Group social structure provides a comfortable and predictable context for interaction in learning environments. Students in face-to-face learning environments process social information about others in order to assess traits, predict behaviors, and determine qualifications for assuming particular responsibilities within a group. In online learning…

Comments on an earlier attempt to create a unified theoretical framework for the analysis of organizational structure. Discusses the nature of social structure and the problems involved with various conceptions of structure. (Author/RW)

Shows that use and effects of punishment are significantly altered by average levels of reward power and punishment power in power-dependence relationship. The power-balancing effect of punishment is most likely to occur when an actor lacking reward power has punishment power that is stronger in relation to the other actor's punishment power but…

The authors sought to test Homans' proposition that small groups inevitably generate a social structure which combines subgroups (cliques) and a ranking system. We present a graph theoretical model of such a structure and prove that a necessary and sufficient condition for its existence is the absence of seven particular triad types. Expected…

Following recent thinking that sees organizations' structures as dependent on their environments, the authors consider characteristics of institutional sectors that affect the organizations arising within them. They first point out problems in present models relating organizations to their environments and discuss several "forerunners"…

A discussion of how learning hierarchies were constructed by high and low ability students as they learned matrix algebra. (Author)

Research showed that the center-periphery pattern of social structure, characteristic of many academic communities, also applies to political science. This pattern consists of a tightly knit group of leaders and increasingly looser groups of followers arrayed about them. Within the social structure, all members are familiar with the top…

Conflict episodes among first-graders were videotaped and analyzed. It appears that the function of social conflict among children is to build their small-group society and its structure: while arguing, children create political alignments, and thereby realize their practical interests within a changing set of social relationships. (KH)

Little research attention has been paid to the systematic validation of mathematical indices of social structure. The validation strategies in use remain largely implicit and generally fail to appreciate the multi-dimensionality of structure. The current paper proposes a new method designed to avoid these shortcomings and reports the results of…

Examines one aspect of conjugal role relationships--leisure activities which are "consumption" from the urban point of view. A sample of young adults in two adjacent neighborhoods in Tel Aviv was interviewed. The findings indicate significant differences in the relative degree of joint leisure activities of the neighborhoods. (Author)

The results of this study indicated the extent to which the group structure of a sixth grade class was dependent on personality characteristics in the formation of acceptance and rejection patterns. (RC)

Social network analysis (SNA) uses indices of relatedness among individuals to produce representations of social structures and positions inherent in dyads or groups. SNA methods provide quantitative representations of ongoing transactional patterns in a given social environment. Methodological issues, applications and resources are discussed…

Organizational effectiveness must rely above all else on the development and interaction of human beings within the organization's context. This basic premise set the stage for a joint research project on institutions of higher education which was completed in 1971. The researchers examined institutions from the perspective of members of…