Rationalizable solutions to pure population problems

In pure population problems, a single resource is to be distributed equally among the agents in a society, and the social planner chooses population size(s) and per-capita consumption(s) for each resource constraint and set of feasible population sizes within the domain of the solution. This paper shows that a weak condition regarding the possible choice of a zero population is necessary and sufficient for the rationalizability of a solution by a welfarist social ordering. In addition, solutions that are rationalized by critical-level generalized utilitarianism are characterized by means of a homogeneity property. Received: 1 December 1997/Accepted: 26 February 1998     

A Test of Symbolic Interactionist Predictions About Emotions in Imagined Situations

From the perspective of symbolic interactionism, inner experiences—including emotions—are shaped culturally as individuals formulate events in words, and individual experiences are shaped socially as others contribute to the verbal formulation of one's experiences. Understanding cultural shaping and social negotiation of emotions requires understanding how emotion attributions arise from linguistic framings of events, and Affect Control Theory (ACT) offers a model of emotions that addresses this issue. We report tests of ACT predictions of emotions in 128 events against self-reported emotions of respondents imagining themselves in such situations. ACT predictions are found to correlate with self-reported emotions. Thus, empirical results validate ACT's postulate that emotions emerge from the personal impression that is generated in an event, along with the difference between that impression and the person's identity. In the conclusion, we discuss how the ACT formulation can enlighten interpretations of social negotiations regarding emotions.     

On explanation Aristotelean and Hempelean

Given the great historical distance between scientific explanation as Aristotle and Hempel saw it, some important similarities and differences between the two approaches are examined and appraised, especially the inclination to take deduction itself as the very model of scientific knowledge: an inclination we have good reasons to reject.     

A Match Made in Heaven? Career Development Theories and the School-to-Work Transition

This article discusses the major contributions (Krumboltz & Worthington, 1999; Lent, Hackett, & Brown, 1999; Savickas, 1999; Swanson & Fouad, 1999) to this special issue of The Career Development Quarterly on the application of career development theories to the school-to-work transition. Common thematic elements in these 4 articles include a focus on the individual who faces the transition from high school to work and an emphasis on the developmental aspects of the transition. The article concludes with a cautionary recommendation that theory-building efforts derived from the individual experiences of work-bound youth ought to be included in theoretical and intervention initiatives to facilitate the school-to-work transition.     

Segregation and Mortality: The Deadly Effects of Racism?

Elevated rates of mortality for African Americans compared to whites, coupled with the persistence of high levels of racial residential segregation, have directed attention to the structural manifestations of racism as potentially important pathogens for health. Using national mortality and census data for 1990 and a measure of black social isolation from whites, we examine the association between residential segregation and mortality in 107 major U.S. cities. Our analyses revealed that black social isolation tended to predict higher rates of mortality for African American males and females, although the strength of the association varied by cause of death. Socioeconomic deprivation explained a modest part of this association for black males but not for black females. Our analyses also found that a positive association between social isolation and mortality was more pronounced, for both blacks and whites, in cities that were also high on the index of dissimilarity. These findings highlight the need for research to identify the specific mechanisms and processes that link residential environments to adverse changes in health status.     

Forward and backward, horizontal and vertical: Transformation of occupational credentialing in the schooled society

Underdeveloped theory about educational credentialing flies in the face of the immense practice of educational degree attainment by ever increasing proportions of each new generation, and the ensuing pervasive belief in the power of degrees to both allocate individuals in the labor market and to serve as job requirements throughout the occupational structure. Considering educational credentialing at the center of the educational revolution in postindustrial society, a new theoretical argument is developed from the premise that education as an institution provides the logic by which educational credentialing becomes evermore legitimate, more so than from forces outside the institution itself such as the economy and labor market demand. In support of the proposed theory of credentialing, multiple sets of new findings about education, occupations, and work show that the common negative notion of run-away educational credentialism does not fit empirical trends. Second, as a function of widely held beliefs about education in postindustrial society, four institutional processes by which educational credentialing has deeply integrated into the occupational structure are described and illustrated with empirical observations and analyses. Lastly, consequences of the rapid and robust educational transformation of occupational credentialing for future sociological inquiry into social stratification and mobility are discussed.