Defining delayed consequences as reinforcers: some do, some don't, and nothing changes

Results of a survey sent to members of the editorial boards of five behavior-analytic journals in 1990 indicated that there was no consensus among respondents with respect to whether delayed events can function as reinforcers (Schlinger, Blakely, Fillhard, & Poling, 1991). Since that time, several studies with nonhuman animals have demonstrated that events delayed by at least several seconds can increase the probability of occurrence of the responses that produce them. To determine the relative number of contemporary behavior analysts who nonetheless believe that reinforcers must immediately follow the responses that produce them, the present study replicated the procedures used by Schlinger et al., with similar results. That is, respondents did not agree with respect to whether delayed events could be reinforcers.     

Standardizing basic concepts in sociology

The idea of standardizing concepts in sociology is not new, but we have made little progress, despite the early hopes of such theorists as Durkheim and Weber. This article refutes the arguments of some who contend that we do not need standard concepts, we cannot make standard concepts, social phenomena are too complex and changeful, sociologists are too individualistic and sociological concepts are too context-dependent. The author proposes that the American Sociological Association appoint a Committee on Basic Sociological Concepts to investigate and recommend the official adoption of a basic conceptual language in American sociology. This paper is excerpted from a longer discussion first presented to a session on metatheory at the 1990 meetings of the American Sociological Association, and forthcoming in a collection of papers from that session.     

Diversity in sociology: Problem or solution?

Some of sociology’s recent internal critics (e.g., Turner and Turner, 1990; Halliday and Janowitz, 1992; Collins, 1986; Gans, 1990; Crane and Small, 1992) suggest that the discipline's diversity of theoretical, methodological and substantive foci leave it in a weakened position for achieving individual and collective ends. Other sociologists (e.g., D'Antonio, 1992; Roos and Jones, 1993; Stacey and Thorne, 1985) argue that substantive diversity has made the discipline attractive to a greater variety of previously underrepresented groups, particularly women, groups that have, in turn, contributed to sociology’s substantive diversity. This paper reports on a content analysis of 2,016 articles from North American sociology journals in 1936, 1956, 1976, and 1996 as well as from chemistry, anthropology, economics, political science, and psychology journals in 1996. The analysis focused on a number of, often contradictory, hypotheses drawn from the competing views of sociology's diversity with respect to its substantive concerns and its gender composition. It finds, for instance, that there is more substantive diversity in today's sociology journal articles than there was earlier, at least when diversity is measured in terms of fields that are reputed to be attractive to women. This may not be surprising, since more women are writing sociology journal articles than ever before. Moreover, the substantive diversity seems to be related to more, not less, funding of sociological research. It is, of course, a trite remark — one made more frequently by sociologists than by their gibing critics — that sociology has not yet come to the development which commands from its adherents wholehearted agreement as to the objectives to be aimed at, the field to he limited, and the methods to be used. Gladys Bryson, 1936     

The Importance of Race Among Black Sociologists*

This paper explores the importance of race and racial attitudes among sociologists by attempting to document the existence of what has been called a “black insiders doctrine” and showing that black sociologists are more likely than their white counterparts to subscribe to this doctrine. Data in this paper are based on a survey questionnaire administered during the winter of 1978. The findings show that: (1) race is a strong predictor in determining how sociologists perceive the role and characteristics of black sociologists and (2) black sociologists do not think highly of whites who study race relations.     

Women’s sociological research and writing in the AJS in the pre-World War II era

Recent revisionist scholarship on the history of sociology suggests that women scholars in the pre-World War II era made distinctive contributions to the development of the field of sociology. Most research, however, has focused on women prominent in their era, whose works might or might not be typical of all women who published during the same periods. Furthermore, few studies have made explicit comparisons between works by women and by men writing in this same era, so it has been difficult to sort out gender effects from historical era effects. This study explores writings by women and men in the first volumes of the American Journal of Sociology, from 1895 through 1940. As the oldest continuously published sociology journal in the U.S., AJS played a central role in the development of American sociology. We find that women authors were present in AJS from the earliest days, though their share of authorships never was large, and fluctuated year by year. Women’s work was distinctively different from that of men, with more women than men writing empirical, evidence-based articles, focusing on women, children, immigrants, the poor, and other have-not groups, and advocating for social reform. Writings of rank-and-file and prominent women sociologists were similar in methods, content, and form, and their distinctive contributions to sociology paralleled many of the concerns of feminist sociologists today.     

Préférences, valeurs et différentiation intraprofessionnelle selon l'origine ethnique

For some time, sociologists have been concerned with the unequal distribution of members of different ethnic groups on the Canadian occupational scale. Using a sample of French- and English-speaking engineers of the city of Montreal, the author tests the hypothesis that their occupational values influence their distribution within the profession. The results of the study suggest that the values of the two ethnic groups are similar; however, their occupational preferences , which reflect social constraints, are more closely linked to their professional situation. In emphasizing the importance of the distinction between values and preferences, the author suggests that a structural approach to intraoccupational distribution would be more fruitful.
La répartition inégale des groupes ethniques sur l'échelle professionnelle canadienne préoccupe les sociologues depuis longtemps. En employant un échantillonnage des ingénieurs francophones et anglophones à Montréal, l'auteur met à l'épreuve l'hypothèse que leurs valeurs professionnelles influent sur leur répartition différentielle au sein de leur profession. Les résultats de l'étude suggèrent que les valeurs des deux groupes ethniques se ressemblent; cependant leurs préférences concrètes qui reflètent les contraintes sociales sont plus étroitement liées à leur situation professionnelle. En soulignant l'importance de la distinction entre les valeurs et les préférences, l'auteur suggère qu'une approche structurelle de la différentiation intraprofessionnelle serait plus fructueuse.     

Tilting at Twindmills: rethinking sociological responses to behavioral genetics

While we commend Horwitz et al. (2003) for speaking to core issues in behavioral genetics, we disagree with many particulars of their article. We are skeptical of their claims regarding the particular contribution offered by both their methods and data. We believe also that the findings they present as challenging the equal environments assumption are, upon closer examination, not persuasive. Most fundamentally, we worry that the way in which Horwitz et al. conceptualize the relationship between genes and environments is not the best means of doing so for sociologists interested in engaging behavioral genetics.     

Trends in the Race and Ethnicity of Eminent Americans

During the last several decades, the ethnic and racial composition of the American elite has changed to include some ethnic minorities and women. This study examines changes in the composition of one segment of the American elite: those who have obtained eminence in their occupations. Lieberson and Carter's study of the ethnic composition of eminent Americans, using Who's Who in America, is replicated with data from the 1990s (Lieberson and Carter, 1979, American Sociological Review 44:347–366). In addition, comparisons between blacks listed in Who's Who in America and blacks listed only in Who's Who among Black Americans are made. During the 20 years since Lieberson and Carter's study, Jews have made remarkable gains in eminent membership, while the rate of black representation has increased only moderately. Women are a small percentage of the eminent regardless of ethnicity, although black women are better represented than their counterparts in white ethnic groups.     

Guinea Pig Kids: Myths or Modern Tuskegees?

The Tuskegee syphilis study represents a nadir in health research in the U.S., when individuals' bodies were used to satisfy researchers' curiosity with no anticipated clinical benefit. The study is often used as a teaching case, in research methods and biomedical ethics training, symbolizing the past, before the federal government intervened and created human protections regulations to protect participants. The Tuskegee study continues to have other ripple effects, contributing to African Americans' distrust of health research. This paper analyzes three medical studies from the 1990s that involved African American children. We examine the institutional actors that implemented these studies, and the community members of color who protested against them, and compare the tone of media accounts in African American and mainstream publications. We find that powerful governmental and medical institutions collaborated to implement these problematic studies, and that both mainstream and African American news outlets conveyed protestors' concerns about the ethics of the studies, resulting in federal investigations. Our hypothesis that African American outlets provided more negative coverage was not supported, suggesting distrust of biomedicine regarding race is more widespread. The unethical practices reported here raise key questions about the inclusion of both minority populations and children in medical research.     

Does the Internet matter for strong ties? Bonding social capital,Internet use,and age-based inequality

As the Internet becomes pervasive in western societies, social capital emerges as a valuable sociological tool to analyze the social effects of Internet use. Thus, a growing body of research has been looking into the relationship between social capital and Internet usage. This research has been showing a positive relationship between them; however, results are not as conclusive when we consider one of the main dimensions of social capital: bonding. Bonding relates to resources that are embedded in one’s strong ties (i.e., family members and close friends). The study of bonding is of particular sociological interest, since the discussion around the social effects of the Internet still suggests that it takes time away from strong ties and that is more useful to connect with weak ties (i.e., acquaintances). This study examines the relationship between bonding and the Internet, using representative survey data and semi-structured interviews from Portugal. Findings show that bonding is predicted positively by Internet use but negatively by age. On one hand, the Internet seems to compensate for the negative age effect because older adults who use it are more likely to have a high level of bonding. On the other hand, the Internet reinforces accumulated social advantage.     

The state of American Sociology

Sociology appears to be one of the most internally divided disciplines, if not the most. Departmental struggles, which have led to sociologists complaining to administrators about each other, have put the field in bad repute among campus officials and have endangered its survival in some schools. The American Sociological Society and American Sociological Association have been among the most conflict-ridden associations in academe for generations. Severe internecine struggles have a long history in the field. It may be suggested that they are related to the propensity of the field to attract social reformers and political activists. But hard evidence indicates sociology graduate students are among the weakest, as judged by test scores.This is an elaboration of an American Sociological Association presidential presentation to a plenary session of the Southern Sociological Association on April 2, 1993.     

Female-headed families: a comparative perspective of the Caribbean and the developed world

Official statistics indicate that 22-44% of women in CARICOM countries are sole heads of households. Some have argued that there are so many female-headed households in the Caribbean simply because those societies have failed to realize the nuclear family norms espoused by the American sociologists of the 1950s. On the contrary, family formations are adaptations to economic and social conditions, with the nuclear family being only one of many family forms. Women have long been acknowledged as the backbone of Caribbean families. In the dominant culture of the region, marriage is not considered necessary for procreation, so women may choose to have and raise children independently. The female-headed household widely seen in the Caribbean is becoming more widely seen in the West. The notion that single-parent families are dysfunctional needs to be re-examined and equal recognition and support given to all family forms.     

Copresence in Virtual Environments

Copresence, the sense of “being together” with others, is at the center of theories about social interaction. It is an intra‐individual sense that stems from and shapes the social context. Recent research on copresence in virtual environments (VEs), synthetic simulations of existing experiences (e.g., desktop computer environments, “virtual reality”), demonstrates the variability in which people experience copresence with others who are not sharing in the same time or space. At the same time, experimental researchers in sociology are using VEs as a methodological tool, yet remain unaware about the ramifications of varying levels of copresence for the social processes under investigation. The goal of this review is to introduce sociologists to the research on copresence, specifically highlighting findings and gaps important for those who use VEs in their research practice. An understanding of how copresence occurs in VEs can improve how well sociologists design experiments to advance theories about interpersonal behavior.     

No associative biases in the first name cued recall procedure for eliciting personal networks

One thousand five hundred twenty-five respondents from a representative sample of adult residents of the state of Florida (USA) participated in a telephone survey on personal networks (McCarty et al., 1995). McCarty et al. (1995) elicited samples of alters from respondents' personal network with a first name cued recall interview procedure. This paper reports an assessment of associative biases involved with this technique in a further evaluation of the representativeness of the alter samples elicited with this method. Associative biases would be present if successively recalled alters are more likely to know each other or belong to the same social context (e.g., work, family, school) than alters not recalled successively. Such biases, if present, could influence the characteristics, and thus the representativeness, of the set of alters elicited, such as the density of ties. Analyses indicate that there are no associative biases in the first name cued recall procedure. Future research should investigate the possibility of associative biases in other methods for eliciting personal networks.     

The Politics of Canadian Social Scientists: A Reply to Guimond and Palmer

TWO VERY DIFFERENT PICTURES regarding the relationship between the education system and socialization into dominant ideology emerge from the work of Guimond et al. (1989a; 1989b) and ourselves (Baer and Lambert, 1990). Using data from a single Quebec university, Guimond et al. argued that the conservatizing effect of education in the case of some programmes of study (e.g., commerce) was offset by a radicalizing effect in social science education. In their own words, "it can hardly be argued that education increases support for the status quo when one looks at the data relating to social science students.… [Our research program] clearly suggest[s] that studying the social sciences is a radicalizing experience" (Guimond et al., 1989b: 207; our emphasis). In our case, we used national, cross-sectional data to make a case for the substantive insignificance of any such social science effect in the long run, and to support our contention that overall, the education system in Canada has probably had a conservatizing influence.     

Sociology and value neutrality: Limiting sociology to the empirical level

The scientific objectivity of sociology depends upon adherence to value neutrality, an adherence that strengthens the social power of sociologists. Yet all disciplines, including science, are motivated by values. This article argues that value neutrality is both possible and desirable for sociology, even though a number of values appear to be necessary to the sociological project. Among those values, some are necessary to the project of science as such, while others guide research interests. I argue that value consensus among sociologists regarding any extrascientific (research guiding) value raises questions of scientific integrity: Critical rationalism and humanitarianism are considered in this context. The scientific status of sociology is also compromised by nonempirical pronouncements, including the advocacy of certain values (such as egalitarianism) and of positions regarding the status of values (e.g., cultural relativism). I propose that the role of social scientist be kept distinct from the roles of moral philosopher and of theologian, and that this division of labor be accomplished by a scientific adherence to value neutrality. An earlier version of this paper was first presented at the 1990 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.     

The Planned Happenstance Career Inventory: A Cross‐Cultural Comparison

This study examined the measurement invariance and latent mean difference of an English version (J. H. Lee et al., 2017) of the Planned Happenstance Career Inventory (PHCI; B. Kim, Jung, et al., 2014) across cultures. Participants were 262 American and 291 South Korean undergraduates. Measurement invariance results indicated that the 5‐factor structure was adequate for both groups and that conditions for configural, metric, and partial intercept invariance were met. Latent mean analysis was used to compare the mean scores of the PHCI skills (curiosity, flexibility, persistence, optimism, and risk taking). The latent means of curiosity, flexibility, persistence, and optimism were higher among South Korean undergraduates, but no significant difference was found regarding risk taking. Career counselors should consider differences in planned happenstance perceptions across cultures to provide better career guidance. Future studies are needed to verify the distinctive nature of flexibility by replicating the factor structure of the PHCI with other samples.     

The most critical issue facing the ASA

The ASA worries that it may be allowing organizational fragmentation to contribute to intellectual disarray in the discipline. ASA should recognize that the increase in the number of sociologists has made it easier to start new, economically viable organizations, with their own journals, prizes, and meetings. A serious problem facing ASA is that the American Sociological Review shows an editorial bias toward quantitative research. Sociologists need to strengthen alternative organizations-regional and specialty-especially among groups which differ politically from ASA, so that it will not try to speak for all of us. He is co-editor (wih Michal M. McCall) ofSymbolic Interaction and Cultural Studies (1990, Chicago: University of Chicago Press).     

Sociology and social policy: from a love-hate relationship with the state to cynicism and pragmatism

Les sociologues québécois ont été au coeur de ce que Ton a appelé la Révolution tranquille. lis ont inspiré des réformes, animé des projets et joué le rôle d'éminences grises auprés du gouvernement. Cependant, au milieu des années '70, plusieurs sont devenus de plus en plus critiques de l'intervention de l'État en matiére de politiques sociales: non seulement L'État n'a-t-il pas réussi à redistribuer les ressources des plus riches vers les plus pauvres, mail il a aussi paralysé l'action des groupes communautaires et des autres mouvements sociaux. Le présent article recense les publications sur l'État et les politiques sociales depuis 1975. Les auteurs concluent que les sociologues québécois sont de moins en moins intéressés par l'État, concentrant davantage leur attention sur les groupes en besoin.
Quebec's sociologists have been at the heart of the so-called Revolution tranquille. They have inspired reforms, animated projects and served as 'grey eminences' to the government. Yet, by the mid 1970s, many had grown intensely critical of state intervention in social policies: not only was the state incapable of really redistributing resources from the rich to the poor, but it was also paralysing the action of community groups and other social movements. In this article, the francophone literature on the state and social policy since 1975 is reviewed. The authors conclude that Québec sociologists have become less fixated on the state, and are beginning to turn their attention more and more to specific social groups in need.     

Intermarriage of Frontier Immigrant, Religious and Residential Groups: An Examination of Macrostructural Assimilation

Intermarriage among heterogeneous social groups has often been studied as a process of assimilation. The present paper extends this research through a unique application of macro-structural propositions of intermarriage (Blau et al., 1982) to a nineteenth century American frontier population. Variants of these propositions are presented, used to address age patterns of nuptiality, and tested through a longitudinal application. Results support the utility of macro-structural theories in analyses encompassing initial community formation as well as assimilation of later arriving immigrants. Analyses illustrate both the assimilation of initially arriving immigrant groups on the frontier and the initial emergence of new heterogeneities in the established native population and later arriving immigrants.