A view of communication technologies as creating artificial agents and affecting the information processing capabilities of agents is forwarded. The constructural theory is adapted to account for agents varying in their information processing capabilities, and hence to account for technology. Given this theoretical modification, the constructural model is used to examine the impact of different...

In this paper I offer a new interpretation of the development of Durkheim’s thought. Rather than linear progress, Durkheim’s scientific career presented a distinctive circularity. Although always interested in a ’structural’ theory, from the beginning of his work Durkheim sought a structural theory which would decisively differ from the materialist emphasis on coercion. In the first part of his...

This investigation examined the perceived benefits and costs of romantic (i.e., reciprocal dating) relationships. In Study 1, subjects provided open-ended reports regarding the benefits and costs associated with romantic involvement. Different groups of subjects ranked (Study 2) and rated (Study 3) these benefits and costs for importance. Companionship, happiness, and feeling loved or loving an...

Two SURVEYS WERE ADMINISTERED to library professionals holding titular headships in order to develop a list of perceived library leaders. This list was used to learn the locus (subfield) of leadership and the degree of fieldwide integration as evidenced by the extent of shared perceptions by respondents. Results revealed that leaders tend to be associated most strongly with a category labeled “...

Traditionally, ritual has been studied from broad sociocultural perspectives, with little consideration of the psychological processes at play. Recently, however, psychologists have begun turning their attention to the study of ritual, uncovering the causal mechanisms driving this universal aspect of human behavior. With growing interest in the psychology of ritual, the current paper provides a...

Compared with conventional computer models, AI based modelling offers a wide range of decisive advantages for the social sciences: theoretical knowledge does not have to be quantified, is coded explicitly and modularly and its conclusions can be explained and justified. AI or knowledge based systems can be used in the social sciences for both theory driven and data driven model building. In the...

The celebration of communitarianism by political philosophers (Sandel, M. 1982 Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) has apparently been extended to strategic analyses of ascriptively attuned norms (Fearon, J. and D. Laitin. 1996. “Explaining Interethnic Cooperation.” American Political Science Review 90: 715–735) — an intriguing development, given game th...

Family assistance is an important aspect of family relationships for adolescents across many cultures and contexts. Motivations to help family members may be driven by both cultural factors and early family experiences. Here, we used fMRI to examine (1) cultural differences in neural reward activity among White and Latino youth during online experiences of family assistance and (2) how prior fa...

This article began as an adversarial collaboration between two groups of researchers with competing views on a longstanding question: Does familiarity promote or undermine interpersonal attraction? As we explored our respective positions, it became clear that the limitations of our conceptualizations of the familiarity–attraction link, as well as the limitations of prior research, was masking a...

This paper proposes a model of self-managing work team (SMWT) effectiveness derived from several theories of organizational behavior and empirical work. Four classes of predictor variables are included: (a) an organizational context that supports employee involvement, (b) encouraging supervisory behaviors, (c) group task design, and (d) group characteristics. Three dimensions of effectiveness a...