摘要:

This article presents an outline of a theory of human motivation that draws on biological, psychological, and social processes. It focuses on the following issues: (1) the intrinsic unpredictability of the world that people experience, (2) the innate and noninnate differences in the attributes of individuals, (3) the premise that persons can reasonably be viewed as responsible for their actions, (4) the importance of a meaningful life and how this life is obtained, (5) reformulating learning theory by including the principle that behavior activates a physiologic process that is intrinsically rewarding, a process that raises questions about basic suppositions of symbolic interactionism, cognitive psychology, and rational choice theory, (6) the causes and consequences of gender differences in instrumental and nurturant behavior, (7) an examination of why the positive states of psychological well-being are often associated with a high level of stress and a lack of personal control, (8) the process of adult psychological maturation, which indicates that as persons age they become more contented with their lives and more concerned with the well-being of others, and (9) the limitations of the concept of “agency” in structuration theory, as it is not attentive to the differences among individuals in their capabilities, personalities, and unique life experiences.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/73.2.363

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1994

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

In this article, we investigate racial/ethnic differences in exposure to crime in suburbs In our research site, part of the greater New York metropolitan region, we find clear-cut racial/ethnic differences in average exposure to property and violent crime: blacks are most exposed, whites and Asians are least; Hispanics are in between. Then, using a novel technique for constructing cross-level regression models when a matching data set is not available, we test in two stages whether (1) individual-level and (2) contextual variables can explain differences among the groups. Such individual-level variables as household income and homeownership do predict the crime level of an individual's community of residence, but they do little to explain group differences in exposure to crime, especially between blacks and other groups. Three contextual variables, reflecting community racial composition, extent of poverty, and population size, constitute a more powerful explanation of individual and group variations.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/73.2.395

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1994

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

A long-standing concern of sociologists is the contribution of diffusion processes to social change. This article considers the contribution of social interaction diffusion to the fertility transition in Costa Rica, focusing on person-to-person contagion. Several prominent features of the Costa Rican transition suggest the existence of interaction diffusion effects, notably its pervasiveness toward all socioeconomic strata and the lack of evidence of a downward shift in family size preferences. Maps of the timing of fertility transition show an ordered spatial pattern suggestive of contagion between neighboring areas. A dynamic regression model estimated from pooled time series data for 100 counties reveals inter- and within-county diffusion effects on birth control adoption net of socioeconomic and family-planning program effects.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/73.2.435

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1994

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

In this article Jewish rescue is analyzed as a collective action problem rather than as a question of altruism. Data were collected from 174 rescuers in France and Holland to measure rescue along three dimensions: the motivations of rescue, the cognitive structure of rescue motivations, and the relative importance of personal motivations and incentives in the context of collective action. Three principal conclusions emerge from this study. First, two broad sets of motivations were distinguished: parochial motivations based on material, religious, and social norms and postmaterial motivations based on social justice. Second, each motivation was linked to a distinct cognitive structure. Parochial motivations were rooted in stable, conventional moral reasoning while postmaterial motivations were characterized by an immature but principled cognitive structure. Finally, motivations themselves provided only a weak explanation of rescue. Infrastructural variables and micromobilization contexts — organization, material support, and supporting social networks — are necessary to sustain collective action and proved more significant than personal motivations.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/73.2.463

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1994

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

A key debate in studies of unionization concerns the influence of structural characteristics of labor markets on labor organizing. Studies of national survey data reveal strong relationships between unionization and demographic, industrial, and occupational structures. By contrast, comparativists analyzing highly aggregated union density data emphasize the institutional determinants of labor organization. In this article I synthesize structural and institutional explanations of unionization in a multilevel analysis that combines social survey data and comparative institutional information from 16 countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. This analysis indicates that highly centralized collective bargaining and union-managed unemployment insurance schemes are associated with high and distinctively solidaristic patterns of unionization. More generally, the results suggests that institutions that displace market allocation with political control assist working-class organization in trade unions.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/73.2.497

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1994

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Although the low level of unionization in the U.S. has been attributed to status divisions and stratification among workers, little research has addressed the mechanisms by which status complexity limits unionization potential. Our analysis of variation in prounion attitudes in a national, U.S. sample of nonunion workers suggests that corporations have tended to legitimize themselves by appealing to the occupational identities of high-status workers whereas unions have tended to legitimize themselves by appealing to the social background identities — e.g., ethnic-racial and gender identities — of low-status workers. Our findings indicate that prounion sentiment is strongest among socially diverse, low-socioeconomic status workers.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/73.2.521

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1994

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This study analyzes the effects of partners' absolute and relative labor allocations on women's and men's perceived fairness of the division of household chores within unions. Using data from the 1988 National Survey of Families and Households, the analyses indicate that (1) men's housework efforts are powerful determinants of women's and men's fairness perceptions, and (2) women's employment hours have no effect on men's fairness perceptions while significantly increasing women's perceptions of unfairness to themselves. This study expands on Blair and Johnson's (1992) analysis of wives' perceptions of fairness by showing that men (and not just women) perceive that their housework affects fairness toward women. Major's (1987) hypothesis about gender differences in entitlement psychology and Thompson's (1991) hypothesis about “between-gender” referents are used to interpret the findings.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/73.2.533

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1994

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

The match of ideology and policy regarding gender equality in a corporatist society like Sweden should result in reduced gender inequality in access to supervisory authority and in earnings. The magnitude and form of this inequality is studied for a national sample of 1,359 full-time members of the professional union SACO in 1987–88. We find that Swedish professional women have only 68% of the supervisory positions that men have and 77% of the earnings that men have. These differences are not explained by process differences; human capital, family status, and structural variables generally produce access to authority and earnings similarly for men and women. Although there are mean resource differences in human capital and structural resources that disadvantage women and thus partly explain the gaps, the major factor explaining these gender gaps is occupational segregation. However, even when men and women are equalized on occupation and other explanatory variables, a gap favoring men is still found.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/73.2.555

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1994

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

Despite the fact that black children are disproportionately likely to live in poverty and with single mothers, evidence about the effects of those experiences on antisocial behavior is based largely on samples of white children. We evaluate race differences in the processes that link poverty and single parenthood to antisocial behavior, drawing on conceptual models that link structural conditions to children's well-being through the mediating influences of parental distress and unsupportive parenting. On the basis of data from the 1988 Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data set, we find that the total effects of poverty and single parenthood on parenting practices, and of parenting practices on antisocial behavior, do not differ significantly by race. However, the processes that create those effects do vary by race. Parenting practices and antisocial behavior are reciprocally related for whites but parenting practices do not significantly predict antisocial behavior for blacks.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/73.2.575

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1994

数据来源: OUP

摘要:

This study examines organization failure during a volatile period of realignment in the American life insurance industry, specifically in New York State from 1881 to 1931. The article casts key enactments in the state regulatory environment as indicative of change in the institutional environment. It asks whether pivotal regulatory change targeted at three distinct organizational forms (commercial life insurance companies, commercial assessment insurance companies, and fraternal benefit societies) affected the survival of those forms, net of the liability of newness and smallness. In doing so, the study seeks to illuminate how the institutional environment both expands and restricts the viability of organizational forms. The outcome in life insurance is an increasingly uniform, less diverse, industry.

ISSN:0430-0696    

DOI:10.1093/sf/73.2.605

出版商:The University of North Carolina Press    

年代:1994

数据来源: OUP