On the structuralist constraints in social scientific theorizing

Several case studies and theoretical reports indicate that the structuralist concept of a constraint has a central role in the reconstruction of physical theories. It is surprising that there is only little theoretical discussion on the relevance of constraints for the reconstruction of social scientific theories in the literature. Almost all structuralist reconstructions of social theorizing are vacuously constrained. Consequently, constraints are methodologically irrelevant.In this paper I reconstruct three cases selected from social scientific theorizing. The first case is a generalization of Gross, Mason and McEachern's (1958) role expectation conflict theory, which is a qualitative theory. The second case is Cohen and Lee's (1975) quantitative theory of social conformity, which essentially utilizes the theor of Markov chains. The third case is the explanation schema of folk psychology which is one of the most important methodological frameworks in the social sciences.In all the three cases important constraints emerge. From an epistemological point of view it seems that the related constraints work as higher-order laws. In any case, purely conceptual arguments are insufficient to justify them.The three cases,mutatis mutandis, cover nearly all types of social scientific theorizing, so that in my view constraints play a crucial methodological role in the social sciences precisely as they have in the natural sciences.     

Hustinx,Lesley, Von Essen,Johan, Haers,Jacques, Mels,Sara (eds.): Religion and Volunteering: Complex,Contested and Ambiguous Relationships

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

A dual-processing view of three cognitive strategies in strategic decision making: Intuition,analytic reasoning,and reframing

In making strategic decisions, managers implicitly or explicitly come to choose a cognitive strategy, by which we refer to the choices made as regards what type of information processing to engage in and rely on as the basis for a decision. Dual-processing theories of cognition recognize two types of information processing: non-conscious and conscious. There are two cognitive strategies—relying on intuition and engaging in analytic reasoning—that have a straightforward connection to the two types of information processing. However, managers often engage in reframing, that is, they deliberately attempt to rethink the background assumptions concerning how one approaches a decision-making situation. Despite the strategic importance of reframing, the foundations of this cognitive strategy remain theoretically underdeveloped. We argue that reframing involves both Type 1 and Type 2 processing in a complementary fashion. Specifically, reframing can be induced through conscious reflection and non-conscious processing during an incubation period. Furthermore, we argue that while reframing is a robust cognitive strategy across varying levels of environmental dynamism, dedicating time to reframing incurs significant opportunity costs, and can thus be employed only sparingly.     

Risk factors of severity of abuse against older women in the home setting: A multinational European study

ABSTRACT

This article examines the ecological risk factors of abuse against older women. Data from 2,880 older women were randomly collected in five European countries (Austria, Belgium, Finland, Lithuania, and Portugal) using a standardized questionnaire. Results indicate that overall 30.1 % older women had at least one experience of abuse in the past year. The findings demonstrate that a single emphasis on personal risk factors (e.g., health, coping) is important but too simple: Abuse is multifaceted and is embedded in environmental (e.g., loneliness, household income) as well as macrocultural contexts (e.g., old age dependency ratio).     

Optimal designs in random coefficient cubic regression models

In this article we investigate the problem of ascertaining A- and D-optimal designs in a cubic regression model with random coefficients. Our interest lies in estimation of all the parameters or in only those except the intercept term. Assuming the variance ratios to be known, we tabulate D-optimal designs for various combinations of the variance ratios. A-optimality does not pose any new problem in the random coefficients situation.     

Book Review: Peter Dobkin Hall,Inventing the Nonprofit Sector and Other Essays on Philanthropy,Voluntarism and Nonprofit Organizations,The Johns Hopkins University Press,Baltimore and London, 2002, 349 pp., endnotes, $16.95

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Book Review: Civil Society: The Critical History of an Idea,by John Ehrenberg. New York University Press,New York and London, 1999

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Conceptual correlation: An example of two social psychological theories

In the present paper Cohen's and Lee's theory of social conformity and Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance are first reconstructed according to a revised form of the so-called structuralist theory-conception developed by Sneed and Stegmüller with their collaborators. Then the two theories are conceptually correlated in the sense of a technical notion of conceptual correlation which can be shown to be an essential generalization of the theory-relations handled by the structuralists.It will turn out that there is no unique way to connect these theories with each other. However, it is shown that two ontologically and conceptually different theories can be correlated. This in turn gives in principle an opportunity to compare critically these two theories given that the constructed conceptual correlation is sufficiently sound and that the theories are empirically testable to a sufficient extent.     

Continuing Validity of the Collective Behavior Approach

This study evaluates the collective behavior (CB) approach that dominated studies of social movements from the 1920s to the 1970s. Its roots lie in five scholarly traditions: Durkheim (collective consciousness), Mill (a sum of individual cost‐benefit calculations), Weber (charisma and bureaucracy), Simmel (interaction of individuals), and European mass psychology. CB studies began in Chicago University in the 1920s by Robert E. Park. His pupil Herbert Blumer made the basic classifications in the field. In the interactionist school, Ralph Turner and Lewis Killian stressed the emerging norms that modify CB, and Kurt and Gladys Engel Lang focused on collective processes. In the structure‐functionalistic school, Talcott Parsons stressed the impact of cultural trends in movement emergence, and Neil Smelser developed a value‐added theory of how social movements form. CB tradition was attacked in the 1960s when its theories did not fit into the student movement and there was a paradigm shift to resource mobilization and Marxist approaches. However, with the rise of constructivism, the ideas of CB have been reinvented in new social movement studies.