Showing papers on "Social dynamics published in 1973"

Social Psychology as History

Abstract: An analysis of theory and research in social psychology reveals that while methods of research are scientific in character, theories of social behavior are primarily reflections of contemporary history. The dissemination of psychological knowledge modifies the patterns of behavior upon which the knowledge is based. It does so because of the prescriptive bias of psychological theorizing, the liberating effects of knowledge, and the resistance based on common values of freedom and individuality. In addition, theoretical premises are based primarily on acquired dispositions. As the culture changes, such dispositions are altered, and the premises are often invalidated. Several modifications in the scope and methods of social psychology are derived from this analysis.

Comprehensive Planning and Coordination: Some Functional Aspects

Abstract: Comprehensive planning and coordination constitute the prevailing strategy for addressing the social problems of American cities. A current example is the Model Cities program. The strategy has been severely criticized by social scientists and practitioners for its faulty assumptions regarding social dynamics, its ineffectiveness, and its requirement of an authoritarian central decisionmaking structure in order to be made effective. Yet it receives increasing support. Three aspects of the strategy are the social definition of poverty, the channeling of citizen participation, and the employment of evaluative research. These and other aspects involve latent functions which help explain the otherwise paradoxical commitment to the strategy by the federal government and local agencies.

Social Dynamics of Three Captive Wolf Packs

Abstract: This study probes the intrinsic complexities of the social organization and inter-individual relationships in three captive packs of wolves; behavior profiles of members of two of the packs had been determined earlier during infancy. The effects of removal and reintroduction of dominant and second ranking yearling wolves in two of the packs and of dominant and most subordinate wolves in a third pack were observed. A greater cohensiveness or unity in the higher ranks of the pack, based upon the "tension" effect of attraction-affection and aggression-domination is proposed. The social significance of paradoxical ambivalent aggression and the relationships between active and passive submission and play behavior are discussed.

Educational Institutions as a "Guidable" System

Abstract: This essay attempts to apply a general theoretical form to the study of educational institutions. The theory's core assumption is that in conceptualizing and analyzing social dynamics one must carefully separate "change" from "guided change." (In the past, stress was often put on contrasting change with statics.) The reason for this is that if we seek to link analysis with policy making, the link must occur at the point where we separate changes which just happen, whether we desire them or not, from those we bring about deliberately. Above all, we must ask, Where are the levers? How can we guide change? But let us back step for a moment, to outline the condition we will examine. We see before us educational institutions, especially schools, charged with curricular and structural rigidities, with inability to adjust to the rapidly changing needs of the contemporary society. They are depicted as attempting to perpetuate lower-middle-class values, those closest to the hearts of teachers and small businessmen, to yesterday's America. Educational institutions are said to be unresponsive to the needs of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds as well as alienating to upper-middleclass youths, who are no longer interested in hard work, or in adding to their affluence, but who seek a more hedonistic, reflective, cultural, or politically active life. Educational institutions are said to be slow to introduce the innovations necessary to keep the country at the forefront in scientific creativity and technological developments. Some critics go so far as to suggest doing away with education in schools and colleges, preferring the spontaneity of the streets and colleges "without walls" to contemporary "bureaucratic" education. Somewhat less extreme critics favor the establishment of a second layer of educational systems to circumvent the existing one, which is viewed as hopelessly obsolescent and "immune" to innovation. Without attempting to determine the extent to which American educational institutions have ossified, I will briefly indicate the factors which make for rigidity and the conditions under which the educational system may "loosen up." In doing so, I shall focus on those factors which are relatively movable; other factors need to be studied to gain a complete understanding of the educational world, but for policy makers and active citizens, the movable factors are of more interest.2 Limiting ourselves to these factors is possible because the movable factors are not linked to the

Critical Examination of Major Themes in Mead’s Thought

Abstract: The richness of Mead’s fundamental themes is so great that a thorough and systematic criticism of his entire range of thought would clearly transcend the limits of our present study. We restrict ourselves necessarily to a consideration of a few major doctrines and focus our discussion upon five central themes which characterize Mead’s position: the self, other selves, the act, temporality, and sociality. It might be well to indicate at the outset why these particular problems have been selected from the welter of issues in Mead’s work. First of all, it should be clear that any criticism of Mead’s general position cannot avoid dealing with the topics we have selected; they are key issues. A second consideration is that the five topics selected are either discussed or implied in all of Mead’s work: it is not possible to understand his theories of gesture, communication, language, consciousness, etc., without taking into consideration problems of the self and other selves, the act and its stages, questions of the temporal span of the act and its relation to the present, and, finally, the root issue of the ground of all these structures, sociality. A third factor in our selection of these themes is that they represent problems crucial to the basis and structure of the social sciences to the extent that the latter are fundamentally concerned with the nature of societal reality. In whatever form the themes are articulated, a true understanding of the foundations of the social sciences must involve such problems as the nature of the self, the group, and the situation incorporating both. For all these reasons, Mead’s insights not only are of value in themselves, but tend to direct our attention toward the foundational problems of the social sciences.