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The article comments on papers presented in a symposium on the nature and scope of sociology. Like other theoretical sciences, sociology is concerned with knowledge, not action, and thus sociology consists solely in scientific method and techniques, and in the organized body of theory and knowledge developed through the application of these. In this view, social engineering, which is the application of this knowledge to practical problems as through social work, social reform, or Christian social reconstruction, is definitely not sociology, although many sociologists participate in such engineering. When a sociologist participates in social engineering, he should realize that he is stepping over the boundaries of his role as a scientist. Like moral philosophy, sociology studies what can be observed of men's interactions through the use of the senses, but unlike philosophy it proceeds to testing the truth by a purely inductive criterion. In science, the ultimate test of all theories and hypotheses must be an inductive examination of whether they conform to the facts of sensible phenomena. It is this which distinguishes the knowledge of science from that of mathematics, philosophy or theology. It is for this reason that metaphysical principles may not be invoked to prove scientific questions.

The article comments on film-making process. The film-making process requires that a person reduce an abstract idea to a visual form. One must be able to visualize people doing something and then capture that on film. In one sense, film-making is a test of the hypothesis that sociology is a behavioral science. Students should learn how to make theoretically based films for these and the additional reason that thus they can better learn their discipline. By writing a paper, the good student learns his subject. He learns the ideas and that he can control them. But, in writing, he often learns to become a manipulator of words and loses any concern about the behavioral reference they may or may not have. In making a film, however, the student does come face to face with connecting his ideas to human behavior. In film-making, one can delineate a set of roles which, taken together, result in the finished product. There is the producer, the person who has the ultimate responsibility for the film, the one who, nominally at least, has the concept of the entire production.

This section presents a bibliography of books on sociology.

This article comments on the position papers in the June 1967 issue of Rural Sociology. The author asserts that the papers are a mark of growing maturity of the rural sociology profession. It took years before the state universities and colleges assumed the dominant role of that they have achieved in the development of rural sociology. Contributions of the early sociologists to the applied field are presented to emphasize their historical value.

The process of evaluating papers for journal publication is a measurement process, similar to the other measurement processes of qualitative material in the social sciences. A good qualitative measurement technique rarely has a reliability coefficient of more than about 0.50 i.e., a correlation of 0.50 of one measurement with another measurement by the same technique. The square root of the reliability of a measure is the upper limit of its validity. If it is assumed that journal editing as a measurement process is as good as good qualitative measurement can possibly be, given this experience in the social sciences it would estimate the validity of a judgment of article quality to be about 0.70. The two major journals in Sociology accept about 16 per cent of the papers submitted to them. If the quality of papers judged is approximately normal, then one can say that papers judged to be 1 standard deviation or more above the mean of papers submitted will be accepted. Assuming a correlation of 0.70 between the true quality of the paper and the judged quality, one can estimate the proportion of acceptances of papers of different quality.

The paper focuses on the implications of the terms "hard" and "soft" as they are used to characterize different branches of science; this is one approach to understanding some of the relations between knowledge and social organization. Given the importance to scientists of having their work evaluated accurately, it can be seen that the more rigorously a body of knowledge is organized, the more readily professional recognition can be appropriately assigned. The degree of rigor seems directly related to the extent to which mathematics is used in a science, and it is this that makes a science "hard." Data are presented in support of the hypothesis that "harder" sciences are characterized by more impersonality in their members' relationships where impersonality is indexed by the frequency that only first initials are used in footnotes. Finally, some parallels between the economic and the scientific sectors of society are suggested, viewing money and professional recognition as "generalized media" and noting certain analogies in science to inflation and deflation in the economic system. Implications for the obsolescence of parts of the literature of science are discussed, and the relevance of this analysis to Kuhn's work on scientific revolutions is briefly noted.

This paper has a dual purpose: to build a conceptual approach to authoritative relations in organizations that permits a reasonable interpretation of existing research; and to encourage significant future research. Its focus is upon several concepts common in the study of authority, which are often treated as being more or less mutually exclusive but which may also be usefully considered as interacting overlays of authoritative relations. Thus, in this paper authoritative relations are conceived as "integrative," that is, as having "traditional," "functional," and "behavioral" component overlays. In the application of the integrative conceptual approach illustrated here, the crucial issue is the increase of the congruence of the several overlays so that they substantially reinforce one another. The relevant literature is sampled, both to illustrate applied techniques and to sketch an organization structure appropriate for increasing the congruence of the several overlays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the annual meeting of the Rural Sociological society. This is not a new experience, but some of the changes that are taking place in rural sociology programs and in society indicate that the need for discussion is not yet satisfied. This is also one way of reaching the many members, subscribers, and readers who axe unable to attend the Society meetings, and of including them in the circle of discourse. Accordingly, few persons from various sections of the country and one to represent a view of rural sociology as it exists outside the U. S. to offer some of their views on important issues in the future of rural sociology were invited. They were asked to respond briefly and quickly enough for the papers to be presented in the June issue before the 1969 meeting.

Presents news notes and announcements involving the Rural Sociological Society. Highlights of the 1971 annual meeting of the Rural Sociology Section of Association of Southern Agricultural Workers; Call for papers for the 1971 annual meeting of the society to be held in Denver, Colorado on August 27 to 29, 1971; Programs and projects of the society.

Presents news notes and announcements involving the Rural Sociological Society. Call for papers for the 1969 annual meeting of the society; Tentative session topics; Best dissertations in rural sociology for the years 1967 and 1968.

For some years, there has been a growing realization among social scientists that the culture concept needs a careful reexamination. Any doubt about this need should have been removed by the recent analytical survey "Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions." The present paper is such a reexamination and is a sequel and clarification of an earlier analysis by the writer. The central analytical concept of this paper is indicated by the term symbolic ideas. The advantage of this concept is that it permits the solution of problems regarding the nature of culture which cannot be discovered, stated, or solved by means of any other concept. One of the principal reasons why many basic problems about the nature of culture have not been solved long ago is that analyzers have not been using the proper conceptual tools with which to state clearly the issues. This paper shows that the concept of symbolic ideas should be welcomed as a long-needed tool with which to do this important job.

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Department of Sociology, The university of Rochester, October, 1966. The paper was written while the author was on leave of absence from the Department of Sociology, Syracuse University, as a visiting scholar at the Laboratory for Social Research, Stanford University. This investigation was supported in part by a Public Health Service fellowship MH 23,804-01 from the National Institute of Mental health. Much of the background for this paper was obtained while the author was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences, Stanford University (1964-1966) and the Laboratory for Social Research, Stanford University (1966-1967). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on several books. Some of the books are "The Sociology of the Family," by Dwight Sanderson and Robert G. Foster; "Problems for Parent Educators," edited by Eduard C. Lindeman and Flora M. Thurston; "Studies in Child Welfare"; "Medical Facilities in the United States," by Allon Peebles; "Marriage," by Oliver M. Butterfield; "A Sociological Case Study of a Foster Child," by Walter C. Reckless; "Suggestions for the Sociological Study of Problem Children," by Walter C. Reckless; "The Extent of Illness and of Physical and Mental Defects Prevailing in the United States," by Alden B. Mills; "Conditions of Work in Spin Rooms," by Ethel L. Best; "The Standard of Living at the Professional Level, 1816-17 and 1926-27," by Chase Going Woodhouse; "Habit Training for Children"; "Studies in Child Welfare."

The most comprehensive review of modern Polish sociology written in English is probably Eileen Markley Znaniecki's paper, published in Twentieth Century Sociology. The present note adds to the meager knowledge of Polish sociology by summarizing and discussing briefly the 1957 and 1958 volumes of the Polish Sociological Review. On the whole, the 1957 volume is historical and discursive rather than sociological. The discussion articles mostly interpret ideas of other authors, quoting them frequently. Three of the ten articles are concerned with problems of education. The 1958 volume, containing nine papers plus reviews and news, is predominantly sociological, although several articles may be regarded as more historical than sociological. These papers give little information about the methodology used, and in none is there any indication that statistical analysis was employed. Finally, this paper also describes the careers of students who attended special preparatory courses and later pursued technical college curricula.

This article presents information regarding academic representation and substantive concerns of five annual meetings of the North Central Sociological Association. The institutional affiliation of each participant was regarded as a unit frequency except when a paper was co-authored by two or more persons from the same institution. The initial analysis of the data involved separate rankings of all the academic departments by frequency of participation at each of the five meetings, then, a cumulative total, mean, and rank for each institution was determined. Information was also obtained regarding the degree granting status of each academic department in sociology. Several Guides to Graduate Departments of Sociology were utilized for this purpose but graduate schools are not always consistent in providing ins formation. Certain other data regarding the academic departments was also obtained, e.g., geographic location of school. Although the results of this initial analysis are too encompassing to present in tabular form, conclusions are summarized in the next section. The extent of Canadian Involvement at the meetings is also of interest as is the fact that a sizable number of American sociology departments, that do not offer a graduate degree, were always represented.

This article presents the research papers published in this issue of the journal "Rural Sociology." The first paper by James H. Copp represents a stage in the maturation of research on farm practice acceptance. It is one of the first attempts to compare the results of studies conducted in different agricultural regions. Using data from Wilkening's study in Wisconsin and from his own study in Kansas, he developed comparable measures of certain personal, social, and economic variables. Another paper by Copp and colleagues deals with the informational aspect of the acceptance of new farm practices. They attempt essentially to specify the function of information sources in the adoption process. By asking a series of questions about the sources of information at various times, from the awareness of a new practice until its adoption, they find that institutionalized sources tend to perform a function separate from that of noninstitutionalized sources. The study by Charles R. Hoffer and Dale Stangland is a worthy attempt to take into account the farmer's value orientations as they affect his adoption of practices.

The tendency for neighborhood patterns of association to localize the exchange of farm information on a person-to-person basis is demonstrated in this paper by the analysis of two types of interpersonal relationships. Conditions which help to explain this relationship are examined and evaluated, and the relationship of neighborhood residence to the evaluation of sources of farm information is considered. Although consideration of the relative influence of neighborhood and clique patterns of association is beyond the scope of this study, the data show that clique members are more likely to live outside neighborhoods than inside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term "relevant" within the context of a small-groups course in sociology seemed to mean participating in ongoing groups and observing and gathering data on small groups. Teaching by having students engage in research has also been advocated by articles in "The American Sociologist." The research approach is especially applicable for courses in small groups. But there are too many difficulties in having students carry out research to make research the central feature of a course. In most cases students would not be sufficiently knowledgeable to design and conduct meaningful small-group experiments. This causes problems too difficult for an untrained instructor to handle. The second reason was that while attracted to the learn-by-doing element in such a course, it was equally important to devote class time to covering theoretical concepts, research techniques, and general substantive material. According to the author, the ideal course would expose students to diverse theoretical approaches to small groups while meeting their demand for relevance in the form of group participation and involvement in research.

This article discusses changing patterns of rural organization. There are many different approaches possible for a summary of a congress. The first design which will be used is to study a general hypothesis based on the sociologist R.K. Merton's comparison between European and American research technique in the sociology of knowledge. It seems as if one of the most important tasks in science is to study repeatedly the reliability and the validity of the empirical findings, in order to construct a coherent theoretical building. This means that the same hypothesis has to be tested several times at different places and at different points of time. It might be a very stimulating task for the European Society for Rural Sociology to further such a cumulative work. There has not either been very much discussion of how to study the consequences of a change. Especially the nonintended consequences are of great interest for a rural sociologist and have great practical importance. A final aspect in connection with change is the study of social processes. The necessity of analyzing the socio-cultural linkage has already been emphasized.

The article presents news updates from the field of sociology. Raymond E. Bassett, professor and chairman of the Department of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire, died on December 5, 1956. Charles Spurgeon Johnson was born in Bristol, Virginia, on July 24, 1893 and died in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 27, 1956. After receiving his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1918, he pursued graduate studies in sociology under Robert E. Park, Albion W. Small, W.I. Thomas, and later Ellsworth Fans. M.W. Hodges, of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in Great Britain, has been appointed for two years to Great Britain's Scientific Mission in Washington for liaison duties in the field of industrial management and social science research. The Fourth Interamerican Congress of Psychology by the Interarnerican Society of Psychology was held at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, from December 26-30, 1956. Luigi Sturzo Institute is holding a contest and offering a prize for a paper on sociology which the judges consider an effective contribution to this field of study both from the point of view of serious research and maturity of thought.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a procedure for constructing a city theology which effectively deals with the two major problems confronted in developing such a typology (1) the selection of dimensions 'along which cities vary in a relatively uniform way, and (2) the formation of homogeneous groups of cities on the basis of these dimensions jointly considered. The procedure suggested in this paper consists of uniting findings from previous research on the "selection of dimensions" problem with hierarchical grouping cluster analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable attention has been given recently to the perplexing problem of the relationship between attitudes and behavior (Ehrlich, 1969; Deutscher, 1969; Warner and DeFleur, 1969; Ajzen et al., 1970; Lastrucci, 1970; Tarter, 1970). Methodological issues have been debated, the lack of congruence between attitudes and behavior has been examined, and a variety of solutions have been offered. We are told, for example, that the continuing poor correlation between measured attitudes and overt behavior requires us to search for the intervening variable or variables which apparently obtain (Ehrlich, 1969); or to employ the "direct observation" of the phenomenon under investigation rather than try to extrapolate from paper-and-pencil tests to behavior (Deutscher, 1969); or to develop theories that, in turn, enable us to find indicators that are more valid than the paper-and-pencil type (Lastrueci, 1970); or to simply admit that attitudes as "presently conceptualized play no real role in behavior" (Tarter, 1970). A number of important aspects of attitude research, however, have been obscured or omitted in these discussions. For the surprising aspect of the situation is not, as has often been implied, the lack of congruence between attitudes and behavior, but the persistent use of research designs that are inappropriate for the complexity of the subject under investigation. Further, it is surprising that researchers have failed to draw out other important implications of their research. That is, the fact that an attitude does not lead directly to a behavior does not justify the assertion that attitudes play no role in behavior, or that attitude research lacks significant implications for social life. The basis for this latter statement will be shown below in a discussion of the values of attitude research. It may be that inadequate research designs, valued for their simplicity rather than their appropriateness, are a manifestation of the "publish or perish" syndrome. In any ease, this paper attempts to outline the problems and the values of attitude research, and to demonstrate thereby that such research is of great significance for the understanding of social phenomena. If that significance seems minimized by those studies that have found poor correlation between attitudes and behavior, the fault lies both in the failure to create research designs that reflect the complexity of the problem and in the tendency to exalt the importance of the proximate causes of overt behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of some common foci of attention among behavioral scientists, with particular respect to social systems and self systems. Clearly, the relationships between the elements of social systems (which has seemed to be the traditional concern of sociology and social anthropology), the relationships between the individual actor and the social system (which many suggest to be the fundamental concern of social psychology), and the relationships of stability to change (which would seem to be necessarily an interdisciplinary concern) have not been fully explained. This paper will not offer such explanation; it represents, rather, an attempt at conceptual analysis. Conceptual analysis is, of course, a primitive undertaking but, as Merton has suggested, vital to the fledgling sciences. Conceptual analysis represents a concern with definitions, and definitions in sociology are legion. Perhaps we have too many; it may be, however, that the plethora of definitions is in inverse relationship to their adequacy. Without attempting to pick and choose from the many definitions already available, I would like to propose the following tentative working definition: A social system is a collectivity in organized pursuit of consensually carried goals. I will suggest some possible aspects of these goals later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an exceptional study of the ways in which those attending a social science convention acquire and use the information obtained there. The authors also pinpoint the information most interesting and useful to the ample of convention attendants, and the impact of this information on scholarly productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a literature review that discusses the importance of American Indian linguistics. It also presents a summary of the state of description and comparative work for each linguistics family. It presents a classification of American Indian linguistics as well as the role of various language families and the interrelationships among postulated families. Though space limitations have dictated a narrowly linguistic concern in this literature and the ethnographic semantics are omitted, possible wider relationships of the families and classifications were still discussed.

The article discusses the application of scientific methods in analyzing the structure of science. The author states that integration of the history of science with new findings from other fields such as sociology, psychology, and from radical ideas in the histography of science are significant in making an inner theory about the past and modern science. He expresses that it is intriguing that science appeared in many ways universal, supranational, and suprasocietal because its behavior is driven by its existing nature more than by the properties of the society or the aspirations of men who are its agent.

This paper reports a study of the socialization of scientists in five industrial laboratories which vary greatly in size and function. The results indicate that the more thorough the academic socialization of the scientist, the more difficult the industrial adjustment. The most difficult adjustments appear to come from unfulfilled demands for autonomy. As industrial resocialization proceeds, the discrepancy between the amount of autonomy desired and the amount received tends to diminish, producing higher integration into the laboratory. The discrepancy diminishes as demands by scientists for autonomy decrease and laboratory management more willingly grants autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a report of the Representative to the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The American Sociological Association cooperated in the 129th annual meeting of A.A.A.S. through the participation of its members in the general sessions, the programs of the various sections, the invited sessions, and the contributed papers sessions. An Interdisciplinary Symposium in the Social Sciences, sponsored by Sections. Of the many committee activities of A.A.A.S. on which council members receive reports, the one which touched on problems most directly of interest to sociologists was a one-day conference sponsored by the Board of Directors in which ten past presidents participated. The topic under consideration was the directions in which the activities of A.A.A.S. might most usefully be extended. It was agreed that considerably more attention should be given to the way science is taught in high schools and colleges, the problems of training students from less well-developed countries, the flow of talent through the educational system, the public understanding of science, international exchange of scientists and scientific information, the proper use of grants from Federal agencies, relationships between universities and Federal agencies, and the role of scientific academies.

This article presents a photograph of sociologist Howard W. Odum. The photograph is published in the December 1954 issue of the periodical "Social Forces."

Presents an index of various literature on rural sociology.

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

Stratification in science has received extensive attention from researchers in the sociology of science. The general research strategy involves identifying certain socio-personal characteristics of scientists such as professional age, highest degree, prestige of training and affiliated institutions, and relating these characteristics to the reward systems in science. Two identifiable reward systems in science involve (1) the bestowal of honorary awards, and (2) the access to, and recognition in, the formal communication system in science. These two systems both contribute to the overall stratification of the reward system but differ on at least two counts. This paper attempts to examine the stratification of the formal communication system in American sociology as it is related to the stratification of scientists. It is found that the visible journals in sociology are consistently stratified according to criteria such as rejection rates, articles rejected but eventually published in other sociological journals, order of submission preferences of ASA meeting authors, and cross-citation patterns in articles of the journals.

This paper outlines the career of Maurice F. Parmelee, sociologist, government official, nudist, and author of thirteen books, including the first American criminology text (1918). The contents of the latter are examined and contrasts with contemporary textbooks are noted. Parmelee's career is an anomoly, for although he published abundantly, he faded into sociological obscurity. Some conjecture is offered about scholarly career paths generally, drawn out of the Parmelee case. Finally, the paper argues that historical accounts of the development of American criminology are incomplete, for they fail to mention a number of early figures, including Parmelee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents news notes and announcements involving the Rural Sociological Society. Professional opportunities abroad; Announcements of events; Career developments of sociology professionals; Theses and dissertations.

This paper examines and describes patterns of migration, changes in birth rates, and the relationship of these two factors for the rural and urban population in state economic areas of 13 North Central States, 1940–1950. Analysis of the data clearly shows the concentration of population through net in-migration in the rural parts of metropolitan areas, and especially in the older and larger metropolitan areas. The 64 state economic areas of net in-migration had gains of 19, 36, and 14 per cent in total, rural, and urban population, respectively. The 109 areas of net out-migration maintained a stationary total population, lost 5 per cent in rural population, and gained 10 per cent in urban population. Areas of net in-migration showed a numerical increase of 7.2 births per 1,000 population, 1940–1950, and those of net out-migration an increase of only 4.6. Areas showing the rural-in, urban-out migration pattern had the largest increase, 7.5, while the rural-out, urban-out areas had the least increase, 3.8. The data point up the need for expanded study of the various demographic, social, and economic factors affecting migration and fertility and their relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to what might be regarded as a basic postulate in sociology, when a number of persons are in interaction over a period of time, mutual expectations and norms develop concerning the behavior of the persons involved, and the individual's actions are not independent of these norms and expectations. the postulate is the basis of the hypothesis that relationships among neighbors affect many of the individual operator's decisions concerning the farm business. The author of this paper seeks to test the hypothesis that the extent to which farm operators adopt recommended farm practices is, in part, a function of the operator's neighborhood of residence.

The article discusses about the official reports of the American Sociological Association. The Committee on Nominations in full conformance with the procedures set forth wishes to present its slate of nominees for the American Sociological Association, 1970- 1971. The Councilmen at-Large in full conformance with the procedures set forth wish to present their slate of nominees for the 1971 Committee on Nominations of the American Sociological Association. Four major issues already under consideration by committees of the Association were named, as follows: Creation and implementation of a code of ethics; Relations with the federal government in connection with research support; The nature and functions of Sections in the ASA; and Relations with international sociological associations. Systematic exploration of student and junior faculty participation in the Association's affairs and reconsideration of all aspects of annual meeting format are projected. Several ASA committees are now concerned with problems of teaching sociology. But the principal attention of the Council was devoted to the issue of ASA and public policy. On February 2, 1969, Council devoted the entire day to a wide-ranging discussion of the question, starting from a background paper prepared by Daniel Bell.