scholarly journals Apple-Polishers, Ass-Kissers and Suck-Ups: Towards a Sociology of Ingratiation

Author(s):  
Daniel Martin ◽  
Janelle Wilson

In this paper we use one form of communicative action, “brownnosing”, as a social lens for understanding power relations in both formal, organizational contexts and interpersonal relationships. We investigate this phenomenon by assessing processes of ingratiation at school and work settings. We do so using data collected from over one hundred student respondents to ascertain the meanings, uses, and outcomes of brownnosing. The study finds that members of the “millennial generation” develop skills in both the act of brownnosing and the detection of this form of communication as they participate in a variety of contexts, including family, school, work, and interpersonal relationships. Utilizing power-dependence models for analysis, our data suggest that brownnosing, as an organizational resource, commonly reflects the structural arrangements of both school and the workplace. We draw upon organizational and exchange theories in the interpretation of the data.

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (108) ◽  
pp. 741-761
Author(s):  
Carmen Rodríguez Martínez ◽  
Monsalud Gallardo Gil

Abstract In this article we address gender differences in school performance and attitudes towards school using data from national (in Spain) and international evaluation reports and qualitative research to understand the perceptions of post-compulsory secondary students who continue their studies and do so successfully. Using a sample of twenty-six students (12 girls and 14 boys) who study Baccalaureate and Vocational Training, we investigate through in-depth interviews the shaping of feminine and masculine identities defined both in the reproduction of stereotyped cultural patterns as well as in the resistance and rupture. The findings reveal that girls have a clearer commitment to school work, being still very underrepresented in technical studies whose importance in the labour market is greater.


Author(s):  
Daniel Martin ◽  
Janelle Wilson

This study explores the nature, use, and social organization of one form of communicative action that is common in everyday life -- "bullshitting." We use this form of communication to assess the ways in which dimensions of community, power and status are created in interaction. Abiding by the canons of ethnographic content analysis, we gathered data from over one hundred student respondents to ascertain the behaviors, utterances, and stories that people define as "bullshitting." The study finds that members of the "millennial generation" hone skills both in the telling and detection of this form of communication as they participate in a variety of contexts, including school, work, and interpersonal relationships. Special attention is given to the ways in which bullshitting is used as a cultural resource for agentive action. Dramaturgical and organizational theories are drawn upon in theorizing the data.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-59
Author(s):  
Nona Nurfadhilla

This article aims to look at how to improve self-efficacy through guidance and counseling services at SMP 1 Pleret, Yogyakarta. This type of research is qualitative descriptive, data collection methods through interviews and observations. Data analysis techniques using data reduction, data presentation and drawing conclusions. Results and discussion that there are still many students who have low self-efficacy so they are difficult to achieve good learning outcomes. This is proven by some students rarely doing school work and rarely doing homework also do not have the motivation to excel. BK teachers try through guidance and counseling services in the form of a preventive approach for those with high self-efficacy and a curative approach for students with low self-efficacy. Such as helping students to convince themselves that students are able to do tasks even though it is difficult and able to excel and to convince students to avoid feeling inferior about themselves. Guidance and counseling provided by BK teachers shows significant changes in some students who already have high self-efficacy. So it can be concluded that through guidance and counseling can be an effort to improve student self-efficacy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0192513X2199413
Author(s):  
Byron Miller ◽  
Savanah Catalina ◽  
Sara Rocks ◽  
Kathryn Tillman

Although attitudes toward interracial romantic relationships (IRRs) have generally improved over the years, many Americans still disapprove of their family members being in IRRs. Prior studies have examined correlates of individual-level attitudes about interracial romance, but less is known about whether family members’ attitudes are directly associated with young people’s decisions to date interracially. Using data collected from 790 romantically involved college students at two large public four-year universities, we find that young adults who believe their siblings, parents, and grandparents approve of IRRs have greater odds of dating interracially. Compared to Whites, Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be interracially involved but their decision to do so is much less dependent on the approval of their parents and grandparents. We also find young adults are more likely to date interracially if they have five or more relatives with IRR experience themselves. The findings and their implications are discussed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002214652110234
Author(s):  
Deborah Carr ◽  
Eun Ha Namkung

Adults with disability have significantly lower rates of labor force participation relative to persons without disability, although it is unclear whether this disparity extends to subjective workplace experiences. Using data from the 2004 to 2006 wave of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (n =2,030), we evaluate: (1) whether U.S. workers with physical disability report higher levels of perceived job discrimination and unequal workplace opportunities and lower levels of supervisor and coworker support and (2) whether these patterns differ by sex, age, and occupation group. We find that workers with physical disability fare significantly worse on all four outcomes net of covariates. Disability takes a particularly large toll on men’s perceived workplace opportunities and white-collar employees’ relationships with coworkers. Young adult workers (ages 30–39) with disability report significantly more support from their supervisor relative to their counterparts without disability. We discuss implications for research and policy.


Social Forces ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 1695-1718
Author(s):  
Margaret Fenerty Schumann ◽  
Anju Mary Paul

AbstractWhy do so few live-in migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Singapore utilize their weekly rest-day entitlement? Using data drawn from 3,886 online profiles of prospective MDWs and 40 interview sessions with MDWs, employers, and manpower agencies, we demonstrate how the industry encourages a “logic of submission” around rest-days. Through processual analysis, we unearth multiple, repeated moments of capitulation at key moments in a MDW’s work-life: (1) their interactions with a recruitment agency while still in their home country; (2) their matching with an overseas employer; (3) the duration of their two-year contract; and (4) the time of contract renewal. Submission to less frequent rest-days can secure their employability and financial mobility but also further individuates the MDW within the employer’s household and may lead to the engraining of a habitus of submissiveness towards their employers that can open the door to workers’ exploitation. We demonstrate how nationality and work experience further inflect this logic of submission to motivate non-Filipina and inexperienced MDWs to request even fewer rest-days than their counterparts. By combining feminist migration scholarship on Asian MDWs, with a sociology of law analysis, we offer up an example of how the same act of submission can simultaneously embody both resistance and victimhood depending upon the temporal and spatial scale used, and varying interpretations of the rest-day benefit as a much-needed respite, a monetizable benefit, or a signaling mechanism.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (7) ◽  
pp. 160131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Smith ◽  
Mark Dyble ◽  
James Thompson ◽  
Katie Major ◽  
Abigail E. Page ◽  
...  

Humans regularly cooperate with non-kin, which has been theorized to require reciprocity between repeatedly interacting and trusting individuals. However, the role of repeated interactions has not previously been demonstrated in explaining real-world patterns of hunter–gatherer cooperation. Here we explore cooperation among the Agta, a population of Filipino hunter–gatherers, using data from both actual resource transfers and two experimental games across multiple camps. Patterns of cooperation vary greatly between camps and depend on socio-ecological context. Stable camps (with fewer changes in membership over time) were associated with greater reciprocal sharing, indicating that an increased likelihood of future interactions facilitates reciprocity. This is the first study reporting an association between reciprocal cooperation and hunter–gatherer band stability. Under conditions of low camp stability individuals still acquire resources from others, but do so via demand sharing (taking from others), rather than based on reciprocal considerations. Hunter–gatherer cooperation may either be characterized as reciprocity or demand sharing depending on socio-ecological conditions.


2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marijke Verbruggen ◽  
Anneleen Forrier ◽  
Luc Sels ◽  
An Bollen

Investing in employability: whose responsibility? Investing in employability: whose responsibility? M. Verbruggen, A. Forrier, L. Sels & A. Bollen, Gedrag & Organisatie, volume 21, March 2008, pp. 56-73 Investing in employability is often regarded as a shared responsibility between employees and employers. In practice, however, not all employees and employers take up that responsibility. The Flemish government introduced an 'entitlement to external career guidance' to correct the observed deficiencies. In this article we investigate whether this entitlement can do so. In addition, we examine how employability-investment of employers affects employability-initiative of employees. We conduct a path analysis using data of 803 Flemish employees. Results indicate that employability-initiative of employers encourages employees to take on activities of their own accord, that especially proactive employees are willing to participate in external career guidance and that external career guidance can not totally compensate for a lack of employability-support of the employer.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Karell ◽  
Michael Raphael Freedman

How do sociocultural dynamics shape conflict? We develop a relational understanding of how social relations, culture, and conflict are interwoven. Using this framework, we examine how combatants' associations with cultural elements affect the interpersonal relationships underlying conflict dynamics, as well as how these relationships engender associations to cultural elements. To do so, we first introduce a novel analytical approach that synthesizes computational textual analysis and stochastic actor-oriented models of longitudinal networks. We then use our approach to analyze a two-level socio-semantic graph representing both the cultural domain and social relationships of prominent militants operating in one Afghan province, Balkh, between 1979 and 2001. Our results indicate that militants' interpersonal comradeships rely, in part, on their connections to cultural elements and relative power. Comradeship, in turn, fosters militants' connections to cultural elements. We conclude by discussing how conflict studies can continue to build on insights from cultural sociology, as well as how cultural sociology and socio-semantic network research can benefit from further engaging conflict studies and developing our analytical approach. We also highlight provisional insights into endogenous mechanisms of conflict resolution and cultural change.


Author(s):  
Takako Hashimoto ◽  
David Lawrence Shepard ◽  
Tetsuji Kuboyama ◽  
Kilho Shin ◽  
Ryota Kobayashi ◽  
...  

Abstract During a disaster, social media can be both a source of help and of danger: Social media has a potential to diffuse rumors, and officials involved in disaster mitigation must react quickly to the spread of rumor on social media. In this paper, we investigate how topic diversity (i.e., homogeneity of opinions in a topic) depends on the truthfulness of a topic (whether it is a rumor or a non-rumor) and how the topic diversity changes in time after a disaster. To do so, we develop a method for quantifying the topic diversity of the tweet data based on text content. The proposed method is based on clustering a tweet graph using Data polishing that automatically determines the number of subtopics. We perform a case study of tweets posted after the East Japan Great Earthquake on March 11, 2011. We find that rumor topics exhibit more homogeneity of opinions in a topic during diffusion than non-rumor topics. Furthermore, we evaluate the performance of our method and demonstrate its improvement on the runtime for data processing over existing methods.


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