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The article comments on the concept of H. C. Triandis about race as determinant of social distance. This asserts that Triandis perception concerning race as a more important determinant of social distance rather than belief, is quite contrary on the findings of the study undertaken. Triandis evaluation which is undertaken on different races is questioned due to the different philosophy employed into each subject. The author further contends that on the basis of his study which is published in his book "The Open and Closed Mind," belief outweighs race to be the basis of social discrimination and not the other way around.

The purpose of this article is to study the effectiveness of the three techniques commonly employed for collecting data to be used in evaluating personality adjustment. The interview technique portrays the personality appraisement approach resorted to by most specialists as psychologists, clinicians, and counselors. This technique endeavors to diagnose personality characteristics on the basis of verbal responses, appearance, individual testing, personal contact, and the like. The interview technique as used in this study consisted of a personalized administration of each test during which time ample opportunity was given the student to discuss his understanding of the test situations and the nature of responses made to them. People frequently question the effectiveness of many of the personality evaluating techniques utilized in guidance programs. Since guidance practice generally relies upon the use of one personality evaluating technique, it is essential to know which technique provides the most effective diagnosis of student adjustment not only in the school situation but in other environments as well.

The article presents information about the meetings of the First Universal Races Congress in the University of London buildings which were held in July 1910. Some hundreds of members of many races, great and small, met for the better part of a week in formal discussion and in social interaction, attending with marked regularity and with an interest that was sustained to the close. There was an entire absence of active participation by Governments, and even the great missionary societies took no particular interest, for reasons best known to themselves. The papers discussed what race means, or should mean, to particular difficulties arising from the situation of individual races or nationalities; from the consideration of the function of religion or morals or language to the wide ranging problem of the Negro or the narrowly defined problem of the half-castes of Brazil. There are some papers dealing with various methods now in operation for the organization of humanity: Treaties, Peace Conferences, the Hague Tribunal, the Press. A new project was launched by the Congress deciding to set up a small permanent Committee to arrange for a second Congress, which will probably be held in the U.S. in about three years' time.

This paper examines the hypothesis that residential mobility is disruptive of social relations; and it seeks to identify patterns of adaptation which emerge from that disruption. Among other things, it is found that women who moved between 1966 and 1969 were more frequently sociable both before and after their move than those who did not move. Further, differential patterns of disruption hold for intra- and extra-neighborhood contacts. There is, in addition, a period of heightened social interaction on the part of the most recent movers. Spatial mobility, it is concluded, does exert changes on the social lives of women in households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 symposium on directions in mass communications research includes excerpts from seven papers that were prepared for an Arden House conference that was held in May 1913. The conference was part of a larger project, made possible by a grant from the Markle Foundation to the Graduate School of journalism, Columbia University. Its primary purpose was to identify questions deserving priority attention by mass communication researchers in the coming years. The papers on uses and gratifications and on the mass media and socialization are concerned primarily with the individual; the papers on national development and on government-media relations focus primarily on social organization; and those on mass communication's professional personnel and management relate to media sociology. A final paper, examining research questions that emerge as a result of new communication technologies, cuts across the three areas. The full texts of the papers from which these excerpts were selected by the editors, together with other papers that attempt to provide an overview of the entire field of mass communication research and to suggest priority areas for future research, are scheduled for publication in paperback and cloth editions by Praeger Publishers in the Fall of 1974.

The article discusses a study which investigates the short term effect of prior social experiences on the productivity of schizophrenics in recreational therapy. Several authors speculated about the social value of recreational therapy in contrast to psychoanalytical value. An author suggested that recreational therapy might help in rehabilitating a patient. Twenty two males and 18 females who were diagnosed as chronic schizophrenics at the Soundview Throgs Neck Unit of Bronx State Hospital in New York City were studied. They were randomly assigned to one of the four groups such as control, discussion, cooperation and dyad. Results supported the suggestion that social interaction may enhance patient functioning.

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.

Ordinarily an anniversary occasions the reification of an artificial period. In this case however, there is a certain juncture in the history of the point of view which makes of the past quarter-century something worthy of consideration for symbolic interactionism as well as for our celebration of the founding of the Midwest Sociological Society. The year 1937 lies virtually in the middle of a four-year period which saw the publication of Mind, Self, and Society, Movements of Thought in the Nineteenth Century, and The Philosophy of the Act. It would represent the greatest naiveté to suggest that thus the year 1937 represented the introduction of symbolic interactionism. We are all aware of the long development: from James, Baldwin, and Cooley to Thomas, Faris, Dewey, Blumer, and Young. Even the Tardean imitation and suggestion which underlay Ross's Social Psychology contributed a good deal ordinarily not credited to him in the development of interaction theory. Nor is it the fact that Mead represents the fullest development of the orientation that makes so significant the posthumous publication of his works (for which we may conveniently take 1937 as an anchoring point). Mead's ideas had been known for a very long time. He had taught University of Chicago students from 1893 to 1931. His notions were bruited about in classes and seminars wherever there were professors conducting them who had studied at the University of Chicago—not least in the great heartland included in the Mid-west of our Society. Some of Mead's students had published their versions of his ideas or quotations from some of his philosophical papers—Kimbali Young's Source Book in Social Psychology of a decade earlier contained a paper by Mead, and his Social Psychology bore the strong imprint of Meadian interactionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper attempts to study the implications of the hypothesis that personality patterns organize the forces operating in a social milieu. The findings of a Rorschach experiment on a group of 24 students from India are interpreted in terms of the childhood experiences, family discipline, and social pressures. An ambiequal pattern leaning toward introversiveness is indicated. This is found to be the product of early permissiveness, subsequent rigidity of behavior code, and later status role. The authoritarian character of the Indian family structure and the early socialization process are found to be largely responsible for the evolution of rigid control and withdrawal mechanisms. The paper concludes by suggesting that the study of personality-culture phenomena may be profitably conducted by analysing the defense system that a culture tends to evolve in its members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses one of the methodologies of social psychology. In this method social psychology is studied in relation to economics, ethics and religion. The importance of biology for the psychology of social conflict, for example, the satisfaction of instincts and the reduction of fatigue, is generally recognized--although frequently in particular cases it is ignored. All that the social scientists need do in this connection therefore, is to urge that the contribution of biology to the full truth be not ignored in any case in which it is a factor. Geology, chemistry, and physics are important for the psychology of social conflict almost exclusively through economics; so it is not necessary for us to consider the former sciences directly in this paper. Astronomy is important, almost exclusively through the light, which it throws on methods of thought and the nature of essential experience. These matters they have already considered; so they need not consider such a science as astronomy directly in this paper. But the full truth about the relationship between economics and ethics and social psychology is not generally recognized, and the relationship is direct; so we must consider that relationship if we are to master the psychology of social conflict.

The expression of hostility and conflict in a small group is a normal part of the small group process and is, in fact, a positive and even necessary factor in the development and maintenance of group cohesion. This cohesive function can be understood in terms of the role that hostility plays in the development of the social structure of the small group. In addition this paper has shown that the mere measurement of degree of hostility expressed in small groups tends to lead to conflicting findings. The positive or negative nature of hostility in small groups is related to the stage of the value structure of the group. The expression of hostility in a small group under the circumstances discussed in this paper is part of an integrative process in that it is an important channel of communication. Therefore, while hostility may be a destructive force in human interaction, it may also perform integrative functions, and these integrative functions must be more carefully evaluated and studied in the study of small groups. In the development of any field of study there is periodic need for the assembling, integration, and theoretical conceptualization of research findings. When this is done more fruitful experimentation can be carried out in the future. This paper has attempted to fill this need in the area of the expression of hostility in small groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an empirical analysis and conceptual extension of the work of Aiken and Hage. This work was accomplished by (1) constructing a causal model of organizational determinants of interorganizational relationships from an integration of two of their published sets of propositions; (2) testing symmetrical and asymmetrical versions of the model through analyses of data collected from 138 health and welfare organizations; (3) revising the model for theoretically inconsistent findings. The revised model of eight independent variables accounts for about 1/3 of the variance in interorganizational relations and calls into question several classical assumptions of organizational theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports one "spin-off" from the basic technology of sensitivity training, which is now widely used for inducing attitudinal and behavioral change in organizations. Changes in attitudes of members of a complex business organization are reported in this paper, and they support the value of the "confrontation design." Similar results have been obtained in other business and government settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about a paper on professional socialization as a model of the pre-training period applicable to students of physical education. This provides definition of terms for professional socialization, anticipatory socialization, socialization settings, and socialization agents. The pre-training period may be considered as the time of anticipatory socialization preceding the formal professional training. The three types of anticipatory socialization are the acquisition of attitudes and values about adult roles, the acquisition of specific information which cannot be applied directly, and the learning of both general and specific skills that can be practiced in the immediate childhood situation.

The article presents a paper on the significance of socialization constructs to the teaching methods of teachers. Studying the way how teachers teach seems to be socialization theory. The importance of the socialization construct is that it centers on processes which acts as a go-between the individual's personality and the role expectations of the institution. Conflict and bargaining are the two general patterns of interaction that have been delineated. The four processes of socialization are anticipatory socialization, reference groups, the training period, and the world of work.

The article focuses on "Current Perspectives in Social Psychology: Readings with Commentary," edited by Edward P. Hollander and Raymond G. Hunt. This is the second edition of a collection of papers covering most of the main areas of social psychology. There are some sixty papers in all with contributors ranging from U.S. psychologist Burrhus Frederic Skinner to others. The commentary referred to in the title consists of brief introductions to each section, reviewing the themes dealt with.

This paper treats structuralist and interactionist perspectives as complementary, in an approach to the dynamics of professional wrestling as a social scene. Both directive or formulating aspects of culture as it is specified for social life and the creativity of human agents in negotiating such constraints from the viewpoint of their particularistic interests are emphasized in an examination of the confirmation and negotiation of identities, the clash and resolution of moral meanings, the calculated transgression of legal tradition, the location of the charismatic hero, and the ritual importance of disorder and crisis in wrestling. As such, the paper is offered as a contribution to an understanding of the sources and movement of meanings in ritual and dramatic forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the intraorganizational mobility interests of production workers in manufacturing organizations. Substantial numbers of workers report not only being interested in mobility within their organizations, but many also claim to be actively pursuing that objective. The immediate supervisor is found to be a central figure in their goal achievement plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although direct experimental evidence on the subject has not been Scientifically accumulated and analyzed, much of the acceptable theory and fact of social and behavioral science indicates that both questions should be answered in the affirmative. Apparently a huge proportion of the caseworkers are drawn from middleclass families. For example, a recent study of the social position of a sample of Detroit social workers concludes that, according to such criteria as paternal occupation and economic status, the sample had a predominantly middle-class background. Caseworkers attempt to establish professional relationships with children and their parents as points of departure for rendering assistance to them. In fact, an effective relationship is considered a sine qua non in successful casework treatment. The casework relationship has been defined in many ways, but in essence it is one type of intimate personal relation. Such relations involve, among other things, a minimum of social distance. For the purposes of this paper, social distance is defined as reserve or constraint in social interaction between individuals arising from differences in their group experience.

This paper attempts to devise a parsimonious explanation of human behavior in collectivities. For this purpose three main variables have been identified, which, when combined in a specific manner, serve to incorporate the major determinants of behavior. These variables, which will be put into technical jargon in this paper, include (I) a pre-existing attitude, (2) an emotional context, and (3) a situational effect. An individual's need for social approval (NSA), developed in previous interactional situations, is the preexisting attitude with which the paper is concerned. Need-for-social-approval may be simply defined as the degree to which one attempts to impress others in order to gain their approval. The emotional context of a situation may be accounted for by the intensity of the situation. In this sense, intensity may be viewed as density. That is, intensity may be defined as the quantity of interaction per time period or the quantity of interaction per geographical space. The situational effects upon behavior are the most important since they can eradicate the effects of the other two variables.