Leo C. Rigsby

Adolescent peer influence processes: Conceptualization and measurement☆

Starting from the theoretical literature on interpersonal influence, this paper raises questions regarding what measurement strategies can be usefully employed to assess the import of peer influence processes on scholastic behavior of high school students. Distinction is made between peer influences and those of normative climates of schools. Using several alternative measures of peer influences, it is shown that ones substantive conclusions about the impact of peer influences on scholastic performance and about the relationships between peer influences and normative climates of schools are very much dependent on what measure of peer influence one employs.

The Impact of Race on Housing Markets: A Critical Review

The literature on race and property values is reviewed with special attention to problems of conceptualization, measurement, and analysis. Strategies in gathering and validating selling price data are reviewed, as are strategies in standardizing prices for “real value” in order to provide a benchmark against which to assess price changes. Other major issues raised are strategies for the statistical control of the influences of other housing market forces and the conceptualization of the processes involved in creating putative effects of neighborhood racial integration on housing prices. Some suggestions for future sociological research on neighborhood residential change are made.