A social comparison perspective of treatment seeking by the homeless

The homeless will readily list ailments they claim to have, yet they will also claim that such ailments are not a problem and do not warrant treatment. In an attempt to understand this apparentparadox, data from a sample of homeless individuals were re-analyzed from a social comparison perspective. It was hypothesized that increased entrenchment in homelessness (increased isolation from nonhomeless environments and further involvement in the homeless environment)—operationalized by longer time spent on the street and a greater number of street friends—would lead homeless individuals to alter their perceptions of what constitutes a problem worthy of treatment. Results supported this hypothesis, in direction, and in almost all tests conducted. The involvement of adaptation level theory in such a social comparison process and the implications for intervention and treatment are discussed.     

Observational coding of relationship-schematic processing

In this article, we introduce the construct Relationship-Schematic Processing (RSP), which is defined as the degree to which individuals process information in terms of their romantic relationship. We also present an observational coding system that was developed to assess the behavioral manifestations of RSP. The coding system was applied to videotaped problem-solving interactions completed by 55 maritally distressed couples. Findings indicated that wives engaged in more frequent and higher quality RSP than husbands did. Husbands reported greater relationship satisfaction when wives engaged in more frequent and higher quality RSP; wives reported greater satisfaction when husbands engaged in higher quality relationship processing. In addition, we assessed convergent validity with other measures of marital functioning.     

Equal division of estates and the exchange motive

Although the bequest motive is one of the most important theoretical extensions of the life-cycle hypothesis, few empirical studies have measured determinants of unequal estate division. We estimated whether several proxies that are consistent with exchange and altruism lead to unequal estate division using data from a longitudinal survey of deceased elderly persons linked to probate court records. Equal division was the rule-between 70 and 83% of estates were divided equally, depending on the strictness of the definition of equal division. Several measures of exchange were not significant predictors of unequal division. Two factors that are consistent with both exchange and altruism- writing the last will and testament within five years of death and having more children-predict unequal estate division. The models control for selection, because many decedents do not file a record in probate court.     

The Hidden Housing Policy: Management of Public Housing Estates in Australia

Management of public rental housing is out of public view because most of the rules, regulations, and management policy directions arise from within the housing authorities themselves. As such, the policies can be vague, contradictory, and unrelated to the actual social and economic situations of the residents of public housing. The housing estate manager must translate these policies into a workable day-by-day relationship with tenants. The quality of housing estates is the result. We must be concerned, for on this quality rests the success or failure of our public housing policy.     

Marx and the Method of Successive Approximations*

Karl Marx's sociology has been interpreted incorrectly as the consequence of the application of a “dialectical” method to social phenomenon. In this paper, I discuss his actual method of theory construction (a rather more complicated phenomenon than the simple reversal of the Hegelian dialectic), the Ricardian method of successive approximations. This method involves three steps or stages-observation, model formation, and model testing and revision. Marx's Capital is reviewed in the light of his use of this method.     

Natural Resource Availability and Social Change

Environmental sociology is founded on the assumption that the natural resource base of a society establishes the limits or constraints within which that society must operate. Thus, a change in the resource base on which a society depends will necessitate changes or adaptations within that society. This study attempts to empirically test these assumptions by looking at the effects of groundwater availability in the Great Plains of the United States from 1940 to 1980. Using a model derived from human ecology theory, it was found that irrigation development had major implications on nonmetropolitan counties during the time period studied. Irrigation development resulted in increased agricultural production, variations in the structure of farm enterprises, and in increased retention of both farm and nonfarm populations.     

Measuring Change in Personal Economic Well-Being

Individual-level investigations of the link between personaleconomic well-being and political preference commonly turn upfindings at odds with aggregate, overtime analyses. Althoughvarious theoretical explanations for this anomaly have beenadvanced, we focus on a different culprit: the possibly frailmeasure employed in survey based studies. We develop improvedmeasures of change in personal economic well-being and use anational survey of the American electorate to test them. Ourfindings are striking: although the traditional question usedby survey researchers is quite valid, its unreliability hascaused the effect of personal economic well-being on politicalevaluations to be substantially underestimated.     

The Hobbesian Microcosm: On the Dialectics of the Self in Social Theory*

If Parsons is not guilty of holding an over-socialized conception of man, Wrong's critique does apply to the work of the “reality-constructionists” and “symbolic interactionists.” In underemphasizing Mead's “biologic individual” or “I,” contemporary sociological social psychology manages to evade the Hobbesian problem and, hence, amounts to a largely disembodied dialectic. By way of contrast, the compatibility of the Meadian and Freudian perspectives is stressed and the need for further development of a psychoanalytic sociology reaffirmed.