摘要:

Human ecology and operant conditioning are compared in order to consider the feasibility and desirability of linking human ecology and behavioral social psychology. General similarities between human ecology and operant conditioning include a recognition of the interaction between behavior and environment, the necessity of longitudinal analyses, the view that change is externally determined, and quantitative analyses involving aggregated behaviors. Major differences include origins of general principles, methodology, and units of analysis. Many similarities also exist among general concepts and principles. Operant principles might be applied to provide complex psychological, social-psychological, sociological, and human-ecological analyses. The major barrier between human ecologists and behavioral social psychologists and sociologists now appears to be the discrepancy in the size of the social systems each studies.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/52.3.313

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1974

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This article uses data gathered by the “small world” technique to estimate the distance between social categories, the diffuseness of connection within a category, and the relative isolation of various categories. The critical questions for the data are the adequacy of the categories and the distribution of the chains of booklets which fail to reach the target. If the population can be divided intoncategories, the natural model for the data is ann+2 state Markov process where the two additional states are “lost” and “target.” The discussion centers around the use of the transition matrix as a description of social structure and the comparison of observed and predicted average chain lengths as a test for the adequacy of the categories as a descriptive system. If the categories are “good,” the “lost” column of the transition matrix can be eliminated and the new matrix can then be used to “correct” the observed average chain lengths to estimates of the average chain lengths, had all chains been completed.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/52.3.321

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1974

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Every society prescribes the timing of critical events in the life cycle, such as those attending motherhood. Patterns of role transition at variance with social prescriptions should produce role stress. Thus, when the adult roles associated with motherhood are activated too early in a woman' life cycle, stress and resultant social pathologies should be generated in the family. This study employs national survey data, finding that early motherhood, a form of accelerated role transition, is closely associated with high incidence of marital dissolution, poverty, and truncated education.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/52.3.333

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1974

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Families in which the wife works are more likely to undertake short-distance moving and slightly less likely to undertake long-distance migration than families in which the wife does not work. The effect of the wife' employment is greater in raising the family' local mobility rates than in lowering migration rates. The reasons behind these findings are explored, along with the implied consequences. It is concluded that the migration of husbands interferes substantially with career development among wives and in this way contributes to explaining why women earn less than men at the same age, occupation, and educational level.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/52.3.342

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1974

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

It is widely agreed that society has strong mores proscribing couples remaining childless. Nonetheless, childlessness varies regularly by a number of sociodemographic factors. Given the virtually universal acceptance of the norm concerning the desirability of children, why does childlessness vary so widely among social aggregates?First, it may simply be the case that this norm is not as universal as previously thought. Alternatively, if the norm is as widespread as represented, various social structural influences may operate to counter, selectively, the prevailing norms and produce deviance.Data from the 1967 Survey of Economic Opportunity for wives still in the childbearing years are used to explore these alternatives. Expectation data, interpreted as indicating the normative position of couples on remaining childless, are contrasted with current rates of childlessness for a number of factors. Comparisons suggest the second alternative and direct future research to include structural considerations.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/52.3.349

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1974

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This study examines the accuracy of adolescent perceptions of conjugal power and the association of occupation, education, and female employment with these perceptions using data from two existing surveys. The parent with whom the adolescent identified most closely was perceived as relatively more powerful. Although perception of conjugal power varied somewhat by age and sex of adolescent, the data suggest that conjugal power may also vary by certain structural dimensions in the family, including age and sex of children. Furthermore, these age and sex differences did not affect the association of power with other variables. These findings imply that adolescent perceptions of conjugal power may have relatively high validity. Substantively, the data showed a positive association between the father' occupational prestige and his power concerning important family problems, general disagreements, and disagreements about income. Comparative father-mother education and the mother' employment status tended to have a positive association with conjugal power in all areas examined except child discipline where the two data sets were somewhat contradictory.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/52.3.357

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1974

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This study reports the results of a test of a theory which was based on the assumption that lengths of school membership would be systematically related with adolescents' valuations of three significant others: mothers, fathers, and friends. Increasing time in school was predicted to be associated with decreasing valuations of parents and increasing valuations of friends with the exception of the last school year when anticipated change of settings would reverse these trends. From a secondary analysis of responses from8,966students in22schools, the theory in general was not supported. Rather, it was found that the effects of school experiences on the valuations of these three significant others occur within the first or second year of membership for junior high school students. An alternative interpretation is that the school,in toto, may constitute a generalized reference field which takes on increasing importance once the adolescent has been socially incorporated into the school organization. The importance of initial experiences in school or other adolescent settings are identified as important issues for future research.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/52.3.368

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1974

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This article examines the social dimensions of urbanism in the contemporary United States. A central thesis is that a rural-urban distinction is no substitute for an assessment of the basic dimensions of inter-urban variation. Toward this end, eight factors are compared and interpreted as to total variation explained and mean interrelationship holding other factors constant. The results indicate a slight predominance for the demographic factor, but a relatively small range of difference among the dimensions. The article concludes by suggesting that the demographic aspect of urbanism has been exaggerated, and tentatively considers whether historical and cultural forces influence the structure of urbanism.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/52.3.376

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1974

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Using variables derived from several conceptualizations of the urban environment, this study assesses the predictability of levels of fiscal support (as measured by per capita property tax revenue) among21municipal governments at two points in time. The data bear out the notion that it is useful to consider revenue level as a funcion of social variables differing in time and space. The results also suggest that current views of environmental impact on municipal government make the urban system excessively static. Findings indicate that over time one can expect marked changes in the influence of various environmental features.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/52.3.384

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1974

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

A study of attitudinal differentiation between nine pairs of social and demographic categories in the United States reveals little change from the early and middle 1950s to the late 1960s, the only important decline being in the differentiation between the manual and the nonmanual classes. The data do not support the notion that the mass media and similar influences in advanced industrial societies effect a general leveling of attitudes among the major social and demographic categories.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/52.3.395

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1974

数据来源: OUP