Evaluates the relative importance of educational, economic, and cultural factors in supporting the emergence and stability of democracy. Data from over 100 countries on long-term changes in democracy, 1965-80 and 1980-88, support an institutional perspective that emphasizes the impact of elite higher education (as opposed to mass education and…

Maintains that most students learn how sociologists study social stratification in introductory sociology courses. Presents a content analysis of 15 introductory college textbooks to determine whether they use distributional or relational approaches as the basis for their treatment of social class. Finds that depictions of class are…

Through the longitudinal study of families over two decades in Chiapas, Mexico, this chapter relates historical changes on the macro level to changes in human development and socialization on the micro level. (Author)

This article addresses themes of development among young teenagers. Children aged 12 and 13 were followed up on a regular basis. The girls' vivid accounts on negotiations and reorganisations in their joint, field of peers aroused interest in their developmental efforts. Consequently, the practices and discourses connected with the personal and…

This study identifies factors that influences reduced-fat milk consumption among 560 male students, ages 13-18 years, attending North Los Angeles County public high schools. Participants completed a group-administered Theory of Planned Behavior-based questionnaire. The majority of the participants, 94.8%, reported that they currently drank some…

An important unanswered question in the empirical literature on trust is whether trusting begets trustworthiness. In two experimental games, with Japanese and American participants, respectively, we compared trust and trustworthiness to provide an answer to this question. The trustee in the standard Trust Game knows that he or she is trusted,…

It is important to retain qualified teachers in any educational environment. This is especially true for teachers who work in a structured environment fraught with administrative, logistical, and political challenges. The principal is responsible for providing a supportive educational environment, which is necessary for an atmosphere where the…

Classical commitment studies are either sociologically oriented or based in the psychological empirical research tradition. A review of the literature reveals agreement on the multidimensionality and the contextual complexity of commitment, two principles which guide the hypotheses of the present study. This study uses the Administrator and…

This study reanalyzes data collected in 1977 from 95 Ohio school districts and develops a theory of dissatisfaction that may accurately predict school board elections. According to the theory, only when people are dissatisfied enough will they become politically active. Seven tables and 16 references are included. (WTH)

This book explores relationships among democracy, social capital, and community-based mediating structures, focusing on Appalachia because of the obvious failures of market capitalism there. It suggests that mediating structures protect communities from the savage side of market capitalism and promote the democratic prospect by increasing and…

Examined relief and distress as responses to the termination of marriage in a study of 205 individuals soon after their final separation. Results showed that relief is a frequent response to marital separation. Group differences in response were associated with the rewards and costs of ending a marriage. (JAC)

For 178 employees, perceptions of organizational politics were negatively related to manager assessments of employees' likelihood of staying. This association was true only for employees with moderate to strong exchange ideology (beliefs regarding workplace reciprocity). (Contains 45 references.) (SK)

Describes a social exchange experiment in which subjects (college students) with different assigned levels of reward power and punishment power exchanged rewards or punishments with each other or with computer-simulated actors through computer-mediated exchange networks. Contains 33 references. (SV)

Early theoretical work on social exchange focused on how exchange relations generate social structural outcomes. Specifically, gift giving was said to evoke status structures. No experimental evidence exists to verify or refute the notion that gift giving during exchange processes generates status hierarchies. We present experimental results…

This study proposes relationships between job satisfaction, affective commitment (organization, supervisor and workgroup), and exchange relations with supervisor, organization and workgroup members among extension personnel. Perceived self-esteem (SE) is hypothesized to moderate relations between the social exchange foci and the corresponding…