Rethinking twins and environments: possible social sources for assumed genetic influences in twin research

A central sociological problem is the extent to which genetics and the environment influence human behavior. Studies of twins are a core method in attempts to disentangle and to determine the comparative strength of genetic and environmental influences on psychosocial outcomes. A critical assumption of twin studies is that both monozygotic "identical" twins and dizygotic "fraternal" twins share common social environments. Therefore, any greater similarity of monozygotic than dizygotic twins is attributed to genetic influences. This paper tests the equal environment assumption by examining the extent to which greater concordance of adolescent monozygotic compared to dizygotic twins results from social, as well as genetic, influences. Bivariate comparisons indicate that monozygotic twins show greater similarity than dizygotic twins in socially-based characteristics including physical attractiveness, time spent in each other's company, the overlap in friendship networks, and friends' use of alcohol. Multivariate analyses indicate that measures of the social environment sometimes reduce or eliminate apparent genetic effects. In comparison with genetic indicators, social variables are usually stronger predictors of depression and alcohol use and abuse. These findings suggest that past twin studies could overstate the strength of genetic influences because some similarities in behavior among monozygotic compared to dizygotic twins stem from social influences.     

Stalking and psychological abuse: common factors and relationship-specific characteristics

The purpose of this study was to refine and elaborate models of personality and relationship-specific characteristics in the perpetration of stalking and psychological abuse. Three hundred and forty-two college students who had been in intimate relationships completed a series of questionnaires about their most recent breakup and their former relationship. Our hypotheses were supported, with harsh parental discipline, anxious attachment, and need for control of one's partner forming a common cluster in the prediction of stalking and psychological abuse. For psychological abuse, relationship dissatisfaction added to the predictive factors; whereas for stalking, the level of anger-jealousy over the breakup was the major added factor. Degree of anger-jealousy was influenced by being the recipient of a breakup and the level of passion.     

Communitas/Corporatas Tensions in Organizational Rhetoric: Finding a Balance in Sports Public Relations

Sports public relations always serves two masters—both corporatas and communitas. In this article, a close textual analysis of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA's) Stay in Bounds community relations program reveals that the NCAA is both a defender of amateur, communitas values, and a participant in professionalized, corporatas organizational rhetoric. This article offers a typology of the specific competing commitments of communitas and corporatas in sports rhetoric and argues that all sports rhetoric, from little league to big league, must negotiate with publics a balance between these extremes.     

Higher Education's Role in the Dialogue on Race

The university is a logical locus for discussionof the role race has played in our society. Perhaps noAmerican institution is more committed to free andopen dialogue than the university. Higher educationcan thus provide a context for the recognition ofissues as well as a forum for the resolution ofinitiatives. To date, however, university attempts atdiversity training have often imbued recipients withself-consciousness, usurping the unity implicit in theword `university' and evoking an even greater tendencytoward separatism. The university's traditional questfor truth has been subverted by a subtle and pervasivesense that some views are more correct than others,that openness is dangerous, and that some issues mighteven be taboo. At best, such an approach to diversityleads to a fragile stalemate among self-containedenclaves. By championing President Clinton's call fora dialogue on race, the university can restore itselfas an institution that puts honesty above all else.Not only is there a resonant rationale for theuniversity's central responsibility in this debate,but there is also a pedagogical means by which itsrole can be realized. This paper proposes a model forethnic dialogue relevant to either a text-based orissues-based class. Borrowing from pedagogy developedin professional schools, we believe that the tenets ofthe `case method' can create a climate conducive tothe substantive scrutiny of race, ethnicity, andprejudice in general. We argue that this dialogueshould not be a mere add-on to college life, butintegrated into existing curricula in the socialsciences, literature, and history. Heated debate canthen occur without anger, and race/ethnicity can bediscussed without fear of recrimination.Paradoxically, the very expression of ethnicity may bethe catalyst that eventually moves multiculturalismtoward interculturalism – where differences are nolonger articulated, measurable or even discernible.     

Sex differences in occupational skill: Canada, 1961–1986

Cet étude, basée sur les données du recensement canadien, examine la ségrégation occupationelle et les différences dues au genre dans la distribution d'habileté professionnelle entre les annees 1961 et 1986. L'apprentissage à long terme à de niveaux supérieurs d'habileté professionnelle caractérise autant le marché du travail féminin que masculin. Cependant, la magnitude de cet apprentissage est plus grande pour les femmes que pour les hommes, notamment entre les années 1981 et 1986 lorsque la distribution des habiletés professionnelles des hommes à changés très peu. En dépit de la direction de ces changements, il est peu probable que les femmes se retrouvent dans les occupations à niveaux supérieurs d'habileté comparé aux hommes. La main d'oeuvre féminine se retrouve done aux niveaux moyens d'habileté professionnelle comparéà la main d'oeuvre masculine, et ceci est en grande partie attribuéà la concentration féminine dans les occupations de bureau inférieures. Quand la comparaison entre les femmes et les hommes se limite à l'intérieur des niveaux de travail comme le travail de bureau, le travail ouvrier et le travail dans les secteurs de service, la tendance de retrouver les femmes dans les niveaux inferieurs d'habileté professionnelle devient plus prononcée. Using Canadian census data, this study examines occupational segregation and sex differences in the distribution of skill between 1961–1986. Skill upgrading over time characterizes both the female and male labour force. However, the magnitude of skill upgrading is larger for women than men, particularly between 1981 and 1986 when the skill distributions of men change very little. Despite these upgrading trends, women are less likely to be in higher skilled occupations than are men. Instead, the female labour force more than the male labour force is found in the middle levels of skill, largely as the result of their concentration in lower white collar occupations. When comparisons are made within white collar, blue collar and service sectors, the employment of women in less skilled occupations becomes far more evident.     

Georg Simmel and Erving Goffman: Legitimators of the Sociological Investigation of Human Experience

By originating and developing the sociological investigation of human experience, Georg Simmel and Erving Goffman have shifted social phenomena at the edge of awareness to the center of attention, and have legitimated their study for contemporary sociologists. Both Simmel and Goffman describe these subtle social phenomena by distinguishing their perceptual boundaries and crossover elements, pointing out their common features when their statuses differ, and reversing their traditional location in means-end and cause-effect chains. But Durkheim's influence on Goffman's basic conceptions of interaction, individual, and society differentiated his interpretation of these social phenomena from Simmel's. Moreover, Simmel's and Goffman's explanations of these social phenomena evolve in different directions, revealing the antithetical goals toward which spiritual transcendental Simmelians and cynical reductive Goffmanians would lead sociology.     

Studying categorical data over time

A review of recently developed simple techniques for analyzing data in the form of proportions from replicated, cross-sectional, sample surveys. (A) One variable over time—tests for homogeneity, pooling homogeneous proportions, tests for linear trends with as few as three time points, tests for departures from linearity; (B) Two variables with a constant percentage difference—four fold tables as rudimentary causal models, decomposing change with linear flow graphs; (C) Extension of the flow graph techniques to—three or more variables and changing coefficients; (D) Comments implying panel designs are somewhat over-rated and successive cross-sections somewhat under-rated.     

Assessing the influence of regional Environmental Protection Agency offices on state hazardous waste enforcement decisions

In assessing the influence of regional Environmental Protection Agency EPA offices on the state management of hazardous waste programs, we focused on the extent to which federal administrative decisions affect levels of enforcement activity by state environmental agencies and whether these effects vary over time. Our results indicated that state enforcement actions were affected by state program capacity variables such as primacy and the strength of existing hazardous waste policies as well as one federal-level factor—the distribution of grant monies. The impact of federal oversight decisions was minimal.