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Nearly twenty years ago, the author wrote a paper for presentation at a section of the annual meeting of American Sociological Society in which he sought to demonstrate the feasibility and utility of analyzing marital problems in terms of dynamic situational fields composed of interacting roles. Of little moment in the general progress of social psychology, the paper is nevertheless pregnant with meaning for the author. In the first place, it represented the results of his own efforts to integrate such of their ideas as he had assimilated from sociologists G. H. Mead, John Dewey, Sigmund Freud, Kurt Koffka, R. E. Parks, E. W. Burgess, H. D. Lasswell, and many others whose thinking and orientation are symbolized by these names, into a theoretical frame work which the author could apply to the very concrete and real problems of analysis and understanding of human behavior in the groups he was studying at that time. In the second place, the paper symbolized in his own experience the shift which characterized much of social psychology in the thirties from an orientation that led to phrasing explanations in terms of intrinsic attributes to one which can be called interactional.

The article presents comments of the author on sociologist Stewart Macaulay's research paper regarding doctrinal approach to law with the so-called behavioral approach. Macaulay's paper shows the wisdom of going beyond an exegesis of legal doctrines to a study of how law is affected by, and, in turn, affects social relationships. His paper in effect points to contract law as a sociologically significant area of inquiry. For a contract is by definition a type of social relationship whose function is to ensure predictability and security in business transaction. Macaulay's preliminary finding that noncontractual relations are common in industry is of interest to students of organization theory as well as to students of the sociology of law. Macaulay's paper deals with the problem of inter-organizational relations as regards the use or non-use of contracts in business transactions. In fact, legal and non-legal norms relative to contracts may be viewed as mechanisms for regulating inter-organizational relations.

The epistemology of symbolic interaction derives from the pragmatic model of Dewey and Mead, close associates. This paper argues that the methodology of pragmatism and symbolic interaction permits the perspectives of the researcher and the people in interactive situations to bias the research. influenced by Hegel, Dewey and Mead adopted an evolutionary, holistic view of reality; progress was inevitable and people were naturally rational. In addition, their notion of the logico-theoretic component in science deviated sharply from the more common hypothetico-deductive model, in both she pragmatic and symbolic interaction approaches, the theoretic component is ambiguous; to formulate theory prior to research is thought to be risky for it may bias the research. instead, theory emerges fro,n the research process; the participants in an interactive situation contribute to it. Thus the social givens of the researcher and the participants serve as a theoretical framework, giving the research a bias which reflects the social perspective of the researcher and the distribution of power in the interactive setting. That many researchers in this tradition are liberal humanitarians obscures the problem of bias inherent in this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores convergences between symbolic interactionism and exchange theory in four major areas: (1) both theoretical orientations assume the operation of constructive mental processes when actors act toward their environment; this assumption is explicitly staled by symbolic interactionists and implied in exchange-theoretical propositions dealing with valuation, decision-making or justice; (2) exchange theory implies processes akin to G. H. Mead's "self" and "generalized other" in the sense that interaction in exchange requires persons to imaginatively assume the roles of others and view themselves in terms of the conceptions of others; (3) in both perspectives social organization is viewed as emerging from constructed individual acts "fitted" to one another; such "elementary" interactions give rise to institutional modes of behavior which, once established, exist as a reality sui generis over and against the individual actors; (4) in both perspectives social dynamics is conceived in dialectic terms, arising out of contradictions between micro- and macro processes and inherent tendencies in social organization toward inconsistency, conflict and change. It is proposed that a possible synthesis between exchange theory and symbolic interactionism can begin by postulating a dialectical process in which objective realities become subjectified by actors and subjective meanings become objectified in social institutions. A synthesized theory based on such general postulates can be empirically tested when (a) the concrete "subjective" and "objective" contingencies which make acts meaningful for the actors are posited and empirically indicated and (b) longitudinal observations show changes in some of these contingencies so that predictions about behavioral changes can be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on "demographic metabolism," a reflection of the fact that social organizations often exhibit continuity although their human components come and go. Ryder focused on the cohort as an analytic tool for analyzing demographic metabolism; we offer an index of regeneration which reflects the fact that social organizations often contain many overlapping cohorts. The index measures the rate of change in ratio of newcomers to veteran members. The paper considers (1) how and why reganizations processes vary, (2) the potential consequences of such variations, and (3) how social organizations deal with regeneration phenomena. Illustrative data are offered for two American universities, and the discussion is extended to other complex organizations, families, nation-states, and cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Paper resents a definition and typology of "awareness contexts" and offers a paradigm for their study. The paradigm emphasizes the developmental interaction processes deriving from given awareness contexts, and directs attention to transformations of those contexts. The writings of four sociologists are located within the paradigm with respect to the types of awareness context they assume and the segments of the paradigm they treat. Implications of the paradigm for future research and theory are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an investigation of communication behavior in a "natural" social system the white adult community in a Mississippi town of 5,000 population, called Bakerville in this report. The study was directed at the general question of who talks to whom about specific community problems and projects. The present paper, however, deals with only one aspect of this problem: how persons who report a variety of communication contacts differ from those who report few or no contacts. To examine the relationship between extensiveness of communication contacts and other variables the sample has been dichotomized into high communicators and low communicators. Operationally defined, high communicators are those who report talking to three or more different persons about community problems; low communicators, those who report talking to fewer than three persons. "Positional" Factors. The relationship between extensiveness of communication contacts and position in the social structure was in part investigated in the present study by comparing the social status of high and low communicators. Index of Status Characteristics (ISC) was used as a convenient method for estimating the social position of members of the sample.

This paper is a report on part of a larger project designed to develop a combined test for interpersonal competence. The findings of the study indicated that autonomy role playing tests were highly representative of "real life" autonomy behavior, correlating with the best outside criterion. Autonomy role playing accurately predicted general autonomy and general competence in handling particular tasks theoretically requiring high autonomy. It was more satisfactory than current social work procedures in this respect. However, it was pointed out that only role playing specifically designed to get at autonomy was successful. Role playing not focused on autonomy gave a distorted perception of "real life" autonomy. The tests can be reliably analyzed and are simple to give. The tests could be given in homes or offices to people of different social classes, different races, and different educational levels without too much trouble. In the light of the above findings and assuming that they will hold up through further research, the following uses of role playing seem empirically verified. If autonomy within role playing changes from one time to another, "real life" autonomy may be assumed also to have changed.

The books, papers, studies, and investigations currently nearing completion in the field of sociological theory exhibit an impressive range. The heterogeneity of these studies introduces special difficulties into their classification. In spite of certain deficiencies in taxonomic rigor, it is presented in the following categories general sociological theory, the history of sociology, historical sociology, methodology, the sociology of knowledge, political sociology, value studies and social control. Author Howard Becker is currently drawing out the theoretical implications of several substantive studies and building on the foundations laid in his book "Through Values to Social Interpretation." The first of these studies, a long-term project, will be called Mind on the Looms of Greece. This work will have solid relevance not only to general sociological theory but also to the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of religion, and the sociological analysis of historical change. Sociologist Read Bain has developed a theory of communication as the basic factor in society and is considering the manner in which it affects the definition of both sociological and social problems. The five topics which will appear most prominently in his book are reading and writing, art and science, mind and body, race and class, and war and peace.

The world population is confronted with the intensification of racial, cultural, religious, and national conflicts. That is, there has been an intensification of intercultural relations of populational groups. Of late years worldwide travel, trade, communication, migration, and especially war and the threat of war have been important in bringing this situation about. Whether there is war or not, one must deal with populations, as, for example, in the governing of Japan and Germany at the present time and negotiations with them previous to the war. The same is true in relation to the USSR. Whether the problem of intergroup relations is discussed on the international level, the national level, the industrial level of management and labor, or the level of a small community, as it shall be done in this paper, the point at issue is that of participation. This paper touches upon the positive values of diverse cultures in a great complex where each sub-population contributes to the total functioning culture.

It is the office of theoretical investigation," said scholar Willard Gibbs, "to give the form in which the results of experiment may be expressed." If he had put "observation" for "experiment," Gibbs would have stated the purpose of the present paper. It is to provide one form in which may be ex- pressed what one knows about social organization. Please note, at the beginning, that more than one form is possible and that, in a limited space, the one suggested here can only be sketched out. The elements of social behavior. The present paper presupposes the direct observation of social behavior. It asks the devastating questions: Looking at the actions of men with eyes innocent of the usual preconceptions what does one see? What a simple classification can one start from in this field of fact? Attempting to answer, it sets up, as components of the conceptual scheme, individuals and three elements or determinants of the behavior of individuals in groups, which will be called operation, sentiment, and interaction.

The article presents author's comments in response to the criticism of his research paper by Professor Herbert Blumer. To begin with, he defends his metaphorical reference of blank mind with which Symbolic Interactionism researcher approaches data. He clarifies that the blank mind describes a mind whose knowledge derives from experience. Blank mind indeed is like a sheet of white paper and derives all knowledge from experience alone because the mind has no innate ideas. Next, he supports his charge that inadequate testing and replication procedures in the Symbolic Interactionism model permit the influence of power and personality on findings. He states that Symbolic Interactionism researchers should rely on sensitizing concepts grounded on sense instead of on explicit objective traits. The study of the ongoing real world requires a high order of careful and honest probing; creative yet disciplined imagination, resourcefulness, flexibility, pondering, and a constant readiness to recast one's images as this world can best be studied by two modes of naturalistic inquiry: exploration and inspection.

The literature on social stratification refers on occasion to inter-class marriage as the "acid test" of class mobility. This paper examines that proposition using Italian national-sample survey data on four socio-political perspectives: the respondent's perception of 1) the different distribution of rewards in society, 2) the degree to which class boundaries restrict social intercourse, 3) the character of inter-class relation, and 4) the interest representations of political parties. Evidence supports the proposition, in addition, rates of heterogamy are reported, and the relationship of heterogamy to career entries is examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the small groups literature on status organizing processes in decision- snaking groups whose members differ in external status. This literature demonstrates that status characteristics, such as age, sex, and race determine the distribution of participation, influence, and prestige among members of such groups. This effect is independent of any prior cultural belief in the relevance of the status characteristic to the task. To explain this result, we assume that status determines evaluations of, and performance-expectations for group members and hence the distribution of participation, influence, and prestige. We stipulate conditions sufficient to produce this effect. Further, to explain the fact that the effect is independent of prior cultural belief, we assume that a status characteristic becomes relevant is all situations except when it is culturally known to be irrelevant. Direct experiment supports each assumption in this explanation independently of the others. Subsequent work devoted to refining and extending the theory finds among other things that, given two equally relevant status characteristics, individuals combine all inconsistent status information rather than reduce its inconsistency. If this result survives further experiment it extends the theory on a straightforward basis to multi-characteristic status situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper investigates the effect of selected situational variables on the relationship between a verbal attitude and overt behavior toward the object of that attitude. It provides data which suggest reformulation of two theoretical schemes describing the relationship between prejudice, discrimination and the situation of action. In a relatively large-scale field experiment in a university setting, two multidimensional factors, "social constraint" and "social distance) were systematically introduced as intervening conditions in order to assess the degree to which they reduced correspondence between verbal attitudes toward Negroes and overt acts of acceptance or rejection of Negroes. Generally, these intervening factors had different mediating influences on different types of subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EDITOR'S NOTE: The two articles that follow seek to familiarize American sociologists with the writings of their counterparts in France in an area of interest that has been phrased somewhat differently in the two countries. They represent the product of a collaborative effort that came into being at the 1962 meeting of the International Seminar on Family Research, in Washington, D.C., with aid from the Committee on Socialization and Social Structure of the Social Science Research Council and from the Centre National de Ia Recherche Scientifique, Path, France. Although the focus of attention is on the French literature dealing with the interrelationships between person and society, both papers address themselves to similarities and differences in approach in the two countries. Both are being published in French (in the "Bulletin de Psychologie," Sorbonne, Path) as well as in English. it is hoped that these first steps toward a dialogue between workers in the two countries will contribute to an awareness of significant substantive research and of salient issues that will benefit from further discussion across national boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous work on the effects of cooperative and competitive settings appears to be completely ambiguous. An examination of these studies suggests that the strength and direction of the effect is strongly influenced by the extent to which the group has an interdependence task. A review of the literature suggests that the results may be generalized to a variety of types of groups. The thesis is put forward that these results may be conceptualized in terms of a balance between two opposing behavior patterns: one oriented to greater individual productivity and one oriented to blocking the productivity of others. This paper reports an experiment confirming the hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociology is often criticized as being ambiguously general or too broadly eclectic. It is held that a scientific organization of knowledge is hindered by the variety of content and method grouped together as sociology. On the other hand, a case can also be made against excessive division of the subject matter of sociology into "fields" or "areas" and "sub-areas." There is a danger that basic forms and primary forces of social life will be forgotten in the shuffle of special sociologies. Both under-generalization and over-generalization, it would seem, may be pitfalls for sociologists. This paper is an attempt to clarify the nature of general sociology by suggesting a division of its subject matter. It is intended that the categories developed should be sufficiently comprehensive to represent the broad scope of sociology without the listing of numerous sub-areas. Furthermore, the categories should correspond more closely to the habitual operations of sociologists than to an ideal scheme of what sociologists should be doing.

Study of the triad is one of the most interesting and satisfactory areas of current research activity in sociology. The relevant theory is unusually simple and straightforward. It lends itself to empirical verification more readily than most other models of interaction. The theory of the triad promises to be applicable to situations of different scale, although this advantage has not yet been fully exploited. The purpose of this paper is to examine the model of the triad whose members are not identical in power and to call attention to a neglected feature of this model, namely, that the formation of given coalitions depends upon the initial distribution of power in the triad and, other things being equal, may be predicted to some extent when the initial distribution of power is known. In his discussion of the zero-sum three-Person game, mathematician von Neumann consider at some length the case of unsymmetric distribution, i.e., those in which different coalitions receive different results. He remarked, "it seems that what a player can get in a definite coalition depends not only on what the rules of the game provide for that eventuality, but also on the other competing possibility of coalition for himself and for his partner.

The objective of this paper is to examine the characteristics of suburban communities as they relate to the structuring of social relationships of the resident populations. This presumes that the form taken by these phenomena in suburban communities somehow differs from the form to be observed in other types of communities, and, furthermore, that this difference is engendered by the suburban situation. By definition suburban areas, however sub-categorized, are primarily residential areas having a peculiar location; that is, they are farther away from the center of the major city than urban neighborhoods but closer than rural neighborhoods. The ecological position differs from both urban and rural positions. It is hypothesized that this positional relationship with the larger city has a definite influence on the social organization of the suburbs. As unique characteristics of suburbs the positional relationship to a larger city and the daily commuting pattern of suburbanites would appear to have an important influence on the patterns of social interaction and participation regardless of the nature of the derivative characteristics.

This paper concerns aspects of the individual's relationship to his neighbors in the community of residence. The general predisposition to enter into friendly relationships with neighbors is considered in terms of mutual visiting, borrowing, general liking for one another, and getting to know new residents in the community. In addition to the general predisposition to neighboring, the analysis considers actual patterns of neighboring among members of the community in order to explore the behavioral counterpart of the predisposition. Such an approach assumes that a predisposition is not necessarily realized on a behavioral level. It is proposed that casual neighboring behavior of the type described is conditioned both by class position and by ethnic origin. Two variables were dealt with in analyzing the ethnic and class correlates of casual neighboring. The first of these was "predisposition to interpersonal contact," and the second was "actual neighboring behavior." The predisposition to interpersonal contact concerns the individuals interest in and desire to engage in casual neighboring with his fellow residents in the community. Actual neighboring behavior, relates jointly to ethnic origin and class position of the respondent. It was observed that the major differentials between desire and performance in area of casual neighboring appeared in the middle and lowest class non-European groups.

This paper draws attention to some factors which must be taken into account in any attempt to describe adequately the relationship of an ethnic group to the large society. The dynamic nature of such relations makes a rapid, even crude, summary of the ethnic history of the Upper Rio Grande Region the most appropriate approach to the problem. As is well known, the area had been inhabited by several communities of Pueblo Indians before it was conquered and colonized by the Spaniards. Consequently, the originally separate native societies were integrated into a social system which was an extension of the large society of colonial Spain. The intergroup relations were based upon force and domination, but involved also more intimate interactions. First, there was the common need of defense against an external enemy, the Plains Indians. Second, the economy favored exchange and a certain division of labor. Still more crucial was the fact that the Spaniards imposed upon the native folk groups an heteronomous institutional framework which, nevertheless, left them considerable freedom to manage their internal affairs. This institutional framework extended primarily to the political, military, and economic sphere.

This paper reports some of the more salient findings of the second study of a projected multi phase investigation of the relationship between social differentials and attitudes in the realm of intergroup relations. The first study, the field work for which was conducted in Indianapolis during 1950 involved the assessment of attitudes of Whites of varying socio economic status toward both Negroes and Whites of varying status. The present study, the data for which were gathered in Indianapolis during 1952, is to some extent a mirror image of the first phase. Virtually all relevant variables are the same as in the first investigation. This study is concerned with attitudes of Whites toward Negroes. The research dealing with attitudes of minority group members toward the majority makes a rather thin chapter in annals of sociological research, especially when compared to the volume of research on the other half of the intergroup relations picture. The inter group relations area has been traditionally handled within a social pathology framework and this orientation has been conducive not only to the espousal of values of the investigator, but has also lent itself to the assignment of blame and responsibility to particular individuals and groups for the society's failure to realize the investigator's values.

Social interaction of any kind requires some degree of consensus. This is true only if the word consensus sheds its connotation of empathy, of emotional rap- port, and is confined to meaning agreement on the terms of which interaction takes place. Consensus may thus be defined as the tacit delineation of mutually accepted norms of behavior. Since it takes two to make a quarrel, a quarrel requires consensus in this sense. The examination of certain situations in which consensus is purposefully manipulated may illuminate its significance in inter- action; the primary object of this paper, however, is to relate the analysis of interaction to more general sociological categories, and thereby to develop further insights into the processes of social interaction. The roles that an individual plays in different social situations may sometimes be present as possible alternatives in the same situation. A man may invite workmates or colleagues into his home and meet them in the same situation as that in which he enacts the role of husband and parent. The roles of husband and of parent may themselves over-lap in this way in different situations within the home.

Sociometry is an axis with two poles. The arm towards one pole is directed towards the discovery of the deeper levels of society's structure. The other is directed towards promoting change of society based upon the dynamic facts found in its structure. Since one cannot anticipate the structure of society, the sociometrist must be an experimental realist and plunge into the task of uncovering the actually functioning structures in which people relate themselves to one another. It is an unavoidable task, yet one surely worth the effort, if one ever gain control over social processes in which one participates and to which the destiny not only of oneself as individuals is bound up, but also the destiny of man as a species if he is to better his lot and build a harmonious society. Social process is used in this paper to define the temporal development of interpersonal relationships as contrasted with structure, which is herein used to designate the spatial facts of such relationships. Social process is the way by which structure comes to exist. In contrast to structure, which may be conceived spatially, social process is the manner by which sociation occurs, develops and results in structure, the psychosocial organization of relationships maintaining between individuals.

The notion that ideologies play an important part in contemporary social life seems to have penetrated into the sphere of popular discourse. Today even the newspapers occasionally refer to ideologies when they wish to allude to a complex of ideas, a body of doctrines, the programs of movements, the platforms of parties-in fact, to any creed or theory that takes on an intellectualized and rationalized form. It would be difficult to imagine a single social problem in the analysis and proposed solution of which one does not have to take account of ideological factors. They are an elusive but significant part of the contemporary social landscape. They serve as landmarks which help to find the way in what otherwise would be a chaotic social world, by providing with guidance in defining and evaluating situations. Ideologies enable a person to identify with social movements and groups which offer interpretations and solutions of problems which could only rarely be undertaken by each individual independently. They aid in reducing excessive individuation and indifference in respect to social problems by furnishing us with goals by which more or less articulate groups become integrated. It is the object of this paper to. elaborate the proposition that our contemporary social problems cannot be adequately treated and that the situations to which they refer cannot be understood without taking due account of, the role of their ideological involvements.

The article presents comments of the author to the critiques of her article "Symbolic Interaction as a Pragmatic Perspective: The Bias of Emergent Theory," by Raymond L. Schimitt and Gregory P. Stone et al. Schmitt and Stone et al raised three issues. First, they reacted vigorously to the notion that the emergent theorist approaches the research setting with the atheoretical simplicity of a blank mind. The blank mind is a mind whose knowledge comes from experience. Such a mind is devoid of logico-theoretic components, a phrase whose meaning was, unfortunately, left implicit in my article. A second issue, which Schmitt discusses systematically, and Stone et al in somewhat scattered fashion concerns the bias of the researcher and of the respondents in emergent theory. Schmitt correctly observes that researchers are always biased by the glasses they wear. But he also claims that the savvy of the emergent theorist is not biasing because it is also the vehicle through which interpretations are made. On the contrary, it is precisely this savvy, which biases emergent theory. The researcher not only brings ideas to the research situation but they form the logico-theoretic component in standard formulations. The third issue is basically resolved in advance. Everyone agrees that the symbolic interactionism approach has neglected power; but Stone et al feel that this general truth is misleading. They have things turned around.

This article presents the author's reply to the comments made by Carrell W. Abbott, Charles R. Brown and Paul V. Crosbie on his article "Exchange As Symbolic Interaction." The notion of exchange in social life existed long before it was claimed for "exchange theory." It is fundamental for understanding many aspects of social organization. De facto exchange theory was first "claimed" by behaviorists and then modified through the introduction of institutionalization, power and cognitive processes. Throughout this development, the subjective and symbolic processes which mediate exchanges have been hinted at and partly discussed but never systematically stated in general concepts and assumptions. Assuming that such processes are real and ought to be examined by social scientists, I have made a modest attempt in this direction. However, I am really not very interested in paradigms beyond their utility in. making sense out of the world. They have no right of their own but are bound to the interests of scholars.

Weber's earliest involvement in empirical social research included three investigation of agricultural and industrial labor conditions, workers' attitudes and work histories, using both questionnaires and direct observation. Weber used a relatively modem statistical approach in his fourth study, concerning psychological aspects of factory work, and in a fifth episode, a critique of another person's study of workers' attitudes, he advocated a quantitative or typological approach to qualitative data. In all his work Weber was explicitly concerned with quantitative techniques and with the notion that the meaning of social relationships can be expressed only in probabilistic terms. Nevertheless he was ambivalent about the value of quantitative methods and about the role of empirical research in sociology. The sources of this ambivalence include two contemporary issues that Weber never resolved in his own work: the debate as to whether sociology and psychology should be sharply distinguished, and the "action-language" then current in German social science as a conceptual device, to be used deductively without reference to empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic characteristics differentiating suburban areas from the central city, as developed in current literature, are related through a theory of social organization. This approach derives spatially-based social organization from population type and the social consequences of spatial aggregation. The social-political structure of suburbia is conceptualized at three organizational levels, concentric in scope: the neighborhood, the local residential community, the municipality. From their differential relations with structures at the first two levels, empirically and conceptually defined types of "local actors" are developed. Their relative involvement in the local political process is specified. A series of hypotheses deduced from the general argument specifies the relations between (1) population type, (2) household type, (3) participational type, and (4) political behavior in the local system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ubiquity and the antiquity of such inequality has given rise to the assumption that there must be something both inevitable and positively functional about such social arrangements. Clearly, the truth or falsity of such an assumption is a strategic question for any general theory of social organization. It is therefore most curious that the basic premises and implications of the assumption have only been most casually explored by American sociologists. The key term here is "functionally important." The functionalist theory of social organization is by no means clear and explicit about this term. The minimum common referent is to something known as the "survival value" of a social structure. This concept immediately involves a number of perplexing questions. Among these are: (a) the issue of minimum vs. maximum survival, and the possible empirical referents which can be given to those terms; (b) whether such a proposition is a useless tautology since any status quo at any given moment is nothing more and nothing less than everything present in the status quo.

The field of social anthropology or comparative sociology, as rests upon sociological conceptualizations and anthropological data. The problem is more than interdisciplinary: the sociologist's penchant for broad general theory is contrasted to the ethnologist's concern with detailed cultural data. The immediate need is for more modest theory on one hand, and more conceptualized comparative ethnography on the other. The purpose of the present article is to discuss this intermediate area with respect to one very crucial element, namely the analysis of values. This article attempts to show the two ways in which social anthropology should contribute to the development of general sociological theory. These are the establishment of (1) general social imperatives, and (2) requisite functional relationships between certain cultural forms in different departments of social life. To fulfill this broad purpose, empirically based examples are offered. This article introduces substantive theoretical analysis through the comparative examination of cultural systems.

In contemporary sociological and social psychological theory and research, an increasing amount of attention has been given to the functioning of small groups. Many attempts have been made to analyze the interaction that takes place in small group meetings and to discover general principles that appear to determine, or at least influence, the pattern of social participation by various members of the group. The article is devoted to a basic aspect of small group research, namely the relative frequency of participation. Specifically, this study concerns the application of a relatively simple mathematical function that appears to express quite well the distribution of participation within a particular type of small discussion group. The data for the study has been drawn from a project which is part of a general study of the educational process. These group meetings have certain formal characteristics in common which serve to distinguish them from problem-solving groups that have been studied by sociologist R. F. Bales.

It is to be expected that groups of persons tend to interact more if they are large and near together than if they are small and far apart. The relative amounts of interaction between population concentrations would seem to depend on their size, their distance apart, the length of time they interact and the cultural level of their interacting. The above observation has been developed into the interactance hypothesis. In verbal terms the hypothesis states that the expected amount of any interactance for a given interval of time between two populations, that is, the number of interacts of one kind, such as telephoning or sending postal money orders between the members of two groups varies directly with the product of the two populations and inversely with some power of the intervening distance between the two populations with a constant to adjust units and interaction differences as needed. A number of studies have indicated a rough but definite relationship between the product of two populations divided by their intervening distance.

Traditional psychiatry for a long time emphasized clinical description. It was Kraepelin who first insisted that a patient's thoughts, so long as they remained abnormal, were of interest only for purposes of diagnosis. Undoubtedly, the description of symptoms facilitating diagnosis is important. The classification of the American Psychiatric Association contains twenty-two broad categories of mental disorder. These categories subsumes some eighty sub-varieties. Because this classification is based on an overlapping symptomatology, it will probably be revised in the next few years; but a classificatory system of some kind will always constitute the essence of clinical procedure. Besides nosological descriptions, we must have knowledge of environmental pressures affecting abnormal behavior. We must know more about the role of factors that come within the range of human ecology, dealing with the adjustments of groups and communities to their various habitats; cultural anthropology, dealing with the adjustments of individuals to the cultures of their groups; and social psychology, dealing with inter-individual adjustments, or the responses of individuals to social situations. Knowing the range of clinical variation, and the role of these factors in abnormal behavior, we can discover the environmental settings linked up with the appearance of the various clinical entities.

The social life of the primitive Australian aborigines has been a fascinating field of scientific interest and rheoretical speculation for several generations of European and American sociologists and social anthropologists. Knowledge of the native family and kinship systems and their associated esoteric totemic rites, for example, stimulated such social theorists as Emile Durkheim and Lewis H. Morgan. The present article is an attempt to present some results of investigations done in Australia. Special emphasis is given to the several typical forms of kinship found in Australia and the principles underlying the organization of the immediate family and larger kinship structures. A somewhat different method of kinship analysis, which applies not only to Australian but to any other systems, is used in an effort to remove the strangeness and complexity from the minds of those, who have not specialized in this field of family research. The kinship terms are always designating instruments organized around the individual who places his various kin by the use of them, and by so doing, also socially places himself as the designator. In other words, Ego anchored in his immediate family, looks out at his kinship world and places all the kindred in relation to himself by means of his kinship terms and in so doing also socially orientates himself.

The only idea common to all usages of the term institution is that of some sort of establishment or relative permanence of a distinctly social sort. The reality of institutions is only long enough to "find individuals to study who are behaving institutionally." Some let this idea stand as a sufficient definition, allowing the simplest folkways and the most elaborate "culture-complexes" to fall under the category. Psychologists incline toward such inclusive usage as would make institutions merely the social aspect of the behavior, which they describe. Sociologists are more likely to restrict usage of the term, by distinguishing institutions from simpler units of socially established behavior. Another idea fundamental to the study of human life, that of collective behavior, grows out of the fact that human beings so obviously behave in response to the behavior of each other that what the individual does can be understood only by using the collectivity as a point of reference. Institutions are sometimes defined by distinguishing them from such elementary forms of collective behavior as the crowd and the primary group, whose peculiar feature is social interaction not mediated by established forms.

This paper is a report of further analysis of small group data secured in a 1950 field project. The consistent regularities displayed by the series of distributions of free-forming small group size suggested the possibility that the empirical distributions could be fitted by a statistical model and thereby converted to more general form. Free-forming small groups are those whose members are relatively free to maintain or break off contact with one another, that is, they are ones where informal controls on behavior are at work and spontaneity is at a maximum. Field observations were conducted in Eugene and Portland, Oregon in the winter and spring, 1950 in the course of which 15,486 observations of free-forming small groups were made and arranged by type of group, place and time in 18 empirical distributions. A further word may be said about the differential chi-square results of the negative binomial and Poisson fittings. It would be expected therefore, that this model would fit those distributions deriving from social situations where the relationships governing the combinations of individuals were relatively stable.

The article presents the author's comments on sociologists Georg Simmel. He is said to be very eloquent about the claims that "pure sociology" is a crucial area of the larger field and that the object of pure sociology is the abstraction of the element of social interaction from the heterogeneity of contents and purposes which life reveals. Simmel says that pure sociology thus proceeds like grammar, which isolates the forms of languages from their contents. Elsewhere he compares sociology in this sense to geometry, also a study of forms in abstraction from content. When Simmel sets himself to the study of actual forms, he loses a good deal of his purity. The author says that had Simmel held chastely to his methodological commandments when he turned to such subjects as secrecy, subordination, and the stranger, sociology would be the poorer. Form and content cannot, in practice, be separated, and although there is a pleasantly tantalizing note in Simmel's earlier call to the forms, his own studies of concrete forms of association make him less than and a great deal more than, a formal sociologist.

The year 1956 marks another step in the steadily increasing activity of the Society. Since the Executive Officer's report follows no standard format, but rather sets forth for the membership some selected aspects of the Society's operations, this report will deal with two lines of activity which reflect this growth of the Society. It will deal, first, with the present stage of the Society's publication program; and second, with the work of the Executive Office, particularly with the relatively routine parts of this work. The Society has issued several different publications this year, of varied size and importance. First, the American Sociological Review has included a total of 896 pages, as compared with 880 in 1955 and 800 in 1953. Despite predictable future increases in the costs of printing, it is hoped that this size may be maintained without any immediate recourse to an increase in dues. Second, the newly acquired quarterly journal "Sociometry," is now well underway. When Moreno turned Socioimetry over to the Society a year ago, there were slightly over 500 subscribers.

This article presents information related to sociological affairs in the U.S. The Institut fuer Sozialforschung was formally reopened at the University of Frankfurt on November 14, 1951, after an absence of nearly nineteen years enforced by the Nazi regime. Its director is Max Horkheimer, Professor of Philosophy and Sociology at the University, who has held the post of director of the Institut continuously since 1939, from 1934 to 1949 in the U.S. The American Catholic Sociological Society held its thirteenth annual convention at The Catholic University of America, Washington D. C., December 28-30, 1951. Papers were presented in the sociology of the family, industry, inter-group relations, the parish, and the world community, and special sessions were devoted to the teaching of sociology in colleges, high schools, and seminaries. The Cornell Social Science Research Center is sponsoring a Field Methods Training Program under a Ford Foundation grant intended to increase research capacity in the behavioral sciences. This program, which began in

A Conference on "The Social Sciences in German Universities" was held at seeshaupt in Bavaria in March 1948. German scholars and allied occupation officials participated. Quarterly journal Revue de l'Institute de Sociologie is recommencing publication after eight years. Eastern Sociological Society. The eighteenth annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society was held at Asbury Park on April 24th and 25th. The third national conference of the Psychodramatic Institute will be held in September 1948 at Beacon, New York. The theme of the conference is "Training in Human Relations." A day each will be devoted to psychodrama, sociodrama, and sociometry and group psychotherapy. An Institute of Delaware History and Culture has been established at the University of Delaware for the purpose of stimulating, coordinating and supporting historical, sociological, anthropological, and humanistic studies in the field of Delaware history and culture. Pacific Sociological Society held its annual meeting at Santa Barbara, California, on April 30 and May 1.

The author of this article states that it has been a long time since he thought much about the problem of "middleman minorities," to use the language adopted by sociologist Edna Bonacich. When last he did, it was to make an argument that the published literature developed to that date tended to ignore that the "anti-" ideology facing such peoples as the Jew in Germany, the Chinese in Southeast Asia, the Indian in Africa, the Armenian in Turkey, and the Huguenot in France was the product of a complex set of economic, political, and other social structural variables characterizing the social organization of the marginal trading people and the host society, and of the relationships between these. Having initially done the study much earlier, but not having published it then, he was moved to reduce a large document detailing the historical record to conventional journal article size as a response to work which seemed to him simply to continue the earlier tradition of emphasis on economic variables and their consequences. He finds much that is admirable in Bonacich's recent contribution to this literature.

The article presents author's comments on the research paper "Symbolic Interactionism as a Pragmatic Perspective: The Bias of Emergent Theory," by Joan Huber. The author argues that Huber has misrepresented the position of pragmatism, the views of Sociologist George Herbert Mead, and his own views. He criticizes that Huber has done a flippant assertion that pragmatism and symbolic interactionism treat the act of scientific inquiry as beginning with a blank mind. He maintains that neither Mead nor he ever advanced such an absurd position. He also states that Huber failed to see that putting forward, clarifying and addressing a scientific problem constitute theoretical action in its own right. Finally, he questions the theme of the article that the test of truth in pragmatic doctrine is whether the given proposition or hypothesis works or not and suggests that such hoary characterization of pragmatism easily lends itself to absurd interpretation, so, one should not assume that this crude notion means that the pragmatist fails to examine empirical world.