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The article presents a list of various books related to sociology received by the editorial department of the journal. Various books included in this list are "The Mind of Africa," by W.E. Abraham, "Piritim A. Sorokin in Review," edited by Philip J. Allen, "Economic Development: Objectives and Methods," by Paul Alpert, "Proceedings of the Social Statistics Section, 1962," "Eichmann in Jerusalem," by Hannah Arendt, "On Revolution," by Hannah Arendt, "I Giovani Nella Societa Industriale," Guido Baglioni, "Expanding Population in a Shrinking World," by Marston Bates, "Leadership and Dynamic Group Action," by George M. Beal, Joe M. Bohlen and J. Neil Raudabaugh, "The Structure and Dynamics of Organizations and Groups," by Eric Berne, "Learning Your Way Through College," by Elton S. Carter and Iline Fife, "Homes, School and Work: A Study of the Education and Employment of Young People in Britain," by M.P. Carter, "Conflict and Conformity: A Probability Model and Its Application," by Bernard P. Cohen, "The Cutteslowe Walls: A Study in Social Class," by Peter Collison, etc.

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.

This section presents bibliography of books on education, sociology and law.

This article discusses the problems which arise in the planning and organizing of educational indicator systems. If a person wants to assess the effect of a certain measure, program evaluation can not be substituted by social indicators as usually conceived. Social indicators can not either give much guidance in the day-to-day planning in intermediate levels of the administration. What social indicators can do is to give a kind of gross evaluation of a number of measures usually taken under a period and of unforeseen and unplanned changes as well, to indicate if the development is taking desired directions. A danger of an indicator system of the type closely affiliated to administration is the sectorization and institutional bias likely to manifest itself in concentration on means available to the bureaucracy in question. This is an advantage as to manipulability of means but as disadvantage as to seeing the whole range of alternatives. In a social-indicators-project the ideal would be indicators of knowledge and skills in the whole population, instead of educational indicators aimed primarily at evaluating the institutionalized school system and its effects on the minority of the population affected by it.

The problem of correlating the specialisms of social science is, as most serious students agree, central in the field of general sociology. It seems hardly too much to say that the question of a general science of sociology stands or falls with this matter of contriving a working correlation between the more specialized studies. The opening meeting of the Society in 1904 was followed by two papers jointly printed by the author, outlining their views "On the Relation of Sociology to the Social Sciences and to Philosophy."

As a result of a request from the City Club of Denver in September, 1924, a study of the newsboys of the city was made by the department of sociology of the University of Denver. The object of the survey was to find the facts, without any preconceived notions, in regard to the newsboys, their ages, nationalities, schools records, incomes, their hours of work, home conditions, delinquencies; the occupations of their parents, their parents attitudes toward their work. The results, while by no means startling, were of sufficient value to warrant their preservation and passing on to other cities. In order to have some basis for study, a schedule was prepared which covered the items mentioned above and several others besides. The work was done by seven students from the department of sociology. Four sources of information were available and the workers were distributed according to the size of the tasks. First, there was the street survey. This included all newsboys under eighteen who sold papers on the streets of Denver. Of course, a few newsboys were missed, but this survey includes all of the regular downtown newsboys who sell in daytime and most of those who sell at night. The next source of information was the homes of the boys. The home visit was prepared for by telling the boy in advance of the workers visit.

The article presents information on various meetings of the American Sociological Association (ASA) to be held in the year 1969. The 64th Annual Meeting of ASA will be held in Chicago, Illinois, August 25-28, 1969. The Program Committee, consisting of Ralph H. Turner, Chairman, Irwin Deutscher, Hirman J. Friedsam, Harold L. Sheppard, James F. Short, Sheldon Stryker and Robin M. Williams is planning the program to include a group of sessions on "Group Conflict and Mutual Acceptance." Regular sessions of the association on various topics are held from time to time. The session on Aging by the Department of Sociology, Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana; the session on Collective Behavior by the Department of Sociology, University of Iowa, Iowa City; on Sociology of Development by the Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, California; on Deviance by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan; on Sociology of Education, by the Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Canada.

This paper attempts to show that the myth of the primal horde is of use in that: (1) It helps to account for behavior that is observable at formal meetings, (2) sheds some light on the earlier socialization process and (3) can give some insight into the operation of wider social groupings. This obviously is a formidable task, beyond the scope of any one paper. The author discusses the university seminar of the formal kind where there is a chairman and sometimes a vote of thanks. He hope to show that the myth of the primal horde not merely explains what goes on but can even be said to describe to some extent behavior at such meetings. There is also an attempt to show how the ideas first used in the context of the university seminar can be applied to formal settings that are apparently very different namely those of the military parade and the religious service. Formal behavior, according to the view expressed here, owes its significance to the triumph it celebrates. It must therefore be essentially unstable for where the triumph is too complete there will the need for defensive morality be dissipated.

This paper reports some observations and findings resulting from a pilot study of the use of nude models posing for art classes. What happens, simply, is that for certain art classes it is thought desirable to employ persons who will model in the nude for the students in the course. When instruction of this type is offered, the college or university must employ such a model. In this paper we will discuss some of the problems of finding and maintaining him or her, and the conduct of the students and model toward one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the development of two alternate forms of a scale for measuring attitudes toward school guidance programs. The resulting instrument features a high degree of usability, since it can be easily self-administered in less than five minutes without the necessity for tuning or oral directions. The entire questionnaire appears on a single sheet of paper which the subject also uses to record his responses. Scoring and interpretation are likewise outstandingly simple. Preliminary studies indicate that the scale shows promise of possessing satisfactory technical characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights concerning personnel management abroad. The author explores the concept of cross-cultural approach of anthropologists and theory of communication developed by Bell Telephone Co. He states that cross-cultural approach has been applied in various fields including sociology, education, and literature. He says that the original papers and books on communication theory are strictly for the people having mathematical bent. Furthermore, the author associates the cross-cultural approach and communication theory in explaining personnel management in terms of their use in the interpretation and communication of beliefs on personnel problems.

The importance of scientific work depends on the number of scientific values it brings out and the extent to which allowance is made for each of these values. A perfect paper in social science should, among other things, build on safe data applicable to a representative sample. According to the nature of the research work concerned they have to weigh deliberately the gains obtained in certain respects against the losses incurred in other respects, or at least attempt to proceed as if they have done so. Different research workers easily come to weighing out the elements differently. There may be agreement about the scientific values but not about the weights to be attributed to them in research work. It is easy to acquire a knowledge of scientific values. It is difficult to adapt them. This is, however, a circumstance of which young research students are ignorant. Instead, they revolt at finding that such a large number of investigations turn out to be failures in so many respects. Later on, when they start doing their own investigation, they have to realize that there is a great distance between their aspirations and their results.

The article comments on the research paper "Toward a Temporal Sequence of Adolescent Achievement Variables." Authors are interested in the causal ordering of four variables: parental socio-economic status, measured intelligence, educational expectations and mobility attitudes. They present two causal orderings of these four variables. In Model I mobility attitudes and measured intelligence are not causally related, but are both directly determined by parental SES. Educational expectations is affected by mobility attitudes and measured intelligence but is not directly affected by SES. While authors notion regarding the effect of transient motivational factors on measured intelligence is perhaps appealing, it ignores the facts that by late adolescence intelligence is a very stable trait and that SES and measured intelligence have common causes, both genetic and environmental, that produce a somewhat spurious correlation between them. Because of these common causes, the regression of measured intelligence on SES would amount to a misspecification of the causal connection which would lead to a slight upward bias in the estimate.

This paper offers a framework for the sociological study of formal education, with particular reference to the social history of the United States. After a brief discussion of American interpretations of the role of education in society, the paper focuses on how groups and individuals have shaped and used formal education as part of their efforts to achieve social mobility or maintain positions on the social scene. The social groups which sponsor educational programs, the professional groups which do the teaching, and the students who constitute their clienteles are explored in turn, with special attention to the educational consequences of conflicting social interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author says that, in the fall of 1915, a committee of students in one of his quiz sections was given as a project the study of the reactions of students to the course. An anonymous questionnaire was prepared with the assistance of the teacher. Replies were received from 119 of the 300 taking the course. This article is based upon the report of the committee. The student usually confers with his quiz master before selecting his topic, and in many cases during its preparation. He is encouraged to choose a group which he can study at first hand in an objective, quantitative, impersonal manner. Needless to say, most of the students taking the first course are not sociology majors. Many of them have chosen no major at all, since they are mostly under-classmen. The effect of the discussion group class in socializing the student is shown by the number of acquaintances made in the class. The investigation given in the study was made about six weeks after the beginning of the quarter. Students were asked if they knew the people sitting on each side of them.

The paper presents a phenonienological framework of the, socialization process, based on Husserl, Mead, Schütz, Berger and Luckmann. It focuses on the assumptions underlying the Meadian analysis of socialization, and examines selected differences between child and adult socialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first two sections of this paper deal with the teaching of sociology as an academic discipline in the United Arab Republic and with its place outside the universities; the third presents an impressionistic evaluation and offers some data about sociology in Egypt which are relatively unknown in the non-Arab world. While some Egyptian sociologists in their nationalistic zeal would maintain that Egypt is the first country in the world where sociology was ever taught, it is certain that it was taught and cultivated from the foundation of Cairo University at the beginning of this century. In addition there are sociology courses in the curricula of the Faculties of Agriculture, in the colleges of education, the intermediate and higher institutes for social work, and in a number of faculties in Al-Azhar University as well as in the girls' college. At Alexandria University sociology is taught in the Department of Philosophical and Sociological Studies, which offers a combined B.A. degree in philosophy and sociology. After the B.A. the students can choose to work for an MA. degree in one of these disciplines; and for students of sociology two roads are open.

The article presents suggestions to students in systematic interpretation and analysis of empirical sociological journal presentations. A general set of instructions are those which will best serve as guides for the student who has some knowledge of research methods, statistics, and theory, but who is not especially familiar with the literature contained in the discipline's research journals. Thus, this paper is intended to (1) orient the student to orthodox methods and organization of research presentations, and (2) to aid him in understanding the content of specific articles which interest him. Several prerequisites to journal comprehension include (1) knowledge of the professional vocabulary, (2) knowledge of standard research methods, and (3) knowledge from the body of theory which gives guidance to each research study. A conscientious effort should be made by the student to improve himself in the area of his deficiency. To benefit most from the presentations the reader should first read the abstract when such is provided, and the first few paragraphs of the article so that a general understanding of the research area is obtained. Then a quick glance at the middle pages will tell the reader the kinds of data which are used as proof for the author's purpose. The student will benefit most by a conscientious and systematic study of the articles in the sociological journals.

The article presents the news and announcements of American association Society. Michigan Sociological Society: The following Papers were read before the spring meeting of the Michigan Sociological Society March 17, at Ann Arbor: Roy H. Holmes, University of Michigan, Inquiry Into the American Way of Life"; Amos Hawiey, University of Michigan, "Redistribution Versus Segregation: A Suggested Solution of Minority Group Status"; Frank E. Hartung, Wayne University, "An Appraisal of Positivism in Sociology"; Elizabeth Briant Lee, Detroit. The American Council on Education has announced the appointment of a Commission on Motion Pictures in Education. The present members are: Mark A. May, chairman; George S. Counts; Edmund E. Day; Willard E. Givens; George Johnson; George F. Zook, ex officio. The work of the Commission is supported by a grant from eight motion picture production companies made through the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, incorporated. Temple University:Negley K. Teeters, assistant professor of sociology at Temple University, believes that Camden's (N.J.) Director of Public Safety, David S. Rhone, invoked an old law prohibiting children under 14 years of age.

This paper is concerned with the influence of the policy of local education authorities upon educational attainment. We suggest that the influence of local policy has been neglected in the sociology of education and hypothesize that policy variables are likely to be of major importance as determinants of attainment. Evidence drawn from correlations of policy, provision and social-class variables with each other and with various measures of attainment tends to validate this suggestion, and indicates that two `policy- models' of local authority activity may be appropriate: viz, the elite-orientated authority model, in which resources are differentially concentrated on a sponsored elite with consequent high attainment of this elite; and the egalitarian authority model where resources are more evenly spread throughout the school system with consequent `inferior' attainment of an elitist kind, but where the evidence suggests there is higher overall attainment of the total school system product. It would also appear that the determinant of the policy set pursued by an LEA. is the social class background of the area it covers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sociological Research Unit of the Department of Sociology of Education has been engaged for the past five years upon a study of variations between and within social class in familial patterns of communication and control. This paper examines social class differences in maternal reports of various contextual usages of language. The findings, obtained from a sample of 100 mothers, indicate social class differences in adult-adult and mother-child communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the social opinion in sociology. A survey conducted on students suggested that about 49% of students are of the opinion that men today are true rational beings, that about 46 % are of the opinion that most backward peoples are undoubtedly inferior in their native mental capacity. About 65% feel that radical papers should be destroyed, that about 18% feel that moralities will always be the same while about 12% feel that revolution by force is the only hope for the workers. Probably the outstanding test of opinion today is the "Watson Test of Public Opinion." It is extremely thorough and reliable. However, it seems to have certain disadvantages for regular class-room use. It is expensive; it is a burden to score; and it covers only certain religious and economic issues. The test is presented with the hope that some may use it as an aid in examining objectively certain social opinions in want of any other brief but reliable test, and also with the hope that others may be stimulated to develop similar tests adapted to local needs and interests.

The article presents information on social work and social relations. Whenever social work educators meet, particularly as they did recently at the XVIth International Congress of Schools of Social Work in the Hague, this question is hotly debated. Agology is defined as the science of intentional planning of change in human beings and social relations. The term sociology is derived from the Greek verb ago, described as a word of many meanings. Agology is not applied sociology or even applied social science. Models of Intervention and social techniques are derived, from psychology, sociology, philosophy, and ethics and are tested as theories of practice.

Drawing on evolutionary theory, adaptive capacity is defined in terms of those characteristics which maximize variation and selective retention in individuals and social systems. Utilizing a wide range of concepts which have appeared in the psychological and sociological literature, this paper seeks to identify the major components of variation and selective retention in the adaptive functioning of individuals. In addition, it examines the relationship between education and each of the components of individual adaptive capacity. Finally, again using the educational system as an illustration, it considers the parallel to the adaptive functioning of social systems and the interdependence between the individual and social system levels in terms of the major components of variation and selective retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on a survey within the eleven Southeastern States of the introductory sociology course in U.S. The purpose of the study was twofold: (1) to provide a general factual description of the situation of the introductory sociology course within the Southeastern states and (2) to provide a technique for stimulating interest in one's common problems as teachers. This paper briefly presents the results of the survey. A general social science course is available to freshmen or sophomores in 41 percent of Southeastern institutions. Of these, only two-fifths require that the course be taken by all students in the college. This indicates that the burden of responsibility of the introductory course by no means has shifted to the general social science course. The survey presented 18 objectives of the course for the respondents to rate along a three-point continuum, as very important, of some significance, or as unimportant. One respondent demonstrated the logical interrelation of all 18 objectives, showing that all comprise the fundamental aim of "understanding the society in which the student lives" and that by implication all are involved in the learning process.

This article presents information related to sociological affairs in the U.S. The Institut fuer Sozialforschung was formally reopened at the University of Frankfurt on November 14, 1951, after an absence of nearly nineteen years enforced by the Nazi regime. Its director is Max Horkheimer, Professor of Philosophy and Sociology at the University, who has held the post of director of the Institut continuously since 1939, from 1934 to 1949 in the U.S. The American Catholic Sociological Society held its thirteenth annual convention at The Catholic University of America, Washington D. C., December 28-30, 1951. Papers were presented in the sociology of the family, industry, inter-group relations, the parish, and the world community, and special sessions were devoted to the teaching of sociology in colleges, high schools, and seminaries. The Cornell Social Science Research Center is sponsoring a Field Methods Training Program under a Ford Foundation grant intended to increase research capacity in the behavioral sciences. This program, which began in

At its February, 1971 annual meeting, the American Educational Research Association sponsored several symposia on the present state of social science research on education. One of these centered on sociology and education. Three papers were to discuss the present state and promise of major lines of inquiry in the sociology of education, followed by commentary. There was no intention to propose through the papers or their topics an intellectual organization for the sociology of education, the topics rather were to deal with areas of research in which there was a considerable literature and lively current activity. Philip Foster was the principal discussant.

The primary responsibility of the journal "Sociology of Education," is to publish papers that advance sociological knowledge about education. The journal also can serve as a significant medium for the application of this knowledge to major issues of educational policy and practice. Thus the editors invite contributions of several kinds, 1. papers that extend sociological theory with reference to education, 2. discussions of research methods that are of especial relevance to the sociology of education, 3. reports of sociological research on education, most particularly those weaving together theory and data, 4. systematic analyses or summaries of the sociological literature on education, 5. articles applying sociological principles to educational practice, and 6. critical or programmatic statements on educational policy from the standpoint of sociology. Recognizing that the boundaries of the social science disciplines are unclear and shifting, papers will be considered not with respect to the disciplinary affiliation of the author but according to the quality of the paper's contribution to sociological knowledge or its application to education.

The Committee on Social Statistics of the American Sociological Society would like to elicit suggestions from the members of the Society which would enable the Committee to carry out its objectives more effectively. These objectives are the improvement of basic social statistics produced by federal, state, and local agencies that will enhance their value for social research, and to keep the membership of the Society informed of current and prospective innovations in the production of statistics which have potential utility for sociological research. At present the Committee has members representing four fields of special interest to sociologists: population and vital statistics, labor force statistics, housing statistics, and education statistics. Additional members are to be appointed to represent other special fields. The Committee would welcome any general suggestions from members, but is especially interested in expressions of two types:Suggested additional special fields of social statistics that should have representation on the Committee; Suggested specific improvements needed in any of the four special fields listed above.

The article presents information on sociology in colleges and secondary schools. On the basis of catalog statements and correspondence with heads of sociology departments in Southern institutions of higher learning, together with similar data for a comparable group of institutions in other parts of the country, the following summary of findings regarding prerequisites for graduate work may be presented. In a few institutions, southern and elsewhere, a maximum qualitative line is drawn, usually in terms of quality point averages, for work done in sociology, or for all course work. The minimum prerequisite sociological trailing, southern and elsewhere, consists of an introductory course. Beyond that point there is little uniformity, further sociological courses are prescribe by a very few southern institutions, elsewhere additional required course work is common, but the number and nature of these courses varies widely between institutions.

The article discusses about sociology, selective determinism and the rise of expectations. While many complaints have been made about the inadequate impact of sociology on the U.S. society, one manifestation of its influence has been given little attention. It is the spread of some basic premises of the discipline, in particular the belief in the social cultural determination of personal life, which have deeply penetrated popular thinking in the 1960's. That sociologists, in their professional roles, subscribe to some form, or degree of such determinism is no revelation. It could not be otherwise. Sociology stresses the social over the personal, the group rather than the individual, social forces over personal motives, the patterned instead of the unique and the determined rather than the undetermined aspects of social existence. Not only does such an orientation follow from the most obvious and fundamental premises of the discipline, it is also intimately related to the liberal political values and social consciousness of most sociologists. One channel through which such ideas and orientations filtered through to the general public is college education.

Utilizing the Kaufman (1959) and Sutton-Koloja (1960a, 1960b) conceptualization of community, empirical techniques are developed to identify community boundaries. These techniques are unique because they allow simultaneous consideration of boundary and interaction aggregation problems. A sociological conceptualization of community is coordinated with layman respondent's perceptions so empirical data, faithful to both perspectives, may be gathered from community residents. Community boundaries are identified from conditional probability matrices applied to residents identified as business, education, and government leaders in ten rural areas of Illinois. Township boundaries regularly coincide with community boundaries. Techniques developed here appear widely applicable to identifying community and other boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the practical utility of measures of college environments. It aims to review how environmental measures have been used and suggests how environmental measures could be made more useful. The questions that researchers hear suggest the scope of purposes that environmental measures are asked to serve. These purposes may be grouped into several major categories of decisions for which environmental information may be useful. These include decisions among institutions, decisions within institutions, decisions concerning people, and decisions concerning nonpersonal resources.

The journal "Sociology of Education," intends to provide a forum for studies of education by scholars in all the social sciences from all parts of the world. To that end, the composition of the editorial board is interdisciplinary and international. Contributors' papers will be evaluated by colleagues in their own field as well as by other social scientists, to insure their value and comprehensibility for the whole audience.

This article presents information regarding the membership of the Sociological Society. The Society closes the year with a roll of 335 ordinary, 36 life, and 22 honorary and corresponding members. This total, the Council would point out, is not nearly so large as it ought to be, in view of the wide range of the subject-matter of Sociology and the continually increasing number of students engaged in one or other department of the social sciences, and hopes are entertained that the continually increasing measure of public recognition accorded to the Society may lead to a greatly enlarged membership during the ensuing year.

One of the sociologists standard procedures is to introduce controls for background or so-called "demographic" variables. When one finds a relationship between two attitudes or perhaps an attitude and some type of behavior, he will often control for factors such as age race, sex, education, religion, or occupation of father. Controls may be introduced more or less routinely as though the rationale for their use were clearly understood or obviously apparent. The purpose of this article is to examine the nature of this rationale. Few sociologists admit to a direct theoretical interest in "demographic" variables per se. Usually, if not always, a background factor such as sex, religious denomination, occupation of father, or type of home community is employed merely as a convenient indicator of some other variable which may be very imprecisely defined. The rationale in comparing males and females, whites and Negroes, or Protestants and Catholics is usually that each of the categories will, on the avenge, have been exposed to different socialization experiences of one kind or another.

A study of families with children attending special summer schools for agricultural migrants during 1962 and 1963, as well as previously published data, show that families enter migratory farm labor to improve the family income through employment of the children. The parents' low evaluation of formal education contributes to their willingness to engage in this work, The consequence for the children is severe educational retardation, which is supported indirectly by farmers who have integrated migratory families into their operations and by laws dealing with farm labor. The factors leading to youth employment in agriculture are similar to throe that led to youth employment in industry at an earlier period. The short-run educational outlook for migratory children is bleak, but long-run prospects are more hopeful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the fall term of 1953-54, the Departments of Agricultural Education and Rural Sociology at North Carolina State College began a cooperative program of working with student teachers in the field. The purposes of this article are to describe, to evaluate briefly, to indicate problems encountered and the way they were handled, and to point up plans for future developments in this cooperative programs. The study has found that systematic study of the various phases of the community is essential for the student teacher.

Nineteen pairs of rural neighborhoods were matched and compared on their acceptance of 30 school practices, an index of 25 farming practices, and 4 elements of organizational participation. In each pair, a neighborhood homogeneous in its ethnic and religious composition was matched with a neighborhood that was heterogeneous in its ethnic and religious composition. Ten farm families in each neighborhood were randomly selected, and one of the heads in each family personally interviewed by a trained interviewer. Five male heads and five female heads in each neighborhood were interviewed. The neighborhood was considered the unit of analysis, and the mean score of the ten interviewees was designated as the acceptance value for each neighborhood. Heterogeneous neighborhoods were found consistently more favorable toward a majority of the educational practices and indices. Statistically significant differences in favor of heterogeneous neighborhoods were found on educational goals, aspirations and attainments, and on the index of adoption of farming practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lag in the development of rural sociology in Australia is analyzed in terms of Australia's history, geographical location, and class structure. There are indications that the time is ripe for a more extensive development of sociology and progressive education in Australia. By means of comparing Australia and the United States, the trend for a sociology adapted to Australia is charted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rural Sociology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article reports that if a family of items is divided into two mutually exclusive classes it is economical to define the more complex class in terms of the less complex one. For the purpose of this experiment the 'complexity' of a class is defined in terms of the number of discriminably different members included within it. The 'relative class complexity,' or ratio, of two classes is the number of members in the smaller class to the number of members in the larger class. As the ratio of the complexity of two classes approaches unity any advantages of definition by exclusion should diminish; At some ratio less than unity the advantages of definition in terms of the less complex class should be balanced by the disadvantages of definition by exclusion. These considerations only apply when a response is to be made to the members of one class but not to members of the other since if both classes are associated with their own response the instructions can always be transformed in such a way as to allow the subject to work in terms of the least complex class defined by inclusion.

Several efforts have been made in recent years to analyze the sociology curricula of colleges in the United States. In 1942, the ten courses ranking highest made up 64.2 per cent of the course offerings. The 1957 results showed that the same courses, with two exceptions, ranked highest, though with different ranks. The present study sought to learn what sociology courses are being offered by the small liberal arts colleges of the United States listed in the 1963 edition of the "U.S. Higher Education Directory" as being in the second category and having a student population of 1,000 to 2,500. Some colleges did not send catalogs, and some did not send them soon enough to be included, so 122 colleges were actually used in the study. It is unlikely that any significant bias could have been introduced by the omissions, as failures to obtain catalogs were in no way related to the content of the study. Classification of courses was made by title wherever possible, and by catalog description where necessary to obtain more accurate comparability of offerings. Courses were tabulated by geographical location, size of college, sex of student body, and college sponsorship.

The question of how one should view graduate training in sociology allows many types of answers. The comments that follow are, at least in part, the kinds of things one might say to a student about to embark on a career of gradual!e training in sociology. Although some institutions that call themselves colleges have graduate programs. graduate schools are usually associated with universities of sufficient size to provide the research and faculty base. required for advanced training in a discipline. Universities can he classified in many ways. One common way is by size, another by whether the institution is privately or publicly supported. Large private institutions at present tend to he smaller than large publicly supported institutions, and possibly the gap in size is spreading. The university itself must be viewed as the milieu in which any graduate program is given meaning. The attitudes associated with the administration of the institution, the common culture of the faculty! the general expectations of the whole academic community, all these enter into defining the situation in which graduate training is conducted.

The Social Sciences have been almost continuously concerned with appropriately delineating subject matter among disciplinary fields. The role of one branch in relation to others often has been discussed with the general notion of staking a claim to a substantive area of study, to an intellectual function or to service to society. Interrelations among the Social Sciences may be analyzed in three contexts, substantively through study of the extent that the disciplines contribute concepts, hypotheses, evidence etc. to the explanation of behavior, organizationally through studying the interrelations among curricula, courses of study, degree requirements and among institutional subdivisions and individually by analyzing the extent that individuals have bridged gaps between fields through their varied experiences particularly educational experiences. The article examines one kind of evidence on the individual basis of integration among the Social Sciences, formal educational experiences represented by degrees in major subjects and by minors and majors of baccalaureates.

This article focuses on the need for studies of the societal interests that are labeled "public policy," "education," "missions" and "social work." Advance has been from savagery to and into civilization, which was made possible by discovery, knowledge and invention, together constituting enlightenment, and by economic gain. In civilization, as people like to believe, individual freedom of thought has become, in a good measure, possible. The steps of the progress have been made out. The higher barbarism of patronage and allegiance is attained through developments of personal masterfulness and domination. A first stage of civilization is attained through detachments and migrations of individuals and bands from the groups of their birth, and consequent interminglings of folks of diverse origins in growing populations that attract them. A second stage of civilization is made possible by rebellions, revolts, criticisms, and developments of legality. Such are the greater societal variables, and their products. To learn more about them to know them more precisely, and, above all, more fully and exactly to know how they evolve their products, is the aim of a scientific study of society.

The article provides information about twenty-Ninth List Of Doctoral Dissertations in Political Economy in Progress in American Universities and Colleges. Students whose period of continuous non-residence exceeds three years are omitted from the list. The last date given is the probable date of completion. The first list of this kind was dated January 1, 1904, and was sent to all members, but not regularly bound in the publications. The subsequent lists have appeared in the publications as follows The present list specifies doctoral dissertations completed and accepted by the various universities, and, in cases where a publishing company was reported, this has been given. Titles not marked "completed" are assumed to be still in preparation. It will be noted that some thesis titles in the field of sociology are omitted in as much as a list is published in the "American Journal of Sociology." Topics covered are under these doctoral dissertations are "Theory and Its History," "Economics History and Geography," and "Agriculture, Mining, Forestry, and Fisheries," just to name a few.

This article views on the research about the sociology of education. In general, the studies included were restricted to actual research reports centrally concerned with the school and its processes and confined primarily to the American society. Such reviews are valuable, but unless some original research was part of the review, it was not included. The review in this article has attempted to accomplish two objectives. First, to provide the reader an acquaintance with the current status of research in selected areas of the sociology of education. Second, to indicate the relative importance of research findings in these areas as they may contribute to a deeper understanding of the external and internal dynamics of the institution of education.

With the use of Discussion Groups for introductory sociology courses, this investigation traces the development of agreement among group members as to which students in the group are Friendly, Assertive, and helpful in Aiding Group Discussion through thirteen 50-minute sessions. Degree of agreement, as measured by Kendall's W, was taken as a measure of the degree of crystallization of informal role structure. For both of the instrumental roles, Assertiveness anti Aiding Group Discussion, agreement increased through time. Agreement on Friendliness did not increase. Further evidence supported the notion that either the development of affective "cliques" or the performance of affective functions in dyads accounted for this lack of agreement, rather than any absence of affective behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment is reported in which college students extemporaneously argued aloud in defense of statements favoring and opposing the same controversial issue. For two groups, verbal reward was interpolated among the arguments, while verbal punishment was similarly interpolated for two other groups. The research design included two nonreinforcement control groups and a no- communication "zero" control. The order of presentation of arguments was reversed between paired groups under each treatment condition. Results showed that, under the conditions of the experiment, reinforcement affected the direction but not the amount of opinion change. Consistent with predictions from a contiguity-reinforcement model, both temporal "forward" as well as "backward" effects for reward and punishment on opinion reactions to persuasive communications were found. That is, when opposing arguments preceded and followed reward, opinion changed in the direction advocated in the arguments closer in time to the reward. When opposing arguments preceded and followed punishment, opinion changed in the direction advocated in the arguments farther in time from the punishment. However, the effects were not long lasting; only the "forward" effect for reward persisted beyond two and one-half weeks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]