The Mapping of family-composition preferences: A scaling analysis

When subjects express preference for one type of family composition over another, their judgments have the useful property that they can be referred to the ‘objective’ characteristics defining the stimuli. Pair comparison preference data from the Bollen-Delbeke study are “internally” analyzed according to the Carroll-Chang “Points of View” vector model and Coombs' Unfolding (distance) model. The distance model was found to give a better fit. Secondly, the models are compared within the framework of Carroll's Preference Mapping hierarchy of models, referring the data to the ‘objective’ structure underlying the stimuli. The simple distance model is found to give a much better fit.The methodological and substantive implications of this finding are discussed.¹     

A multivariate analysis of response structure: Race attitudes, 1972–1977

A particular kind of latent class model is used to characterize the unobservable variable measured by six discrete indicators of racial stance in 1972 and 1977. Methods recently introduced by Clogg and Goodman, 1982, Clogg and Goodman, 1983) for the simultaneous latent structure analysis of two multidimensional contingency tables are employed in across-year homogeneity tests on the latent class proportions. Trends in multivariate response patterns over the 5-year interval are then examined by cross-classifying the predicted latent variable with selected demographic characteristics of respondents in each year. The results indicate that (1) no significant changes in the distribution of the latent variable occurred over the 5-year time period, and (2) the status of certain demographic variables as predictors of racial stance fluctuated between the two survey years.     

Qualitative variance,entropy, and correlation ratios for nominal dependent variables

In this paper we derive a measure of dispersion for a nominal variable having k ? 2 categories and compare it with ordinary quantitative variance and with entropy. We then develop two qualitative analogs to the R² statistic, one based on qualitative variance, the other on entropy. For concreteness, data from the study of The American Soldier by S. A. Stouffér, E. A. Suchman, L. C. Devinney, S. A. Star, and R. M. Williams, Jr. (1949, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, N.J.) are used to illustrate the computations and compare these two correlation ratios for a variety of logit models. It is shown that both measures are reasonable measures of the proportion of variation of one or more qualitative dependent variables explainable by any mixture of qualitative and quantitative predictor variables. They can be used with logit, probit, dummy variable regression models, or probability models of some other type.     

Deducing majority candidates from election data

An election among m ? 3 candidates is conducted by system s ? {1, 2, …, m ?1} when each voter can vote for any k candidates so long as k ∈ s and the winner is the candidate who receives the most votes. Suppose the available data for an election conducted by s consists of the total number n of voters plus the number of votes n_i received by candidate a_i for i = 1, …, m, and for definiteness assume that n₁> n₂ ? … ? n_m so that a₁ wins the election. The winner a₁ is defined to be a majority candidate if for each i > 1 more voters prefer a₁ to a_i than prefer a_i to a₁. Question: Given m and s, what must be true of the available election data so that the winner is certain to be a majority candidate? Assuming that a voter can have any weak preference order on the candidates but is not indifferent among all m candidates, and assuming that each voter might vote in any manner that is not clearly contrary to his own interests, the following answers to the Question are derived for m = 3 and m = 4. The only s in a three-candidate election that can guarantee that a₁ is a majority candidate is the approval voting system s = {1, 2}, and it can make this guarantee if and only if $\text{n}{}_1\text{>}\text{n}\text{2}\text{+ min{n}{}_2\text{, n}{}_1\text{+ n}{}_2\text{+ n}{}_3\text{? n}}$. There are two systems for four-candidate elections that can guarantee that a₁ is a majority candidate, namely s = {1, 2} and s = {1, 2, 3}, and for each of these a₁ must be a majority candidate if and only if $\text{n}{}_2\text{+ n}{}_3\text{+ n}{}_4\text{<}\text{n}\text{2}$. By implication, the plurality system s = {1} can never assure one that the winner is a majority candidate. Stronger assumptions than those used in the main analysis, which are able to ensure that the plurality winner is a majority candidate, are identified.     

Comparative power structures in American communities

This is an argument for the plausibility of comparative network analyses of power in American cities. In terms of structural analyses of community power and decision-making, traditional methods of obtaining network data have fostered and enervating gap between the substantive richness of case studies and the generalizability of comparative studies. The purpose here is to describe a practical method of gathering ersatz network data from interviews with a small number of strategically chosen informants so as to conduct comparative network analyses of community power. The ersatz network element z_ij is the extent to which two types of actors I and J are perceived by informants as having simultaneous control over community issues. Using data from interviews with informants in 51 American cities, the ersatz network data are shown to be efficient, reliable and substantively valid despite their low cost. The data are efficient in the sense that the proportion of sampling variance in an estimated network element declines exponentially with increase in the element's magnitude. The data are reliable in the sense that estimated structures are stable over issue and informant bias per se. The data are valid in the sense that they are consistent with previous community research; types of ersatz power structures are located in the 51 cities (a machine structure, an urban structure, a faction structure, and a class of reform government structures) and these types occur in cities with characteristics known to be associated with each type of power structure. I conclude with a summary and comments regarding future research; the selection of informants and the use of a computer program in which easily available characteristics of a community are the basis for predicting the type of power structure it most likely exhibited during the late 1960s.     

孔子社会学说的逻辑构成(上)

孔子是在“仁”这种整体关怀的基础上建构起自己的思想学说的。在孔子思想中,能够遏制无限膨胀的私利欲望的是“义”。在当时“家”、“国”同构的社会关系中,孔子特别重视“孝”和“悌”。在孔子思想中,“忠”、“信”都是处理一般人际关系的原则,“臣事君以忠”并没有后代儒学家所强调的“尊尊”的人身依附性质。“法”和“礼”是当时社会的两种联系方式。“法”体现的是人与人之间的权力关系,“礼”体现的是人与人之间的合作关系。孔子重视“礼”和“礼治”,其根本意图在于强调合作关系而淡化和消解权力关系,以改善人类和人类社会的整体存在状况。孔子思想的产生,标志着决定中国社会和中国历史存在与发展状况的不再仅仅是政治的权力,而是由政治权力与文化权力构成的对立统一关系的合力。     

The social standing of jobs: Scores for all Australian occupations

This paper presents the method used to develop the ANU II status scores for all Australian occupations. For some purposes it supersedes ANU I, a 16-point scale (Broom, Jones, and Zubrzycki, 1965, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology (Suppl.) 1; Broom and Jones, 1969, American Sociological Review 34, 650–658). The two scales correlate at .83. The new scale was calculated using a broad range of data applied to a prestige score criterion to estimate an equation used to predict status scores for all occupations. These scores are available in Broom, Duncan-Jones, Jones, and McDonnell (1977, Investigating Social Mobility) along with further details of the method and results. The new scale is currently being used in the analysis of the ANU 1973 survey of social mobility in Australia, and in the reanalysis of data from the ANU 1965 survey. Preliminary results (also presented in Broom et al., 1977) indicate that the scale will be comparable both across time in Australia and across space when comparisons with the “second generation” of mobility studies is undertaken.     

文论危机与文学文本的有效解读

对文学文本解读的低效或无效,正威胁着文学理论的合法性。西方文论往往追求哲学化的普遍性,以高度抽象甚至超验的演绎牺牲文学文本的特殊性、唯一性。传统哲学主客体二元对立统一的思维模式,无法对应文学文本由主体、客体和形式构成的结构。西方文论之失还在于方法上以定义、观念的谱系为纲,其极端者甚至以文学不可定义来否定文学的存在。解决文学文本解读有效性的关键在于,要认清文学文本是由表层的意象、中层的意脉和深层的规范形式构成的立体结构。保证审美价值最大限度升值的是规范形式。规范形式与原生形式有异,它不僵化而有弹性。经典作品常以自己独特的风格对规范形式形成冲击,并使其更加丰富。文学文本解读的任务,是借助多层次的具体分析,把文学理论中牺牲的特殊、唯一的精致密码还原出来,达到最大限度的有效性。     

Using latent class analysis to produce a typology of environmental concern in the UK

Factor analysis is often used to study environmental concern. This choice of methodology is driven by predominant theories that tie environmental attitudes to the multidimensional construct of environmental concern. This paper demonstrates that using a clustering method such as latent class analysis can be a valuable tool for studying environmental attitudes as they exist within a given population. In making the case for the value of latent class analysis in this context, we examine UK public concern for the environment and how this concern is associated with pro-environmental behaviours. To do this we use responses to DEFRA's 2009 Survey of Public Attitudes and Behaviours towards the Environment, which is still the most nationally representative survey of its type in the UK. Grouping respondents according to homogenous response patterns, we identify four classes of people, defined by their concern for the environment: Pro-environment, Neutral Majority, Disengaged and Paradoxical. To understand how these attitude classes are associated with behaviour and socio-economic status, class membership probability is regressed onto education, income and social grade, as well as 16 measures of environmental behaviour related to transport, food, recycling and home energy conservation. The results contradict most previous research with the environmental attitude classes by being highly predictive of environmental behaviour.     

The analysis of ordinal dispersion: A comparison of Leik's “D” with a variance formula

The frequency of ordinal data and the importance of attitudinal consensus in social research motivated Leik [Leik, R. L. (1966), Pacific Sociological Review 9, 85–90] to formulate a simple, effective measure of ordinal dispersion, but he did not provide a method for its statistical analysis, and its operational interpretation for nonextremal values is unclear. Leik's D is an equal-interval, “folded” scoring vector inner dot-product, scalar transformation of the vector of ordered relative frequencies. The folding point is the median category. The metric analog of D is the difference between the random variable's expected values above and below the median. An equal-interval, pure variance measure of ordinal dispersion is posited and compared to D. They correlate closely but not perfectly, and D has a serious problem when an extremal category has more than half the total cases. Both formulas are easily generalized to non-equal-interval scorings. A general linear model for categorical data permits easy statistical comparisons of D, but not the variance. D tends to underestimate the degree of significant dispersion in comparison to the variance formula, it is suggested.     

试析敬称语的人际功能——以唐诗三百首中的“君”为例

语气、基调和情态是功能语法中人际功能的三种主要表现形式。运用功能语法的人际意义观对唐诗中人称代词"君"开展研究,发现：第二人称代词"君"存在多种语义潜势,在具体语篇中可用于彰显交际双方身份差异,也可以表达对交流对象的尊重和礼貌,是利于缩短双方心理距离,营造良好交流氛围的有效方式。敬称"君"实为古诗人偏好的实现人际意义的常用手法。     

Occupational prestige from preference orientations via the Markov Chain: An alternative to respondent ranking techniques

This paper suggests a method of determining occupational prestige structures through simulation of transfer of credit processes involving the Markov Chain. The method required recording present and preferred occupations of a representative sample of employed persons. Following the example of Blau (1956) and Empey (1956) the concept “preferred occupation” is suggested as clearly distinct from occupational choice which has been treated by other researchers (Musgrave 1967; Carol and Parry 1968; Kuvlesky and Bealer 1966; Haller and Sewell 1967; Solcum 1956; and Philband and Gregory 1956). A series of Markov Chain interactions transforms the present-preferred occupation matrix, “controls” for structure limitations on ambitions and social distance, and generates a hierarchical model of occupational prestige structures. This paper examines the methodological and theoretical issues implicit in the measurement of prestige and the establishment of prestige hierarchies, and describes the procedures of the application of the Markov Chain to occupational preference responses. It reports the results of the application of this technique to a pilot sample and compares the resulting hierarchy with those derived from NORC measures and the Duncan socioeconomic index.     

A note on block variables in multiequation models

This paper seeks to further refine the efforts of Coleman (Social Science Research 5, 1–20, 1976) and Igra (Social Science Research 8, 253–264, 1979) to develop summary regressionlike coefficients for causal models involving blocks of conceptually related variables, using Heise's (Sociological Methods and Research 1, 147–173, 1972) strategy of explicitly representing block concepts as unobserved intervening variables in a multiequation model. Such models can be estimated using the maximum-likelihood techniques of Jöreskog and Sörbom (LISREL IV: Analysis of Linear Structural Relationships by the Method of Maximum Likelihood, International Educational Services, Chicago, 1978). The procedure proposed leads to (a) an unambiguous definition of block variables in terms of their constituent variables; (b) a clear definition of effects of conceptual variables on one another, and on single response variables, and a reduced model formulated in terms of conceptual variables only; and (c) a clear decomposition of correlations between conceptual variables into direct effects, indirect effects, and unanalyzed components. Numerical illustration is provided.     

A cluster analysis of service utilization and incarceration among homeless youth

Our paper examines service usage (e.g., shelter) as well as a typology of individuals who are most likely to use groupings of services among 249 homeless youth. Our results revealed that the majority of homeless young people have used food programs (66%) and street outreach (65%) on at least one occasion within the past year. Cluster analysis of services revealed four distinct groups: (1) basic survival service use, characterized by above average shelter, food, and outreach service use, but below average on counseling, substance abuse/mental health services, and incarceration; (2) multiple service use, which included above average use of all six services; (3) incarceration experience, characterized by above average incarceration experience, but below average use of all other five services; and (4) minimal service use, which included slightly above average use of counseling, but below average use of all other services. These findings have the potential to provide important information that may assist with targeting services to homeless youth.     

Inequality of educational opportunity in France and the United States

Unequality of educational opportunity is related to school structure. Comparison of the attainment process in France and the United States reveals the consequences of structure for individuals' attainments. Turner's (1960) typology of educational systems is applied. The French educational system is shown to be closer to Turner's “sponsorship system,” and that of the U. S. closer to the “contest” type. Inequality of educational opportunity, as indicated by the effect of father's occupational status on years of schooling completed, is greater in France than in the U. S. The difference is accounted for by school structural variables, indicating the importance of structure for inequality of opportunity. Other differences concerning the causes of educational attainment in France and the U. S. are also discussed.     

Social isolation,survey nonresponse,and nonresponse bias: An empirical evaluation using social network data within an organization

Survey researchers have long hypothesized that social isolation negatively affects the probability of survey participation and biases survey estimates. Previous research, however, has relied on proxy measures of isolation, such as being a marginalized group member within a population. We re-examine the relationship between social isolation and survey participation using direct measures of social isolation derived from social network data; specifically, instrumental research and expressive friendship connections among faculty within academic departments. Using a reconceptualization of social isolation, we find that social network isolation is negatively associated with unit response. Among women (a numerical minority group within the organization), we further find that social group isolation (i.e., lacking instrumental network connections to men, the majority group in the organization) is negatively associated with survey participation. Finally, we show that some survey estimates are systematically biased due to nonparticipation from socially isolated people.