Kent McClelland

Honoring accounts for sexual harassment : a factorial survey analysis

This study analyzes a factorial survey, incorporating vignettes about student-to-student sexual harassment, completed by undergraduates at a small liberal arts college. As in previous studies, perceived seriousness levels for such incidents are shown to depend primarily on the perpetrators behavior. However, perceived seriousness also depends strongly on the accounts offered by the perpetrator for his behavior and to a lesser extent on verbal reactions of the female victim. Furthermore, some types of accounts reduce the perceived seriousness of the behavior, while others increase it. Male and female respondents differ in their overall means, but do not differ significantly in the factors that influence perceived seriousness. Some implications of these results for the study of sexual harassment and of accounts are noted.

Earning the model‐minority image: Diverse strategies of economic adaptation by Asian‐American women

Abstract Using the 1980 US Population Census data, this article documents the diverse strategies of economic adaptation adopted by a group of working‐age immigrant women: Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Indian and Vietnamese. A comparable sample of non‐Hispanic white women serves as the reference group. Striking heterogeneity in the individual and collective resources of these groups, together with differences in labour market opportunities and historical context of immigration, have led to a variety of patterns of labour force participation and methods of income attainment. In order to move beyond the oversimplified image of Asian‐Americans as a model minority in their economic success, the article applies four different theories to the census data ‐ assimilation, dual economy, ethnic‐enclave economy and middleman minority. The article closes with a discussion of theoretical implications and methodological suggestions for future studies concerning labour force position and economic adaptation of min...

Factor analysis applied to magnitude estimates of punishment Seriousness: Patterns of individual differences

This research makes use of factor analysis to locate important dimensions of individual differences in perceptions of legal punishments. A sample of 152 recently arrested persons provided magnitude estimates of the seriousness of several types and levels of punishment. A factor analysis of the data showed that the major dimensions of individual differentiation were in responses to (a) lengthy periods of imprisonment; (b) several punishments judged less serious, including short periods in jail or on probation; and (c) fines. Regressions of the factor scores on individual characteristics are reported, and the implications of the analysis for deterrence theory are discussed.

Perceptual Control and Social Power

This article explores a new psychological perspective on human behavior, a cybernetic approach called “perceptual control theory” (PCT). After detailing the PCT model, I demonstrate one application of PCT to sociological theory by applying this perspective to questions of power and interpersonal control. I argue that social power should be distinguished from interpersonal use of force, coercion, incentives, or influence. Rather, power derives from an alignment of goals by humans acting as independent control systems. The article closes with a discussion of connections between PCT and several strands of current sociological theory.

The collective control of perceptions: constructing order from conflict

This article offers a new perspective on sociological theory, based on psychological insights from Perceptual Control Theory. After describing this cybernetic model of goal-directed behavior and reviewing its empirical support, I present results from computer simulations applying the model to the social interactions of elementary control agents. My key finding is that agents controlling their own perceptions of a single environmental variable can stabilize it even when their intentions conflict. The concluding section discusses implications of this model of collective control processes for the sources of order, conflict, continuity, and change in social life.

Cycles of Conflict A Computational Modeling Alternative to Collins’s Theory of Conflict Escalation

In a new theory of conflict escalation, Randall Collins engages critical issues of violent conflict and presents a compellingly plausible theoretical description based on his extensive empirical research. He also sets a new challenge for sociology: explaining the time dynamics of social interaction. However, despite heavy reliance on the quantitative concept of positive feedback loops in his theory, Collins presents no mathematical specification of the dynamic relationships among his variables. This article seeks to fill that gap by offering a computational model that can parsimoniously account for many features of Collins’s theory. My model uses perceptual control theory to create an agent-based computational model of the time dynamics of conflict. With greater conceptual clarity and more wide-ranging generalizability, my alternative model opens the door to further advances in theory development by revealing dynamic aspects of conflict escalation not found in Collins’s model.

Understanding Collective Control Processes

Although sociologists often describe people and groups of people as having control over things, resources, or other people, the question of how control processes actually work has rarely been the focus of sociological attention. Theorists of criminology (e.g., Gottfredson and Hirshi 1990) and of organizations (e.g., Perrow 1986) have taken the concept of control as a central concern, but their analyses of the concept have been rudimentary at best. Similarly, social-class theorists in the Marxist tradition have often given the concept of control a prominent place, equating it with domination, without having seen the need for any close analysis of the concept. Wright (1979), for instance, defines social classes in terms of their control of economic surplus, with the “dominant class” (p. 15) exerting “control over money capital, … physical capital” and “supervision and discipline within the labor process” (p. 25). He contends, further, that members of the working class experience a corresponding “loss of control over the labor process” (p. 28). Wright then builds his theoretical exposition on these definitions without ever analyzing in any detail how such control processes work.

Introduction: Control Systems Thinking in Sociological Theory

Sociological control systems theories have emerged from the confluence of two of the major developments in twentieth century social and behavioral science: sociological theory and cybernetics. Over the past three decades, several groups of sociologists—working independently for the most part—have turned to cybernetic models, particularly negative-feedback models, in an effort to overcome the deficiencies in conceptual integration that have posed problems for sociological theory throughout its relatively brief history. This volume brings together for the first time examples of research and theory from all of the working groups of sociologists who have participated in this recent cybernetic turn.1 In this introduction, we will review the theoretical sources on which they have drawn, briefly describe the work of each of these research groups, and provide an overview of the chapters that follow.2