Ernest Q. Campbell

Structural Effects and Interpersonal Relationships

It is proposed that structural effects be analyzed with a two-step model that employs structural variables to predict the relevant characateristics of an indviduals social environment and then explains his behaviors in terms of a social-psychological theory whose predictions take these conditions of the social environment as given. Data on the educational aspirations of adolescents are consistent with this analytic approach: The average socioeconomic status of high schools is directly related to the college plans of students at each status level and, also, to the status of those they select as friends. However, the relationship between school status and college aspirations virtually disappears when the statuses of the individual and his friends are held constant.

Peer Influences on Adolescent Educational Aspirations and Attainments

The educational aspirations and attainments of 1,401 male seniors in 30 high schools were examined in terms of the aspirations and achievements of their sociometric choices. In support of hypothesized tendencies toward balance, we observed that a student at a given level of parental education is more likely to expect to attend college, to have a strong desire to go to college when he does expect to go, to want to go when he does not expect to go, and actually to get there when he expected to attend, if his best friend does rather than does not plan to go to college. When the student and his friend both plan to go, he is more likely to attend if his friend does. Each of these relationships is stronger when his friendship choice is rather than is not reciprocated. Finally, a student and his friend are more likely to attend the same college when (1) they initially agree on plans to attend a specific college, (2) if the friend does realize his plans when they initially agree, or (3) if he does not realize his plans when they initially disagree. Reciprocation has little effect on these latter relationships.

Balance Forces and Environmental Effects: Factors Influencing the Cohesiveness of Adolescent Drinking Groups

This paper analyzes factors affecting the internal structure of affective relationships in triads formed by adolescent male drinkers and abstainers. It is shown that the likelihood of a given sociometric relation can be predicted from knowledge of other relational bonds in the triad and from the degree of similarity with regard to alcohol use. The relations between two individuals are affected importantly by their own behaviors and also by their affective ties and behavioral similarities to others in the system. It is suggested that balance theory may be extended to explain the strength of balance forces within one system as a function of imbalance in another. With regard to obj ects of generalized importance and social relevance, pressures toward balance are hypothesized to increase in strength to the extent that one or more actors experience imbalance in other relational sets. Consistent with this hypothesis is the observation that lack of parental support is associated with closer ties between an individuals friends.