Perceived Expectations and Role Behavior of Socialization Agents: the Case of the School Counselor and SES Areas

Abstract

The defining and, where appropriate, modeling of supervisors, co-workers, parents, teachers, and counselors were correlated with a particular counseling activity. School counselors (N = 81) reported these perceived influences and the amount of time they devoted to talking with youths about the ways to avoid past mistakes. Inlow socioeconomic (SES) areas, counselors and teachers showed the strongest relationship with this behavior; while in high SES groups, parents provided the dominant association.As Merton (1968:42) points out, almost every position has a role set, a "complement of social relationships in which people are involved simply because they occupy a particular status" (cf. Gross et al., 1958: chap. 3). Such relationships link one position with another so that the occupants of these positions form certain expectations for each other's behavior, thereby becoming role partners. But as a member of such a complex network, a person may face certain conflicts over what constitutes appropriate behavior (cf. Gross et al., 1958: chap. 17). Resolution of these conflicts often depends on the person's own situation. Under certain circumstances, a person may adhere closely to the expectations of one set of role partners. But under other conditions, this same person may follow the dictates of a competing set. The person's perceptions of the role partners' expectations add a further complicating dimension. Little research has been devoted to this complex issue of salient relationships between perceived expectations and behavior under varying conditions.This study pursues this question through a recent line of work called force aggregation theory, which uses role notions that may seem relatively narrow compared with those of more traditional theories. But force aggregation theory has the redeeming value of showing strong associations in a variety of contexts.After describing force aggregation theory, this paper sets forth three hypotheses involving three sets of role partners for school counselors: teachers, youths, and the parents of these youths. The hypotheses relate the expectations of these role partners, as perceived by the counselors, to a counselor role behavior: the amount of time devoted to talking with youths about avoiding past mistakes. The analyses divide the counselors into two groups, one serving schools in areas with high socioeconomic status (SES), the other serving schools in low SES areas.Reprints of this article may be obtained by writing Carl Bersani, Department of Sociology, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325 *Irwin Deutscher and Lloyd B. Lueptow provided helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Socialization Agents 385Theory Force Aggregation Theory. As its name implies, force aggregation theory deals with the individual's total-or aggregate-interpersonal contacts (forces) that shape behavior along particular lines. These forces essentially consist of behavior-related information from various role partners. Force aggregation theory takes into account not merely whether this informa...