Showing papers in "American Sociological Review in 1970"

A formal theory of differentiation in organizations

Abstract: The expanding size of organizations gives rise to increasing subdivision of responsibilities, facilitates supervision and widens the span of control of supervisors, and simultaneously creates structural differentiation and problems of coordination that require supervisory attention. Large size, therefore, has opposite effects on the administrative component, reducing it because of an economy of scale in supervision, and raising it indirectly because of the differentiation in large organizations. The administrative costs of differentiation have feedback effects, which reduce the savings in administrative overhead large size effects, on the one hand, and stem the influence of size on differentiation, on the other. These inferences are derived from quantitative research on the employment security agencies in the United States and their subunits. The endeavor in this paper is to construct a systematic theory of differentiation in organizations consisting of two basic generalizations and nine propositions derivable from them, which can account for a considerable number of empirical findings. The two basic generalizations are: (1) increasing organizational size generates differentiation along various lines at decelerating rates; and (2) differentiation enlarges the administrative component in organizations to effect coordination.

The Educational and Early Occupational Status Attainment Process: Replication and Revision

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether a recently proposed recursive model of the educational and occupational attainment process that had been evaluated for farm boys is applicable for youth from more diverse residential backgrounds. The basic question asked in the study is how well the model fits data for young men from communities of differing size. A related aim is to present a model which adequately explains the attainment process for boys from all residential backgrounds. Using data for five community-size categories the Sewell-Haller-Portes model is extended to include three additional paths of influence. The revised model is shown to be quite adequate for the total sample as well as for all sizes of community categories. Suggestions for theory and future research are offered. IN their influential volume, Blau and Duncan (1967) presented a recursive model of the occupational status attainment of American male adults. It is composed of two antecedent structural variables, father's education and father's occupation; two intervening behavioral variables, respondent's education and respondent's first job; and the dependent variable, respondent's occupational level in 1962. For a national sample, their model explains 26% of the variance in respondent's education, 33% of the variance in first job, and 43% of the variance in current occupational status. The addition of selected demographic variables failed to improve the effectiveness of the model. Subsequent research by Duncan, Featherman, and Duncan (1968) resulted in minor modifications. The main objective was to provide a more complete explanation of the process without necessarily increasing the proportion 1 Presented at a joint session of the American Sociological Association and the Rural Sociological Society, San Francisco, September 1969. The research reported herein was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Public Health Service (M-6275) and the Social and Rehabilitation Service, Social Security Administra

The Assignment of Numbers to Rank Order Categories

Abstract: Twenty scoring systems are used on NORC's occupational prestige values. The linear scoring system lies midway between the other scoring systems, which by definition excludes the most extreme scoring systems in each direction. The resulting largely random scoring systems vary among themselves on the actual values assigned to each rank, the range of values, and the size of the differences between adjacent values. The study suggests two research strategies when analyzing ordinal variables. First, a linear scoring system is assigned according to the available evidence on the distances between ranks. Second, all available rank order categories are used, rather than collapsing them into a smaller number, because the greater the number of ranks the greater the stability and confidence in the assigned scoring system. Interpretations of path coefficients do not appear to require modification by the assignment of numbers to ordinal categories.

The Child Savers: The Invention of Delinquency.

Abstract: \"The Child Savers deeply influenced me and dozens of other feminist scholars who have studied social policy critically. This reissue is remarkable in allowing us to rethink it, and nowhere more valuable than in Tony Platt's own thoughtful reconsideration.\"- Linda Gordon, professor of history, New York University \"The Child Savers, at forty, is a classic. Accompanied by lively contributions that reflect on its impact and outline recent research, this new edition will ensure that the book lives on, its message always challenging, its relevance undiminished.\"- Hugh Cunningham, emeritus professor of social history, University of Kent \"The Child Savers is a classic, and the updated edition is even more relevant today; a must for the informed public and the perceptive student.\"- Jock Young, Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice, Graduate Center, City University of New York and John Jay College \"Platt's brilliant inquiry into the oxymoron of juvenile justice demands again that we upend our ritualized system of punishing, containing, and crushing our defiant young.\" -Bernardine Dohrn, Northwestern University School of Law Hailed as a definitive analytical and historical study of the juvenile justice system, this 40th anniversary edition of The Child Savers features a new essay by Anthony M. Platt that highlights recent directions in the field, as well as a critique of his original text. This expanded edition includes insightful commentaries from cross-disciplinary academics, along with an introductory essay by Miroslava Chavez-Garcia, critically examining how Platt's influential study has impacted many of the central arguments social scientists and historians face today. Anthony M. Platt is a professor emeritus at California State University, Sacramento. He is the author of several books on American history, social policy, and race relations. A volume in the Critical Issues in Crime and Society series, edited by Raymond J. Michalowski

Police control of juveniles.

Abstract: Rosen, Bernard C. 1962 Review of 'The Religious Factor.' American Sociological Review 27 (February): 111-113. Rosenberg, Morris. 1962 "Test factor standardization as a method of interpretation." Social Forces 41 (October) :53-61. Spiegelman, Mortimer. 1968 Introduction to Demography. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Stark, Rodney, and Charles Y. Glock. 1968 American Piety: The Nature of Religious Commitment. Berkeley: University of California Press. Veroff, Joseph, Sheila Feld, and Gerald Gurin. 1962 "Achievement motivation and religious background." American Sociological Review 27 (April):205-217. Weber, Max, trans. by Talcott Parsons. 1930 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Weller, Neil J. 1963 Religion and Social Mobility in Industrial Society. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Michigan. Reported in part in Lenski (1963:86-88). Wilcoxon, Frank. 1945 "Individual comparisons by ranking methods." Biometrics Bulletin 1 (December): 80-83.

Sociometric Location and Innovativeness: Reformulation and Extension of the Diffusion Model

Abstract: 1968a "Social class, parental encouragement and educational aspirations." American Journal of Sociology 73:559-572. 1968b "Parents' education and children's educational aspirations and achievements." American Sociological Review 33:191-209. Sexton, Patrico Cayo 1961 Education and Income. New York: Viking Press. Slater, Marian K. 1969 "My son the doctor: Aspects of mobility among American Jews." American Sociological Review 34 (June) :359-373. Smith, Howard P. and Marcia Abramson 1962 "Racial and family experience correlate of mobility aspiration." Journal of Negro Education 31:117-124. Stephenson, Richard M. 1957 "Mobility orientation and stratification of 1,000 ninth graders." American Sociological Review 22:204-212. Strodtbeck, Fred 1958 "Family interaction, values, and achievement." In Marshall Sklare (ed.), The Jews: Social Patterns of An American Group. Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press. Turner, Ralph H. 1964 The Social Context of Ambition. San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Company. Turner, Ralph H., John A. Michael and Richard P. Boyle 1966 "On neighborhood context and college plans." American Sociological Review 31 (October) :698-707. U. S. Bureau of the Census 1967 "School enrollment: October 1965." Population Characteristics Current Population Reports Series P-20 No. 162 (March). Uzell, 0. 1961 "Occupational aspirations of Negro male high school students." Sociology and Social Research 45:202-204. Weber, Max 1958 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, translated by Talcott Parsons. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Production of Crime Rates

Abstract: This paper makes problematic the situational conditions under which policemen write official crime reports in field encounters with complainants. These reports are the raw materials for official crime rates-"crimes known to the police." They also are a prerequisite of further investigation of the crime by the detective bureau and thus of apprehension of the offender. They constitute official recognition of crimes. The findings derive from a three-city observation study of routine police encounters. Among the conditions that relate to the production of official crime reports are the following: the legal seriousness of the complaint, the complainant's observable preference for police action, the relational distance between the complainant and the suspect, the complainant's degree of deference toward the police, and the complainant's social-class status. However, there is no evidence of racial discrimination in crime-reporting. We interpret these empirical patterns not only from the standpoint of crime rates as such but also from the standpoint of the relation between police work and other aspects of social organization.

The Estimation of Measurement Error in Panel Data

Abstract: IN general, there are three ways of dealing with the problem of measurement error in path analyses of social and psychological data. Correction of parameter estimates for the attenuating effects of random error of measurement may be accomplished (1) by the use of a priori estimates of measurement error, (2) by designing into studies alternate measures of the same construct, or (3) by repeated measurements on the same population over time. This paper considers models for the estimation of measurement error in the latter case. Taking his lead from Coleman (1968), Heise (1969) has formulated a path analysis model for the assessment of reliability when a variable is observed at three or more points in time. A consequence of this model is a simple formula for reliability uncontaminated by instability in the true scores. One of the several assumptions necessary to the empirical validity of Heise's model, i.e., the assumption that the reliability of the measured scores is stable over time, is argued to be doubtful.

The Social Cohesion of Liberal Democracy

Abstract: This paper analyzes the empiricat utility of cossensual and conNictual theories in explaining the social cohesion of the liberal democracies of Britasn and the United States. After clarifying conceptual problems of value consensus tSleory and Marxist theory, it examines the forms and extent of value-commitment in these countries. The conclusion is that both theories grossly overstate the amount of both value consensus betweee individuals and value consistency within individuals that actually exists. Cohesion in liberal democracy depends rather on the lack of consistent commitment to general values of atry sort and on the \"pragmatic acceptance\" by subordinate classes of their limited roles in society. Suggestive evidence is also found for the existence of some \"false consciousness\" among sgbordanate classes.

Clustering and Hierarchy in Interpersonal Relations: Testing Two Graph Theoretical Models on 742 Sociomatrices

Abstract: Growth of a Policy (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 138. 33 U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Digest of Education Statistics, 1968 Edition (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968) p. 128 (Table 160). 34Ibid., p. 95. Table 115. It should perhaps be added that the total of $3.2 billion spent for basic research in 1966 compared with $18.9 billion spent for applied research and development. 35 Clark Kerr, The Uses of the University (Harper Torchbooks. New York: Harper & Row, 1966), pp. 57-69. This summary selects the aspects most directly related to the autonomy of decision-making by scholars and universities. It should be noted that Kerr concentrates on the "federal grant university," but that analogous considerations apply to research funds from private foundations. 36 Bush, op. cit., p. 52. 37 Reinhard Bendix, Social Science and the Distrust of Reason (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951), passim.

The Causes of Racial Disturbances: A Comparison of Alternative Explanations

Abstract: A range of hypotheses of varying specificity is examined in this paper in an attempt to account for the location of racial disorders during the 1960's. The initial sections consider what general assumptions must be met by any satisfactory explanation of the distribution of the disorders. Mathematical models are constructed which embody the most prevalent assumptions as to the determinants of community disorder-proneness, and their predictions are compared with empirical data. The specific assumptions considered are: (1) all cities have an identical probability of experiencing a disorder; (2) communities are heterogeneous in their underlying disorder propensities; (3) a process of reinforcement characterizes the occurrence of disorders; (4) contagion among communities contributes to the distribution of racial disturbances. Only the heterogeneity assumption is supported by the data. The concluding sections consider the explanatory abilities of several additional theories, each of which assumes the importance of particular community characteristics. All are rejected in favor of an explanation which argues that the racial disorders of the 1960's were responses to frustrations which are uniformly felt by Negroes, irrespective of their community situations.

Social and Political Participation of Blacks

Abstract: Recent research has suggested that although blacks often participate less actively than whites in voluntary associations and voting, when socioeconomic status is controlled this relationship is reversed, with blacks becoming more active than whites. The present study expands this line of research into a wide variety of social and political activities, and also adds age as a second control variable. The general tendency for blacks to be more active than whites under these controlled conditions is found to occur in every type of activity investigated. Comparison of data collected in 1957 and 1968 indicates that the tendency has become more pronounced in recent years. Myrdal's "compensation" interpretation of this trend, which has been accepted by all previous writers on this topic, is challenged as inadequate, since it does not explain black participation in such realms as mass media exposure, community activities, partisan political activities, and contacts with the government. An alternative "ethnic community" thesis is proposed, and is partially substantiated by the finding that blacks who identify as members of an ethnic minority tend to be more active than nonidentifiers.

Age, Cohorts and the Generation of Generations

Abstract: Zimmerman, Don H. 1969 "Some issues in labeling theory." Read at the annual meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association, Seattle, Washington. 1970 "Record-keeping and the intake process in a public welfare organization." Pp. 319354 in Stanton Wheeler (ed.), On Record: Files and Dossiers in American Life. New York: Russell Sage. Zimmerman, Don H. and Melvin Pollner Forth"The everyday world as a phenomenon." coming To appear in Harold Pepinsky (ed.), People and Information (in press).

Societal reaction as an explanation of mental illness: an evaluation.

Abstract: groups." Behavioral Science 14 (January): 11-18. Miller, Norman, Donald C. Butler, and James A. McMartin 1969 "The ineffectiveness of punishment power in group interaction." Sociometry 32 (March) :24-42. Nagel, Jack H. 1968 "Some questions about the concept of power." Behavioral Science 13 (March): 129-13 7. Raven, Bertrum H. 1965 "Social influence and power." Pp. 371-381 in Ivan D. Steiner and Martin Fishbein (eds.), Current Studies in Social Psychology. New York: Holt, Reinhart and Winston. Sebald, Hans 1968 Adolescence: A Sociological Analysis. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Secord, Paul F. and Carl W. Backman 1964 Social Psychology. New York: McGrawHill. Sewell, William H. and Vimal P. Shah 1968 "Social class, parental encouragement, and educational aspirations." American Journal of Sociology 73 (March):59-72. Sherif, Muzafer and Carolyn Sherif 1965 "The adolescent in his group in its setting." Pp. 295-331 in Muzafer and Carolyn Sherif (eds.), Problems of Youth. Chicago: Aldine. Smith, Ernest A. 1962 American Youth Culture. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe. Smith, Thomas Ewin In press "Some bases for parental influence upon adolescents: An Application of a social power model." Adolescence. Solomon, Daniel 1961 "Adolescent decisions." Marriage and Family Living 23 (November) :393-395. Tannenbaum, Arnold S. 1962 "An event-structure approach to social power and to the problem of power comparability." Behavioral Science 7 (July): 315-331. Thibaut, John W. and Harold H. Kelley 1959 The Social Psychology of Groups. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Wrong, Dennis H. 1968 "Some problems in defining social power." American Journal of Sociology 73 (May): 673-681.

Leaders and Ruling Elites: The Interorganizational Bases of Community Power

Abstract: Power can be viewed as a property of interorganizational ties, which can be described in terms of resource networks. The creation of these resource networks, which are essential for power, are found in the interlocks of executives with multiple organizational positions. When resource networks are used as the unit of analysis, persons identified as influentials can be viewed as interchangeable, thereby reducing dependence on methodologies using coincidence of persons as the measure of power. A comparison of interorganizational leaders with a "matched" sample of organizational leaders indicates that the former are more likely (1) to be identified as participants in past community issues; (2) to be identified as having a general reputation for power; (3) to exhibit greater value homophyly; and (4) to see each other socially. Interorganizational leaders in a common resource network exhibit these characteristics to an even greater degree. The isolation of a resource network, which exhibits other characteristics associated with power, leads to a test for the existence of a ruling elite.

Conceptions of Interaction and Forms of Sociological Explanation

Abstract: Sudman, Seymour 1966 "Probability sampling with quotas." Journal of the American Statistical Association 61 (September):749-771. Woodward, Julian L. and Elmo Roper 1950 "Political activity of American citizens." American Political Science Review 44 (December):872-875. Wright, Charles R. and Herbert H. Hyman 1958 "Voluntary association memberships of American adults: Evidence from national sample surveys." American Sociological Review 23 (June):284-294.