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This paper expands the diffusion of information models developed by Funkhouser and McCombs (1972) to include situations involving simple interaction processes and more complicated situations involving both mass mediated messages and interactively mediated messages. This paper develops discrete time models of information diffusion as opposed to the continuous time models developed by Coleman (1964) and Bartholomew (1967) and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that exposure to task related stimuli prior to task interaction should result in greater discrimination in making task related decisions. This is explained in terms of a social version of the law of effect, and reflected in the value of the slope in a regression equation. Ss were college freshmen and sophomores enrolled in sociology classes. Ss formed a total of 40 dyads, controlled for sex. Twenty dyads (10 dyads of males and 10 of females) formed the experimental groups. The remaining 20 dyads (10 male and 10 female) formed the control group. Ss engaged in a simple task consisting of a word game which allowed the investigators to measure response and reinforcement rates. Results from the experiment were found to support the hypothesis at the .0001 level of significance. These results indicate that a social law of effect may be applied to relatively unstructured social situations, and that exposure to different types of environmental stimuli alters the slope of the regression equation relating reinforcement and response in a social version of the law of effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mayhew's baseline model predicting the relative size of the elite in a social system comprised of two stratified sub-classes is extended to the area of social power. Two basic measures of social power, a compliance ratio, and a coefficient of asymmetry (a measure of differentiation) are discussed. It is noted that the average compliance ratio for the elites is essentially a constant, while the average compliance ratio for non-elites is decreasing monotonic function of system size. The coefficient of asymmetry is an increasing monotonic function of system size. Social-psychological bases for system growth are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]