Charles Y. Glock

Religious Loyalty, Defection, and Experimentation Among College Youth*

Recent data from polls suggest a trend away from conventional religion among college youth and impressionistic evidence indicates some stirrings of new forms of religion. A survey of Berkeley students provides an opportunity to examine the nature and sources of religious loyalty, defection and experimentation. The analysis shows that religious experimentation is not an isolated phenomenon but is rooted in broader cultural disaffection and is closely associated with other kinds of countercultural behavior. Among the sources of religious defection examined, cognitive sophistication and several types of psychological stress seem to be the most significant factors. Considerable interest has been generated of late by the so-called counterculture among youth. Growing up amidst unprecedented abundance, young people have had the opportunity to experiment with new life styles as never before. At the present time it is possible to find significant numbers of young people committed to radical political life styles, introspective life styles informed by Eastern religions, communal life styles experimenting with alternative social arrangements, as well as a wide range of other nonconventional behavior. But, even though the current youth culture has generated a flurry of investigation, surprisingly little attention has been directed toward its religious dimension. This omission is particularly unfortunate since many youth seem to be raising questions about universal life problems in ways which challenge the authority of conventional religious commitments. The extent of this challenge can be seen both in

Studies in hypertension

Abstract This paper has dealt with the role of psychologic factors in hypertension. The discussion considers what associations between psychologic factors and hypertension have been postulated and then considers the manner of their association. 1. a. It is suggested that hypotheses as to the association between psychologic factors and hypertension can be placed into three classifications: those emphasizing the whole configuration of characteristics making up the so-called hypertensive personality; those considering specific psychologic conflicts as the unit of psychologic description; and those dealing with conditions of psychologic stress. 2. b. Reseach bearing on each of these general hypotheses has been described and evaluated from a methodologic standpoint. 3. c. Five different approaches to the manner in which psychologic factors are thought to be associated with hypertension have been discussed. These are: 1. 1. The sequences involved are not considered explicitly in the formulation of the hypotheses. 2. 2. The psychologic factors precede and are responsible for the pyschologic mechanisms which culminate in the development of hypertension. 3. 3. The initial conditions are provided by genetic factors with the subsequent introduction of specified psychologic conditions precipitating physiologic mechanisms culminating in the development of hypertension. 4. 4. Particular environmental factors are prerequisite to the experience of psychologic conditions which in turn are followed by physiologic mechanisms culminating in hypertension. 5. 5. Physiologic factors are primary. The hypertensive disorder as well as associated psychologic conditions are secondary results of the initial presence of specified physiologic factors. From this appraisal of the literature, it seems plain that there is a sufficient basis for the proposition that psychologic factors play some role in the onset or dev elopment of hypertension to warrant its further exploration. The question is how this can be accomplished most effectively. Undoubtedly, a variety approaches are feasible and worth trying. Among these it would appear that a long-term, epidemiologic study of hypertension could make a significant contribution in this regard. It seems clear that one of the primary weaknesses of current research in this area is that it fails to take the factor of time into account. A long-term study would seem to provide a means for coming to understand the temporal element in the various relationships of psychologic factors to hypertension which have been postulated. In addition, since such a study would involved observations of nonhypertensive as well as hypertensive individuals, the appropriate controls could be incorporated in its design. It is evident, however, that formidable difficulties of definition and measurement remain to be solved before a study of psychologic factors can be fruitfully explored in a long-term study of hypertension. Research instruments applicable to field conditions which would allow the classification of subjects along variety of psychologic dimensions are simply not available. Experimental studies of a complex kind, therefore, seem a prerequisite to the development of the kind of research instruments which would be required to make feasible the testing of the extant hypothesis on the psychologic component in hypertension in a long-term field study of the disorder.

Studies in hypertension: VI. Differences in the distribution of hypertension in negroes and whites: An appraisal☆

This paper has examined the evidence on differences in the racial distribution of hypertension in Negroes and whites and appraises the hypotheses offered to explain the differences found. 1. a. Despite variations in definition, in procedure, and in sample selection, all studies examined support the conclusion that Negroes in the United States more often have essential hypertension, hypertensive heart disease, hypertensive cardiovascular diseases, or related disorders, than whites. 2. b. The mortality of Negro males and females from hypertension, with or without mention of heart disease, is higher than that of white males and females for every are group between 20 and 48. Between the ages of 30 and 55, the Negro mortality is from five to nine times as high as the white mortality. 3. c. Four hypotheses offered to explain the radical differences are described and evaluated. THese hypotheses were labeled: the genetic hypothesis, the physical exertion hypothesis, the psychosomatic hypothesis, and the associated disorder hypothesis. It can be said that the evidence presented on the occurence and mortality from hypertension among Negroes and whites is generally consistent with all of the major hypotheses which have been advanced. While relating the evidence to the hypotheses does not confirm them, neither does it refute them. Rather, it encourages further study utilizing the observed Negro-white differences as a point of departure. It is clear, first of all, that field research is n eeded to complement laboratory and clinical studies. There is a need for research on representative samples of the population and for research which collects data on nonhypertensives as well as well as on hypertensive subjects. The former is necessary to permit generalizing the findings of research; the latter to make it possible to isolate those characteristics which are unique to the hypertensive. Second, it would seem desirable in formulating research designs to consider ways of testing the interrelationship between sets of hypotheses rather than to focus research on the testing of a single hypothesis. In the present case, for example, any study of the hereditary factor in hypertension should consider at the same time the contribution of social and psychologic factors to the disorder. It is unlikely that either hypothesis can b e confirmed or refused if studied in isolation. Third, investigators should take into account the slow development and chronic character of hypertension and consider the need to establish the temporal factor in any relationship that are discovered. Knowledge, for example, that hypertensive individuals are likely to experience unique psychologic difficulties and, in turn, that Negroes are more likely to have these difficulties than whites is incomplete knowledge. The temporal sequence between the two must also be ascertained. The hypotheses presented in this review are among those to be tested in a long-term study of hypertension, which is outlined in the first of this series of papers.24 Research of this kind which envisions observing a large representaive sample of individuals over a period of time would provide, it is believed, a suitable frame for further study of the N e gro-white differences discussed above. It would require, to be sure, an oversampling of Negroes to make for valid Negro-white comparisons. However, it would provide for the simultaneous testing. of the hypotheses offered to explain these differences. Thus, to test the genetic hypothesis, arrangements could be made to include several generations of the same family in the sample. Regular and systematic observations could be made to measure the amount of physical exertion expanded by each subject. Batteries of psychologic tests could be administered to the subjects, and indices of the social conditions under which they live could be readily obtained. Periotic medical examinations of the sample would provide the kind of data necessary to test the associated disorder hypothesis. Finally, a long-term study could make a significant contribution to the further specification and definition of what hypertension is and what it involves.

Images of "God," Images of Man, and the Organization of Social Life

Since the world began, man has contrived a great variety of forms of social organization. There have been hunting and fishing societies, caste and feudal societies, capitalist and socialist societies, communal societies and communistic ones. Some forms of social organization have flowered briefly only to die. Others have survived over extensive periods of time, sometimes in substantially their original form and other times in drastically modified form. No form of social organization of the past has proven immortal and no present form, it is suspected, will prove so either. The origin and evolution of forms of social organization has been given, in one way and another, a lot of attention by sociologists. It was a major theme in the now classic literature of sociology and almost every major figure of the past-Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Pareto, Sombart, Comte-touched on it to a large degree. And, of course, questions pertaining to social organization are perhaps the major ones being addressed by contemporary social theorists. But despite all of the work which has been done, we seem to be still missing at the conceptual level an agreed upon way to order forms of social organization, and at the theoretical level an agreed upon accounting of the conditions governing the life cycle of old and giving rise to new forms of social organization. Indeed, not only are we missing a satisfactory general theory but we experience considerable difficulty in gaining consensus around explanations of the origin of particular forms of social organization; witness e.g. the continuing debate about the sources of Western capitalism. This paper has no pretensions of trying to provide any comprehensive answer to major outstanding questions about the birth and life cycle of social organizations. It is concerned, however, to advance a perspective from which such questions might be freshly addressed. At this juncture, the perspective is presented on highly speculative grounds. The intent is to see whether these speculations strike a sufficiently responsive chord to warrant further effort to build upon, to extend, and eventually to subject them to empirical test.

Studies in hypertension. III. Analysis of individual blood pressure changes.

The results of a questionnaire on conditions of blood pressure measurement, 5ent out prior to the reported study, revealed wide diversity of opinion as to the most satisfactory conditions for blood pressure measurement. This is an analysis of individual blood pressure changes over a period of 312 weeks measured daily at the same hour among 21 subjects observed at 5-minute intervals during a 25-minute period of rest. Fifteen subjects were examined three times on one or more days (9 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.). Although a few of the subjects in the study had occasional readings above 90 mm. diastolic or 140 mm. systolic, none had sustained pressures above these levels. Among the 383 sessions, the initial casual diastolic reading (within 4 mm.) was the lowest in two-thirds of the sessions. There was little change in readings after 15 minutes of rest. In comparing the observations extending over 312 weeks, it was found that the majority of the subjects had reached both their lowest and highest levels within the first five days. Although there was some tendency for midday readings to be lower than the other, this pattern was not consistent.

10. Political Sociology at the Bureau of Applied Social Research

experimental study designs by Hovland and others, the sharpening of interviewing techniques by Likert, Lazarsfeld, Berelson, Hart, Campbell, and others, the self-supporting public opinion research done by Gallup, Roper, Crossley, and others, but some researchers in the field have lost sight of the great wealth of material already at hand which can be exploited by statistical methods which were developed a hundred years ago. They neglect this material and spend the foundations’ millions in gathering new data to prove things which we already know. Al de Grazia in his The Western Public did not make this mistake. He combined the survey technique with the analysis of available data. Lubell is right, in one sense, when he pokes fun at the elaborate techniques and rituals which public opinion research now uses. Lubell looks at the record, at available election statistics, and he talks to individuals. He is not separated from his public by interviewers, coders, tabulating machines, and analyzers. Now do not mistake me. I believe in the modern techniques, but as