Showing papers in "American Sociological Review in 1946"

The Middle Class Male Child and Neurosis

Abstract: tion and the Society for the Advancement of Management should focus attention on the problem. Seminars and forums should develop the field. Above all, there should be an active effort to advance the scientific aspects of the field by research of the kind which current sociologists could not do without increased participation. There should be much greater circulation between industry and departments of sociology similar to the exchange which accelerated after I932 between government and universities. Joint committees of sociologists and of professional managers should sketch concrete details of courses of action. A greater emphasis upon industrialism as the dynamic core of our society would help to reorient and integrate much of the scientific materials of social pathology, criminology, employment, class, social power, folklore and personality, and would revitalize the roles sociologists play. It would encourage a heartier interest among sociologists in participation in the work of the world, which is so largely industrial and commercial in our society. The risk of loss of objectivity could and should be protected by close fraternity between the detached and the participating sociologists, and by circulation between the two roles. The current frustration easily observable among sociologists that they are not being consulted about matters they have spent their lives studying would respound to this therapy. A scientific understanding of relevant human affairs, and the citizen's ability to cope with the great current issues may both be increased, and less disasterous results than have been evident in recent decades may be expected to follow. Perhaps, a little later, sociologists and other social scientists may have added enough to their own professional stature and to the public's estimate of that stature that they may be entrusted with a role in such great affairs as the relations between states, where quite patently the course of history is made by the visible acts of men or more often by the failure to act.

Wilhelm Dilthey: An Introduction.

Abstract: This comprehensive set introduces the fundamental principles of Sociology as propounded by such great figures as Gerth and Mills, Schlesinger, and Homans. Containing classic works of social theory and empirical research, volumes in this set bring together the British, European and American traditions. The whole body of sociological theory is presented in such a way that is valuable and accessible to both students and teachers of Sociology, Political Theory and Geography.

Skin Color Values in Three All-Negro School Classes

Abstract: RECENT studies of the American Negro ~ have stressed the significance of the I. 1. value pattern in which lightness of skin is a desideratum. The widespread and penetrating character of the color influence is suggested by Myrdal's comment that "cliques, clubs and social life in general seem to be permeated by this color preference."' The majority of these studies, however, have been done with adolescents or adults, and we thus get only a recall of the meaning of skin color in earlier childhood, a recall overlaid, no doubt, with the rationalizations and frustrations of the intervening years. The work reported here focuses upon skin color discriminations as they operate in exclusively Negro child groupings. It presents direct evidence regarding the importance of skin color to the pre-adolescent Negro, and thus furnishes insights into the operation of child value systems. Standard sociometric and interview techniques were used to explore the following hypotheses: first, that children in all-Negro grade school classes have incorporated into their value system the color preferences of the adult Negro community2; and second, that skin color is operative as a socially differentiating factor at this age level. A total of 8 i children in three all-Negro classes were tested. Two of the classes (X and Y) were combined 3rd and 4th grades, while the third (Class Z) was a combined 5th and 6th grade group, in the same school as Class Y. Table i contains a breakdown

Ecological Considerations in Planning for Rurban Fringes

Abstract: F ROM the standpoint of ecological theory the rurban fringe may be viewed as a marginal area. In this respect it is comparable to the blighted zone which generally lies between a city's business district and the surrounding residential districts, as well as to the many inaccessible rural areas whose isolation makes them indifferently suited to farming as against forestry or grazing. Common to all three of these land use phenomena is the fact of marginality between alternative types of utilization. This marginality derives, not so much from any intrinsic qualities of the land as such, but rather from what is known as "position" or situss" as distinct from "location."' In other words, the rurban fringe is a marginal land use area, not because of its geographical location, its soil type, or its topography, but rather because of its particular degree of accessibility (relative to that of other land uses) to some central transportation point. The same is true of the other two marginal land use types. This fundamental identity between seemingly unrelated land uses suggests the possibility of a single inclusive theory of slums, in which the rurban fringe, the ghetto, the rooming house area, and the rural creekbottom or forest-farm slum all appear as varieties of a single land use phenomenon. The hypothesis to be advanced rests upon the substitution principle of marginal utility

The Small Warship

Abstract: MR Y EXPERIENCE in World War II was different, I believe, from that of most social scientists who entered government service. For many years I had been an officer of the Naval Reserve, so that when the time came, instead of being assigned to some such field as public opinion analysis or military government, which were obviously related to sociology as an academic discipline, I was sent to sea as an ordinary line officer. And out of four and a half years on active duty, more than two were spent in command of small ships engaged in antisubmarine warfare and escort of convoy operations. Looking back on it, I feel that I was extremely lucky to have had this kind of responsibility, but I am not indulging in reminiscence for its own sake. If, in the end, sociology does not teach students something they can actually use in handling men effectively, it is nothing. Eventually we must be able to do that, or we shall not be worth our salt. I wish we could say that we do it now. I myself learned much from sociology which made me a more effective sea captain than I should otherwise have been. The point I am making here is that I did not do a better job than the young man who was educated, intelligent, sensitive-who was, as we used to say, "a good joe"-but who had not been exposed to social science. We do not yet teach leadership. It must be taught, soon and well, if we are to train the men who will hold our industrial civilization together. If the average sociologist, like myself, cannot do a better job of leadership than the average intelligent young man, he should at least be a better observer. I think I did learn, usually by making mistakes, some of the factors which make for good or bad morale on a small ship: a group, shall we say, of not more than two hundred men, differing from other groups of comparable size in being isolated and self-contained, sometimes for weeks at a time. Nothing that I learned was new,1 except in its application to this particular milieu, and nothing complex. No doubt our intellectual elaboration in this field will keep pace with our ability to teach a skill. Note also that I say some of the factors in morale. I make no pretense of including all of them. For instance, there is formal discipline. Armies and navies have had hundreds of years of experience in formal discipline, and most of the remarks wise officers have made on that subject seem to me well taken. The factors I shall speak of are less often discussed in professional military circles, though often in fact well handled. They are: the problem of technical competence, the problem of balance, the problem of reciprocity, and the problem of communication. The problem of technical competence. All warships work with other warships, and comparisons are always being made between them. When a group of ships has been together for a long time, the character of each is well established and the subject of the most ribald comment. How quickly does U.S.S. Blank react to a submarine contact? How many hits does she get shooting at a towed sleeve? What kind of chow does she serve? What kind of guy is her skipper? All these things come up for discussion. Take a minor problem like coming alongside a pier. Almost always other ships are present in port, and men from these ships will be on the pier to handle the lines. If the captain misjudges his approach and scrapes off some of his paint, if the engine room force does not back the engines promptly when ordered, if the gang on the fantail allows the stern line to get fouled in the screw, the fact will be observed with delight and remembered. Now no seamen wishes to be one of the

The influence of parent-images upon marital choice.

Abstract: PARENT-IMAGES are viewed, by various social psychologists, as playing a crucial role in the process of choosing a marriage partner. This view is based upon a certain conception of how human personality develops. The child, it is held, is profoundly shaped by the character of his early affectional relationships. He learns to love, hate, desire, envy, avoid, and so forth, through personal contact with people during the earliest years of his life. The way his parents and other members of his family treat him, and their personalities, determine to a great extent the development of his own traits, emotions, feelings and reactions. The images which the child develops of the chief persons in this environment-namely, his parents-are derived largely from specific experiences he has had in this environment. These parentimages have associated with them powerful emotions; this is because it is in interaction with his parents that the child first learns to experience emotions and feelings. Adult feelings and reactions toward persons are held to be largely a reliving of the early childhood relationships. Consequently the kind of individual whom the adult will love or hate, embrace or avoid, is determined largely by the kind of people he learned to love or hate as a child. The individual whom one chooses as a mate will resemble or be different from one's parents in just those important physical or personality traits the person liked or disliked in his parents when he was a child. Arising out of this general theoretical framework are specific hypotheses of the following sort: "i. In childhood the person builds up a response relationship to the parent of the opposite sex which markedly influences his response to and the selection of a love object in adult life. 2. If the childhood affectional relation to the parent of the opposite sex has been a satisfying one, the person will tend to fall in love with someone possessing temperamental and personality characteristics similar to those of the loved parent. 3. If a childhood affectional relation has been unsatisfactory, he is more likely to fall in love with a person of opposite temperamental and personality characteristics. 4. The childhood response fixation is generally, but not always, upon the parent of the opposite sex. It may under certain conditions be centered upon the parent of the same sex or upon a brother or sister."1 While investigation supporting this general view of the influence of parent-images upon mate selection has been largely psychoanalytic and clinical, there have been a few studies which attempted to check statistically this general theory (all of them directed at the hypotheses stating the influence of the opposite-sex parent-image).2

Methods for the Study of Human Relations in Industry

Abstract: The Committee on Human Relations in Industry at the University of Chicago was organized early in 1943 to carry on research in the social organization of industry and of our industrial society. The researcher spends considerable time in a factory and builds up friendly relations with the personnel, so that they talk freely of their problems. The researcher obtains employment and enters the organization through the regular channels. If the research is to include observations or interviews at the worker level, it will also be explained to the workers. Where the plant is organized, the research must also be discussed with the union leaders and then presented to the rank and file, preferably at a general meeting. Significantly enough, in tense situations the lower supervisors are often the slowest to accept researcher. The interviewing was then carried on at successively lower levels until the researcher settled down and began intensive work with workers and first line supervisors.