Showing papers in "American Sociological Review in 1978"

Power, Equity and Commitment in Exchange Networks

Abstract: Exchange theory has the virtue of bringing both power and equity together in a single analytic framework. However, exchange theory has focused largely upon analysis of the dyad, while power and justice are fundamentally social structural phenomena. First, we contrast economic with sociological analysis of dyadic exchange. We conclude that (a) power and equity from social exchange theory carry us beyond economic theory of dyadic exchange; yet (b)for power and equity to be studied effectively, analysis of systems larger than the dyad is needed. Second, we introduce exchange networks to extend power and equity analysis into more macroscopic n-person social structures. Third, a laboratory method is reported for controlled study of exchange networks as bargaining structures. Finally, we present findings which show that (a) power is an attribute of position in a network structure observable in the occupant's behavior, even though the occupant does not know what position or what amount of power s/he possesses; (b) equity or justice concerns constrain the use of that power; (c) emergent interpersonal commitments impede the use of power; and (d) when power is unequally distributed among actors in a network, females form stronger commitments to their exchange partners than do males. In conclusion, we discuss the importance of commitment in distinguishing between economic and social exchange theory.

Factors affecting response rates to mailed questionnaires: A quantitative analysis of the published literature.

Abstract: Two hundred fourteen manipulations of the independent variables in 98 mailed questionnaire response rate experiments were treated as respondents to a survey, yielding a mean final response rate of 60.6% with slightly over two contacts. The number of contacts and the judged salience to the respondent were found to explain 51% of the variance in final response. Government organization sponsorship, the type of population, the length of the questionnaire, questions concerning other individuals, the use of a special class of mail or telephone on the third contact, and the use of metered or franked mail on the outer envelope affected final response independent of contacts and salience. A causal model of the final response rate, including initial response, explaining 90% of the variance, and a regression equation predicting final response rates are presented to show that high response rates are achievable by manipulating the costs of responding and the perceived importance of both the research and the individual response.

The Hawthorne Experiments: First Statistical Interpretation

Abstract: A guide is provided to the proceedings of the Hawthorne experiments, and experimental data are now made readily available. Data from the main experiment (that in the first relay assembly test room at Western Electric) are interpreted statistically for the first time. Quantitative analysis of this quasi experiment is accomplished by time-series multiple regression using nearly five years of data. This analysis demonstrates that experimental variables account for some 90% of the variance in quantity and quality of output, both for the group andfor individual workers. Imposition of managerial discipline, economic adversity, and quality of raw materials provide most explanation, obviating the need to draw upon less clearly definable human relations mechanisms. For decades the Hawthorne studies have provided a rationale for humane approaches in the organization of work by suggesting that considerate or participative treatment of workers led to better economic performance. The present analysis suggests, to the contrary, that humanitarian procedures must provide their own justification.

Stratification in a Dual Economy: A Sectoral Model of Earnings Determination.

Abstract: Hughes, E. C. 1966 "The making of a physician; general statement of ideas and problems." Pp. 96-9 in W. R. Scott and E. H. Volkart (eds.), Medical Care. New York: Wiley. Kemeny, John G. and J. L. Snell 1960 Finite Markov Chains. Princeton: Van Nostrand. Mayer, Thomas F. 1972 "Models of intergenerational mobility." Pp. 308-57 in J. Berger, M. Zelditch, Jr. and B. Anderson (eds.), Sociological Theories in Progress, Vol. 2. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Merton, Robert K., G. Reader and P. L. Kendall 1957 The Student Physician. Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press. Mumford, Emily 1970 From Students to Physicians. Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press. Olmsted, Ann and M. Paget 1969 "Some theoretical issues in professional socialization." Journal of Medical Education 44:663-9. Shuval, Judith T. 1973 "Manpower pools for three health professions in Israel." Social Science and Medicine 7:893-910. 1975a "Socialization of health professionals in Israel: early sources of congruence and differentiation." Journal of Medical Education 50:443-57. 1975b "From 'boy' to 'colleague': processes of role transformation in professional socialization." Social Science and Medicine 9:413-20. Shuval, Judith and Israel Adler 1977 "Processes of continuity and change during socialization for medicine in Israel." Health and Social Behaviour 18:112-24. Singer, Burton and Seymour Spilerman 1976 "Representation of social processes by Markov models." American Journal of Sociology 82:1-54.

Race and Involvement in Common Law Personal Crimes.

Abstract: Most contemporary sociological theories of crime predict that blacks will be overrepresented among arrestees in common law personal crimes. These theories differ, however, in the extent to which this overrepresentation is attributed to disproportionate involvement in criminal offenses vs. criminal justice system selection biases. Studies that have relied upon official data have generally supported the differential involvement hypothesis, whereas studies relying on self-report techniques generally have supported the differential selection hypothesis. National victimization survey data on victims' reports of racial characteristics of offenders are introduced as a third measurement technique in order to shed additional light on this controversy. These data for rape, robbery, and assault, are generally consistent with official data on arrestees and support the differential involvement hypothesis. Some evidence of differential selection for criminal justice processing is found; however, most of the racial disproportionality in arrest data is shown by victimization survey data to be attributable to the substantially greater involvement of blacks in the common law personal crimes of rape, robbery, and assault. These results suggest that traditional admonitions against using arrest data as an index of involvement in these crimes may be overly cautious. In fact, the results imply that more caution should attend the use of self-report data in this vein and that more attention should be given to sampling and instrument concerns in self-report techniques. As currently used, the method may not be adequate for assessing the correlates of serious illegal conduct. The results also suggest that research emphasis be placed on those theories, such as the subcultural and differential opportunity perspectives, which attempt to explain differential racial involvement in these common law personal crimes. (Abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1978. Copyright © 1978 by the American Sociological Association) Minority Overrepresentation African American Adult African American Crime African American Offender African American Violence Rape Offender Sexual Assault Offender Robbery Offender Physical Assault Offender Racial Factors Arrest Rates Offender Arrest Violence Against Women 07-02

The myth of social class and criminality: an empirical assessment of the empirical evidence*

Abstract: Thirty-five studies examining the relationship between social class and crime/delinquency are reduced to comparable statistics using instances where the relationship was studied for specific categories of age, sex, race, place of residence, data type, or offense as units of analysis. The findings from 363 instances are summarized and patterns are identified. The overall results show only a slight negative relationship between class and criminality, with self-report studies reflecting lower associations than official statistics studies. Moreover, analysis demonstrates a clear historical decline in magnitude of association to the point where both self-report and official statistics studies done in the current decade find no class variation. This historical trend is shown to be due to changes in the findings from studies using official statistics as indicators of criminality. Alternative interpretations are discussed, but all lead to serious doubts about the adequacy of theories of deviance that contain assumptions of class differences. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1978. Copyright © 1978 by the American Sociological Association) Social Class Class Factors Sociocultural Factors Socioeconomic Factors Crime Causes Delinquency Causes Adult Crime Adult Offender Juvenile Crime Juvenile Delinquency Juvenile Offender 07-00

The influence of "family background" on intellectual attainment.

Abstract: "Family background" frequently has been found to have long-term effects on adult intellectual, occupational, and economic outcomes. Since families differ both genetically and environmentally, it has been difficult to interpret family effects in studies of individuals or biological relatives. This study includes samples of adoptive and biologically-related families with children between 16 and 22 years of age. We regressed child IQ on several family demographic variables, on parental IQ, and on natural parent characteristics (for the adopted children) to estimate the degree of genetic bias in the coefficients on measured family background. The results indicate that there is little effect of those family environmental differences studied on IQ differences among the adolescents in the SES range of working to upper middle class. Parent-child and sibling correlations further indicate that genetic differences among families account for the major part of the long-term effects of 'family background" on IQ.

Sex Differences in the Complexity of Children's Play and Games.

Abstract: Aside from Mead and Piaget, little attention has been paid to the world of play and games in the study of childhood socialization. This chapter discusses the Mead and Piaget tradition by focusing on play and games as situations in which crucial learning takes place, but it goes beyond Mead's and Piaget's work in three important ways. A central concern of this study is to explore sex differences in the organization of children's play and to speculate on the sources as well as the potential effects of those differences. Greater attention is given to girls' games as they are less familiar to adults. In contrast, this analysis focused on the peer group as the agent of socialization, children's play as the activity of socialization, and social skills as the product of socialization. One implication of this research is that boys' greater exposure to complex games may give them an advantage in occupational milieus that share structural features with those games.

Productivity and Academic Position in the Scientific Career

Abstract: This paper examines the interrelationship between scientific productivity and academic position, two key dimensions of the scientific career. Contrary to the results of most earlier studies, the effect of departmental location on productivity is found to be strong, whereas the effect of productivity on the allocation of positions is found to be weak. Productivity, as indicated by measures of publications and citations, is shown to have an insignificant effect on both the prestige of a scientist's initial academic appointment and on the outcome of institution changes later in the career. Although the relationship between productivity and the prestige of an academic appointment is insignificant at the time a position is obtained, the effect of departmental prestige on productivity increases steadily with time. For those scientists it'ho change institutions, the prestige of the new department significantly affects changes in a scientist's productivity after the move. It is argued that past studies have obtained spurious results due to theirfailure to employ a longitudinal design. Not only do cross-sectional designs provide misleading results regarding the interrelationship between departmental location and productivity, but they also systematically alter the findings regarding the effects of sponsorship and doctoral training on productivity.

The Variable Order of Events in the Life Course.

Abstract: The temporal order in which a man finishes school, starts working, and first marries is an important characteristic of his life course. Ordering patterns are distributed on a scale of the degree of conformity with the normative ordering of events. Major determinants of ordering patterns are identified. While family background is of limited importance for the ordering of events in the life cycle, the manner in which a man spends the years of late adolescence and early adulthood is of critical relevance. College attendance delays marriage, but not by a sufficient amount of time to prevent substantial numbers of men from marrying prior to completing their schooling. Military service is a major disruptive factor in the life courses of men, although the effects of service in the peacetime army have been less deleterious since men have some discretion in its timing. The unique histories of birth cohorts that result from the age-specific conjunction of period events is a crucial exogenous factor in the life course of men. Men for whom the ordering of events is deviant experience higher rates of marital disruption than do other men. This supports the hypothesis that the variable ordering of events in the life course is a contingency of some importance in the life cycle.

Sex differences in children's friendships.

Abstract: This paper examines sex differences in the exclusiveness of children's dyadic friendships. First, differences in the frequencies of triad types representing exclusive and nonexclusive dyadic friendships are compared. As expected, girls are found to have a greater frequency of exclusive triads than boys while boys are found to have a higher percentage of nonexclusive triads than girls. Girls are also shown to have a higher frequency of exclusive than comparable nonexclusive triads while no such pattern exists for boys. A second analysis examines movement across triad types over time; it shows that girls tend to return to an isolated dyad while boys tend to expand their dyadic friendships to include a third person. The implications of these results for differential learning of social skills and for the experience of newcomers to a group are discussed.

Curriculum Tracking and Educational Stratification: Some Further Evidence.

Abstract: ABSTRACT This study analyzes the differential antecedents and consequences of high school curriculum placement, using longitudinal survey dati from a subsample of a national sample of students who were contacted in.the 9th,'11th, and 12th grades. The study focilses in particular on three general questions: 1) What are the mechanisms by which socioeconomic baCkground affeCts curriculum placepent?'2) ,When preenrollment controls are included, whit effect does curriculum placement'have on high school achievements (absolute and relative), goals, and. behaviors? 3) How severely. biased are estimates of .curriculdm effectS when preenrollmeAt motivations aid achievelents are iot'Controlled? Analysis of thedata Show that students' sOcioeconomid-chataCteristiCS influence high schbOl'dpiiiculum placeient almost totally through their effects on,achidiremenr goals, and encouragement during junior, high school; AlSo, 'curriculum_ placement has important effetts on educational outcomes in the junior and senior years, even when4reqUrallient _variables are controlled.. OuthoriaGX.

Night As Frontier

Abstract: Nous publions ici la traduction d’un article de Murray Melbin, professeur de sciences sociales a la Boston University, paru en 1978 dans l’American Sociological Review. En voici le resume original. Alors que la colonisation des terres de la planete s’achevait, debutait une periode d’extension des activites eveillees sur les 24 heures de la journee. La tendance a l’augmentation du temps d’activite se poursuit, surtout dans les zones urbaines. L’hypothese selon laquelle la nuit serait devenue un nouveau front pionnier repose sur le postulat que le temps, comme l’espace, peut etre investi et occupe par les hommes. Une serie d’indices, dont les resultats de plusieurs experiences de terrain, montre que la vie sociale nocturne dans les zones urbaines ressemble a la vie sociale dans les anciennes terres pionnieres. Les donnees empiriques mobilisees concernent surtout la ville de Boston aujourd’hui et l’Ouest etats-unien il y a un siecle.

Bringing the Boss Back In: Employer Size, Employee Schooling, and Socioeconomic Achievement

Abstract: Employers play a crucial role in the process of social stratification in the U.S.: the jobs they provide are the primary mechanism by which individuals are distributed among occupations and by which earnings are distributed among persons. But the vast majority of sociological work on socioeconomic achievement ignores employers completely, and nearly all related work by economists either ignores employers or else ignores characteristics of workers, substituting one omission for another. In the theoretical section of this paper, we review and combine sociological work on organizational structure, sociological studies of social stratification, and economic research on labor markets, industrial wage differentials and human capital. In this review, we hypothesize that the size of an employer organization works indirectly through other dimensions of organizational structure to alter the effect of workers' schooling on their wages and occupational attainment. In particular, we hypothesize that the effect of workers' schooling on earnings and the effect of workers' schooling on occupational SES increase as logarithmic functions of the size of the organization which employs them. Since the relationship between schooling and occupational attainment is a central part of social stratification research, and because the effect of schooling on earnings is afundamentalfeature of sociological and human capital research on earnings, this hypothesis links organizational structure to the very heart of current issues in social stratification and human capital studies. In the empirical section of the paper, we divide a national probability sample of workers into five groups, depending on the size of the establishment in which they work. Fitting models of earnings and occupational attainment in each of these groups and then relating schooling effects to the size of the establishment which defines the groups, we find that the effect of workers' schooling on earnings and SES increases approximately as a logarithmic function of the size of the establishment for Which they work. Indeed, we find zero-order correlations between schooling effects and log establishment size to be between +.88 and +.95, and statistically significant at the .025 level or better. Implications of our research are discussed.

The Transition to Adulthood: Sex Differences in Educational Attainment and Age at Marriage.

Abstract: The transition to adulthood involves a number of role changes, but the timing of the transition in large part, is determined causally by educational attainment and age at marriage. These two variables are related positively for both sexes, but because women marry earlier than men, the relationship is stronger for women. Analyzing data from a fifteen year follow-up study of the high school students studied by Coleman in The Adolescent Society (1961), this paper examines sex differences in the determinants of educational attainment and age at first marriage and in the relationship between these two variables. The results, based on estimation of a simultaneous-equation model, indicate that women's earlier age at marriage is an important factor limiting their educational attainment. Age atfirst marriage has no significant effect on the educational attainments of men but has a stronger effect on the educational attainments of women than any of the variables usually considered in male models of the educational attainment process. Educational attainment also exerts a stronger effect on the timing of marriage for women than men, although it has a significant effect for both sexes.

Equality, Success, and Social Justice in England and the United States

Abstract: In an exploratory study of matched samples in England and the United States, we construct a path model that explains 26% and 39%, respectively, of the variance in social judgments about the fairness or unfairness of equality. The underdog principle, from which we predict that egalitarians compared to inegalitarians are more likely to be nonwhite, to have low prestige occupations, to have low family incomes, and to identify with the lower and working classes, is accepted. The principle of enlightenment, from which we predict a positive relationship between education and favorable attitudes toward equality, is accepted for England but not for the United States. The principle of an egalitarian Zeitgeist, from which we predict younger people are more egalitarian than older people, is accepted for the United States but not for England. Two additional important causal variables are found. First, a sense of personal equity, that is, a belief that a person has the standard of living that helshe deserves, reduces egalitarian attitudes in England more than in the United States and may reflect a cultural belief that British society is extraordinarily just because social arrangements result from fair rules of the game. While it is of no importance in England, the cultural belief in monetary success reduces egalitarian attitudes in the United States and functions as the belief in the just society does in England.

Nonrecursive models of labor force participation, fertility behavior and sex role attitudes.

Abstract: A negative relationship has been established between female labor force participation and fertility but there has been considerable controversy over the direction and causes of this relationship. 2 causal models of the actual fertility and work behavior of a national sample of married women aged 30 in 1970 are examined using the 2-stage least-squares technique to disentangle reciprocal effects. A 2-variable feedback loop incorporating only fertility and labor force participation and a 3-variable model which adds sex role attitudes to the endogenous variables are included. Much of the work-fertility relationship can be accounted for by controlling background variables such as education and marital duration yet a negative effect from fertility to labor force participation remains. Adding sex role attitudes to the model as a potential source and consequence of fertility and work behavior slightly reduces the size of this effect. In sum the results seem to indicate that the worker and mother roles were to some extent incompatible for these young married women. For this cohort at least the childbearing and rearing role appears to have taken precedence. Work behavior was influenced by the number of children the women had during their 20s; childbearing was not influenced by their work.(AUTHORS MODIFIED)

Explaining the low use of health services by the poor: costs, attitudes, or delivery systems?

Abstract: The poor, especially children, continue to receivefewer health services relative to need than the affluent. Explanations have traditionally focused on cost constraints or on cultural differences. This paper provides empirical evidence that such explanations do not fully account for income trends in preventive and symptomatic use. A third explanation, based on inadequacies in delivery systems used by the poor, is required. Factors representing each explanation are added sequentially to a multivariate model in order to shed light on their role in the income-use relationships. Particularly instructive are changes in estimates when types of delivery systems are added, since system differences have been ignored in much previous research. The importance of factors promoting use among the poorly. e.g., public assistance, is underestimated, while the role of individual characteristics, e.g., attitudes, is overestimated. Results suggest that neither financial access nor health education, without accompanying improvements in delivery systems, will eliminate income differentials in use.

Is Status Attainment Research Atheoretical

Abstract: Recent critiques of status attainment research have emphasized the atheoretical character of that research. This paper develops an opposing view, based on the premise that status attainment research is theory-laden. The distinctive characteristics of status attainment research which have provoked outside criticism are shown to be derivative of a neoclassical, functionalist conception of social structure.

The Ideology of Childhood and the State: Rules Distinguishing Children in National Constitutions, 1870-1970

Abstract: In the modern world the social role of childhood is increasingly differentiated from adulthood and brought under the jurisdiction of the state. This is not primarily a social organizational process but an institutional or ideological one: the ideological rules of differentiated and state-managed childhood diffuse throughout the global nation-state system regardless of variations among nations in dimensions of organizational development. We show this by coding the constitutions of all nation-states since 1870 for references and rules concerning childhood. Our index summarizing these references rises sharply betaiveen 1870 and 1970. At any point, the index does not vary significantly among rich and poor, neix and old, or central and peripheral states. Ideological rules concerning childhood are weakly (and decreasingly) related to technical development, and strongly (and increasingly) related to the general authority of the state.

Informed consent: consequences for response rate and response quality in social surveys.

Abstract: The study described in this paper was designed to measure the effects of variations in (1) the amount of information provided to respondents about the content of a survey ahead of time, (2) the assurance of confidentiality given to respondents, and (3) the request for and timing of a signature to document consent on three aspects of social surveys: (a) overall response rate, (b) response rates to individual questions, and (c) response quality. That is, the study was designed to measure the impact of informed consent procedures on response rates and response quality in social survey research. For this purpose, a fully crossed 2 x 3 x 3 factorial design was imposed on a national probability sample of 2,084 potential respondents. The questionnaire consisted of a large number of items in such presumably sensitive areas as drinking, marijuana use, sexual behavior, and mental health, in addition to more conventional questions about leisure activities. Majorfindings can be summarized as follows: 1. The overall response rate to the survey was 67%; of the three variables investigated, only the request for a signature had a significant effect on the probability of responding. Seventy-one percent of those not askedfor a signature were interviewed, compared with 64% and 65% of those asked to sign before and those asked to sign afterwards. 2. Only the assurance of confidentiality had a significant effect on item nonresponse. Despite the sensitive nature of the interview, nonresponse to individual questions was very low. On those questions to which the nonresponse rate totaled more than 3%-all of them questions about behavior rather than attitudes-respondents given an assurance of absolute confidentiality had a lower nonresponse rate than those in two other experimental groups, in some cases by a statistically significant margin. 3. None of the three independent variables had either consistent or large effects on the quality of response. However, there are suggestions in the data that asking for a signature before the interview has a sensitization effect, so that better data are obtained if the respondent is asked to sign a consent form afterwards.

The sociogenesis of psychological disorder: reexamining the causal issues with longitudinal data.

Abstract: Although there is some consistency to the finding that socioeconomic status is related inversely to various measures and concepts of psychological disorder, the causal interpretation of this relationship remains uncertain. As usually stated, the issue is whether this inverse relationship arises from the fact and that low social status leads to disorder symptomatology (referred to as social causation) or a high degree of symptomatology impairs the individual's ability to be upwardly mobile (social selection). Research on this issue is far from definitive, especially for less severe types of symptomatology. The causal question is reformulated here in terms of the possible outcomes of a causal analysis of panel data. Based on data from two studies which each measure SES and psychological disorder symptomatology at multiple points in time, results from estimating a series of panel models incorporating unobserved variable specifications of both SES and disorder favor a social causation interpretation. However, differences in results across samples suggest that some modification of the simple social causation position may be necessary.

Cultural Effects on Organizational Structure: The Case of Japanese Firms in the United States

Abstract: This paper reports the findings of a survey of 54 Japanese business organizations in the southern California region. We conceptualize these organizations as hybrids whose strategies of structuring wvork and authority relations incorporate both Western and Japanese patterns. Following Yoshino's treatment of Japanese multinationals, iv'e hypothesize that the extent to which an organization of this sort adopts structural features which are characteristically Japanese depends on the extent to which it recruits Japanese nationals and Japanese-Americans as employees. Based on a series of regressions in which the Aston measures of structure are taken as dependent variables and the proportions of employees who are Japanese and Japanese-American are independent variables along with measures of size, automation, function, and status, wve attempt to test this hypothesis. We find relatively strong evidence that functional (i.e., occupational) specialization varies inversely with the size of the Japanese cultural presence. With respect to centralization of decision making, formalization of rules and procedures, and vertical differentiation, only weak and inconclusive tendencies appear in our data.

The diffusion of collective violence.

Abstract: Past explanations of violence have characteristically paid more attention to the issues of social conditions and psychocultural stimuli than to the issue of timing. Timing is the focus of this paper in which a differential equation model of the temporal diffusion of violence is developed. This model is derived from behavioral generalizations which indicate that aggression is both instigated and inhibited via direct and vicarious learning. The parameters of the model provide measures of the instigation and inhibition processes that take place throughout an outbreak. Twenty-five data sets representing a wide variety of collective outbreaks of violence are used to test the empirical fit and to evaluate the credibility of the assumptions of the model. The model describes the overtime distribution of incidents quite accurately and the assumptions and implications of the derivation appear to be consistent with the cultural conditions surrounding the outbreaks.

Women's Intergenerational Occupational Mobility.

Abstract: Several recent papers have studied women's intergenerational occupational mobility as movement from father's to daughter's occupation. This paper suggests that mother's occupation also is an important dimension of this mobility process. Analysis of data from a national sample of women 30 to 44 in 1967 shows that, when controlling for age and race, a necessary and sufficient model of women's intergenerational occupational mobility includes mother's as well as father's occupation. Whether or not the mother had an occupation outside the home and what occupation she held, given that she was employed, both affect daughter's occupational destination.