Robert Gramling

Adaptive familial strategies among merchant seamen

The study reported here examines those familial strategies that develop among merchant seamen families: replacement husband/father, conflict, contingent authority, and periodic guest. Data were gathered from interviews with 141 families over a 7-year period. Results indicate that merchant seamen families use a replacement husband/father strategy if male kin are available. When kin are not available these families eventually arrive at and remain in a periodic guest strategy. A discussion of family power as it relates to the development of specific strategies is also included.

Work Scheduling and Family Interaction A Theoretical Perspective

This article offers an expansion of the construction of reality paradigm as proposed by Berger and Kellner (1964) as an appropriate theoretical perspective for the examination of the link between work scheduling and family interaction. The argument is that not only does this perspective allow an examination across a continuum of family member absences, but that this perspective is applicable across the family life cycle, and with increasingly evident nontraditional family structures.

Crime and economic activity: A research note

This paper examines the relationship between unemployment, median income, and the seven F.B.I. Index crimes. The analysis lends support to the contention that opportunity is a stronger motivator of criminal activity than is deprivation. The paper also calls into question the propriety of official unemployment rates as indicators of economic deprivation, at least at the state level. Thus, economic deprivation cannot be ruled out as a causal element in crime rates. Future researchers are cautioned to use a more macroscopic (national) or microscopic (community level) approach.

Legal Drinking Age and Alcohol Consumption

Utilizing samples from two states, one where the legal age for the possession and consumption of alcohol was 18 (Louisiana) and one where the legal age was 21 (North Carolina), we examine the assumption that restricting access to alcohol results in lower alcohol consumption rates for the target population (age 18–20). We find little support for this assumption, but considerable evidence that restrictive legislation drives younger drinkers underground, resulting in overall higher consumption rates for the target population.

Organizational Change in the Roman Catholic Church : the Marriage Preparation Policy as Case Study

The struggle to maintain a traditional religious belief system in a secular world has fascinated sociologists since Durkheim delineated the sacred/profane distinction. Using the development of a state-wide marriage preparation policy for Roman Catholics in Louisiana as a case study, this paper examines the struggle within the Roman Catholic Church to maintain the concept of the sacramental marriage when confronted with an increased secular acceptance of divorce. The authors suggest that the concept « religious reconstruction » introduced by Seidler (1986) provides an appropriate vehicle for understanding a change that has occured within the Roman Catholic Church

An Empirical Examination of Two Models of Cultural Causation

The traditional macroscopic model of cultural causation advanced by Weber and modified by Parsons assumes that values provide orientation for human action. Thus, values are conceptualized as the intervening link between culture and behavior and in general, are viewed as predictive of human action. Swidler (1986) contends that values are a poor predictor of behavior. As an alternative model, Swidler asserts that cultures provide actors with a limited array of behavioral options. Because this array is finite and indicative of a particular cultural setting, intracultural behavioral similarities are observable. We empirically test the link between culture and behavior in a situation which Swidler defines as unsettled lives Our findings offer little support for the traditionally assumed link between values and behavior. The theoretical implications of our findings are discussed and an expansion of Swidlers model is offered.

Expanding a typology of the dimensions of marked relationships: A theoretical note

This paper expands a typology of underlying elements that influence the role of the stigmatized individual in interpersonal relations. The six dimensions of Jones et al. (1984)—concealability, cour...