Showing papers in "American Journal of Sociology in 1977"

Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony

Abstract: Many formal organizational structures arise as reflections of rationalized institutional rules. The elaboration of such rules in modern states and societies accounts in part for the expansion and i...

The Population Ecology of Organizations

Abstract: A population ecology perspective on organization-environment relations is proposed as an alternative to the dominant adaptation perspective. The strength of inertial pressures on organizational str...

Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory

Abstract: Past analysis of social movements and social movement organizations has normally assumed a close link between the frustrations or grievances of a collectivity of actors and the growth and decline of movement activity. Questioning the theoretical centrality of this assumption directs social movement analysis away from its heavy emphasis upon the social psychology of social movement participants; it can then be more easily integrated with structural theories of social process. This essay presents a set of concepts and related propositions drawn from a resource mobilization perspective. It emphasizes the variety and sources of resources; the relationship of social movements to the media, authorities, and other parties; and the interaction among movement organizations. Propositions are developed to explain social movement activity at several levels of inclusiveness-the social movement sector, the social movement industry, and social movement organization.

Some Effects of Proportions on Group Life: Skewed Sex Ratios and Responses to Token Women

Abstract: Proportions, that is, relative numbers of socially and culturally different people in a group, are seen as critical in shaping interaction dinamics, and four group types are identified in the basis of varying proportional compositions. "Skewed" groups contain a large preponderance of one type (the numerical "dominants") over another (the rare "tokens"). A framework is developed for conceptualizing the processes that occur between dominants and tokens. Three perceptual phenomena are associated with tokens: visibility (tokens capture a disproportionate awareness share), polarization (differences between tokens and dominants are exaggerated), and assimilation (tokens' attributes are distorted to fit preexisting generalizations about their social type). Visibility generates performance pressures; polarization leads dominants to heighten their group boundaries; and assimilation leads to the tokens' role entrapment. Illustrations are drawn from a field study in a large industrial corporation. Concepts are exten...

The Effects of Education as an Institution

Abstract: Education is usually seen as affecting society by socializing individuals. Recently this view has been attacked with the argument that education is a system of allocation, conferring success on some and failure on others. The polemic has obscured some of the interesing implications of allocation theory for socialization theory and for research on the effects of education. But allocation theory, too, focuses on educational effects on individuals being processed. It turns out to be a special case of a more general macrosociological theory of the effects of education as a system of legitimation. Education restructures whole populations, creating and expanding elites and redefining the rights and obligations of members. The institutional effects of education as a legitimation system are explored. Comparative and experimental studies are suggested.

A Macrosociological Theory of Social Structure

Abstract: Social structure is conceptualized as the distributions of a population among social positions in a multidimensional space of positions. This quantitative conception of social structure is the basis for a deductive theory of the macrostructure of social associations in society. The likelihood that people engage in intergroup associations under specifiable structural conditions can bededuced from analaytic propositions about structural properties without any assumption about sociopsychological dispositions to establish intergroup associations, indeed, on the assumption that people prefer ingroup relations. Group size governs the probability of intergroup relations, a fact that has paradoxical implications for discrimination by a majority against a minority. Inequality impedes and heterogeneity promotes intergroup relations. The major structural condition that governs intergroup relations is the degree of connection of parameters. Intersecting parameters exert structural constraints to participate in interg...

Careers, Labor Market Structure, and Socioeconomic Achievement

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to develop the notion of the career as a strategic link between structural features of the labor market and the socioeconomic attainments of individuals. In the first section we review the treatment of careers in the occupational sociology literature and consider limitations of the traditional conceptualization. In the second section the main features of career lines, their structures and reward trajectories, are described. In conjunction with this discussion, the virtues and drawbacks of several strategies for delineating career lines from empirical data are addressed. In the nex section we sketch the determinants of career-line structures as they reside in industry organization and labor maket compostion. In the concluding pages we consider the implications of a labor market ovelaid with career lines for investigations of the socioeconomic-achievement process.

Testing for Interaction in Multiple Regression

Abstract: Contrary to a recent claim, the inclusion of a product term in a multiple regression is a legitimate way to test for interaction. The unstandardized coefficient and the t-test for the product term are unaffected by the addition of arbitrary constants to the variables in the model. Certain other statistics are affected by this change, however, indicating that some hypotheses relating to interaction are not meaningfully testable unless variables are measured on ratio scales.

Wallerstein's World Capitalist System: A Theoretical and Historical Critique

Abstract: The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. By Immanuel Wallerstein. New York and London: Academic Press, 1974. Immanuel Wallerstein's The Modern World-System aims to achieve a clean conceptual break with theories of “modernization” and thus provide a new theoretical paradigm to guide our investigations of the emergence and development of capitalism, industrialism, and national states. This splendid undertaking could hardly be more appropriately timed and aimed. For quite some time, modernization approaches have been subjected to telling critical attacks (e.g., Gusfield 1967; Frank 1966; Bendix 1967; Tipps 1973; Smith 1973; Tilly 1975, chap. 9). They have been called to task for reifying the nation-state as the sole unit of analysis, for assuming that all countries can potentially follow a single path (or parallel and converging paths) of evolutionary development from “tradition” to “modernity,” and, concomitantly, for disregarding the world-historical development of transnational structures that constrain and prompt national or local developments along diverse as well as parallel paths. Moreover, modernization theorists have been criticized for the method of explanation they frequently employ: a historical ideal types of “tradition” versus “modernity” are elaborated and then applied to national cases; if the evidence seems to fit, one assumes that a particular historical instance is adequately explained; if not, one looks for the “chance” factors that account for its deviation. In the opening pages of The Modern World-System , and in a related essay (also published in 1974) called “The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System,” Wallerstein unequivocally defines his approach in direct opposition to these features of modernization theory.

Change of Heart: A Test of Some Widely Held Theories about Religious Conversion

Abstract: Classical social science descriptions of religious conversion focus on psychological stress, previous socialization, and various forms of direct social influence. This paper uses data about converts to Catholic Pentecostalism and a control sample to question the conventional wisdom. It shows how data can be organized to support classical claims, the systematically watches evidence fall away when the argument is organized more carefully. The paper closes with a theoretical critique of conventional arguments and suggestions for an alternative set of questions. These probe the circumstance and procedures by which a sense of ultimate grounding is affirmed or changed, at both an individual and a social level.

Response Bias in Surveys of Mental Health: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract: A substantial body of literature indicates that (1) the tendency to yeasay or naysay, (2) the perception of the desirability or undesirability of a given trai, and (3) the need for social approval have a significant and independent impact on the statements made by respondents in surveys Most investigatiors concerned with response bias appear to believe that these response bias variables act as a form of systematic bias which significantly distorts the relationship observed between an independent and a dependent variable However, while the literature indicates such a distortion may occur, this has not been demonstrated Drawing on the data from a national survey, we look at the effect of these three forms of response bias on the pattern of relationships among seven demographic variables (sex, race, education, income, age, marital status, and occupation) and three very different indicators of mental health (psychiatric symptons, self-esteem, and feelings of positive affect) The results lead to an almost

Inequality and the Relative Size of Minority Populations: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract: Socioeconomic differentials separating whites and blacks have been shown to correlate positively with the percentage of blacks in a population. However, in multiracial or multiethnic populations, it is necessary to take into account the effects of the relative size of each minority present in nonnegligible numbers. In the research reported here, the relationship between socioeconomic inequality and the proportion of Mexican Americans and blacks in the population of metropolitan areas was decomposed through path-analytic techniques. Analysis of model incorporating the impact of the size of both minorities indicates that minority income levels are inversely related to minority size and that disparities between majority and minority income and occupation tend to grow as relative minority size increases. Mexican American occupational levels vary positively with the percentage of blacks, but black occupational status was foud th be virtually unrelated to the proportional representation of Mexican Americans in ...

The Process of Bureaucratization

Abstract: Formalization of personnel procedures in 229 city, country, and state finance agencies is a function of era of origin and subsequent effects of the environment. Whereas origins and the environment account for the extent of formal personnel procedures, formalization in turn gives rise to multitier hierarchies and hierarchy to decentralized decision making. The effects of origins are due to greater openness to environmental pressures at the time of formation than later on.

Income and Marital Events: Evidence from an Income-Maintenance Experiment

Abstract: In this paper we report estimates of the impacts of the Seattle and Denver Income-Maintenance Experiments on marital dissolution and remarriage. To assess the experimental impacts, we use a stochastic model of rare events in which the rate at which an event occurs is assumed to depend log linearly on a set exogenous variables. Overall, income maintenance raises the rate of marital dissolution. For black, white, and Chicana women, the greatest increase occurs at the support levels closest to the control situation. The impact of income maintenance on remarriage differs by race-ethnicity. For Chicanas, the rate of remarriage decreases as the level of support increase. For blacks and whites, income maintenance has no discernible impact on the rate of remarriage. The results provide empirical evidence that a change in economic situation does affect marital events in low-income populations.

Response Errors of Black and Nonblack Males in Models of the Intergenerational Transmission of Socioeconomic Status

Abstract: Biases due to measurement errors in structural equation models of the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status were asessed by estimating unobserved variable models with data from the remeasurement program of the 1973 Occupational Changes in a Generation-II survey. We found persuasive evidence that reports of social background and achievement variables by nonblack males are subject to strickly random errors, while reports by black males are subject to significant nonrandom error. When measurement errors are ignored for nonblacks, occupational returns to schooling are underestimated by about 15%, the effects of some background variables are underestimated by as much as 22%, and variation in socioeconomic achievements not attributable to education or social origins is underestimated by as much as 27%. Biases appear to be substantially greater for blacks. Consequently, ignoring measurement error exaggerates racial differences in returns to schooling and occupational inequality not attributable ...

Community-Elite Influence Structures: Extension of a Network Approach

Abstract: The conception of community leadership structure as a regularized pattern of communication and exchange of information pertinent to community affairs among members of a community elite, proposed by Laumann and Pappi (1973-1976), is extended in several related direcions. First, the network of regularized communication contact is related to issue-specific discussion patterns and to outcome preference and activation on specific issues. Our anlysis indicates that our measure of the routinized community-affairs discussion network is valid in that it represents a distillation of contact patterns that exist with regard to a variety of specific issues. Moreover, discussion contacts among the elite on routine, instrumental issues are found to be more closely reflected in the regularized network than are such contacts on unique, value-laden consummatory issues. We also find a moderated degree of "institutionalization" of contact patterns and support for an instrumentally orientad "bargaining" model of issue resolut...

Trends in Residential Segregation: 1960-1970

Abstract: The literature on racial residential segregation in American metropolitan areas reports contradictory findings on the decade of the sixties. Some researchers have concluded that average scores declined between 1960 and 1970, while other point to evidence of increases. This paper presents tract-based indexes for all 237 SMSAs (and their central cities) in 1970 and a comparable set of indexes for 1960. These are also cross-tabulated against region, population size, and minority proportion. Several conclusions are drawn: (1) overall, the data indicate a general decline in the average level of segregation between 1960 and 1970; (2) much of that decline is due to the relatively low scores among SMSAs added during the decade; (3) contradictory findings reported in the literature are likely to be due to sampling or other methodological inconsistencies; and (4) clear variations in levels of segregation persist with regard to region, population size, and minority proportion. The importance of these findings for fu...

On Understanding a Sociological Classic

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the conditions requisite to an understanding of "classic" works in sociological theory, using Durkheim's Elementary Forms of the Religious Life as the example. Included are (1) a discussion of "presentist" and "historicist" approaches to the history of sociological thought; (2) a criticism of presentist "statements of contribution" in the secondary literature on the Elementary Forms; (3) an assessment of Merton's distinction between the "history" and the "systematics" of sociological theory; (4) a reconsideration of "contextual" approaches to classical social theory; (5) the proposal of a new approach to the history of sociological theory, illustrated by a very tentative reinterpretation of Durkheim's theory of sacrifice; and (6) a concluding section on the value for sociology itself of an authentic history of sociological thought.

Urban Voluntary Associations, Locality Based and Externally Induced

Abstract: Both the literature on urban communities and that on local voluntary associations have focused on endogenous social processes: urban communities are seen as important loci of social integration and loca voluntary associations as aggregates of local interests spontaneusly coalescing to influence external agents. The current relevance of these perspectives, in view of the increasing scale of urban social organization, is questioned on the bais of observations from a community study of a well-defined south-side Chicago neighborhood. Information on the social networks and institutional affiliations of area residents indicate that social residence is a relatively unimportant source of social integration for modern urban residents. In this context, the genesis and role of local voluntary associations are frequently reversed: because there are no obvious points of contact based on informal social networks, external agents seeking to intervene in these neighborhoods must sponsor or even create local voluntary ass...

Talcott Parsons, the Problem of Order in Society, and the Program of an Analytical Sociology

Abstract: The persuasiveness of Parsons's solution to the Hobbesian problem of order rests on the conjunction of two premises, one substantivesociological, the other methodological (1) Normative consensus may ensure order in a way which can be "generalized" (2) Sociology must be an "analytic" science Both premises are criticized, the former because it is empirically false, the latter because in its Parsonian conception it would render sociology nonfalsifiable It is further argued that Parsons, while contiuning to cling to his normative solution to the problem of order, eventually abandoned his early interpretation of the analytic status of sociology, and therewith deprived his solution to the Hobbesian problem of an essential prop Finally, the whole Parsonian approach to social science is shown to issue from a metaphysical view of social reality as a composite of several spheres, each of them sui generis

Wage-Attainment Processes: The Retail Clerk Case

Abstract: Status-attainment and organizations literatures are integrated to develop a model of intraoccupational wage attainment using opensystems theory of organizations to specify structural parameters of the wage-attainment process. We analyze the effects of personal characteristics and organization structure on wages of retail clerks within one labor market. While sex and marital status show wage effects independent of work context, the data support our contention that work routinization and organization dependence on environmental segments determine to a significant degree wage variation at the occupational level. Findings of sex segregation across and within firms and substantial interaction in the effects of sex and organizational variables on wages further specify the relationship among personal characteristics, organization structure, and wages. Our research suggests that organizational contexts influence wages independently of individual characteristics and of labor market factors and that the inclusion of organization parameters in status-attainment models will

Identity loss, family, and social change

Abstract: The painful loss of an irreplaceable and personal indentity is a common theme of human existence. Reflection on social sources of such loss leads to recognition of the unique particularistic relationships constitutive of the family as a source both of identity bestowal and identity loss. The archival function, the retention and display of symbols of highly personal identities, furthers the family's potential as a reactive and proactive source of identity loss. Furthermore, if social change is characterized by differentiation and rationalization, maintenance of traditional family structures may result in high potential for painful personal identity loss for which there is low social support and legitimation. Moderns would thus face the dilemma of whether to seek strong affective ties but risk nonlegitimated and meaningless identity loss or to avoid the sources of such identity loss but weaken affective relationships.

Arrest Probabilities for Marijuana Users as Indicators of Selective Law Enforcement

Abstract: This paper estimates arrest probabilities for marijuana users by combining detailed arrest statistic for three metropolitan areas (Cook County, Ill,; Douglas County (Omaha), Nebr., and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area) with marijuana user rate estimates from questionnaire surveys in those three jurisdictions. The analysis involves a comparison of arrest probabilities for several sociodemographic categories of marijuana users in these jurisdictions. The baseline model for these comparisons is the equiprobability hypothesis that seems implicit in much criminal justice research: relative to violation rates, the likelihood of sanctions ought to be equal. The data show that arrest probabilities for marijuana users vary by gender and occupation in all three jurisdictions; variations by age and race are more jurisdictionally specific. These arrest probabilities are then examined by introducing additonal data pertaining to the circumstances of detection and arrest. The observed differences in arrest probab...

The importance of being beautiful: A reexamination and racial comparison.

Abstract: In the heterosexual marketplace, men and women bring their valued attributes to exchange for equally valued attributes of the opposite sex. So say both traditional wisdom and contemporary social exchange theory. Certain attributes are valued about equally by all in the market, while others are valued idiosyncratically by different individuals. Those valued by everyone (e.g., the economic potential of males) confer status, while those having idiosyncratic value for particular individuals (e.g., particular psychological traits) provide psychic satisfaction unrelated to status. This research note focuses on attributes known to have universal exchange value. It examines the exchange of physical attractiveness of women for economic status of men. More specifically, it examines the relationship between women's education and their attractiveness as vehicles for achieving status mobility by marriage, a relationship previously reported in papers by Elder (1969) and by Taylor and Glenn (1976). Both papers have shown that attractiveness is related to the occupational status of the husband. Both concluded that attractiveness was more valuable for the woman of lowstatus origin than for the woman of high-status origin, whereas education was more important than attractiveness for those of high-status origin. Taylor and Glenn sought to identify an interaction between education and attractiveness which suggests that some women use an "education strategy" and some rely on attractiveness rather than education in obtaining a mate of high status. The present study examines data from samples of black and white married women which enable us to address the main points made in the previ

Structural Differentiation, Efficiency, and Power

Abstract: The theory of structural differentiation, long a major conceptual tool of the study of social change, is critically reviewed. The link between differentiation and efficiency advantages involves a number of unsolved problems. In addition, past differentiation theory paid too little attention to actual processes of differentiation theory as well as de-differentiation. Both sets of problems can be tackled better if power constellations and power interests are systematically introduced into the analysis of differentiation and de-differentiation.

The Occupational Composition of American Classes: Results from Cluster Analysis

Abstract: Hierarchical clustering methods are developed to analyze the American occupational structure. Two analyses are computed, based on similarities of intergenerational mobility inflows and of residential patterns. In both analyses the farm versus nonfarm distinction is the most basic. The second level divides occupations into middle- and working-class clusters. These clusters lend support to a hypothesis of proletarianization of white-collar work; embourgeoisement, manual-nonmanual, middle-mass, and knowledge-technocracy theories are not supported. In both analyses, the majority of clericals and, in the second analysis, technicians are more similar to manual workers than to middle-class occupations. An analysis of friendship choices lends further support to the location of clericals among the working class. The results also document the promise of cluster analysis as a major analytical tool far analyzing social structures.

Reply to Gove and Tudor's Comment on "Sex Differences and Psychiatric Disorders"

Abstract: . In press. "The Effect of Children and Employment on the Mental Health of Married Men and Women." Social Forces. Gove, Walter, and Barbara Lester. 1974. "Social Position and Self-Evaluation: A Reanalysis of the Yancey, Rigsby and McCarthy Data." American Journal of Sociology 18 (January): 1308-14. Gove, Walter, James McCorkel, Terry Fain, and Michael Hughes. 1976. "Response Bias in Community Surveys of Mental Health: Systematic Bias and Random Noise." Social Science and Medicine 10: (September-October): 497-502. Gove, Walter, and Jeannette Tudor. 1973. "Adult Sex Roles and Mental Illness." American Journal of Sociology 73 (January): 812-35. Greenley, James R., and D. Mechanic. 1976. "Social Selection in Seeking Help for Psychological Problems." Journal of Health and Social Behavior 17 (September): 249-62. Gurin, Gerald, Joseph Veroff, and Sheila Feld. 1960. Americans View Their Mental Health. New York: Basic. Helgason, T. 1964. "Epidemiology of Mental Disorders in Iceland." Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, Supplementum no. 173. Klein, Donald, and John Davis. 1969. Diagnosis and Drug Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins. Leighton, D. C., J. S. Harding, D. B. Macklin, A. M. Macmillan, and A. H. Leighton. 1963. The Character of Danger. New York: Basic. Llewellyn-Thomas, E. 1960. "The Prevalence of Psychiatric Symptoms within an Island Fishing Village." Canadian Medical Association Journal 83 (July): 197-204. Murphy, Jane. 1976. Psychiatric Labeling in Cross-cultural Perspective." Science 191 (March 12): 1019-28. Pearlin, Leonard. 1975. "Sex Roles and Depression." Pp. 191-207 in Life-Span Development Psychology: Normative Life Crises. New York: Academic Press. Radloff, Lenore. 1975. "Sex Differences in Depression: The Effects of Occupation and Marital Status." Sex Roles 1(3): 249-65. Robbins, Lewis. 1966. "A Historical Review of the Classification of Behavior Disorders and One Current Perspective." In The Classification of Behavior Disorders, edited by Leonard Eron. Chicago: Aldine. Rowe, Clarence. 1970. An Outline of Psychiatry. Dubuque, Iowa: Brown. Seiler, Lauren. 1973. "The 22-Item Scale Used in Field Studies of Mental Illness: A Question of Method, a Question of Substance and a Question of Theory." Journal of Health and Social Behavior 14 (September): 252-64. Shore, J. H., J. D. Kinzie, J. L. Hampson, and E. M. Pattison. 1973. Psychiatric Epidemiology of an Indian Village." Psychiatry 36 (February): 70-81. Strotska, H., I. Leitner, G. Czerwenka-Wenstellen, and S. R. Graupe. 1966. "Sozialpsychiatrische Feldstudie ilber eine landliche Allgemeinpraxis." Social Psychiatry 1 (October): 83-87. Tauss, W. 1967. "A Note on the Prevalence of Mental Disturbance." Australian Journal of Psychology 19 (August): 121-23. Tudor, William, Jeanette Tudor, and Walter R. Gove. In press. "The Effect of Sex Role Differences on the Social Control of Mental Illness." Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

The Religion of Blacks in the United States: Some Recent Trends and Current Characteristics

Abstract: This research note reports evidence from diverse sources in order to depict aspects of change and stability in the religion of American blacks since the upsuge in black protest in the early 1960s. The evidence does not support earlier predictions of widespread apostasy and conversions to Catholicism, "high-status" Protestant denominations, and black nationalist sects and cults. Blacks as a whole report a continued high level of church attendance and confidence in the clergy, although, for reasons which are not clear, there has been a steep decline in the number of black clergymen. Recent evidence lends little support to the traditional image of black religion (reported by Dollard, among others) as unusually otherworldly and nonascetic.