Search results

chapter Lessons from Sorokin Arthur K. Davis Some Problems for a Unified Theory of Human Nature -- chapter Marion f. Levy, Jr -- chapter Talcott Parsons -- chapter Institutionalization Thomas F. O'Dea -- chapter Robert K. Merton and Elinor Barber -- chapter Is American Business Becoming Professionalized? Analysis of a Social Ideology Bernard Barber -- chapter Conditions for the Realization of Values Remote in Time Walter Firey -- chapter Convergence of the Major Human Family Systems During the Space Age Carle C. Zimmerman -- chapter Bibliography of Pitirim A. Sorokin -- chapter Supplementary Select Bibliography ofWorks -- chapter Contributors.

This article investigates the effects of teaching about metacognition in a sociological theory course. I created a series of teaching interventions to introduce students to the science of learning, including an interactive lecture on metacognition, a discussion that models metacognitive strategies, and activities for students to practice metacognition. This article describes those teaching interventions and assesses whether direct instruction led to greater use of metacognitive and cognitive strategies, confidence, and motivation to learn. Data were collected over seven semesters using a pretest–posttest approach. Comparison of means showed that students who received metacognitive instruction did not differ significantly from a control group on strategy use, confidence, or motivation. Regression analyses show that metacognitive instruction did lead to greater use of metacognitive strategies. While instruction in metacognition did not produce all desired effects, this research illustrates the value of incorporating the science of learning in sociology courses.

This article compares the main elements of Parsons' and Sorokin's sociological work in the context of the formation and development of an American school of social theory during the 1930s-1950s. Of these elements, four are meta-theoretical, and four substantive or theoretical. Included in the first group are the problems of methodology, selection, convergence versus divergence, and interpretation. The possibility of social dynamics, the conception of the social system, micro versus macro-social and economic action comprise the second. The comparison suggests that the different roles of Parsons and Sorokin in American social theory are to be, in part, accounted for by extra-scientific rather than strictly scientific factors.

Soziologische Theoriebildung besteht nicht nur in Begriffsbildung und der Aufstellung substanzieller Thesen, sondern auch in formalen Operationen, einer 'Theorie-Praxis' der Problematisierung und Problemlösung, welche jenseits des Gehalts einer Theorie Vorbild für weitere Theoriebildung sein kann. Solche Operationen werden am Beispiel des Werkes von Niklas Luhmann untersucht. Es finden sich typische Wege des Umgangs mit Unterscheidungen und Bezeichnungen, Brückenbildungen zur Alltagssprache, zur sonstigen soziologischen Terminologie und zur Empirie, eine Abstraktion in Richtung Informationsverarbeitung und Problemkonstruktionen, die durch einen besonderen Logizismus und die Herstellung von Kontingenz geprägt sind. Die Luhmannsche Analyse von 'Semantik' kann dann als evolutionär-logizistische Hermeneutik verstanden werden. Abschließend wird untersucht, wie in der Systemtheorie vorgegangen wird, um diese von anderen Theorien zu unterscheiden und ihre Alleinstellung plausibel zu machen.