Methods employed in social science research must be true to the phenomena under investigation. Both symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology take everyday life as their fundamental premise. Symbolic interactionism, based primarily on the work of George Herbert Mead, is the peculiar and distinctive character of interaction as it takes place…

This study tests the hypothesis that persons will express relatively independent degrees of preference for ambiguity in different experiential domains. An original measure consisting of four subscales was developed to assess individual differences in the theoretical, social, economic and aesthetic domains, and was administered to a student sample.…

This study investigated sex role behaviors, perceptions, and aspiration levels in 3- 4-, and 5-year-old children. Focus was on social interaction in situations free of adult attention. Six parties were conducted and videotaped in the familiar setting of the preschool classroom. Seventy-seven preschoolers attended these parties which were composed…

The selection of play materials has long been of concern to parents and educators. Many play materials simply do not engage children. In this study toys were openly displayed for free selection and play within a children's recreation center. Data were collected on the subject population, toy selection and toy usage. The results indicated that…

Observational learning requires exposure to modeling cues, acquisition of the ability to reproduce what is seen or heard, and acceptance of the model's behavior as a guide for one's own actions, as imitation, counter-imitation, disinhibition, or inhibition. In this overview paper, the author considers a large body of research, especially that…

From a review of the Scientific Advisory Committee's report and the five volumes of research on television and social behavior, there is an overwhelming consensus that televised violence does have an adverse effect on certain members of our society, and that the broadcasters should be put on notice. While the method of selection and the final…

The impact of television (TV) on children has been examined many times, and concern over potential connections between viewed violence and antisocial behavior has grown. The National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence concluded in 1969 that violence on television encourages real violence, especially among the children of poor,…

To some degree television is the current inheritor of anxiety over the effects of communications from outside the home, and is not alone among mass media in presenting sizeable amounts of violence. However the accessibility, pervasiveness, and very character of television make it the ultimate mass medium, and hence a cause for concern. Television…

The relationship between population density and pathology is assessed in New York City. (Editor)

This article illustrates the competitive nature of application, admission, and achievement procedures within most programs of counselor training, and shows how this affects socialized male needs to compete. In order to counteract this, it suggests that counselor educators provide opportunities for positive experiences, which confront and deal with…

Discusses a study designed to explore children's television viewing patterns and their perceptions of the media, and offers an evaluation of television's impact on the young child's lifestyle. (MH)

Sociobiology, although in its formative stage, is the most promising paradigm for bridging the gap between biology and the social sciences. (Author/AM)

Two experiments with college males examined the relationship between moral judgment and compliance in a modified Asch paradigm. Moral judgment was assessed using Kohlberg's dilemmas in one experiment and with Rest's Defining Issues in the second experiment. (Editor/RK)

"Minimum" and "maximum" models of social control theory derived from the work of Travis Hirschi are formally stated in the language of Goodman's log linear system. (Author/JC)