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Browsing Faculty-Curated Special Collections by Type "Working Paper"
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Item Cerebral Balance, Recognition Accuracy, and Confidence when Task Performance Requires the Use of Preconsciously Acquired Information(2017-08-16) Perlaki, Kinga M.; Barchas, Patricia R.a. This TP is an attempt to identify brain mechanisms associated with the finding that mere exposure to words, patterns, and other stimuli often leads to liking, even when the exposure is too brief to produce conscious awareness. The authors investigate recognition accuracy of very brief (subliminal) exposure to stimuli following instructions to report either which stimulus they thought was familiar (left brain) or which the liked better (right brain). Results showed that participants instructed to process stimuli using right brain were more accurate. The authors interpreted the data as showing that right brain processing, which occurs outside of conscious awareness, is responsible for the subliminal “familiarity leads to liking” phenomenon.Item The Communication Network Structures of R & D Units(2017-08-16) Arechavala-Vargas, RicardoThe author develops a bounded rationality model of effects of communication structures and applies it to 223 R & D teams. One main result was that structural properties of a team’s network were strongly associated with evaluations the team received from management.Item Directions in Expectation States Research(Stanford University Press, 1988) Berger, JosephThis WP was prepared for a conference on the current state and future prospects for status and expectations research. It summarizes theoretical and empirical investigations, and describes the present structure of the program. The author published this WP (1988).Item Expectations, Shared Awareness, and Power(2017-08-16) Samuel, Yitzhak; Zelditch, Morris JrThe authors develop a theory of expectations about interpersonal power to control rewards and punishments, and to induce compliance. They present an extended review of conceptions of power, and identify four empirical features that can be used to assess their new theory. The theory includes ideas on subjective expected utility and expectations for power and power use.Item Expectations, Theory, and Group Processes(Social Psychology Quarterly, 1992) Berger, JosephThe author describes his career and the growth of the Expectation States research program. This talk was delivered when Joseph Berger received the Cooley-Mead Award from the Social Psychology Section of the American Sociological Association in 1991. This WP was published by the author (1992).Item Expected Managerial Careers within Growing and Declining R & D Establishments(Work and Organizations, 1988) Shenhav, Yehouda A.The author notes that many studies have used individual-level variables to predict a tendency of scientists to aspire to managerial careers, and proposes that a better understanding of such career progression would include structural and organizational factors. Individual factor did indeed explain much aspiration. The new structural variables added explanatory power, but only in growing organizations. Individual factors may be useful in hiring decisions, while structural factors have implications for design of the R & D structures. This TR was published by the author (1988).Item Expected Managerial Careers within Growing and Declining R & D Establishments(Scientometrics, 1989) Shenhav, Yehouda A.The authors distinguish six types of productivity in different contexts and develop six corresponding scales and estimate reliability coefficients. Coefficients differ depending on context, supporting an argument that the meanings of productivity, and so its appropriate measurements, differ depending on structure and goals of the teams. This TR was published by the authors (1989).Item Gender or Status: The Effects of Differences in Sex on Behavior under Certain Conditions of Disadvantage(2017-08-16) Walker, Henry A.; Smith-Donals, Louisea. The authors address gender stereotypes: women are passive, dependent, compliant, cooperative, and socially oriented; while men are independent, competitive, and task-focused. They note that those behaviors are found in mixed-gender interaction, but are seldom found in same-gender groups. An experiment using a Bavelas box to collect messages tested ideas on effects of structure, legitimation, and rewards on behavior. Results showed no differences in the ways men and women acted in the experiment, which is consistent with a structural interpretation and not with a gender-difference interpretation.Item The Impact of Selected Social Environmental and Individual Factors on Stress Responses(2017-08-16) Montoya, Valerie C.; Barr-Bryan, Dorine; Perlaki, Kinga M.; Barchas, Patricia R.a. The authors attempt to clarify some factors in the relationships between high levels of stress and poor physical and mental health. They review many possible sources of individual variation in responses to stress, including different living environments, interrelated social and individual factors, and differences across gender groups. Physiological and behavioral data collected from college students at a blood bank assessed multiple social and individual factors, self-reported stress, and levels of norepinephrine, a physiological indicator of stress. Results showed a fairly complex pattern of results, although social support was generally helpful in reducing stress, and gender differences in both social and physiological responses were found.Item Interdependence, Interaction, and Productivity(2017-08-16) Cohen, Bernard P.; Arechavala-Vargas, RicardoGroup tasks require communication, but communication can be excessive and time-wasting. The authors develop propositions group productivity and interaction. High reciprocal interdependence in teams requires high levels of interaction, but when interdependence is low, interaction can interfere with productivity. After developing appropriate measures of the variables, they tested that idea and related ideas with 224 R & D teams and found a strong relationship between communication and productivity on interdependent tasks.Item Introduction to a Theory of Group Structure and Information Exchange(2017-08-16) Cohen, Bernard P.; Silver, Steven D.This theoretical paper develops a framework for relationships between group structure and information exchange. Status orders among group members are important in situations that lack well-developed practices for work and clear criteria for evaluating outcomes.Item Legitimacy and Collective Action(2017-08-16) Thomas, George M.; Walker, Henry A.; Zelditch, Morris JrThis is a revision of WP 84-4. The authors develop an explicit theoretical foundation for the common belief that legitimation is somehow important in mobilizing collective action. They distinguish validity of a rule (collective support) from propriety (individual support) and predict that validity affects mobilization independent of propriety. Results of an experimental test support the derivations.Item Legitimacy and the Support of Revolutionary Coalitions(2017-08-16) Walker, Henry A.; Rogers, Larry; Lyman, Katherine; Zelditch, Morris JrThe authors develop a theory of conditions under which inequity will lead to attempts to change the structure. Factors affecting the likelihood of attempts include power differences, false consciousness, low self-esteem, and perceived legitimacy of the inequality. Experimental research focusing on legitimacy show that propriety, endorsement, and authorization all affect the likelihood that group members will support a revolutionary movement.Item The Legitimacy of Redistributive Agendas(2017-08-16) Zelditch, Morris Jr; Gilliland, Edward; Thomas, George Ma. The authors investigate the idea of nondecisions regarding redistributive political agenda. They focus on an idea that the greater the likelihood that a policy would redistribute resources, the less likely that policy is to reach a group’s agenda. Results of an experimental test of the idea, also involving legitimacy of the agenda-setting, were somewhat unclear. Self-interest of a gatekeeper was not the only source of actions, and overall, results were inconsistent with a purely self-interested explanation for behavior.Item A (Not So) Quick and Dirty Look at Robust M-Estimation(2017-08-16) Wu, Lawrence L.a. Robust estimators, those procedures that distinguish likely from unlikely distributions, sometimes are preferable to either parametric or distribution-free estimations. This WP explores statistical properties of maximum likelihood estimates, or M-Estimates, which are one kind of robust estimators. Analyses and simulations show general suitability and accuracy of one class of robust estimators. The results also show that the worst estimators are the classical parametric estimators and statistical tests. The author concludes that a research loses little by using robust estimators when the data are normally distributed, and risks serious errors using parametric estimators when the data are not normally distributed.Item Organization and productivity in R & D Teams: A Report of Research Findings(American Sociological Review, 1991) Cohen, Bernard P.; Arechavala-Vargas, Ricardo; Nobel, Darla R.; Shenhav, Yehouda A.The authors report findings from 224 teams in Silicon Valley on the effects of factors on team productivity and innovativeness. The factors are of four types: interaction, team composition, team organization, and perceptions of the company. Some of these finding were published by Cohen and Zhou (1991).Item Participation in Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Groups: A Theoretical Integration(The American Journal of Sociology, 1991) Fisek, M. Hamit; Berger, Joseph; Norman, Robert Z.The authors define a behavior interchange pattern that can affect performance expectation states and behavior. This WP was published by the authors (1991).Item Processing Status Information(JAI Press, 1992) Balkwell, James W.; Berger, Joseph; Webster, Murray Jr.; Nelson-Kilger, Max; Cashen, JacquelineThe authors compare variant formulations (different from those considered in 1990-1) for predicting the processing of status information. The main competitor considered argued that highly relevant information would eliminate effects of less relevant information. Results from a vignette study confirmed predictions of the original status theory and disconfirmed predictions of the competing theory. This WP was published by the authors (1992).Item Programs, Theory, and Metatheory(2017-08-16) Wagner, David G.; Berger, JosephThe authors respond to two critiques of their article “Do Sociological Theories Grow?” (1985). This WP is a somewhat longer version of their published responses (1986).Item A Revised Bibliography of Expectation States Research(2017-08-16) Berger, Joseph; Zelditch, Morris JrAs titled. This WP is a revision and expansion of TR#67. Berger, Wagner, and Webster (2014) provide a newer, although focused, view of the program.