Date of Award

11-1-1969

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Sociology and Anthropology

First Advisor

Dr. George Barger

Abstract

Relationships between persons are the strands out of which society is fashioned. An understanding of the macro-world of social behavior must be firmly grounded in an understanding of the relationships between persons in small, face-to-face groups as they define their immediate social world. Relatively little research has been undertaken to describe and evaluate the social life of particular persons. Up to the present, socio‐logists have tended to investigate large scale societal and institutional patterns or small group processes usually under artificial conditions. Analysis of immediate social systems as they influence persons day by day has been neglected. Williams (1968) suggests that an important soc iolog-ical approach is to build out from the individual to patterns of social relations. With whom does a person interact, with how many persons, for how long, and how intimately? Are these others similar to or different from himself (Williams, 1968:379)? Do shared expectations evolve and does pressure toward compliance with them occur in groups which are attractive to their members (Homans, 1961)?

Comments

A Thesis Presented to the Department of Sociology and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska at Omaha In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts. Copyright Judy Kessler November, 1969

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