White "starter" persons in Los Angeles were asked to generate acquaintance chains to white and Negro target persons in New York, using the "small world method." The mean number of intermediaries between starters and target persons was similar to that found in earlier studies, approximately five to six, and this remained constant over differences in race of the target person. The number of completed chains was two and one-half times as great for white targets as for Negro targets. Explanations to account for the results are discussed.
A study of 100 elderly people was carried out to compare the predictions of well-being derived from the confidant model with those derived from the Weiss model. The confidant model predicts that the most important feature of a person's social network for the well-being of that person is whether or not the person has a confidant. The Weiss model states that different persons are needed to fulfill the different needs of the person and in particular that a confidant is important to the need for intimacy and emotional security while a peer group of social friends is needed to fulfill sociability and identity needs. The two models were evaluated by comparing the relative influence of the confidant variable with the peer group variable on subject's well-being. Regression analysis was carried out on the well-being measure using as predictor variables the confidant variable, peer group variable, age, health, and financial status. The confidant and peer group variables were of equal importance to well-being, thus confirming the Weiss model.
An examination of urban‐nonurban differences in several aspects of social behavior shows that urbanites are different only in limited ways from their less urban counterparts. In an urban environment, there does appear to be less social contact between neighbors and less helpfulness and consideration shown toward strangers, while social contact between relatives and between friends is no different from what is found in smaller‐sized communities. These findings are most consistent with the urban impact models proposed by Milgram and Fischer, while they disconfirm Wirth's model. A fourth model developed by Gans seems also disconfirmed by this pattern of urban‐nonurban differences, though the Gans model is less firmly tied to the expectation of overall urban‐nonurban differences. A case is made in the paper that the city's influence on social behavior seems mediated by situational forces rather than by alterations of individual personalities. The paper concludes with an account of recent research on urban social behavior in Turkey. This study found urban‐nonurban differences on a number of measures, as well as differences within Turkish cities between an urban sample and a sample of squatter settlement residents, who resembled the town dwellers in their social behavior.
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