Suchergebnisse

This inquiry dealt with opinion leadership & utilization of health services using a probability sample. Non-professional opinion leaders who influence middle-aged & older adults infrequently as compared to leaders who exercised influence often differed signif ly from each other. The primary source of counsel for lower-strata individuals are occasional opinion leaders, who prove not to be particularly knowledgeable or experienced with respect to health services. In fact, the knowledge & experience that such influentials have is approximately the same as that of the clients with whom they have contact. Moreover, relative to active advisers, they attend to the MM less often & have fewer interpersonal resources, both of which constitute potential sources of Med information. Also, such persons lack the self-concept & opinion leadership experience which provide psychic resources that can facilitate rendering counsel to clients facing a Med decision. Finally, occasional opinion leaders provide counsel to close kin & practically no one else. The fact that active influentials from blue-collar strata have somewhat more limited information resources & leadership skills than higher-strata active opinion leaders reduces even further the access of these segments of the community to health care advice. AA.

Individuals ordinarily have considerable information about voluntary associations even before they seriously think about joining a group. In becoming affiliated, members usually rely on personal networks and often several persons are consulted. When mass media sources are utilized in the affiliation process, they serve as a stimulus or catalyst (not one respondent in the sample joined an organization solely on the basis of mass media sources of information). Those with an extensive network of friends and relatives often become members through informal leaders. Moreover, they are sought out and encouraged to join. Individuals who have fewer primary‐group resources frequently become members through formal leaders and themselves initiate the contact which results in membership. Finally, personal influence networks are more likely to play an important role for those joining expressive rather than instrumental voluntary associations.

Membership in voluntary org's, SES, perceived pol'al powerlessness, & information exchange were analyzed in relation to pol'al activity using a probability sample of 1,500 adults. 3 distinct types of pol'al activity were considered: voting behavior, pol'al group membership, & other "active pol'al participation." O-order r's showed a signif relationship between the 4 variables & pol'al activity. However, higher-order partialling operations suggested that the 3 forms of pol'al activity maintain diff patterns of association with the independent variables. For example, information exchange became a less effective predictor of voting behavior, membership in assoc's proved to be the only reliable indicator of membership in pol'al groups, & information exchange & voluntary group membership were the only strong r's of active pol'al participation. The study illustrates the utility of diff'iating between types of pol'al activity, supports the use of situation-relevant measures of pol'al powerlessness, establishes the relevance of information exchange, & reinforces the importance of voluntary group membership for understanding & predicting pol'al behavior. AA.