Showing papers in "American Journal of Sociology in 1975"
TL;DR: This article introduced the variable of size to account for the pervasive "unconventionality" (deviance, invention, etc.) of urban life and proposed a model to remedy the problem.
Abstract: Wirth's (1938) theory of urban life has been eclipsed in recent years by a perspective that denies the importance of ecological factors. This view, though more accurate than Wirth's, fails to account for the pervasive "unconventionality" (deviance, invention, etc.) of urban life. A model is presented here to remedy that problem; it reintroduces the variable of size but in a manner distinct from Writh's. Population concentration produces a diversityof subcultures, strengthens them, and fosters diffusion among them. Together, these three mediating variables account for urban unconventionality. The four propositions of the theory and three others deducible from it are examined against existing research.
612Â citations
TL;DR: In the origins of sociology, "social control" served as a central concept both for relating sociology to social philosophy and for analyzing total societies as discussed by the authors. But the traditional usage of social control has persisted, the term has been redefined to mean either socialization or social repression.
Abstract: In the origins of sociology, "social control" served as a central concept both for relating sociology to social philosophy and for analyzing total societies. In its classical sense, it referred to the capacity of a social group to regulate itself. The concept supplied a basis for integration of theory and research until the 1930s. While the traditional usage of social control has persisted, the term has been redefined to mean either socialization or social repression. Either the classical meaning must be utilized or a new term must be developed to refer to the capacity of social groups to effect self-regulation if theory and research are to deal with macrosociology under advanced industrialism.
339Â citations
TL;DR: A developmental approach to role acquisition, containing both social and psychological dimensions, is presented in this paper, which entails four stages in the acquisition of a role: anticipatory, formal, informal, and personal.
Abstract: A developmental approach to role acquisition, containing both social and psychological dimensions, is presented in this paper. It entails four stages in the acquisition of a role: anticipatory, formal, informal, and personal. Each stage is discussed in terms of the variety of sources, content, and forms of expectations present, as well as the degree of consensus on the expectations and individuals' reactions to them. It is suggested that the acquisition of roles involves passage through all four stages. Implications of the formulation for sociological and psychological research regarding role acquisition are offered.
287Â citations
TL;DR: This article examined the coverage given the Santa Barbara oil spill by a national sample of newspapers, determining the types of news subjects and news activities which become national events and found that federal officials and business spokesmen have greater access to news media than conservationists and local officials.
Abstract: Beginning with the assumption that news is constituted through purpopse at hand, we examine the coverage given the Santa Barbara oil spill by a national sample of newspapers, determining the types of news subjects and news activities which become national events. It is found that federal officials and business spokesmen have greater access to news media than conservationists and local officials. It is found that symbolic topics and not topics with implications for distribution of wealth receive preponderant coverage. Implications of current methods of news gathering for the maintenance of ideological domination are discussed.
247Â citations
TL;DR: The authors replicated one of the Wisconsin "social-psychological" models of socioeconomic achievement with 15-year longitudinal data for a national sample of males first sampled in 1955 as high school sophomores and followed up in 1970.
Abstract: Status attainment research has been characterized by the evaluation of analytic models of increasing complexity. This project replicates one of the Wisconsin "social-psychological" models of socioeconomic achievement with 15-year longitudinal data for a national sample of males first sampled in 1955 as high school sophomores and followed up in 1970. Interpersonal and subjective school variables are found to mediate a substantial part of the effects of ability and social origins on later status outcomes, indicating complex processes quite similar to those demonstrated in the original Wisconsin analysis. Minor differences in results between the two inquiries robably reflect differences in sample composition and research design.
201Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors suggest an explanation of police-civilian behavior based on a normative and interpersonal construct rather than on a psychological construct, which they explain in terms of the rules which order their relations with civilians and which are usually mutually acknowledged by both.
Abstract: The authors suggest an explanation of police-civilian behavior based on a normative and interpersonal construct rather than on a psychological construct. Police behavior must be explained in terms of the rules which order their relations with civilians and which are usually mutually acknowledged by both. Among these rules the authors posit that in a typical encounter relations are governed by asymmetrical status norm when deference exchange is involved. This norm effects various statuses in different ways. Data from an extensive study of police-civilian encounters in which the process of interaction was coded using a special interaction process analysis category system are used to test hypotheses derived from the theory.
195Â citations
Abstract: This article examines the assumptions underlying two multivariate strategies commonly used in analyzing ordinal data Both strategies employ as a descriptive tool the ordinary multiple regression algorithms; the crucial difference between the two is that the first, ordinal strategy, uses the matrix of Kendall's 's as the building block of multivariate analysis, while the second, parametric strategy, uses the matrix of Pearson's 's These two strategies are evaluated and constrasted in terms of their usefulness in answering basic research questions that arise in multivariate analysis One overriding conclusion is that, contrary to the claims of its proponents, the ordinal strategy is no better than the parametric strategy at meeting some of the basic requirements of multivariate analysis It is argued that parametric strategy, when accompanied by careful evaluation of the validity of the implict quantification of ordinal variables, is more amenable to one of the goals of scientific research: successive app
194Â citations
TL;DR: Recently collected sex-role attitude data are analyzed with a view to understanding the ideological bases of specific attitudes as mentioned in this paper. But their analysis suggests that women do not currently organize all attitudes along a single dimension, although their outlook toward the sex-based familial division of labor is supported by beliefs about the needs of children and women.
Abstract: Recently collected sex-role attitude data are analyzed with a view to understanding the ideological bases of specific attitudes. Correlation analysis suggests that women do not currently organize all sex-role attitudes along a single dimension, although their outlook toward the sex-based familial division of labor is supported by beliefs about the needs of children and women. Regression analysis of attitudes in relation to personal characteristics suggests that attitudes are at least partly based on group norms or values.
189Â citations
TL;DR: Samuel A. Stouffer's 1954 survey is compared with replication data in the National Opinion Research Center's 1972-73 General Social Surveys to check his Predictions regarding the effects of generation, age, and education on tolerance of Communists and atheists.
Abstract: Samuel A. Stouffer's 1954 survey is compared with replication data in the National Opinion Research Center's 1972-73 General Social Surveys to check his Predictions regarding the effects of generation, age, and education on toleranceof Communists and atheists. A flow graph model for difference equations involving categorical variables is used to organize the findings. Major conclusions are these: (1) there has been an average increase of about 23% in tolerant responses; (2) about 4% of this increase is due to cohort effects on educational attainment, as Stouffer predicted; (3) about 5% is due to cohort repalcement per se; (4) about 13% is due to increasing tolerance among all cohort and education groups, the opposite of what Stouffer predicted; and (5) about 1% is due to increased college attainment not accounted for by cohort.
183Â citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a second-order interaction of race and sex with all relationships in a model which integrated models proposed by Duncan, Haller, and Portes (1968) and this paper was found, and important similarities between white males and black females were observed.
Abstract: Causal models of adolescents expectations have been based on the assumptions of path analysis: Additivy and recursivity. We test these assumptions on a body of 1973 data gathered in Louisville, Kentucky. A second-order interaction of race and sex with all relationships in a model which integrated models proposed by Duncan, Haller, and Portes (1968) and Sewell, Haller, and Ohlendorf (1970) was found, and important similarities between white males and black females were observed. White males and black females showed the strongest reciprocal peer effects on educational plans and the strongest parental-encouragements effects on grades received. There was no feedback from students' expectations to the amount of parental encouragement, although for whites only there was feedback from students' grades. The model best fits the data for white males. This difference in fit, Commonly interpreted as a function of the disadvantaged positions of blacks and females in the stratification system, is futher specified with ...
133Â citations
TL;DR: The authors compare data from the United States and Great Britain and show that the British stratification system is somewhat more closed than that of United States: there is less intergenerational occupational mobility in Britain, and the correlations among status variables are generally stronger.
Abstract: New procedures permitting a level of precision not heretofore posible in the comparative study of social mobility and the process of status attainment are used to compare data for the United States and Great Britain. We show that the British stratification system is somewhat more closed than that of the United States: there is less intergenerational occupational mobility in Britain, and the correlations among status variables are generally stronger. However, despite radical differences in the educational systems, the role of educational attainment in occupational mobility is highly similar in the two countries.
TL;DR: In this article, the process of educational attainment of U.S. youth is re-examined on the basis of a recent, nationally representative data set, and the overall trend of these results suggests a process in which personal influences and subjective orientations are of less significance than the structural effects of parental resources and the bureaucratic evaluation of ability.
Abstract: The process of educational attainment of U.S. youth is reexamined on the basis of a recent, nationally representative data set. Strict comparison with past models is impossible, given differences in measurement, sampling, and time of data collection. Still, the general structure of the final model differs in theoretically significant ways from past findings. Present results reduce the importance of social psychological intervening variables, such as significant-other influences and self-assessment of abilities, and enhance the role of objective variables, such as parental status and academic performance. The overall trend of these results suggests a process in which personal influences and subjective orientations are of less significance than the "structural" effects of parental resources and the bureaucratic evaluation of ability. Theoretical and policy implications of these findings are also discussed.
TL;DR: Using the split labor market theory of ethnic and racial antagonism, the authors analyzes race relations in the pre-Civil War United States and finds that both slaves and free blacks were lower sources of labor than whites, to whom they therefore posed a threat of displacement.
Abstract: Using the "split labor market" theory of ethnic and racial antagonism, this paper analyzes race relations in the pre-Civil War United States. Both slavs and free blacks are found to have been lower preced sources of labor than whites, to whom they therefore posed a threat of displacement. Slavery was a system which gave souther capitalists total control of a cheap labor force, permitting extensive displacement. It also put the South in conflict with northern capital, because the latter depended on higher-priced (white) labor. Abolition threatened to increase competition between black and white labor, spreading the problem to all regions and segments of the economy. But anumission also made blacks more vulnerable to counterattacks by white labor in the form of either exclusion or the economy. But manumission also made blacks more vulnerable to conterattacks by white labor in the form of either exlusion or caste. The various class interests of the three parties to split labor markets are presented for the N...
TL;DR: This paper found that black levels of participation generally exceed or equal those of whites, while Mexican-Americans tend to have lower levels of political participation than white participants, and several explanations for these discrepant findings are discussed.
Abstract: Drawing on the findings of Orum (1966) and Olsen (1970), this study hypothesizes that, because of a process of "compensation" or "ethnic identification," members of disadvantaged ethnic groups have higher levels of social and political participation than persons of the same social class who are members of the dominant social group. Data taken from a community survey only partially support the hypothesis with regard to 11 participation variables. When social class is controlled, black levels of participation generally exceed or equal those of whites; however, levels of participation among Mexican-Americans tend to be lower than those of whites. Several explanations which might account for these discrepant findings are discussed.
TL;DR: The course of mother-tongue diversity is abstracted from longitudinal data gathered for 35 nations and the Greenberg A index is used to measure diversity in each nation, and the magnitude of change is determined through a procedure proposed by Coleman Diversity declines over time in the majority of cases but there is considerable variation between nations and in 14 cases diversity has increased as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The course of mother-tongue diversity is abstracted from longitudinal data gathered for 35 nations The Greenberg A index is used to measure diversity in each nation, and the magnitude of change is determined through a procedure proposed by Coleman Diversity declines over time in the majority of cases, but there is considerable variation between nations and in 14 cases diversity has increased Accordingly, various national characteristics are considered to see whether they help account for the magnitude and direction of change observed among nations Two factors, the spatial isolation of language groups and official educational policies, have fairly high correlations with changes in diversity In addition, several geopolitical factors have affected diversity change in the past: age of nation, boundary changes, forced population movements, and World War II Two specially puzzling results are the comparatively rapid rate of mother-tongue change in the United States and the failure of national development t
TL;DR: The concepts of deviance and charisma, defined as inferior and superior capacity to respond in interaction, summarize the two forms of essences as mentioned in this paper, and can be tested by noting whether an actor changes his menaing when he defines others by referring only to observable phenomena.
Abstract: Persons conceive of abilities and disabilities, talents and character defects, competencies and incompetencies, as essences-unobservable, present and inherent states of being. We can test for imputations of essences by noting whether an actor changes his menaing when he defines others by referring only to observable phenomena-their past, manifested activities. The concepts of deviance and charisma, defined as inferior and superior capacity to respond in interaction, summarize the two forms of essences. In these moral transactions, people establish ambivalent identities for themselves, limitating their own actions and risking reversals of identity with those labeled.
TL;DR: This paper found that men are more likely than women to show bias against women teachers or scholars when former college teachers were evaluated, men students ranked women less favorably than men, but women students ranked men less positively than women.
Abstract: This study explores the posibility that women sabotage themselves by a collective antiwoman bias, as alleged in Goldberg's widely cited conclusion that women are prejudiced against women professionals. With 1,291 college students as respondents, this study hypothesized that men are more likely than women to show bias against women teachers or scholars. When former college teachers were evaluated, men students ranked women less favorably than men, but women students ranked men less favorably than women. Although a substantial minority of students had no sex preference for instructor in any size of class, among those who did, more preferred men teachers than women, and the larger the class, the greater was the preference for a man teacher. Men were slightly more likely than women to agree with an opinion attributed to a scholar of the same sex. This study fails to support Goldberg's conclusion and points out the need for replication.
TL;DR: For example, the authors found that when leadership has changed in the past, where it was dependent on higher authority, and where it is in close contact with superiors, organizational structures are unstable over time, but orderly causal relationships among environmental variables, size, and measures of organizational structure appear.
Abstract: Leadership conditions affect both the stability of and causal relationships among variables describing organizational structure. Where leadership has changed in the past, where it is dependent on higher authority, and where it is in close contact with superiors, organizational structures are unstable over time, but orderly causal relationships among environmental variables, size, and measures of organizational structure appear. Where leadership has been stable, and where it is autonomous and insulated from higher authority, organizational structures are more predictable, but causal relationships vanish.
TL;DR: The authors found that after a few years' residence in the North the southern-born blacks are able to earn higher incomes than northern-born black, apparently due in part to higher labor force participation rates.
Abstract: Blacks moving from the South to the North have had lower levels of education and have taken lower status jobs than northern-born blacks. Nevertheless, data from the 1970 census indicate that after a few years' residence in the North the southern-born blacks are able to earn higher incomes than northern-born blacks, apparently due in part to higher labor force participation rates. For these reasons, controlling for age and education reduces the income difference between blacks and whites, but controlling for age and region of birth increases it. Southern-born whites in the North and West have tended to have lower levels of education, higher unemployment rates, and lower incomes than whites of similar age in the North and West who are not interregional migrants. Interpretations, explanations, and uses of these findings are suggested, especially with regard to past and future changes in the black-white income ratio.
TL;DR: This article found that the majority of stories contained "fear of success" imagery; there were no significant differences in the percentages of women and men respondents including such imagery in their stories.
Abstract: The research reported on here attempted replication and expansion of Matina Horner's findings leading to her widely disseminated conclusion that women have a "motivation to avoid success." Seven hundred male and female college students wrote stories to randomly assigned cues concerning success of a male or female medical student. Content analysis showed that the majority of stories contained "fear of success" imagery; there were no significant differences in the percentages of women and men respondents including such imagery in their stories. These and other findings underscore the need for careful examination and replications before tentative concepts in popular or controversial areas become conventional wisdom.
TL;DR: A model for research on social stress shows the extensive literature on status incosistency to be almost devoid of studies that are both theoretically and methodologically adequate and suggests that more careful theorizing about status inconsistency may prove empirically fruitful.
Abstract: A model for research on social stress shows the extensive literature on status incosistency to be almost devoid of studies that are both theoretically and methodologically adequate. This model implies that status inconsistency effects should be evident (1) on proximate, perceived stresses (e.g., role conflict, anger) as opposed to distal outcomes (e.g., prejuice) and/or (2) for persons with certain personality or social characteristics. Specific hypotheses of both types are tested for occupation-education inconsistency in a sample of 310 men. Empirical evidence of inconsistency effects is found for only one of several types of proximate, perceived stresses: underload. However, as predicted, inconsistency effects of high occupation combined with low education are quite strong for men either over 45 or low in extrinsic work motivation but are not evident in other parts of the sample. Based on a small number of inconsistent persons, these results must be viewed cautiously; yet they suggest that more careful ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of returns of schooling in producing differences in earnings of white and black men who are employed in the same occupation was examined and a hypothesis suggesting that years of schooling and years of labor-force experience have joint nonadditive effects on earnings was formulated, tested, and supported by several regression analyses.
Abstract: Past research has indicated repeatedly that black men receive lower wages than white males working in the same occupation. Past findings have also suggested that these within-occupation race differences in men's success in convertin their years of schooling into dollars of earnings. This paper reexamines the role of returns of schooling in producing differences in earnings of white and black men who are employed in the same occupation. The role of schooling into dollars of earnings. This paper reexamines the role of returns of schooling in producing differences in earnings of white and black men who are employed in the same occupation. The role of schooling in determining wages of all workers is also considered. A hypothesis suggesting that years of schooling and years of labor-force experience have joint nonadditive effects on earnings is formulated, tested, and supported by several regression analyses. A measure of race differences in wage returns to schooling based on partial derivatives is computed fr...
TL;DR: This article examined data for 566 married working women from the 1960, 1964,1968, and 1970 Survey Research Center election studies in order to determine the relative impacts of wives' and husbands' occupational positions on wives' class identifications.
Abstract: Data for 566 married working women from the 1960, 1964,1968, and 1970 Survey Research Center election studies are examined in order to determine the relative impacts of wives' and husbands' occupational positions on wives' class identifications. The results suggest that traditional assumptions that wives derive their class positions and identifications exclusively or predominantly from the occupational positions of their husbands do not hold for working wives.
TL;DR: It is suggested that persons living in crowded apartments with little option of moving elsewhere will tend to reduce fertility, potentially important in evaluating long-run consequences of housing policies on population growth.
Abstract: After reviewing the literature relating density to fertility, the authors consider how housing configurations might influence fortility. They suggest that persons living in crowded apartments with little option of moving elsewhere will tend to reduce fertility. Quasi-experimental data from a Colombian public housing project indicate that apartment living significantly reduced fertility among lower-middle- and upper-working-class persons living in a tight housing market. These findings are potentially important in evaluating long-run consequences of housing policies on population growth.
TL;DR: This paper argued that it is perhaps Weber who is of greatest heuristic worth in interpreting American society because of his sensitivity to the Protestant ethos, drawing attention to two major Puritan cultural themes: "wilderness" and "voluntarism."
Abstract: What accounts for the oft-remarked dynamism of American society and its attendart flexibility of social structures, including accommodation of protest movements? I approach this question by considering the applicability of the perspectives on modern society of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber to the United States. Arguing that it is perhaps Weber who is of greatest heuristic worth in interpreting American society because of his sensitivity to the Protestant ethos, I illustrate this line of analysis by drawing attention to two major Puritan cultural themes: "wilderness" and "voluntarism."
TL;DR: In the compettitio between institutional and cultural theories of American poverty, the success of Chinese-Americans has provided telling evidence for the cultural view as discussed by the authors, however, recent events in American Chinatowns show that the cultural interpretation was overdrawn.
Abstract: In the compettitio between institutional and cultural theories of American poverty, the success of Chinese-Americans has provided telling evidence for the cultural view. However, recent events in American Chinatowns show that the cultural interpretation was overdrawn. The dependence of Chinatowns upon the tourist in dustry has constrained residents to suppress visible manifestations of social unrest and pathology in order to attract customers. The inability of the tourist industry to keep pace with recent immigrations is now bringing these previously suppressed manifestations to the surface. The Chinatown case suggests that the industrial division of labor will prove a fruitful place to seek a synthesis of cultural and institutional theories.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the cross-cultural correlates of belief in a high god or supreme creator and found that economic complexity and political complexity are both strongly related to monotheism.
Abstract: Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas is used to examine the cross-cultural correlates of belief in a high god or supreme creator. The major findings are: (1) economic complexity and political complexity are both strongly related to monotheism; (2) each of them has some effect on monotheism that is independent of the effect of the other, the independent effect of economic complexity being stronger; and (3) a number of other variables are also related to monotheism, but these relationship are largely explained by economic and political complexity. The results are inconsistent with the theoretical perspective of Swanson and Durkheim in that the effects of the economy are not explained through the intervening mechanism of political organization. It is suggested that the results are consistent with Marx and Engels's theory of religion. In this view a high god is a reflection of existing economic and social relationships, presiding, at the ultimate level, over economic and political complexities.
TL;DR: This paper views a retirement village as a relatively "non-total" (Goffman 1961) "people-processing institution" in which residents themselves devise means for their collective socialization for impending death and argues that congregate living facilities can provide optimal settings for this form of socialization.
Abstract: Sociologists and gerontologists have frequently noted that the necesity for learning new social roles continues throughout the life cycle. Thus, Riley et al. (1969) argue that, in addition to myriad small adjustements, "major adjustments are also required as the occupational role gives way to one of leisure-in-retirement; as the combined roles of spouse-and-parent shift, after the children leave home, to the role of spouse without parental responsibilities, and later to widowhood; as relationships to descendant kin proliferate to grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and numerous in-laws; and as preparation is made for ultimate death." This paper focuses on the last of these "major adjustments"-"preparation... for ultimate death"-and argues that congregate living facilities can provide optimal settings for this form of socialization. It views a retirement village as a relatively "non-total" (Goffman 1961) "people-processing institution" in which residents themselves devise means for their collective sociali...
TL;DR: In this paper, the relative contributions of social origins (father's occupational status) and educational achievement in explaining the intergenerational attainment of occupational status were analyzed using recently gathered survey data from Haiti and Costa Rica.
Abstract: Using recently gathered survey data from Haiti and Costa Rica, this paper analyzes the relative contributions of social origins (father's occupational status) and educational achievement in explaning the intergenerational attainment of occupational status. The fndings suggest that at certain stages of societal development differential expansion in the occupational and educational spheres may reinforce the significance of social origins in the status-attainment process and suppress the influence of education as an intervening mechanism of status transmissiion.
TL;DR: The authors examines the relationship between traditional Afrikaner religion and worldly action, and the major substantive portions of the paper are concerned with an explication of the way in which the social and historical context of Afrikaller Calvinism shaped Afrikalaner operant religion and, secondly, with resulting consequences for economic action.
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between traditional Afrikaner religion and worldly action. The specific question addressed is why Afrikaner Calvinism, which is theologically identical to European Calvinism of the 18th century, had a highly conservative impact on economic action, in contrast to the European case. The theoretical position put forward is that any analysis of religion's secular impact must be contextual and focus upon what is here termed "operant religion," meaning religious belief as it has been actualized within the actor's phenomenal world. The major substantive portions of the paper are concerned with an explication of the way in which the social and historical context of Afrikaner Calvinism shaped Afrikaner operant religion and, secondly, with resulting consequences for economic action.