Acta Sociologica

Within the limits set by structural arrangements and by institutions, individuals choose their course of action. Anthropologists have always been interested in the outcome of these choices either because they reflect ongoing change or because they elucidate interrelations between institu tions. In order for decision-making analysis to be more than anecdotal, however, it needs to be guided by a set of assumptions concerning reasoning and cognitive processes, and the conditions germane to them. Economists. sociologists, psychologists, philosophers and mathematicians have already outlined many useful assumptions. Part of our task in this paper is to con tribute to a systematization of those assumptions that arc most relevant to anthropological interests. We also discuss the advantages and limitations of decision analysis for social anthropology, examine the theoretical and methodological implications of "rationality," and present a sequence of hypothetical steps that we regard as requisites for an adequate decision- making analysis.

Tönnies' Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (1887) has been translated into French (1946), Spanish (1947), English (1955), and Italian (1963). It is surprising that, while an actual translation into French and Italian is possible, the only way, so far, to render Tönnies' ideas in English has been to promote Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft to English words and then to use them as such. Much the same is true of "translations," e.g., into Swedish and Finnish.

An actual translation into Russian, on the other hand, is demonstrated to be possible. It is a reasonable hypothesis to adopt that, what we here encounter are different systems of social concepts, distributed in various parts of Europe and woven into the languages in use there.

Two experiments were designed and performed to test an explanatory conjecture stated in an earlier paper. The conjecture says that dissonance (or cognitive imbalance) will occur among overrewarded participants in groups if, and only if, the overrewarded person is receiving or expects to receive indications of disapproval concerning how rewards are distributed in the group from an authority figure or an equitably rewarded group member.

The experiments reported here used a modified Berger situation. The results tend to disconfirm the conjecture as stated. Various explana tions of the negative results arc discussed.

Some further theoretical arguments concerning the nature and conse quences of inequity are presented. In spite of much experimental and other research, we do not possess much more trustworthy (replicable) information about equity processes than Homans did when he wrote Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms. Some reasons for the empirical impasse are discussed.

One of the central concerns of sociology is the study of ideology. In this paper I shall analyze the ways in which this notion is used by contemporary sociologists. This analysis will disclose a dual usage. I shall argue that this usage is restrictive and fails to do justice to all the aspects of ideology. Ideological phenomena include a minimum of three separate and distinct elements or factors. It follows that any two-factor conception of ideology is necessarily inadequate.

This study compared the values of 29 American and 34 Swedish master's level students in business administration. Results supported the hypothesis that American business students arc oriented toward organizational and individual suboptimization to a greater extent than Swedish students. If current values are predictive of future managerial behavior, the Americans might be expected to be somewhat more doctrinaire and profit-oriented, while the Swedes might be expected to be more open-minded and "human- centered."