J. Sherwood Williams

Goodman and Kruskal's Tau b: Multiple and Partial Analogs

Using the logic developed by Goodman and Kruskal, multiple and partial analogs for their measure Tau are suggested. These measures may be of particular utility to survey researchers in situations where the Goodman and Kruskal lambda measures are either inappropriate or inapplicable. This measure has been shown to have a clear proportional reduction in error interpretation. These analogs should be useful and necessary for detailed causal and/or multiple analysis with nominal-level data.

Childlessness and Family Satisfaction

This study examines the effects of childlessness on family satisfaction among older persons. Respondents 65 years of age and older from four national surveys are selected for the analysis. The results indicate that childlessness has significant negative effects on family satisfaction, especially among those who are 70 years of age and older, and more so among older women than men. This effect is above and beyond sociodemographic characteristics and interaction patterns with relatives, neighbors, and friends. Implications of childlessness and roles of formal and informal support systems for the older persons are discussed.

The subculture of violence and ethnicity

Abstract Using data from the General Social Surveys, this article examines the subculture of violence thesis as it relates to three ethnic groups—blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians. The data suggest that blacks and American Indians have had more violence experiences (hitting and firearms) than have the general population. Contrary to what would be predicted from the thesis, the data indicate that blacks and Hispanics had lower tolerance of violence than the general population. Only American Indians, on all factors considered, appeared to support the thesis. Even this support, however, took on less significance when regression results were examined. Demographic and residential variables explained more of the variance in violence tolerance and experiences with violence than did ethnic background. These findings suggest that the influence of ethnicity on the subculture of violence is minor and indirect.

On the Social Law of Effect

Summary This paper suggests that exposure to task related stimuli prior to task interaction should result in greater discrimination in making task related decisions. This is explained in terms of a social version of the law of effect, and reflected in the value of the slope in a regression equation. Ss were college freshmen and sophomores enrolled in sociology classes. Ss formed a total of 40 dyads, controlled for sex. Twenty dyads (10 dyads of males and 10 of females) formed the experimental groups. The remaining 20 dyads (10 male and 10 female) formed the control group. Ss engaged in a simple task consisting of a word game which allowed the investigators to measure response and reinforcement rates. Results from the experiment were found to support the hypothesis at the .0001 level of significance. These results indicate that a social law of effect may be applied to relatively unstructured social situations, and that exposure to different types of environmental stimuli alters the slope of the regression ...

Marital disruption and physical illness: The impact of divorce and spouse death on illness

Most research focusing on life stresses and illness have focused on the history of stress on persons who present physicians with disease symptoms and have used ex-post-facto samples. These studies have tended to focus on specialized samples and, thus, screen out the potential effects of psychosocial factors. This study examines the relationship between two critical life stressors, divorce and spouse death, and physical illness in the general population. Data for this study were gathered from a national probability sample of noninstitutionalized adults in the continental United States. The influence of age, sex, education, and income on the relationship between the two life stressors and illness are examined. Statistically significant results were found between both life stressors and illness. Conditional analysis also yielded evidence that both divorce and spouse death were responded to differently depending on the respondent age, sex, income, and educational attainment. Among the findings, the significant increase of illness among younger persons who had experienced a divorce or the death of a spouse is considered most noteworthy.

Attitudes and behavioral intentions about abortion

This paper examines the extent to which there may be differences in attitudes toward abortion and intentions when one is faced with making an abortion decision for oneself. Data from a 1977 national survey were used. The results indicated that while such differences existed only on a limited scale in medically indicated situations of abortion, discretionary situations had a sizable proportion of respondents who would approve of abortion for others but would not opt for abortion themselves. The differences in attitudes and intentions were affected by sex, religious behaviors, ideological dimensions of fertility, sexual permissiveness, and freedom of expression.

Proactivity and Reinforcement: The Contingency of Social Behavior

The theoretical orientation underlying this study was suggested by Estes (1950) and Bush and Mosteller (1951). The behavior of a single organism may be described as follows: on any experimental trial, the organism first samples or selects from a set of stimuli available in his environment. Upon the basis of the sampled stimulus and its existing state of conditioning, the organism then responds to that stimulus. The organism’s response is then reinforced or punished in one of a variety of ways by environmental events which follow it. Finally, a change in the organism’s state of conditioning may occur on the basis of environmental reinforcing events. Gray (1971) has shown how this theoretical orientation may be generalized by conceiving of a group as the unit of

Norm Formation and Subsequent Divergence: Replication and Variation

Summary Twelve dyads of high-school-age Canadians were administered a dot-counting estimation task in six trials, each containing 50 judgments. The first, fourth, fifth, and sixth trials were individual response trials in which subjects were not aware of one anothers estimates; the second and third trials were group trials in which judgments were announced aloud. Convergence of judgments was observed between the first and third trial; divergence between the third and subsequent trials. Divergence did not produce disparities equal to those present at the first (baseline) trial. Similar results were obtained in a pretest involving American undergraduates tested in triads; these results were not as clear-cut, presumably owing to the smaller number of judgments per trial and resulting instability of the averages. These data lead us to conclude that some divergence is normal after a short-term norm-formation experiment. The question of when to call a behavioral uniformity a “norm” is one of usage, and usage i...

Abstinence from Alcohol: Some Implications for Epidemiology of Alcohol Problems

This study examines the utility of abstinence from alcohol use for epidemiological estimations of alcohol problems and characteristics of those who report total abstinence. The data are derived from a national probability sample of adults (18 years of age and older). The results indicate that proportionate abstinence at the regional level shows very strong negative relationships with estimated alcoholism rates and per capita alcohol consumption. Although all the attributes of respondents examined are found to be statistically significant, the three most significant predictors of abstinence are religious attendance, family income, and geographic region. The epidemiological implications for estimating alcohol problems from abstinence data are discussed.

Norm Formation or Conditioning ? A Study in Divergence

norms (e.g., DeFleur et al., 1971 ; Wilson, 1971; Newcomb et al., 1965). The Sherif model (1935, 1936, 1965), simply stated, suggests that interpersonal influence results in the formation of a group norm and this norm is in turn internalized by the individual group members. Although the textbooks would lead us to believe that the Sherif paradigm is widely accepted this is not the case. For example, those behavioral scientists who are concerned with work output