Does interracial/interethnic propinquity breed hostility or harmony? Group threat and contact theories generally answer hostility and harmony, respectively. The author proposes that a historically and culturally rooted racial/ethnic hierarchy differentially shapes whites' present-day threat of, contact with, and ultimately, prejudice towards…

Contrary to social control theory, adolescent boys' belief in the efficacy of honesty had little impact on minor deviant activities, whereas deviance had a large effect on beliefs. A situational theory of crime is needed to conceptualize the reciprocal causal relationship of beliefs and deviant behavior. Contains 60 references. (SV)

Research into immigration has for many years focused most of its attention on the issue of how immigrants adapt to host societies. This tendency is especially true in the work of sociologists. Yet if we acknowledge the growing ethnic diversity today in the United States and elsewhere, the most interesting questions arise as to how immigrants…

Wilson's deindustrialization thesis has been the focus of much recent research. This study is the first to empirically test his thesis as it relates to suicide among young black males, which has increased dramatically over the past two decades. Using 1998-2001 Mortality Multiple Cause-of-Death Records and 2000 census data, we examine the influence…

This study tested three types of theories of gender inequality in preindustrial societies by using half the societies in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample: militarist, Marxian, and non-Marxian materialist theories. The first phase of the research used simple cross-tabulations with chi-square as a test of significance and gamma as a measure of…

Groups often confer high prestige on individuals even when few members of the group ever interact with those individuals. To account for this phenomenon, I present a multilevel simulation model of a group's selection of its top-ranked member. In the model, the mechanism for social agreement on a top person is aggregation of group members' private…

Using national longitudinal data on 10,860 adolescents, a comparative analysis of community contextual effects on delinquency examined variables derived from three theories. Youths in areas of high male joblessness who experienced stressful life events or little parental supervision were especially likely to be involved in delinquency. The…

Finds that absolute and relative probabilities of employment for young Black central-city males is negatively related to the city's proportion of Blacks below 50 percent, and positively related above 50 percent. Uses 1980 census data on 17-20-year-old central-city males. Discusses related social theories. Contains 39 references. (SV)

The study of group processes has benefited from longstanding programs of theory-driven research on status and power. The present work constructs a bridge between two formal theories of status and power: Status Characteristics Theory and Network Exchange Theory. Two theoretical models, one for "status value" and one for "status influence,"…

We propose a theory which predicts that an increase in an actor's relative power reduces the actor's rewards in high mutual dependence dyads. Our argument is based on the premise that higher relative power gives the more powerful actor a greater share of surplus, but it also reduces dyadic exchange frequency, which lowers the expected magnitude of…

Using structural equation technique to replicate results of Hasenfeld and Rafferty's causal model predicting public attitudes toward welfare state programs with the social ideologies of work ethic and social rights. By incorporating estimates of measurement error, results failed to support the authors' original conclusions. Operationalizing key…

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)

A division of labor is mediated by exchange of valued goods and services. We use social exchange theory to extend this principal to "labors of love." Sexual activity in a close personal relationship seems outside the domain of bargaining and exchange. Nevertheless, we explore the possibility that this most intimate of human relations is influenced…

Inherent to all social exchange relations are elements of both cooperation and competition. We develop and test a theoretical model which proposes that the relative salience of the competitive, conflictual elements of exchange mediate and explain the negative effects of negotiated exchange, as compared with reciprocal exchange, on actors'…

Using a 1995 national survey of 2,870 Chinese private entrepreneurs, this article examines collaboration between private business and government in times of economic transition. Much as in the late 18th century situation in France as described by Tocqueville, special moments occur when a newly emerging business class offers monetary payments for…