Review

Author(s): David Gottlieb

Review by: David Gottlieb
Source: Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 4, No. 3 (May, 1975), pp. 231-232
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2063186
Accessed: 01-03-2015 21:40 UTC

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 AGE AND SEX 231
gist Chafetz seems to get caught in the same Survey Research Center of the University of
trap which immobilized some counter-culture Michigan in the Spring of 1965. Interviews
proponents: if only the right attitudes pre- were held first with a national probability
sample of 1,669 high school seniors distributed
vail, all will straighten itself out. This under-
estimates the tenacity of traditional social among 97 secondary schools, public and non-
structures and institutions and overestimates public.
the social-psychologieal ability of individuals Interviews were also conducted with a total
to grow beyond these structures and institu- of 1,992 parents (for a random third of the
tions. students the father was selected for inter-
A step toward a more hard-headed analysis viewing; for a third the mother; and for the
of how societies perpetuate the inequality of remaining third both parents were designated
the sexes is made in Woiman In A Man-Made for interviewing). A sample of teachers (317)
World: A Socioeconomic Handbook, edited were also selected for interviewing. Finally
by Nona Glazer-Malbin and Helen Youngel- questionnaires were administered to all seniors
son Waehrer. This reader brings together over in cooperating schools in order to assess peer
30 selections, most of them reprints, in five group relationships and class-wide political
sections prefaced by the editors' lucid intro- orientations.
ductions. It includes not only the now classic Given the variety of respondent categories
paper by Helen Mayer Hacker on "Women and the many intervening variables examined
as a Minority Group," but also Friedrich (sex, socio-economic status, region, race, kinds
Engels' "The Origins of the Status of of classes taken, etc.) this book runneth over
Women," and Talcott Parsons' "The Femi- with tables and figures (88), hunches, proposi-
nine Role and the Kinship System." It deals tions, and findings. At times the rush of data
with black and working women's problems, and interpretive outpouring is of a magnitude
group marriage, matriarchy, the social con- which tends to hinder opportunities for quiet
struction of reality, the economic discrimina- reflection and analysis. At other times the
tion against women, the lack of female politi- authors, perhaps in their need to move on
cal and economic power, and the barriers to to yet the next piece of datum, fail to do full
interchanging sex and work roles. The final justice to the material at hand.
paper, "Family Structure and Communism," For example, there are several apparent
an excerpt from Mihaly Vajda and Agnes discrepancies between certain quantitative
Heller's essay in Telos, Spring 1971, offers presentations and the interpretations provided
the kind of radical and perhaps utopian vision by the authors. In another case reference is
beyond the sex roles outlook which needs to made to the Guttman scaling of seven items
be explored. It connects a new psychic char- when only six items are shown as the base
acter based on new values and attitudes with for that scale.
the "democratic transformation of the units Still it is essential to point out that these
of social production" (italics by the authors) are the kinds of reader distractions that one
and postulates the commune in preference is bound to find in any major research effort.
over the nuclear family as the carrier of a In contrast to the overall benefits provided
new image of humankind and as socializing by this book, the distractions are really mini-
mechanism for a new type of society. Com- mal.
munes may not be the answer, but a new, The authors have made a significant con-
non-authoritarian and non-sexist type of per- tribution to the political socialization litera-
son can only grow out of less rigid, less au- ture by putting into perspective (with solid
thoritarian and less hierarchical social struc-empirical data) the differential impact of
tures.
varying and frequently competing youth so-
cializers. The authors do for the most part
The Political Character of Adolescence: The make good use of their data and are able to
Influence of Families and Schools, by M.
identify the conditions which tend to move
KENT JENNINGS and RICHARD G. NIEMI.
Press, the young toward particular political orien-
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
1974. 357 pp. $12.50. tations.
The work is quite definitive in pointing out
DAVID GOTTLIEB that the political socialization of the young
The University of Houston occurs in a fairly haphazard fashion. The
This book deals with a study of political findings also add support to those who hold
socialization: the data were gathered by the the view that sensitive listening and respond-

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232 CONTEMPORARYSOCIOLOGY:A JOURNAL OF REVIEWS
ing between adults and youth is not the norm
in American society.
The authors conclude that no single source
"stands out as obviously dominant across all
political orientations: indeed it sometimes
seems as though no source has contributed
to the formation of the adolescents political
makeup."
The data do more than challenge the usually
accepted notions of family impact and stage
of political orientation emergence. At best
parents are found to be the preliminary guid-
ers of political orientation since they have
helped to establish ideological parameters.
The same seems to hold true for secondary
schools. Teachers and course offerings tend
to provide little in the way of motivation and
direction. The authors make the point, for
example, that both parent and teacher descrip-
tions of the model citizen do not blend with
the descriptions provided by students.
Certainly the data provided in this research
stand in contrast to those who have argued
that it is the elementary school which is the
most determinative instrument of political
socialization. The social climate may now be
more heavily politicized than was the case
in 1965-but one still has the impression that
individual political and ideological specificity
is not characteristic of most American youth.
On the contrary the data presented here and
the findings of others suggest a moving away
from traditional political orientations and
political organizations. The emerging political
character of youth may in fact be one that
will deny understanding as long as we con-
tinue to utilize concepts, terms, and methodol-
ogies which are insensitive to the political and
ideological frame of reference of the young,
The data do show that under certain condi-
tions it is possible to predict value transmis-
sion between generations. Value transmission
between parents and children is maximized
when both parents hold similar political views
and represent political unity in the eyes of
the child. When this parental unity is com-
bined with political congruence of feachers
and peers the odds of defection from parental
orientation are minimized. The potential pol-
icy implications of such a finding are of course
disturbing. The authors point out, "The prac-
tical implication is worth citing: if society or
a given institution therein desires purposely
to mold its young citizens, the establishment
of congruity across agents is a prime facili-
tator." Let us hope that social scientists will
not come up with the plan which will enhance
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the child's being surrounded by "congruent
agents."
In conclusion then, this book, despite its
moments of awkwardness and frustration,
does represent a major contribution. Its mes-
sage makes clear that we have yet to identify
the actual processes, events, conditions, and
experiences which actually contribute to the
shaping of the political character of the youth.
The Myth of the Golden Years: A Socio-
Environmental Theory of Aging, by JAB1M
F. GUBRIUM. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C
Thomas, 1973. 225 pp.
HELENA ZNANIECKI LOPATA
Loyola University of Chicago
This is a lamentable attempt to theorize
about old people. The author examines the
current "activity approach" and "disengage-
ment theory" of social gerontology, and builds
for himself a model for explaining the behav-
ior of old people from parts of these formu-
lations, which he calls a "social-environmental
theory." According to this theory, old people
act, with varying degrees of flexibility, morale
and life satisfaction, depending upon their
personal resources of health, financial sol-
vency and social supports, in response to per-
ceived norms and behavioral expectations
within a specified social context.
In order to understand why this is such a sad
attempt to theorize about old people, we need
to glance at the history of social gerontology.
Much of the initial and even current litera-
ture in this field was limited to descriptions
of old people, gathered in order to develop or
support social policies and action directed to-
ward them. Such ventures were typically or-
ganized around area-of-life themes: "This is
what the life of old people is like in its eco-
nomic, health, residential, transportation, fam-
ily, etc. aspects." The next stage of develop-
ment involved an examination of the internal
differentiation among the subjects, especially
as younger sociologists equipped with compu-
ter magic started playing with variables.
Much of the playing remained, however,
on the "concrete sociology" level, as the
Soviets have labeled their current work (pos-
sibly in contrast to the flowery heights of
Marxist theorizing). The independent vari-
ables which have been considered are usually
only age, health, financial situation and in