This book contains 15 articles reviewing significant developments in sociology in 1977. The first paper discusses the major trends and research evidence on the relationship between work-related technology and job satisfaction. A review of research dealing with social crisis and disaster is presented in the next article. The third paper reviews measurement in social stratification. Trend studies which use a survey sample and census data, an overview of family interaction literature, and methods for modeling the structure of relationships among variables with systems of equations are treated in the next three papers. The seventh article examines mortality trends. The eighth looks at the social structure of Mainland China. Surveys of the current state of the field of political socialization, of empirical and theoretical investigations conducted by symbolic interactionists, and of research in the areas of socialization and personality are presented. The last four papers deal with mobility and stratification in Russia, recent trends in Polish sociology, demography and the family, and the study of slavery. (Author/RM)