摘要:

Functional explanations are shown to be descriptive or pseudo-explanatory in many instances. When genuinely explanatory they can be replaced by causal explanations which make the underlying assumptions clearer. As illustration some occurrences of functionalism in sociology are explained both functionally and causally.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/45.3.319

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1967

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Man has transformed his immediate environment into one of material culture, and consequently himself into civilized man, by means of tools and languages. Although tools are no less important than languages, they have been underestimated. For tools are not merely articles of utility but serve all of the human needs. Tools are material objects employed to alter other material objects (where man himself is one of the material objects). Tools may be anything from a bulldozer to a violin. With the increase in civilization the use of tools rises sharply. Human inheritance is genetic and cultural. The cultural inheritance is external and is transmitted through learning: how to make and use tools. There is a feedback from tools; in a certain sense it is true that tools make the man. But man can choose his responses: what is it that he wants to feel? Tools tie man to his material environment but they also make it possible for him to achieve goals which are purely human; they lift him above the other animals. It is man the toolmaker who is the spiritual adventurer. The values carried by some tools are those toward which he aspires: what Bach could do with the organ and Shakespeare with the stage. It is the tools which are manufactured on his own planet which enable him to escape from it.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/45.3.329

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1967

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

By asking the question “What is it that makes an experiment ‘realistic’?” we seek to recast previous discussions focused on “realism versus artificiality.” It is suggested that relationships between variables may vary under different experimental conditions. The degree of realism is used as a means of identifying experimental characteristics. This analysis of the concept of realism provides a meaningful alternative for future synthesis of small group research, both field and laboratory. Characteristics of a research method labeled “realistic simulation” are also identified.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/45.3.337

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1967

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This study examined the paired associations among verbal attitudes, commitment and overt behavior. Overt behavior was measured by the degree to which students voluntarily became socially involved in a campus chapter of a civil rights organization. Verbal attitudes were found to be either consistent or inconsistent with overt behavior depending upon how the investigator structured the experimental situation in which verbal attitudes were measured.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/45.3.347

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1967

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This paper is concerned simply with surveying the correlation between two forms of prejudice (anti-Semiticism and anti-Negro attitudes) and various subvarieties of religious and political attitudes. It includes an examination of the correlations between the two varieties of prejudice and eight dimensions of religious attitudes and 13 dimensions of political attitudes. The research was conducted in four undergraduate university student populations: (1) midwestern urban, (2) midwestern rural, (3) southern urban, and (4) southern rural. The analysis reveals relatively strong correlations between political conservatism and the dimensions of bigotry in all the populations, and strong correlations between religiosity and bigotry in the southern populations. Kendall's coefficient of concordance disclosed that the ranking of the correlations is significantly similar in the populations examined.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/45.3.356

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1967

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Studies of adolescent career orientations provide consistent support for the propositions that educational expectations vary positively with the level of parental occupation and education, the frequency of parental educational encouragement, and negatively with family size. Since each of these four variables is intercorrelated it is possible that one or more of the zero-order associations may be totally or partially artifactual in nature. The use of Rosenberg's test factor standardization technique to generate third-order partials on survey data collected from 2,852 urban high school sophomore males indicates that this is not the case. From the analysis a provisional causal model is constructed. The roles of parental encouragement and of family size in the model receive particular attention.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/45.3.362

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1967

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

The present paper examines cultural beliefs about success, reflected in stereotypes about social classes, and their influence upon the degree of correspondence between objective class position and subjective class identification. The formulated hypothesis stating that the greatest degree of discrepancy between objective and subjective class position will tend to be found in the social classes most affected by unfavorable cultural stereotypes was supported by data available in two contrasting cultural milieus: the United States and Greece. The greatest degree of discrepancy is found in the American lower class and the Greek upper class which are most affected by corresponding negative stereotypes.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/45.3.374

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1967

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

The concept of a “culture of poverty” figures prominently in analyses of contemporary poverty and in explanations of the behavior of the poor. An examination of this concept indicates logical and empirical deficiencies in its use. Many of these deficiencies stem from basic problems in the use of the subculture framework, of which the concept of a culture of poverty is an instance. Some suggestions for a more appropriate use of the concept are offered. An alternative approach for understanding the behavior of the poor is proposed in which the material conditions of economic deprivation are given greater emphasis.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/45.3.383

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1967

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Virtually all theories of social stratification treat the nuclear family as a solidary unit the members of which share roughly the same rank in the social class system. It is further assumed by many that the best index (or for some, the only index) of family rank is the husband's occupation. The working wife is seldom seen as making contributions in this regard.The present paper presents an analysis of data from the 1960 U.S. Census which suggest that these assumptions are empirically inadequate. The high degree of role differentiation and role insulation characteristic of the “mass society” prompts a modification of these postulates. Further, the widespread occurrence of husband-wife differentials in occupational prestige suggests thatfamiliesmight profitably be studied from the perspective of status crystallization.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/45.3.392

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1967

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

The key to explaining and predicting changes in South African society lies in the fact that a cutting point can be defined on the dimension of power-authority—ability to make or influence decisions affecting the life chances of the whole population—that comes very near dividing “whites” from “nonwhites.” If (1) the dominant issue is the distribution of power-authority and (2) “the South African problem” is viewed as a two-party conflict with racially defined parties, then there are eight possible resolutions of the conflict, classifiable as annihilative, integrationist and separatist. The available evidence indicates that from least to most likely are annihilative, integrationist and separatist resolutions. Within the separatist category, secessionist resolutions appear less likely than a segregationist resolution—specifically a form of segregation clearly leading to a federal structure. Analysis of the South African case suggests for comparative research generalizations about intrasocietal racial conflicts.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/45.3.402

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1967

数据来源: OUP