An estimate of a rare population group: The U.S. Jewish population

High, middle, and low estimates for a rare population group, the Jewish population of the United States, are presented together with their root mean square errors. These estimates are based upon a national sample whose essential survey design features are outlined. The features indicate that difficult-to-find populations can be sampled in adequate numbers if some sort of a list can be developed with a fair proportion of the population. To this list must be added an integrated area sampl     

The Expectation-Threshold model of reproductive decision making

It is proposed that as expectations about parenting become increasingly high, couples have an increasing tendency to decide to have a(or another) child. Similarly, as parenting expectations become increasingly low, couples have an increasing tendency to decide on sterilization. Couples without extremely high or low expectations continue to use contraceptives. Expectations are defined as Subjective Expected Utilities (SEUs) for having or not having a child. Preliminary results support the model and suggest that the threshold for making these decisions is not at neutral, but is conservative so that couples must have fairly high or low expectations before making such binding decisions are parenting or sterilization. The fact that data reveal that this exists supports the Expectancy-Threshold model, but it also requires a change in SEU Theory's maximization rule for some kinds of decisions.The authors wish to thank Carole Baker, former executive Director of the National Alliance for Optional Parenthood, and the board members of that organization for their cooperation, and Dr. Barbara Beach who helped with the data analysis. Funding was provided, in part, by The Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington, through a grant, No. 5 P30 HDO 9397, from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development     

The Origins of Divergent Methodological Stances in Symbolic Interactionism*

Utilizing replies from a selected sample of contributors to the literature of symbolic interactionism, this paper examines the nature and extent of institutional ties among respondents holding similar views as to appropriate methodology in sociology. The specific institutional ties examined are those as: (1) fellow graduate students, (2) teachers and students, and (3) departmental colleagues. The methodological differences between the Chicago and Iowa schools, described in other studies, manifest themselves in the present sample, as do other views not neatly classifiable within either of these schools of symbolic interactionism. The more unconventional the conception of methodology held by a respondent, the more likely is the respondent to have been a fellow graduate student, a departmental colleague, and/or involved in a teacher-student relationship with other symbolic interactionists favoring the same conception. Respondents preferring the more orthodox methodological stances in modern sociology are less likely to have shared in such institutional ties.     

The Household Encyclopedia as Magic Kit: Medieval Popular Interest in Pranks and Illusions*

Each of us has wished at some time to send in three box tops andget a magic kit that contains itchingpowder to give to our enemies, instructions for tricks designed to baffle our friends, and potions to make us more desirable. Exactly so in the Middle Ages. Bruno Roy's delightful essay on medieval do-it-yourself magic reveals the strong popular interest in practical jokes, illusions and tricks. People in the Middle Ages were playful and high-spirited, waiting to entertain and be entertained. The transformative power implicit i n the tricks played by jugglers or entertainers appealed to all classes of society; these same jugglers not only dealt in illusory tricks but often used various chemicalpreparations, giving a “scientific” cast to their pranks. That so many of these tricks were related to the household in terms of the joke itself or the ingredients used suggests the widespread popularity of magic kits, a popularity that today perhaps resides only with the children who save the box tops.