Sociological Perspectives

In a complex world overloaded with stimuli, how does the individual manage to maintain the integrity of the self while responding to inherently contradictory demands for behavior? A broad theory, of a multiequal institutional world in which no single institution dominates, is presented. Each individual can find one or more central life interests within a single institution in which to invest the bulk of affective energies. All other behaviors are enacted as required behaviors with a minimum of affect invested in them. Through this duality of response the contradictory demands on behavior among several institutions can be mediated. The sociopsychological mechanisms underlying these dual responses are set forth. It is concluded that the social world of the person, however complex, can be ordered through the operation of central life interests, to maintain self-integrity even while behaving in contradictory ways.

A review of sociologists' excuses for not developing laws or principles that are the equivalent to those in the natural sciences is undertaken. This review is placed in the context of the vision of sociology's early masters who believed that laws of social organization could be articulated. The failure of modern theorists to build on this vision over the last 50 years is highlighted by an examination of some of the basic principles of social organization that the early masters articulated. These principles, it is argued, constitute sociological laws that are equivalent to those in the natural sciences.

The concept of signaling is used to explain disjunctions in organizational theory and research. Predictions based on the signaling metaphor are made.

Evidence from a large sample of Anglo, Black, and Mexican-American Texans, aged 55 and over indicates that ethnicity exerts more powerful effects than age and (in many cases also) SES on educational attainment, the timing of role exits, on health and disability, activities, social supports, self-concept, morale, and economic dependency and the need for public services. Women, particularly minority women, are at greatest risk of poverty, dependency, and allied problems as they age. Thus, inequalities based on race and sex have cumulative effects as people age. Mexican-American women have markedly fewer social supports than Mexican-American men or people in other ethnic groups. Upper-middle-class Blacks have more extensive social supports than the other two ethnic groups. The two minority groups register higher need for and use of social services than Anglos. Blacks and Anglos are more knowledgeable about existing public services than Mexican-Americans. Mexican-American men have more extensive informal social supports and more frequently register high need for public services than their female peers. Informal support networks perform important functions in relation to need, knowledge, and use of public services which vary according to SES. They are a means for the dissemination of information about available public services. Among low SES elderly, support networks enhance people's awareness of needs and facilitate utilization of public services; among higher SES elderly, informal networks reduce the need for and utilization of public services. Finally, public policy implications of the findings are discussed.