in the November 1, 1973 issue of the periodical. Books on philosophy and psychology include "Psychology in the U.S.S.R.: An Historical Perspective," edited by Josef Brozek and Dan I. Slobin, "Family Interaction: A Dialogue Between Family Researchers and Family Therapists," edited by James L. Farmo, "Man and Animal: Studies in behavior," edited by Heinz Friedrich, "Dictionnaire des grandes philosophies," edited by Lucien Jerphagon, "Sociology of Yoga: Yoga and World Peace," Vidaya Sagar Kanchan. Books on Sociology include "The Sociology of Revolution: Readings on Political Upheaval and Popular Unrest," edited by Ronald Ye-lin Cheng, "Political Aspects of Social Indicators: Implications for Research," by Peter Henriot.

This article focuses on the definition of sociology in industrial relations in Great Britain. Industrial relations theorists and practitioners alike generally recognize that there is some need for sociological contributions to industrial relations questions. The term sociological or social are often attached to one common meaning which refers to those objectives or factors affecting behavior of individuals and groups which do not conform to what is supposed to be economic rationality. For many industrial relations writers, few of whom have received any formal sociological training, the term sociology therefore covers the analysis of factors which are seen as lying outside the logic of interest rationality which is at the root of collective bargaining. A more sophisticated interpretation of sociology, however, is reached when it is argued that the practice of industrial relations is at least partially determined by the type of norms accepted by actors in the work situation and the type of social structures which are derived from those norms.

A very simple referential communication task was administered to 3-5-year-old Ss. Each S communicated either to an E who apparently could not see the referents that S was referring to or to an E who could see the referents. The Ss: communicating to an apparently blind E were far more explicit verbally than those communicating to an E who could see. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an index of various literature on rural sociology.

This paper seeks to improve the conceptualization and measure-merit of interorganizational fields and organization-environment relations. Cohesiveness of interorganizational fields and centrality of organizations vis-à-vis other units in their task environments are examined. Matrix algebra and sociograms are used to analyze data collected through interviews with the top administrator in 159 community development organizations. Cohesion of 16 interorganizational fields (counties) and centrality of 15 different types of organizations were determined using both high and low intensity of interaction measures. Three organizational coalitions were located and found to group around concerns about agriculture, social services, and natural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development involves elemental processes of great complexity and scope and that those who would move from a traditional to a modern society must relate themselves differently to the environment, shifting from an organic to an inorganic energy base, they must alter their ontology, accepting a different cognitive base for their relief system, they must adopt new values, forsaking old ones or integrating them somehow with the new values, indeed, they must psychologically refashion traditional man and his energizing and motivational system. The encompassing task of development requires the involvement of all sectors of society and different types of social units. This paper examines the nature and position of voluntary associations in the historic process of modernization and development.

This paper re-examines the significance of the ecological approach for community study. First it briefly recounts the character of the "new" ecology fostered especially by Hawley and Duncan. Secondly, it summarizes the main similarities, differences, and convergencies between this new ecology and each of four other theoretical stances which currently seem to be the most vital to community study: the typological-shared meanings approach. the social system idea, inductive taxonomy, and an interactionist mode. While significant divergencies remain, the ability of the new ecology to comprehend many of the concerns in these other approaches suggests it may be quite helpful in the continuing effort to bring order to the diverse phenomena of the community field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents minutes of the Midyear Council Meeting of the Rural Sociological Society. Attendees; Reports made by the Standing Committee; Presentation of the midyear financial summary from August 1, 1973-January 24, 1974.

The purpose of this paper is to present a sketch of procedures which hold promise for yielding behavioral indicators of connections among actions in the local society. The community is viewed as a behavioral and interactional phenomenon. From this perspective, which assumes but does not emphasize spatial, institutional and psychological dimensions, relevant data have to do with the behavior of actors in specific task-accomplishment processes. The tasks might be building a hospital, conducting a political campaign, evacuating a residential area which is threatened by flood, or any infinite number of other public, locality, relevant concerns. The raw data of behavioral study of community are acts by individuals. Reports of acts are amassed, sorted, classified and examined. Acts are seen as fitting together into projects and episodes, and these into fields of action concerning specific interests or goals.

Presents minutes of the Council Meeting on August 26, 1973. Attendees; Speakers; Balance sheet for the 1973-1974 proposed budget.

Presents minutes of the Midyear Council Meeting of the Rural Sociological Society. Venue of the meeting; Activity reports presented by the Standing Committee; Presentation of the exhibit.

Presents minutes of the Midyear Council Meeting of the Rural Sociological Society. Attendees; Summary of formal Council action; Reports made the Standing Committee.

Three years of survey data show that over time concern with pollution and support for the environmental movement were drawn from increasingly broader bases of social structure. Environmental concern moved downward in the class structure. However, the spread of environmental concern did not substantially affect working class strata, only the lower-middle class. Certain social aggregates remained indifferent regarding environmental problems during the peak of movements support in 1970. Chief among these were persons with low education, rural farm residents, and those economically dependent upon suggested to be important determinants of support for a resistance to environmental reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a structural perspective towards a sociological theory of development. Perhaps no single word has been more widely and frequently used by such a large number of people in so many countries of the world today than the term "development." The term frequently refers to economic development as it has been a central concern to the majority of nations and citizens living there. The author also describes the reasons why sociology has been a latecomer in this endeavor may be found in the insistence on a value-free or ideologically neutral science of society. The author further says that his paper builds its argument on the following basic premises: 1) development is a value concept; 2) development is a social structural change; 3) the aspect of social structure that is most salient to development is that of resource allocation or the distributive system of society; and 4) the pivotal factor that can either promote or cripple the development process is political leadership. This article also presents a comprehensive study of human values which was previously not existing.

Presents an index of books and related references on sociology, which appeared in the June 1973 issue of "Rural Sociology." Population, labor force, migration; Ecology, use of physical and natural resources; Social organization and community institutions.

This study is a search for patterns of relationship between literacy and economy, among rural Brazilians. This is a part of a larger research project on the diffusion of agricultural innovations among Brazilian farmers. In the search for pattern changes among literacy predictors across community groupings, the author based the findings on an underlying hypothesis of a positive relationship that exist between literacy and level of economic development. In testing the correlation of literacy and economic development, the author calculated the percent of literate respondents in each respondents from the aggregated data then correlated the scores with the measure of community economic level. With this, the author concludes that for the Brazilian farming sample, community economic level is positively related to community literacy level. However, the relationship of literacy to other development-type variables is complex.

Two problems faced by many developing nations are rapid population growth and excessive population concentration in urban places. The foregoing view in population growth are: high fertility in rural populations causes poverty; the impoverished migrate to the cities in search of a livelihood; and the influx of migrants creates overurbanization, a maldistribution of population which impedes economic development. This article investigates the relationship between fertility and outmigration in two rural communities in the Philippines. The analysis in this study focuses attention on outmigration of children from the parental home when they reached maturity. As a result, the author concluded that rates of farm tenancy are lower in the two study communities than in those areas of the nation which have experienced the greatest amount of agrarian unrest. It is also possible that the pressures of high fertility operate differently than hypothesized that the higher rate of fertility, the greater is the rate of outmigration.

The Wisconsin model is a concise and seemingly effective system of antecedent and intervening variables in status attainment. Founded upon research in the U.S.A., it holds that occupational status is largely a function of educational status and is substantially influenced by intellectual capacity and socioeconomic status. Effects of these variables appear to be transmitted through a number of intervening social psychological and performance variables. This paper provides a test of the adequacy of the Wisconsin model in another culture. It was found that the model had to be altered to provide a parsimonious explanation of attainment for a sample of middle-class, small-town Costa Rican males. Reasons for the alteration are discussed. Suggestions are made regarding several of the more vexing research problems in studying the attainment process in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population policies are broad in scope and may be defined in various ways. One approach is to view population policy as a means for resolving potential conflicts between the individual and society, with respect to demographic behaviors. Such a definition emphasizes the need for psychological research approaches in the design, implementation, and evaluation of population policies. Types of psychological research relevant to population policy are described and the research-oriented articles in this volume are previewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A crucial but underdeveloped aspect of generational analysis concerns the importance of class groupings on the development of generation-based issues, and the necessity of examining the way in which superordinate and subordinate class groupings mediate the experience of age-cohort membership. If one distinguishes the demographic (or cohort) perspective on generations from that which focuses on smaller age-based groupings that provide specific impetus for social change (generation units), one can explore the antecedents of generation unit formation among upper-middle class youth of the past decade, and examine the role of social and technological innovation in the creation of alternative generational styles. Four types of generational units among youth are delineated-radicalism, freakism, communalism, and revivalism—and the possibility of generational units among the elderly is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concern of the psychologist with person-blame attribution has meant a failure to analyze types of change and social causes of societal changes. Social change can be radically structural (revolutionary), incrementally structural, or cultural. Sources of change can be found in internal contradictions within a society as in Marxian analysis, in uneven rates of growth of various parts of the system, in contact and clash with other systems, and in generational differences. Ongoing social systems are based upon a number of mechanisms designed to insure a continuing input so that effective forces of change need some accumulation and mobilization of social disaffection along group lines rather than the alienation of scattered individuals or transient sub- groupings. The basic contradictions in our society have led to incremental rather than radical change. Generational differences have produced cultural rather than structural change. Thus, the divisiveness and rebellion stemming from differences in social class, age, sex, and race has not resulted in sharp deep lines of cleavage facilitative of revolutionary movements, but have been contained within the society. They may assume more significance, however, as the American system comes into increasing competition and conflict with other systems for resources, markets, and power. [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.

An examination and comparison of two competing interpretations of generational conflict—the Eisenstadt-Parsons functionalist model and the generational unit model of Mannheim—reveals that the generational unit model provides more theoretical and empirical opportunities for investigation that the functionalist model. While both interpretations share similar sequential characteristics, each predicts the emergence of youth politics employing different sets of independent and intervening variables. Both interpretations appear to be the result of current domestic and international conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generational analysis has developed rapidly in recent years. Three progressive stages of theory and research can be traced: (a) a ‘classic’ period during which competing perspectives were developed regarding the impact of youth groups on social structure (Mannheim, Parsons and Eisenstadt, Davis and others); (b)a phase focused on interpretations of the youth protest movement or on processes in old age, and characterized by the development of new conceptual and methodological tools to examine change over time; (c) a period of consolidation and reformulation, with more precise specification of competing theoretical frameworks and the analysis of a growing body of empirical data. From this effort five issues emerge which summarize the perspective of generational analysis: (a) definition and dimensions of ‘genera- tion’ as a construct; (b) assessment of continuity or discontinuity between age groups; (c) exploration of the persistence of generation units over time; (d) analysis of within-generation solidarity; (e) articulation between generations and other dimensions of social structure. A feedback model appears useful in assessing the relationship between generations and social stability or change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an author index related to social sciences which appeared in the December 1973 issue of "The Journal of Social Issues."

Presents a bibliography related to social sciences.

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]

Twenty-nine peace demonstrators (PD), 21 Army Reserve officers (AO), and 40 individuals in the waiting rooms (WR) of an airport and bus terminal in the New York City area differed widely on a variety of measures related to violence, war crimes, and the Calley case. PDs were the highest and AOs the lowest on measures of the general value of human life, the approval of violence to effect societal change, and conceptual complexity; the reverse was true for approval of violence to ensure social stability. There was relatively high disapproval of Lt. Calley's actions, especially among AOs, and a general rejection of ‘orders’ as defense by people accused of atrocities. For the dimension of responsibility ascription-rejection (based on whether or not Ss were willing to name any specific individual as deserving punishment in cases of war crimes, any specific nation as the perpetrator of the worst war crimes, and to ascribe responsibility to Calley for his own actions), the percentage of RA subjects was 31.3 in the PD group 56.3 in the WR, and 84.6 in the AO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]