Examines common assumptions concerning the interrelationship between power and knowledge, and considers four ways that the power/knowledge argument can go awry: power as the cause of social inequity, categorization as discrimination, reason as repression, and the system as responsible. The paper encourages greater thoughtfulness in talking about…

Discusses how friendships are transformed from equality-based exchange relationships during early childhood into need-based communal relationships during adolescence. Builds upon thesis that developmental changes in friendships can best be understood using both deep- and surface- structure levels of analysis. Examines cognitive representations of…

Argues that conceptualizations of and empirical studies on compliance and compliance-gaining often reflect a social exchange or a power perspective, which typically push communication into the background of the compliance-gaining process. Provides examples of studies adopting a power perspective without undercutting the role of communication in…

Uses social exchange theory to examine the process by which employees are dismissed from organizations. Examines interview data from an exploratory study that suggests managers are influenced by information from group members as they calculate a cost-benefit ratio for the employer-employee relationship. Indicates a progression of communication…

Inherent to all social exchange relations are elements of both cooperation and competition. We develop and test a theoretical model which proposes that the relative salience of the competitive, conflictual elements of exchange mediate and explain the negative effects of negotiated exchange, as compared with reciprocal exchange, on actors'…

This study examines affective commitment to employing and client organizations among long-term contracted employees, a new and growing employment classification. Drawing on organizational commitment and social exchange literatures, we propose two categories of antecedents of employee commitment to client organizations. We tested our hypotheses…

Unmarried parents in the AHEAD study derive the majority of their long-term care hours from their children, and child caregivers are generally unpaid. This paper examines the extent to which the division of end-of-life transfers compensates caregiving children. In a model of siblings' altruistic contribution of care to a shared parent, the…

A study was conducted to investigate the practical management of interactions sustaining close friendships. Ten pairs of close friends were interviewed individually on two occasions and together on a third occasion. An interpretive analysis of subjects' remarks identified a dialectical principle governing the communicative organization of…

A TYPOLOGY FOR A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO TEACHER-WORK RELATIONSHIPS REGARDS THE SCHOOL AS AN EMPLOYING SYSTEM WITH SETS OF CONTRASTING SYSTEM-WORKER RELATIONSHIPS--(1) FORMAL-PERSONAL OR TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY, (2) DISCRETIONARY-PERSONAL OR PERMISSIVE PERSONALISM, (3) FORMAL-GENERALIZED OR ORGANIZATIONAL FORMALISM, AND (4) DISCRETIONARY-GENERALIZED…

This paper assesses certain aspects of current socialization theory, arguing that there are two major developments in the field of psychology as a whole which need to be more fully assimilated in the work on socialization. The first is the attack on trait theory, and it is argued that socialization research can survive this attack only if it…

The purpose of this study was to frame the outlines of an interpersonal theory derived from exploratory research among adolescent reading failures. The theory postulates that adolescent reading failure syndrome results from and is maintained by conscious elements of choice manifested in the adolescent's perception preferences. The affective…

The theoretical concept of the double bind and the possibilities for researching it are discussed. The author has observed that theory and research, which should be reciprocal and mutually beneficial, have been working, as concerns the double bind, at odds with one another. Two approaches to empirically investigating the concept are considered via…

Using the Semantic Differential, the attitudes of thirty-five public librarians participating in a training program on library service to the inner city were measured before and after the conference. A group of thirty public librarians in similar positions in large cities was randomly selected and measured with the same instrument to serve as a…

This paper tries to demonstrate the existence of social norms against self-evaluations that are more favorable than people deserve (over-evaluation of self) and evaluations of others that are less favorable than others deserve (under-evaluation of others). The norms are derived from a resource theory in which these norms are needed to protect…

Tested two theoretical explanations for attraction-enhancing effects of counselor self-disclosure by constructing counseling analogue which varied the valence (positive or negative) of a counselor's disclosure and its relevance to client's presenting problem. Clients were 70 male college students. Results were mixed, supporting social exchange…