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The article comments on papers presented in a symposium on the nature and scope of sociology. Like other theoretical sciences, sociology is concerned with knowledge, not action, and thus sociology consists solely in scientific method and techniques, and in the organized body of theory and knowledge developed through the application of these. In this view, social engineering, which is the application of this knowledge to practical problems as through social work, social reform, or Christian social reconstruction, is definitely not sociology, although many sociologists participate in such engineering. When a sociologist participates in social engineering, he should realize that he is stepping over the boundaries of his role as a scientist. Like moral philosophy, sociology studies what can be observed of men's interactions through the use of the senses, but unlike philosophy it proceeds to testing the truth by a purely inductive criterion. In science, the ultimate test of all theories and hypotheses must be an inductive examination of whether they conform to the facts of sensible phenomena. It is this which distinguishes the knowledge of science from that of mathematics, philosophy or theology. It is for this reason that metaphysical principles may not be invoked to prove scientific questions.

The role of archival journals in the communication system of science has been recognized as important by many writers.' The nature of the scientific reward system and the ideology of pure science ensures that public communication is central to the social system of science. The two journals considered here were in a sample of thirty-two British social science journals whose editors and referee organizations were discussed in an earlier paper. Their submission and rejection rates were similar to the median rates for the journals, but their age was less than that of the majority. They were both founded within five years of the year whose submissions were studied; such young journals constituted about a third of the journals in the sample. The differences in research area and autonomy affected the nature of the journals' referee systems. The pure discipline journal sent most of its submissions to a regular panel of editorial referees for evaluation and the editor usually accepted their recommendations.

The article comments on film-making process. The film-making process requires that a person reduce an abstract idea to a visual form. One must be able to visualize people doing something and then capture that on film. In one sense, film-making is a test of the hypothesis that sociology is a behavioral science. Students should learn how to make theoretically based films for these and the additional reason that thus they can better learn their discipline. By writing a paper, the good student learns his subject. He learns the ideas and that he can control them. But, in writing, he often learns to become a manipulator of words and loses any concern about the behavioral reference they may or may not have. In making a film, however, the student does come face to face with connecting his ideas to human behavior. In film-making, one can delineate a set of roles which, taken together, result in the finished product. There is the producer, the person who has the ultimate responsibility for the film, the one who, nominally at least, has the concept of the entire production.

This section presents a bibliography of books on sociology.

This article comments on the position papers in the June 1967 issue of Rural Sociology. The author asserts that the papers are a mark of growing maturity of the rural sociology profession. It took years before the state universities and colleges assumed the dominant role of that they have achieved in the development of rural sociology. Contributions of the early sociologists to the applied field are presented to emphasize their historical value.

The process of evaluating papers for journal publication is a measurement process, similar to the other measurement processes of qualitative material in the social sciences. A good qualitative measurement technique rarely has a reliability coefficient of more than about 0.50 i.e., a correlation of 0.50 of one measurement with another measurement by the same technique. The square root of the reliability of a measure is the upper limit of its validity. If it is assumed that journal editing as a measurement process is as good as good qualitative measurement can possibly be, given this experience in the social sciences it would estimate the validity of a judgment of article quality to be about 0.70. The two major journals in Sociology accept about 16 per cent of the papers submitted to them. If the quality of papers judged is approximately normal, then one can say that papers judged to be 1 standard deviation or more above the mean of papers submitted will be accepted. Assuming a correlation of 0.70 between the true quality of the paper and the judged quality, one can estimate the proportion of acceptances of papers of different quality.

This article presents a list of books, related to sociology. Some of the books mentioned in the article are "The Idea of a Spiritual Power: Comte Memorial Lecture," by H.B. Acton, "Gypsy Politics and Social Change," by T. Action, "Women in America," by E.H. Altbach, "Human Behavior in the Social Environment," by R.E. Anderson and I.E. Carter, "The Essential Comte," edited by S. Anderski, "The Social Control of Drugs," by P. Bean, "Computers and the Social Sciences," by A. Brier and I. Robinson and "Knowledge, Education and Cultural Change," edited by R. Brown.

The article focuses on the November 1967 edition of the Sociological Review, in which there appeared two papers on occupational choice. One was a criticism of this article's author, and the other by sociologists J. Ford and S. Box contained the formulation of a specific theory backed by empirical work. The aim of this article is to answer the main arguments of the critique and thus make possible the synthesis of Ford and Box's work. Their approach to the problem of the choice of occupation is through exchange theory, concentrating on the actual choice situation. They specifically believe that the individual is seen as attempting to realize occupational values in his choice of employment location. For a general theory of occupational choice in their view it is sufficient to take occupational values as given. In one sense this is true, but for many reasons an explanation may be wanted of how these values were learnt. For example, a sociologist of education or a schoolteacher may be concerned with the links between the family or educational institutions and the economy.

The article presents information about various conferences and academic activities in the field of sociology that appeared in the 1965 issue of the "International Journal of Comparative Sociology." The International Association of French-Speaking Sociologists had its Fifth Symposium from September 29 to October 4, 1964. The symposium was held near Quebec, Canada, under the chairmanship of professor Georges Gurvitch. The theme of the symposium was "Social Classes in Present-day Sociology." A series of papers were on social classes in tropical Africa. The Sixtieth Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association was held at Chicago, Illinois, from August 30 to September 2, 1965. One came from this conference of American sociologists, with many Canadians present, a little confused, certainly so if he went with the purpose of taking it all in. For this anonymous reporter the impression was one of bigness, of complexity, and of a great bureaucracy emerging. The Sixth World Congress of Sociology will be held in Evian, France, during September 4 to 11, 1966. Communications by prospective participants are of two types official and individual. Specialists interested in an official presentation are required to contact the president of the working group in which they are interested.

The article presents information about several journals. The International Journal of Psychology, which started publication in 1966, is devoted to cross-cultural comparative and co-operative research in general, genetic and social psychology throughout the world. It reports on comparative field or laboratory studies, inquiries, experimental replications, critical reviews, theoretical or methodological papers in relationship with cross-cultural research, projects or cross-cultural studies are also published. Sociological Studies will be international in scope and will offer a professional, coordinated and disciplined review and appraisal of research trends in different areas of sociology. Each issue will consist of a collection of papers integrated around a particular theme. In particular it is hoped to provide an avenue for the publication of longer working papers which are at present too extensive for most journals. Sociological Studies will be published annually in English by the Cambridge University Press. The first issue will appear in 1968.

This paper has a dual purpose: to build a conceptual approach to authoritative relations in organizations that permits a reasonable interpretation of existing research; and to encourage significant future research. Its focus is upon several concepts common in the study of authority, which are often treated as being more or less mutually exclusive but which may also be usefully considered as interacting overlays of authoritative relations. Thus, in this paper authoritative relations are conceived as "integrative," that is, as having "traditional," "functional," and "behavioral" component overlays. In the application of the integrative conceptual approach illustrated here, the crucial issue is the increase of the congruence of the several overlays so that they substantially reinforce one another. The relevant literature is sampled, both to illustrate applied techniques and to sketch an organization structure appropriate for increasing the congruence of the several overlays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the annual meeting of the Rural Sociological society. This is not a new experience, but some of the changes that are taking place in rural sociology programs and in society indicate that the need for discussion is not yet satisfied. This is also one way of reaching the many members, subscribers, and readers who axe unable to attend the Society meetings, and of including them in the circle of discourse. Accordingly, few persons from various sections of the country and one to represent a view of rural sociology as it exists outside the U. S. to offer some of their views on important issues in the future of rural sociology were invited. They were asked to respond briefly and quickly enough for the papers to be presented in the June issue before the 1969 meeting.

The problem of correlating the specialisms of social science is, as most serious students agree, central in the field of general sociology. It seems hardly too much to say that the question of a general science of sociology stands or falls with this matter of contriving a working correlation between the more specialized studies. The opening meeting of the Society in 1904 was followed by two papers jointly printed by the author, outlining their views "On the Relation of Sociology to the Social Sciences and to Philosophy."

Presents news notes and announcements involving the Rural Sociological Society. Highlights of the 1971 annual meeting of the Rural Sociology Section of Association of Southern Agricultural Workers; Call for papers for the 1971 annual meeting of the society to be held in Denver, Colorado on August 27 to 29, 1971; Programs and projects of the society.

Presents news notes and announcements involving the Rural Sociological Society. Call for papers for the 1969 annual meeting of the society; Tentative session topics; Best dissertations in rural sociology for the years 1967 and 1968.

The article presents brief information on various congresses and seminars on sociology. The Institute International De Sociologie held its 20th World Congress in Cordoba, Argentina, from September 5-11, 1963. 50th session of the Indian Science Congress Association was held from October 7-10, 1963 in Delhi, India, under the presidency of professor D.S. Kothan, chairman of the University Grants Commission of India. For the first time in its history, the International Congress of Orientalists was held in an Oriental country. It is particularly happy that the Government of India had taken keen interest in organizing and financing the session. The Colombian Sociological Association will sponsor the Seventh Latin American Congress of Sociology, to be held in Bogota, Colombia, July 14-19, 1964, in coordination with the Latin American Association of Sociology. A two-day Seminar on the definition of culture was organized by the Department of Social Anthropology, Karnatak University, Karnataka, India in January 1964.

For some years, there has been a growing realization among social scientists that the culture concept needs a careful reexamination. Any doubt about this need should have been removed by the recent analytical survey "Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions." The present paper is such a reexamination and is a sequel and clarification of an earlier analysis by the writer. The central analytical concept of this paper is indicated by the term symbolic ideas. The advantage of this concept is that it permits the solution of problems regarding the nature of culture which cannot be discovered, stated, or solved by means of any other concept. One of the principal reasons why many basic problems about the nature of culture have not been solved long ago is that analyzers have not been using the proper conceptual tools with which to state clearly the issues. This paper shows that the concept of symbolic ideas should be welcomed as a long-needed tool with which to do this important job.

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Department of Sociology, The university of Rochester, October, 1966. The paper was written while the author was on leave of absence from the Department of Sociology, Syracuse University, as a visiting scholar at the Laboratory for Social Research, Stanford University. This investigation was supported in part by a Public Health Service fellowship MH 23,804-01 from the National Institute of Mental health. Much of the background for this paper was obtained while the author was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences, Stanford University (1964-1966) and the Laboratory for Social Research, Stanford University (1966-1967). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on several books. Some of the books are "The Sociology of the Family," by Dwight Sanderson and Robert G. Foster; "Problems for Parent Educators," edited by Eduard C. Lindeman and Flora M. Thurston; "Studies in Child Welfare"; "Medical Facilities in the United States," by Allon Peebles; "Marriage," by Oliver M. Butterfield; "A Sociological Case Study of a Foster Child," by Walter C. Reckless; "Suggestions for the Sociological Study of Problem Children," by Walter C. Reckless; "The Extent of Illness and of Physical and Mental Defects Prevailing in the United States," by Alden B. Mills; "Conditions of Work in Spin Rooms," by Ethel L. Best; "The Standard of Living at the Professional Level, 1816-17 and 1926-27," by Chase Going Woodhouse; "Habit Training for Children"; "Studies in Child Welfare."

The most comprehensive review of modern Polish sociology written in English is probably Eileen Markley Znaniecki's paper, published in Twentieth Century Sociology. The present note adds to the meager knowledge of Polish sociology by summarizing and discussing briefly the 1957 and 1958 volumes of the Polish Sociological Review. On the whole, the 1957 volume is historical and discursive rather than sociological. The discussion articles mostly interpret ideas of other authors, quoting them frequently. Three of the ten articles are concerned with problems of education. The 1958 volume, containing nine papers plus reviews and news, is predominantly sociological, although several articles may be regarded as more historical than sociological. These papers give little information about the methodology used, and in none is there any indication that statistical analysis was employed. Finally, this paper also describes the careers of students who attended special preparatory courses and later pursued technical college curricula.

This article presents information regarding academic representation and substantive concerns of five annual meetings of the North Central Sociological Association. The institutional affiliation of each participant was regarded as a unit frequency except when a paper was co-authored by two or more persons from the same institution. The initial analysis of the data involved separate rankings of all the academic departments by frequency of participation at each of the five meetings, then, a cumulative total, mean, and rank for each institution was determined. Information was also obtained regarding the degree granting status of each academic department in sociology. Several Guides to Graduate Departments of Sociology were utilized for this purpose but graduate schools are not always consistent in providing ins formation. Certain other data regarding the academic departments was also obtained, e.g., geographic location of school. Although the results of this initial analysis are too encompassing to present in tabular form, conclusions are summarized in the next section. The extent of Canadian Involvement at the meetings is also of interest as is the fact that a sizable number of American sociology departments, that do not offer a graduate degree, were always represented.

This article presents the research papers published in this issue of the journal "Rural Sociology." The first paper by James H. Copp represents a stage in the maturation of research on farm practice acceptance. It is one of the first attempts to compare the results of studies conducted in different agricultural regions. Using data from Wilkening's study in Wisconsin and from his own study in Kansas, he developed comparable measures of certain personal, social, and economic variables. Another paper by Copp and colleagues deals with the informational aspect of the acceptance of new farm practices. They attempt essentially to specify the function of information sources in the adoption process. By asking a series of questions about the sources of information at various times, from the awareness of a new practice until its adoption, they find that institutionalized sources tend to perform a function separate from that of noninstitutionalized sources. The study by Charles R. Hoffer and Dale Stangland is a worthy attempt to take into account the farmer's value orientations as they affect his adoption of practices.

The tendency for neighborhood patterns of association to localize the exchange of farm information on a person-to-person basis is demonstrated in this paper by the analysis of two types of interpersonal relationships. Conditions which help to explain this relationship are examined and evaluated, and the relationship of neighborhood residence to the evaluation of sources of farm information is considered. Although consideration of the relative influence of neighborhood and clique patterns of association is beyond the scope of this study, the data show that clique members are more likely to live outside neighborhoods than inside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the definition of a complex Problem the problem faced by a consultant and a client when they first try to enter into a working relationship. It would be presumptuous to propose a solution to such a knotty problem. It seems more appropriate and realistic to limit this paper to defining the problem. The paper is based upon the assumption that the entry of the consultant is a special case of a more general problem: the attachment of a new person to an existing social system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term "relevant" within the context of a small-groups course in sociology seemed to mean participating in ongoing groups and observing and gathering data on small groups. Teaching by having students engage in research has also been advocated by articles in "The American Sociologist." The research approach is especially applicable for courses in small groups. But there are too many difficulties in having students carry out research to make research the central feature of a course. In most cases students would not be sufficiently knowledgeable to design and conduct meaningful small-group experiments. This causes problems too difficult for an untrained instructor to handle. The second reason was that while attracted to the learn-by-doing element in such a course, it was equally important to devote class time to covering theoretical concepts, research techniques, and general substantive material. According to the author, the ideal course would expose students to diverse theoretical approaches to small groups while meeting their demand for relevance in the form of group participation and involvement in research.

This article discusses changing patterns of rural organization. There are many different approaches possible for a summary of a congress. The first design which will be used is to study a general hypothesis based on the sociologist R.K. Merton's comparison between European and American research technique in the sociology of knowledge. It seems as if one of the most important tasks in science is to study repeatedly the reliability and the validity of the empirical findings, in order to construct a coherent theoretical building. This means that the same hypothesis has to be tested several times at different places and at different points of time. It might be a very stimulating task for the European Society for Rural Sociology to further such a cumulative work. There has not either been very much discussion of how to study the consequences of a change. Especially the nonintended consequences are of great interest for a rural sociologist and have great practical importance. A final aspect in connection with change is the study of social processes. The necessity of analyzing the socio-cultural linkage has already been emphasized.

The article presents news updates from the field of sociology. Raymond E. Bassett, professor and chairman of the Department of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire, died on December 5, 1956. Charles Spurgeon Johnson was born in Bristol, Virginia, on July 24, 1893 and died in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 27, 1956. After receiving his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1918, he pursued graduate studies in sociology under Robert E. Park, Albion W. Small, W.I. Thomas, and later Ellsworth Fans. M.W. Hodges, of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in Great Britain, has been appointed for two years to Great Britain's Scientific Mission in Washington for liaison duties in the field of industrial management and social science research. The Fourth Interamerican Congress of Psychology by the Interarnerican Society of Psychology was held at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, from December 26-30, 1956. Luigi Sturzo Institute is holding a contest and offering a prize for a paper on sociology which the judges consider an effective contribution to this field of study both from the point of view of serious research and maturity of thought.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a procedure for constructing a city theology which effectively deals with the two major problems confronted in developing such a typology (1) the selection of dimensions 'along which cities vary in a relatively uniform way, and (2) the formation of homogeneous groups of cities on the basis of these dimensions jointly considered. The procedure suggested in this paper consists of uniting findings from previous research on the "selection of dimensions" problem with hierarchical grouping cluster analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable attention has been given recently to the perplexing problem of the relationship between attitudes and behavior (Ehrlich, 1969; Deutscher, 1969; Warner and DeFleur, 1969; Ajzen et al., 1970; Lastrucci, 1970; Tarter, 1970). Methodological issues have been debated, the lack of congruence between attitudes and behavior has been examined, and a variety of solutions have been offered. We are told, for example, that the continuing poor correlation between measured attitudes and overt behavior requires us to search for the intervening variable or variables which apparently obtain (Ehrlich, 1969); or to employ the "direct observation" of the phenomenon under investigation rather than try to extrapolate from paper-and-pencil tests to behavior (Deutscher, 1969); or to develop theories that, in turn, enable us to find indicators that are more valid than the paper-and-pencil type (Lastrueci, 1970); or to simply admit that attitudes as "presently conceptualized play no real role in behavior" (Tarter, 1970). A number of important aspects of attitude research, however, have been obscured or omitted in these discussions. For the surprising aspect of the situation is not, as has often been implied, the lack of congruence between attitudes and behavior, but the persistent use of research designs that are inappropriate for the complexity of the subject under investigation. Further, it is surprising that researchers have failed to draw out other important implications of their research. That is, the fact that an attitude does not lead directly to a behavior does not justify the assertion that attitudes play no role in behavior, or that attitude research lacks significant implications for social life. The basis for this latter statement will be shown below in a discussion of the values of attitude research. It may be that inadequate research designs, valued for their simplicity rather than their appropriateness, are a manifestation of the "publish or perish" syndrome. In any ease, this paper attempts to outline the problems and the values of attitude research, and to demonstrate thereby that such research is of great significance for the understanding of social phenomena. If that significance seems minimized by those studies that have found poor correlation between attitudes and behavior, the fault lies both in the failure to create research designs that reflect the complexity of the problem and in the tendency to exalt the importance of the proximate causes of overt behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of some common foci of attention among behavioral scientists, with particular respect to social systems and self systems. Clearly, the relationships between the elements of social systems (which has seemed to be the traditional concern of sociology and social anthropology), the relationships between the individual actor and the social system (which many suggest to be the fundamental concern of social psychology), and the relationships of stability to change (which would seem to be necessarily an interdisciplinary concern) have not been fully explained. This paper will not offer such explanation; it represents, rather, an attempt at conceptual analysis. Conceptual analysis is, of course, a primitive undertaking but, as Merton has suggested, vital to the fledgling sciences. Conceptual analysis represents a concern with definitions, and definitions in sociology are legion. Perhaps we have too many; it may be, however, that the plethora of definitions is in inverse relationship to their adequacy. Without attempting to pick and choose from the many definitions already available, I would like to propose the following tentative working definition: A social system is a collectivity in organized pursuit of consensually carried goals. I will suggest some possible aspects of these goals later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an exceptional study of the ways in which those attending a social science convention acquire and use the information obtained there. The authors also pinpoint the information most interesting and useful to the ample of convention attendants, and the impact of this information on scholarly productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with some of the social problems and with some possibilities to apply the experimental method in the social sciences more effectively than has been done in the past. As the concept of experiment has different meanings it seems useful first to specify what will be understood by an experiment in this paper. If a researcher actually manipulates all the variables the effect of which he tries to find out--the independent variables--or if the independent variables are not manipulated (in so-called natural experiments), and if the researcher eliminates the different effects of all other variables of his test populations. According to the definition of experiment in this paper it is not necessary that the relation between the dependent and independent variable is a "causal" one--whatever may be understood by this concept. Speaking of the "effect" of the "independent" variable means that if the value of one variable changes, the value of at least one other variable changes too.

The article presents a literature review that discusses the importance of American Indian linguistics. It also presents a summary of the state of description and comparative work for each linguistics family. It presents a classification of American Indian linguistics as well as the role of various language families and the interrelationships among postulated families. Though space limitations have dictated a narrowly linguistic concern in this literature and the ethnographic semantics are omitted, possible wider relationships of the families and classifications were still discussed.

This paper reports a study of the socialization of scientists in five industrial laboratories which vary greatly in size and function. The results indicate that the more thorough the academic socialization of the scientist, the more difficult the industrial adjustment. The most difficult adjustments appear to come from unfulfilled demands for autonomy. As industrial resocialization proceeds, the discrepancy between the amount of autonomy desired and the amount received tends to diminish, producing higher integration into the laboratory. The discrepancy diminishes as demands by scientists for autonomy decrease and laboratory management more willingly grants autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a photograph of sociologist Howard W. Odum. The photograph is published in the December 1954 issue of the periodical "Social Forces."

Presents an index of various literature on rural sociology.

Presents minutes of the Council Meeting on August 26, 1973. Attendees; Speakers; Balance sheet for the 1973-1974 proposed budget.

Stratification in science has received extensive attention from researchers in the sociology of science. The general research strategy involves identifying certain socio-personal characteristics of scientists such as professional age, highest degree, prestige of training and affiliated institutions, and relating these characteristics to the reward systems in science. Two identifiable reward systems in science involve (1) the bestowal of honorary awards, and (2) the access to, and recognition in, the formal communication system in science. These two systems both contribute to the overall stratification of the reward system but differ on at least two counts. This paper attempts to examine the stratification of the formal communication system in American sociology as it is related to the stratification of scientists. It is found that the visible journals in sociology are consistently stratified according to criteria such as rejection rates, articles rejected but eventually published in other sociological journals, order of submission preferences of ASA meeting authors, and cross-citation patterns in articles of the journals.

This paper outlines the career of Maurice F. Parmelee, sociologist, government official, nudist, and author of thirteen books, including the first American criminology text (1918). The contents of the latter are examined and contrasts with contemporary textbooks are noted. Parmelee's career is an anomoly, for although he published abundantly, he faded into sociological obscurity. Some conjecture is offered about scholarly career paths generally, drawn out of the Parmelee case. Finally, the paper argues that historical accounts of the development of American criminology are incomplete, for they fail to mention a number of early figures, including Parmelee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on meetings and workshops related to sociological societies, that already took place, and those which will be held in near future. The meetings of the Session 1913-14 on sociology, began on October 14 with a lecture by Professor Cloudesley Brereton on " National Secondary Education: The Lesson from France." The chair was taken by Professor J. Adams. The paper was published in the October number of the Sociological Review. The first afternoon meeting was on October 28, when Jane Harrison lectured to a large audience on "Woman and Knowledge," Professor Gilbert Murray being in the chair. On November 11, 1914 also in the afternoon, Professor Edward Cadbury read a paper on "Some Principles of Industrial Organisation," J.A. Hobson being in the chair. It is hoped that this paper will appear in a subsequent number of the Sociological Review, with a discussion to which various authorities on the subject will contribute. On January 21, 1915, meeting will be held on the topics related to women and society. A work by Victor Branford, M.A., the first Honorary Secretary of the Sociological Society, will be issued in February by Duckworth and Co.

This paper has suggested the need to reexamine die value-stance of sociology. In adopting the ideology of science, it eschewed experimentation as a basic methodological device. Yet, this paper has also suggested that there is a tendency to confuse the extra-scientific values and norms of science with the scientific method. Thus, the greatest danger to scientific objectivity may not lie so much in sociological experimentation as the inability of the sociologist to separate scientific from value decision-making. Value decisions, undiscriminated and rooted in the ideology of pure science, can be as inhibiting to the effective use of the scientific method in expanding the boundaries of knowledge as any other institutionalized norms. The paper also sugegsted that experimentation had much to oiler sociology. But in failing to imitate the physical sciences in this regard, it may have sacrificed a tool important to its development. A possible means of reconciling ideological and methodological differences over this issue might lie in the development of systematic methods by which to examine the values as well as the methodology which underlie any research effort. The investigator could review the values implicit in his research in much the same way as he now reviews the steps involved in his application of the scientific method. Much could be learned. Human intellectual experience suggests that we proceed more efficiently when the grounds for our behavior are set down, cares fully reviewed, and criticized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents news notes and announcements involving the Rural Sociological Society. Professional opportunities abroad; Announcements of events; Career developments of sociology professionals; Theses and dissertations.

This paper examines and describes patterns of migration, changes in birth rates, and the relationship of these two factors for the rural and urban population in state economic areas of 13 North Central States, 1940–1950. Analysis of the data clearly shows the concentration of population through net in-migration in the rural parts of metropolitan areas, and especially in the older and larger metropolitan areas. The 64 state economic areas of net in-migration had gains of 19, 36, and 14 per cent in total, rural, and urban population, respectively. The 109 areas of net out-migration maintained a stationary total population, lost 5 per cent in rural population, and gained 10 per cent in urban population. Areas of net in-migration showed a numerical increase of 7.2 births per 1,000 population, 1940–1950, and those of net out-migration an increase of only 4.6. Areas showing the rural-in, urban-out migration pattern had the largest increase, 7.5, while the rural-out, urban-out areas had the least increase, 3.8. The data point up the need for expanded study of the various demographic, social, and economic factors affecting migration and fertility and their relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to what might be regarded as a basic postulate in sociology, when a number of persons are in interaction over a period of time, mutual expectations and norms develop concerning the behavior of the persons involved, and the individual's actions are not independent of these norms and expectations. the postulate is the basis of the hypothesis that relationships among neighbors affect many of the individual operator's decisions concerning the farm business. The author of this paper seeks to test the hypothesis that the extent to which farm operators adopt recommended farm practices is, in part, a function of the operator's neighborhood of residence.

In this article, the author describes how Leo Pfeffer, the author of the paper entitled, "Issues That Divide," has contributed among other things a unique, highly useful, and systematic cataloguing of the principal issues around which Catholic-non-Catholic tensions and conflicts have developed and exist in America today. This brief postscript to his paper is intended to highlight some of the sociological and social psychological implications of what he has to say on this subject. As it is implied, the essential nature of Catholic-non-Catholic conflict makes it unlikely that such conflict will disappear in the natural course of events in the foreseeable future. Its control requires a more adequate understanding of its process than the social sciences can supply at present.

Two experiments were designed and performed to test an explanatory conjecture stated in an earlier paper. The conjecture says that dissonance (or cognitive imbalance) will occur among overrewarded participants in groups if, and only if, the overrewarded person is receiving or expects to receive indications of disapproval concerning how rewards are distributed in the group from an authority figure or an equitably rewarded group member. The experiments reported here used a modified Berger situation. The results tend to disconfinn the conjecture as stated. Various explanations of the negative results are discussed. Some further theoretical arguments concerning the nature and consequences of inequity are presented. In spite of much experimental and other research, we do not possess much more trustworthy (replicable) information about equity processes than Homans did when he wrote Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms. Some reasons for the empirical impasse are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present experiment was designed to reappraise a series of studies that have shown that people differentiate more among persons whom they dislike than they like. The issue raised in this paper is that the results reported in previous research may not necessarily support the hypotheses formulated to account for these results. Such hypotheses (in particular the Miller and Bieri vigilance hypothesis) have traditionally implied a certain type and direction of causality in the data. The present study reveals that perceived complexity can be manipulated by having subjects justify their choice of liked and disliked objects. This finding would seem to require a reinterpretation of previous data, and an alternative hypothesis is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tested experimentally the relationship between group cohesiveness, defined as the willingness of individuals to stay in their group, and power, and acceptance. Power was defined as the ability to satisfy needs and acceptance as to the willingness to do so. A division of groups into three categories was suggested. In an instrumental group people seek to receive power and acceptance; in a mutual acceptance group people join having in mind to give and to take power and acceptance; in a vectorial group the aim of the people is to give power and acceptance either to some individuals or to an ideal. It was found that cohesiveness is better correlated to power than to acceptance in the instrumental and vectorial groups, and better correlated to acceptance in the mutual acceptance group. When all three groups were exposed to stress, cohesiveness has suffered most in the instrumental group and least in the vectorial group. All these findings are tentative and more experiments are forthcoming in order to corroborate the data obtained in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reported experiment is based on a few assumptions. First that people perceive each other in the two dimensions of tower as the ability to satisfy needs, and acceptance defined as the willingness to do so. A new research tool, based on these assumptions, the statogram, has been introduced. The second assumption (tested in other experiments) is that human groups should be divided into Instrumental, Mutual Acceptance, and Vectorial ones according to the objectives of their members. The experimental group reported here was an Instrumental one. Leadership in an Instrumental group has been studied experimentally in the reported experiment. Leadership has been defined as a relationship between two parts of a group in which one part, the leader (s), initiates, stimulates, and sometimes even determines the activities of the other part called follower (s). This study emphasizes the situational factors in leadership. Leadership is a function of the specific situation in a group. Specific hypothesis has been brought forward that in an Instrumental group, leadership is rather a function of power than of acceptance. A group of six subjects was assembled, two of them especially instructed, one of them had to behave like a strong but unfriendly person while the other had to be very friendly and weak. The results of statogram and of observers, mutually highly correlated, did prove what has been anticipated. A series of experiments are being conducted to develop the new research tool applied in this study and to corroborate further and on larger samples the hypothesis proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]