The Economics of the Counter-Reformation: Incumbent-Firm Reaction to Market Entry

The Catholic Church reacted to the Protestant Reformation by taking on the defensive posture of an incumbent-firm monopoly fighting to survive in the face of new competition. Contemporary firms typically respond to rival entry by rewriting their corporate charter. So did the medieval Catholic Church. But the Council of Trent failed as a reorganization plan because to keep economic rents flowing as before, it left intact the distribution of powers and property rights among the governing body of pope and cardinals—thus demonstrating that entrenched economic interests are powerful inducements to behavior, even in spiritual institutions.     

Unrepresentative Information: The Case of Newspaper Reporting on Campaign Finance

This article examines evidence of sampling or statistical biasin newspaper reporting on campaign finance. We compile all storiesfrom the five largest circulation newspapers in the United Statesthat mention a dollar amount for campaign expenditures, contributions,or receipts from 1996 to 2000. We compare these figures to thoserecorded by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The averagefigures reported in newspapers exceed the figures from the FECby as much as eightfold. Press reports also focus excessivelyon corporate contributions and soft money, rather than on themore common types of donors—individual—and typesof contributions—hard money. We further find that thesebiases are reflected in public perceptions of money in elections.Survey respondents overstate the amount of money raised andthe share from different groups by roughly the amount foundin newspapers, and better-educated people (those most likelyto read newspapers) showed the greatest discrepancy betweentheir beliefs and the facts.     

Cognition and Emotion? The Dead End in Self‐Esteem Research

This article suggests that studies of self‐esteem using scales have reached a dead end, and suggest alternative directions. First we show how significance tests have obscured meager results. According to reviews, this huge body of research has yielded no substantial findings. Some sub‐fields show consistent, but trivially small, effects; reviews of the entire field show none at all. Most important, the size of effects does not seem to be increasing. Three questions are raised: 1. Are new standards needed to determine when to continue or stop a given line of research? 2. Are new approaches needed alternative to standardized scales and statistical tests? 3. Should future studies of self‐esteem emphasize feeling and social components at least as much as cognitive (self‐evaluative) components? Studies of self‐esteem using interview techniques by George Brown and his colleagues suggest the need to move closer to actual data. An exploratory study that takes this direction a step further is described. We analyze social and cognitive/emotional elements second by second in discourse about topics relevant to self‐appraisal and self‐feeling.     

The impact of gender on gambling attitudes and behavior

Researchers have often attributed the consistent relation of gender and gambling behavior to gender role socialization. If they are correct, gender should affect different sets of gambling attitudes in a manner consistent with at least three aspects of gender role socialization: a double standard of morality, a guardian of the hearth role for women, and a dualism of orientations. A survey measuring gambling attitudes and behavior was sent to a sample of residents in North Dakota after legalization of several games of chance (e.g., blackjack). Gender affects behavior but only some of the specified attitudes. These mixed results may reflect changes in gender role socialization and the increasing legalization of gambling.     

Faculty Support of Student Dissent

This paper replicates an earlier study of faculty status and tolerance of political dissent by Abramson and Wences. The data support the hypothesis that length of residence on a university campus is inversely related to faculty tolerance of student dissent. The expected relationship between academic rank and tolerance was eliminated by controlling for longevity, but the predicted relationship between academic field and tolerance was unaffected. The effect of longevity appears to be independent of political orientations, and the data suggest that peer group influence is operative among faculty members.     

Control, stress, and job satisfaction in Canadian nurses

The main effects of four domains of control (task, decision, resource, physical environment) on job satisfaction and their interactions with three types of job stressors (task demands, role conflict, interpersonal conflict) were examined in a sample of 765 Canadian nurses. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine the proportion of variance in job satisfaction that could be accounted for by job stressors, control, and the interaction of stressors and control in that order. The job stressors were analysed separately and as a composite job demands score, as were the four domains of control. The results indicated that the proportion of variance in job satisfaction increased with the addition of control for the composite scores and for task, resource, and physical environment control. However, decision control did not account for additional variance in job satisfaction above that for any of the job stressors. In addition, none of the stressor x control interactions were significant. The results support previous attempts to test the moderating effects of control, suggesting that perceived control is not a moderator of job stress but rather that it has a direct influence. The relevance of the different domains of control for nurses is discussed.     

A POPULATION PROFILE OF VERY OLD MEN AND WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES

This article presents the first population profile of men and women age 85 and over. It was developed with the 1980 census PUMS sample A, of which nearly 70% were women. Men were better off than women in both socioeconomic and relational characteristics in that they had higher personal incomes from nearly all sources and were far more likely to be married and living independently. They were not found in nursing homes in as great a proportion as were very old women. In a sense, then, the generalizations about the very old have a female bias.     

An Analysis of Damage to U.S. Soybean Yields from 1982 Acid Deposition Levels

Experimental data were compiled for seven soybean varieties studied at four different locations in the U.S. for a period of one to three years. Three dose–response functions (linear, quadratic, and Weibull) were fitted, as appropriate, to the experimental data. Effects of acid deposition on soybean yields were estimated by combining variety-specific dose–response and production data. These calculations suggest that U.S. soybean production (2.2 billion bushels in 1982) would increase by 3.2 million bushels with a 10% reduction in 1982 hydrogen ion concentration levels in all counties where soybeans were grown, and by almost 70 million bushels with uniform improvement to pH 5.2. These estimates are based on many simplifying assumptions and are subject to several important sources of uncertainty explored in this study. The calculated changes are small in comparison with effects from other natural and anthropogenic stresses.     

Huck Finn and the game model gloss

Several authors have cited the metaphor of game playing as an analytical device to study social behavior. Traditionally, the game model has been used either to promote a more strict or instrumental control upon actual social behavior or to match a formal game model construction of a social event with actual behavior in everyday life, and through this method shed light upon aspects which otherwise would be overlooked. In another connection, various authors have discussed the concept of glossing in social relations. This paper uses Mark Twain's last chapters ofThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to explicate how the game model can be used as a gloss. The game model gloss then is a unique combination of sociological conceptualizations presented through the medium of a lively literary allegory. We feel this paper extends the concept of glossing and furthers the understanding of the game metaphor in sociological theory.This paper has been presented at the Spring 1977 meetings of the Southern Sociological Society in Atlanta, Georgia.