Suchergebnisse

Sociological research on what people think has been hampered by inadequate methods. These inadequacies are illustrated by Coleman's survey research and Burner's participant observation study. The ethnoscience approach in anthropology is developing improved methods for studying cognitive content, and the usefulness of these methods is illustrated by research on (1) wedding ceremonies, (2) kinship terminology and (3) norms and social change.

This study examines the structural and situational approaches to social action by analyzing the effects of roles, action, and situations on people's perceptions of others. College students were given questionnaires containing short descriptions of interaction between an adult and an adolescent boy. These questionnaires were designed to examine the effects of roles (malefemale and employer‐parent), actions, and several concrete situations on two dependent variables: (1) behavior predictions for the adult in each hypothetical situation. and (2) ratings of the adults on expressive and instrumental attributes. The results support both structural and situational approaches. The parent role has a strong effect on how the adults are predicted to behave and the situation has little effect. But the respondents' rating of the adults is determined primarily by actions not roles.