摘要:

The meritocratic thesis states that a strong association between individual “merit” and social rewards is inherent in highly industrialized society. A simple model of meritocratic allocation is proposed and applied to provide empirical assessment of “how far to meritocracy?” from empirical reality. The model conceptualized as an ideal type of meritocracy, incorporates the principle according to which more educated persons do not have lower status than less educated ones. Assuming that a meritocratic society should resemble its ideal type, we have formulated three testable hypotheses involving status mobility within educational groups, status determination by education, and status inequality among educational groups. The tests consist of evaluating the discrepancies between the data on the U.S. total labor force and the model. All three hypotheses implying that American society is close to meritocracy are rejected.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/63.3.623

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1985

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Data from the 1970 U.S. census permit the most complete test of status integration theory ever undertaken, one based on four sets of achieved statuses (employment, household, marital, and residential) and three sets of ascribed statuses (age, race, and sex). A series of “between-columns” tests does not support the theory; and, contrary to expectations, simultaneous measures of status integration (i.e., measures based on a cross-classification of all four sets of achieved statuses) do not improve the theory's predictive accuracy. However, there is a substantial inverse relation among age-race-sex groups between the suicide rate and the measure of occupational integration; and that finding, together with numerous previous positive tests, precludes a categorical rejection of the theory. Nonetheless, the theory assumes that all statuses are relevant and approximately to the same degree, and the findings are contrary to that assumption.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/63.3.643

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1985

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

A number of researchers have argued that crude rates of crime and delinquency are a function of a population's age pyramid. That is, given constant age-specific rates, the overall or crude rate will fluctuate in concert with the proportion of individuals in age groups with differing age-specific rates. Richard Easterlin, however, has suggested that it is unreasonable to expect age-specific rates to remain constant in the face of fluctuating population distributions. Specifically, it is suggested that many social phenomena, such as crime rates, will fluctuate according to the relative size of the age cohort considered.This hypothesis is tested using offlcial delinquency statistics from the Province of Ontario, Canada, for the years 1952–81. The data suggest that Easterlin's hypothesis is, in fact, a credible one.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/63.3.661

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1985

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Both Parsons' illness role theory and Scheff's labeling theory of mental disorder are characterized by an oversocialized conception of human action. Studies by the authors and others are reviewed to develop an alternative approach based on the premise that problematic experiences (e.g., “symptoms of mental illness”) are interpreted in a situational context. Alternative interpretations may be more often used than a mental illness explanation, which is usually a last resort. Processes in the response by self and significant others includealignment, in which explanations are formulated,snowballing, in which symptoms build on one another until they can no longer be ignored, andmagnification, which refers to the tendency for the perceived disruptiveness of symptoms to increase with decreasing social distance.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/63.3.682

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1985

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This study investigated the association between the structure of adolescent friendship networks, and distress responses in a private school. The 254 students in grades nine through twelve completed sociometric questionnaires, and measures of physiological, psychological, and behavioral distress. Results showed, first, that indices of network structure were more strongly associated with distress responses than were sociometric counts of relationships. Second, some dimensions of network structure were associated with reduced distress, but others were associated with increased distress. Third, physiological, psychological, and behavioral distress responses exhibited different patterns of association with network structure. Overall, psychological responses were positively associated with sociometric counts of relationships, but higher reachability was consistently associated with higher blood pressure, suggesting that some network roles may enhance psychological well-being while simultaneously involving physiological costs.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/63.3.698

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1985

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

We examine the degree of job commitment and job satisfaction within three different corporate sectors: large, nationally recognized firms (defined as industry leaders by theFortunemagazine survey), regionally based multi-establishment firms, and firms with local operations only. Commitment and satisfaction in large, nationally recognized companies are lower than in locally based companies, even after relevant job and individual characteristics are controlled. The strength and pervasiveness of these negative findings are interpreted in terms of the close supervision, pressured working environments, and deskilling of jobs typical of the leading firms, and in the apparent failure of these firms' efforts to manipulate their symbolic environments. The vision of the large, nationally recognized corporation as the home of the committed organization man is not supported. We discuss the implications of these results for future research on segmented labor markets.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/63.3.716

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1985

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

The extent to which residential segregation results from differences in the socioeconomic status of racial/ethnic groups remains a topic of debate. Although recent studies have argued that improvements in minority groups' socioeconomic status will lead to reduced residential segregation, such analyses have been cross-sectional.This study uses longitudinal data from 27 central cities in Texas to examine the effects of 1970,1980, and 1970–80 changes in socioeconomic status on Black-White, Anglo-Spanish, and Black-Spanish segregation. The findings indicate that socioeconomic factors are not significant determinants of racial/ethnic segregation in these periods. Rather, age of city, population growth, and percent of the population of minority status appear to explain patterns of residential segregation.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/63.3.732

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1985

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This paper focuses on racial successions in individual housing units. Racial successions, defined as successive occupancies by different race heads of households, are seen as the basic units of the processes of racial invasion-and-succession, and reinvasion. The conceptual framework proposed by London and recent ecological studies are used to generate hypotheses concerning the likelihood of racial succession. Nationwide Annual Housing Survey data are used to test the hypotheses, making use of log-linear and logistic regression models. The findings show that white-to-black successions are more likely to occur in older, poorer quality, central city housing units, consistent with the hypotheses. Black-to-white successions, however, occur more frequently in noncentral city, better quality units; units not predicted by the reinvasion model.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/63.3.748

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1985

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Traditional modernization theory assumes that the spread of formal education is crucial to further economic and cultural change and that it broadly benefits the public interest. This view of the role of education in development is challenged by an alternative perspective which suggests that the distribution of educational resources may instead serve the narrow interests of elites. Concepts from both perspectives are operationalized and the theories tested using hierarchical multiple regression techniques with Thai provincial data from 1970. Results suggest an overall complementarity of both sets of factors.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/63.3.775

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1985

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Formal military rules specify the rites for soldiers killed while serving in the Israel Defense Force. The military officially forbids the memorialization of individual soldiers by comrades in arms, and there are no formal rituals for expression of bereavement.Informal expressions of bereavement and memorialization of fellow soldiers however, do occur in a combat unit. Further, despite efforts by the military to institute an egalitarian system of burial and mourning, unsanctioned distinctions arise based on the circumstances of death and the position of the deceased in the hierarchy of his unit. Through this informal system of memorialization, the military reduces conflict between hierarchical and egalitarian symbols.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/63.3.795

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1985

数据来源: OUP