Evocative and Repertoire-Altering Effects of an Environmental Event

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - The behavioral effects of environmental events can be classified as evocative when we refer to an immediate but momentary change in behavior, and as...     

Talcott Parsons and national socialism: The case of the “ten mysterious missing letters”

This essay is a response to questions raised by my review of a book by Uta Gerhardt called Talcott Parsons on National Socialism.In short, I found many issues unresolved in the Cold War years from 1946 to 1954 at Harvard University, especially the role of Talcott Parons and Clyde Kluckhohn in allegedly bringing Nazi collaborators to the United States. I have tried to address these controversial issues in this response.     

Political instrumentality perceptions and desires for union representation

This paper examines the concept of union instrumentality in light of theoretical literature and contemporary trends in union political activity. A broad concept of union instrumentality, including a place for the concept of union political instrumentality (e.g., union influence on general elections or legislation), is suggested. The practical importance and applicability of the political instrumentality concept is demonstrated in empirical models of nonunion worker voting intent in union representation elections. As predicted, workers perceiving higher levels of union political instrumentality are significantly more likely than others to indicate a pro-union voting intent. Given the importance of political versus economic activity as a defining characteristic of labor movements and given recent increases in political activity by U.S. unions, these results have significant implications for the way we think about U.S. unions and for future union organizing and political activities. The author wishes to acknowledge helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper from Mario F. Boganno, Frederic C. Champlin III, William N. Cooke, James A. Craft, John T. Delaney, Richard B. Freeman, Daniel G. Gallagher, Cynthia L. Gramm, Charles R. Greer, Wallace E. Hendricks, Marick F. Masters, Lee P. Stepina, and William A. Wines. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association, New York, NY, December 1985.     

The relationship between socioeconomic status and infant mortality in a metropolitan aggregate, 1989–1991

This paper presents the results of an ecological analysis of the relationship between infant mortality and economic status in a metropolitan aggregate comprised of seven of the larger cities in Ohio during the three years centering on the 1990 census. Using a summary income score derived for the census tract of mother's usual residence, the census tracts in the seven metropolitan centers were divided into broad income groupings and three-year average infant mortality rates were computed for each area, by age, sex, race, and selected causes of death. The most important conclusion to be drawn from the data is that in spite of some remarkable declines in overall levels of infant mortality during the past few decades, there continues to be a very clear and pronounced inverse association between income status and infant mortality. The general inverse association is observed for both sexes, for whites and nonwhites, and for all major causes of infant death. At the same time, the data reveal notable differences in the magnitude of the relationship by sex, and especially by age at death, race, and cause of death. Explanations of these differences are suggested, and a conclusion notes some of the difficulties encountered in developing programs aimed at closing the infant mortality gap between the richest and poorest segments of the society.This is an expanded version of a paper presented at the annual meetings of the Eastern Sociological Society in Baltimore, Maryland (March 17–20, 1994).     

Occupational Prestige in Canada*

L'article fournit les premiers résultats d'une tentative faite pour répéter au Canada une étude américaine sur le prestige professionnel. On y discute d'abord de la méthodologie utilisée et des moyens disponibles pour la poursuite d'enquêtes sociales au Canada. On y présente ensuite les valeurs attributes, quant au prestige ciiacun à 204 emplois dans l'ensemble de l'echantillon eanadien et, séparément, les résultats à partir des interviews obtenues en anglais et en français. On obtient un coefficient de corrélation très élevé entre les résuitats de cette recherche et, d'une part, l'étude récente faite aux U.S.A., puis, d'autre part, des recherches antérieures au pays. Les Canadiens attribuent un prestige plus élevé que les Américains à la plupart des emplois. Les évaluations des francophones diffèrent quelque peu cependant, ceci étant sans doute dú en partie à la traduction des vocables professionnels. Les fiancophones contribuent moins que les anglophones, par ailleurs, aux évaluations extrêmes. Les données recueillies permettent de se demander si le recensement canadien fait une classification des emplois qui soit adéquate pour être utilisée comme indice de statut socio-économique. II appert qu'une classification des occupations qui proviendrait de recherches sociologiques serait plus adequate dans ce but.     

Intraindustry division of labor: The states of Mexico

Measures of occupational differentiation in each of eight industries vary markedly among the states of Mexico, a finding that is construed as evidence of territorial divergence in economic development. The relation among states between the relative size of an industry and the amount of occupational differentiation is direct for some industries but inverse for others. The interpretation is that industry size and intraindustry division of labor are directly related only to the extent that the labor force is concentrated territorially. Findings for the states of Mexico 1950 and 1960 are consistent with the interpretation.