Cognitive inconsistencies and non-symmetric friendship

Non-reciprocated relationships, such as all workers knowing the president of the company but only a few of the workers being known by the president, and non-symmetric relationships, such as workers thinking that they know the president and thinking that the president does not know them, are endemic to most social situations. While such inconsistencies may be expected in relationships such as giving advice and lending money, they are rarely expected to occur in seemingly symmetric relationships such as friendship. Nevertheless, they do. We suggest that research in this area has been hampered by the confused language used for describing ‘symmetries’ and ‘non-symmetries’. We present a framework for thinking about these relations that clearly distinguishes cognitive inconsistencies and non-symmetric and non-reciprocated relations. Then, we employ this framework and constructural theory to suggest that owing to cognitive inconsistencies, any interaction-based relationship, including friendship, can potentially be non-symmetric. We examine a series of hypotheses concerning interaction and interaction-based behaviors that derive from this theory using friendship relations. We find that we are able to predict both who is friends with whom, non-symmetry in friendship, and non-reciprocities in the expectation for and recall of friendship.     

The process of friendship formation

This paper poses two questions about the process of friendship formation: what is the relative stability of asymmetric and mutual friendship dyads and what is the nature of change in asymmetric dyads over time? These questions are examined in longitudinal sociometric data from five elementary classes. Change in friendship choices is shown to be at least partially embeddable as a continuous time, stationary Markov process and the unique Q matrices governing the process are determined. The findings show that unreciprocated friendship choices of the children in the sample are less stable than reciprocated choices and that their unreciprocated choices tend to be withdrawn rather than reciprocated over time.     

Good company: the sociological implications of friendship

Sociologists have paid relatively little attention to friendship, for a variety of reasons. This paper, based on an intensive study of a small group of middle-class, middle-aged English women, describes the basis of their attraction for each other, the activities they pursue together and the norms governing their interaction. Friendship emerges as a source of social integration. Friends are seen to play an important part in the creation and maintenance of social reality. Friendship offers relief from the strains of other role performance and provides a vehicle for the expression of feminine and status attributes. In this connection, attention is drawn to the role of women in the maintenance of the family's social position.     

Longitudinal analysis of friendship networks

This note discusses and demonstrates methods, both exploratory and confirmatory, for analysing data from friendship networks collected over time. The focus is on stochastic models for dyadic interaction designed to quantify the structural effect of reciprocity on arc changes. The networks studied were previously analysed by Hallinan (Social Networks 1: 193–210) who was concerned with stability of dyadic choices and the direction of change of asymmetric dyads to either mutual or null dyads. These aspects of the networks are really of secondary importance to the effect of reciprocated choices on the probabilities of dyadic change. Measures of this ‘reciprocity effect’ are presented, and comments on the rationale for continuous-time Markov chains as models for networks are given.     

Obesity-related behaviors in adolescent friendship networks

This study examines obesity-related behaviors within adolescent friendship networks, because adolescent peers have been identified as being important determinants of many health behaviors. We applied ERGM selection models for single network observations to determine if close adolescent friends engage in similar behaviors and to explore associations between behavior and popularity. Same-sex friends were found to be similar on measures of organized physical activity in two out of three school-based friendship networks. Female friends were found to engage in similar screen-based behaviors, and male friends tended to be similar in their consumption of high-calorie foods. Popularity (receiving ties) was also associated with some behaviors, although these effects were gender specific and differed across networks.     

“They're not my favourite people”: What mothers who have experienced intimate partner violence say about involvement in the child protection system

Although the primary aim of child protection services (CPS) is to ensure the well-being and safety of children, policy decision-makers and service providers are increasingly concerned about the potential harm children encounter when they witness the abuse of their caregivers. Researchers who have conducted reviews of child protection files in both Canada and the United States report that few cases in which intimate partner violence (IPV) is substantiated are referred for additional services. In this article, we question whether this response is appropriate. Through examining the results of a qualitative study with sixty-four women who experienced IPV and were thus involved in the child protection system, we have been able to analyze the impact of CPS practices on those women who received services and those who did not. Our findings suggest that CPS can be an important resource for women who experience IPV, but changes to current practices are necessary to ensure that services offered are beneficial.     

得品牌者得天下

近年来,中国房地产业持续走强.透过市场的种种表现,我们不难看出,创建品牌已经成为房地产企业的共识和不懈追求,而一批在全国初具影响的品牌已然出现.通过品牌,消费者得到了能满足种种需求并且值得相信的承诺,从而建立起了对这种商品的忠诚.     

Inter-ethnic friendship and negative ties in secondary school

This paper investigates several different aspects of inter-ethnic relationships. It focuses on friendships and negative ties between secondary school students from different ethnic backgrounds, introducing and measuring two different aspects of ethnicity: self-declared ethnicity, and ethnicity based on peer perception. These are first applied separately and then together on a sample of secondary school students in Hungary consisting of two ethnic groups: Roma and non-Roma Hungarian (N = 420). Friendships and negative ties are modelled using cross-sectional exponential random graph models for sixteen classrooms separately, and then individual models are summarized using meta-analysis. Based on the social identity approach, we predict that inter-ethnic friendships are less likely, and negative ties are more likely, than those within ethnic groups; and that majority students reject their minority peers more than the other way around. Moreover, minority students are expected to exclude those whom they perceive as minorities, but who, at the same time, identify with the majority group, since these classmates might seem to them as “traitors” of their “original” ethnic group. Results mostly confirm our hypotheses, emphasizing the role of perceived ethnicity: majority students tend to dislike peers whom they perceive as minorities, regardless of these peers’ self-declared ethnicity; on the other hand, minority students are likely to send friendship nominations towards their perceived minority classmates if these also declare themselves as minorities, but, as predicted, negative nominations if these declare themselves as majorities. This supports our general idea that different ethnicity aspects might influence friendships and negative ties in different ways, and inconsistencies in someone's ethnic categorization might play an important role in social rejection.     

100 years of "just say no" versus "just say know". Reevaluating drug education goals for the coming century

Through comparative socio-historical analysis of American school-based drug education, this review critically examines past perspectives and practices and how they shaped current programs. Among the key findings emerging from this analysis: Contrary to the popular belief that drug education began in the 1960s, its roots actually go back at least 115 years to the advent of compulsory temperance instruction. Although the particular substances targeted by such approaches have changed, the underlying approaches and dominant "no-substance-use" injunction has not. Despite the existence of "informed choice" approaches, throughout much of this period, evaluation efforts continue to be constrained by the limited dictates of "no-use" perspectives. A pragmatic alternative to contemporary "Just Say No" education is offered that strives to minimize potential harm resulting from the uninformed misuse of licit and illicit substances. A unique evaluative strategy designed to assess the effectiveness of this form of "informed choice" or "harm reduction" drug education is discussed.     

The power of friendship: the Compeer Program at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Diminishing financial support for individuals with severe mental illnesses has required creative solutions to meet the needs of this population. Loneliness and stigma further hinder these individuals' efforts toward recovery. The Compeer program can provide friendship relationships, which can help to reduce loneliness and strengthen the effects of psychosocial interventions. University Compeer programs have proven successful in meeting the needs of both students and their Compeer friends.     

The effect of current sexual behavior on friendship,dating, and marriage desirability

The purpose of this research was to extend previous studies examining the influence of a person's sexual behavior on others' perceptions of his/ her relationship desirability. Over 750 students from three universities judged the friendship, dating, and marriage desirability of a person based on information ostensibly provided by him/her about current sexual activity. Overall, the results indicated that a target person portrayed as engaging in low sexual activity in a current relationship was perceived to be more desirable as a friend and marriage partner than a person engaging in moderate or high sexual activity, whereas moderate or high sexual activity was preferred more in a dating partner. Whether the sexual activity occurred in a casual or steady dating relationship, however, also affected desirability perceptions. Finally, evidence was found for a reverse double standard in ratings of dating desirability: males were perceived as most desirable as a date when they engaged in moderate sexual activity, whereas females were perceived as most desirable as a date when they engaged in high sexual activity.     

Marx's last battle

Conclusion Marxism developed increasingly from a scientific to a Critical Marxism that was much more voluntaristic and stressed consciousness and conscious organization — rather than emphasizing a spontaneous economic evolution that first develops the forces of production. This long-term shift in Marxism is visible in Leninism: Leninism formulates a conception of a vanguard revolutionary organization more nearly akin to Bakuninism than to Marxism and adapts the old conspiratorial secret society to a Marxist rhetoric of theory and science by speaking of the vanguard cadres as professional revolutionaries. It also devoted increasing attention to the peasantry as an ally of the proletariat with a revolutionary potential. This increasing world drift of Marxism, toward a less economistic and more voluntaristic theory, has more usually been called a critical Marxism, when found in Western Europe. Critical Marxism has, therefore, seemed to some, such as Merleau-Ponty or Perry Anderson. a distinctively Western Marxism. This, how-ever, misses the point of the greater political success of Critical Marxism in the Third World. In less industrially advanced countries, Critical Marxism's reliance upon the peasantry has been even greater and its convergence with Bakuninism even more obvious. In Asia — including Tsarist Russia and other less developed regions, Scientific Marxism's insistence upon a prior industrialization made it seem irrelevant and generated apathy and passivity among revolutionaries who did not want to spend their lives making a bourgeois revolution. This shift suggests that there was a potential mutual transformability of Marxism into Bakuninism. Each might, under certain conditions, become the other.My point, then, is that Bakuninism and Marxism cannot be understood as two adversaries, each external to the other. Rather, they were doctrines which had certain communalities and overlapped at important points. Each had a living part of his enemy in himself. I have already indicated that, in one part, Bakunin was a Marxist, and ready to acknowledge this debt generously. Indeed, the authoritarianism of some of Bakunin's organizational schemes sometimes went far beyond the most extreme ambitions of the dogmatic and dictatorial Marx.The war between Marx and Bakunin was so bitter because it was something of a civil war within the soul of each. The enemy was all the more dangerous and had to be squashed without qualm because he was already within the fortress of the self. Marxism and Bakuninism, then, each had an interface with the other. Each — to its own horror — could become the other under certain conditions.To characterize the development of Marxism as an evolution, is to imply that its earlier and originary forms — no less than later, more recent forms were partly an adaptation to the changing circumstances in which it found itself, including the competitive situation of its leadership. Marxism was thus never simply the outgrowth of earlier theories. The forms it took were never simply the result of an intellectual borrowing from the past but were also and always a response to a larger practice in the present. The problem of the forces that shaped Marxism's character thus never reduces itself to the theories it borrows or adapts, or to their truth. Anything that enabled Marxism to survive repeated failures and changed conditions, and thereby to move on, edged its way into Marxism's doctrine and political rules. To characterize Critical Marxism in particular as the product of an evolution in which it is a successor to Bakuninism is surely not to define it as identical to Bakuninism; for that, of course, would not be an evolution but mere reproduction. Finally on this point, to characterize the development of Marxism as an evolution is not at all to define it merely as responding to the force of circumstances. It was also a process entailing a selective response mediated by human consciousness and theoretical commitment. Yet the presence of consciousness did not preclude a good measure of blindness and false consciousness in the evolutionary process through which Marxism developed. Indeed, it is the very nature of consciousness which, in part, allows and requires that very unconsciousness.     

The friendship process: A developmental model of interpersonal attraction

Friendship formation as a social process is described by a developmental model incorporating the variables of proximity, interaction, and similarity. This theoretical model differs from previous approaches by describing the differential impact of proximity and different types of similarity at different stages in the friendship process, and by including two feedback loops. Initially, proximity permits social interaction to occur, and this leads to liking through the process of “mere exposure.” At the same time, a feedback loop involving a selection effect operates: individuals who like one another actively seek more interaction, which in turn leads to more liking. Later in the process, social and attitudinal similarity lead to liking through a psychological balancing effect. The second feedback loop occurs when interaction leads to increased attitude similarity by means of mutual socialization; this increase in attitude similarity then causes more liking, and so forth. Finally, it is postulated that friendship emerges as a result of shared values. Support is given to parts of the model by a longitudinal field study, but further research is needed.     

Does it hurt to say um?

This paper examines whether the profusion of ums that so many speakers produce is noticed, and whether these ums influence what audiences think of speakers. Even though ums do not seem to be a product of anxiety or lack of preparation, the first study, using a simple questionnaire, indicated that the average listener assumes that they are. The second study manipulated um rates by editing a tape to create a version where ums were replaced by silence or were eliminated. The original and edited versions were played to audiences who were told to focus on either the content or the style, or were not given any particular instructions. Estimates of ums showed no sensitivity whatsoever in the content focus, some sensitivity without focus instruction, and greatest sensitivity with the style focus, suggesting that ums can be, but are not always, processed automatically. On subjective ratings of the speaker, filled pauses created a better impression than silent pauses, but no pauses proved best of all. The ums had an effect even in conditions where the audience was unable to report their presence.     

The co-evolution of gossip and friendship in workplace social networks

This study investigates the co-evolution of friendship and gossip in organizations. Two contradicting perspectives are tested. The social capital perspective predicts that friendship causes gossip between employees, defined as informal evaluative talking about absent colleagues. The evolutionary perspective reverses this causality claiming that gossiping facilitates friendship. The data comprises of three observations of a complete organizational network, allowing longitudinal social network analyses. Gossip and friendship are modeled as both explanatory and outcome networks with RSiena. Results support the evolutionary perspective in that gossip between two individuals increases the likelihood of their future friendship formation. However, individuals with disproportionately high gossip activity have fewer friends in the network, suggesting that the use of gossiping to attract friends has a limit.     

Networked intimacy. Intimacy and friendship among Italian Facebook users

In this paper, we describe the results of a qualitative study conducted with 120 Italian Facebook users to investigate how Facebook enables people to achieve a mutually constitutive intimacy with their own friendship network: a negotiation of intimacy in public through self-disclosure, where the affordances of the platform are useful to elicit significant reactions, validations and demonstrations of affection from others. We observed that, in order to achieve various levels of intimacy on Facebook, people engage in various strategies: Showing rather than telling, Sharing implicit content, Tagging, Expectation of mutual understanding and Liking. These strategies produce a collaborative disclosure that relies on others’ cooperation to maintain the boundaries between private and public space. Based on these premises, we developed a framework of collaborative strategies for managing public intimacy that both systematizes and extends the findings identified in previous studies of intimacy on Facebook. We describe this framework as networked intimacy and we discuss the consequences of it in the light of already existing research on online self-disclosure.     

The last Festival in the Old Lane

About to move to new houses, the residents of the old lane celebrate their last festival there in a traditional way.