Situational Patterning in Intergroup Relations

Bibliographic Data

ID5129366
AuthorsMelvin L Kohn, Robin M Williams (0000-0002-1391-5846)
Year1956
Volume21
Issue2
Pages164
Publication date1956-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-1224 • E-ISSN: 1939-8271
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2088517
OpenAlexW2317071818
LanguageEN
Citations received17

THERE is now abundant research evidence of situational variability in intergroup behavior: an ever-accumulating body of research demonstrates that allegedly prejudiced persons act in a thoroughly egalitarian manner in situations where that is the socially prescribed mode of behavior, and that allegedly unprejudiced persons discriminate in situations where they feel it is socially appropriate to do so.1 It is also well known that patterns of appropriateness in intergroup behavior have been changing with increasing tempo in recent years. The unthinkable of a short time ago has in many areas of life become the commonplace of today. For a brief period the transition from unthinkable to commonplace arouses extreme emotional fervor; but as the new definition of the becomes the socially prescribed, the fervor soon diminishes. What was for the moment an becomes, in Karl Mannheim's terms, into the framework of the society. 2 Unpatterned situations, in which definitions of appropriate conduct are in process of change, occur infrequently, and it is even more infrequent that they occur at the convenience of the research observer. Yet their importance for social change is likely to be great. In the multitude of unambiguous, patterned situations we have the raw material for documenting existing patterns of intergroup behavior. In the relatively rare unpatterned situations, however, we may hope to find important information concerning social change. It appears, for instance, that one of the most basic changes in race relations in the South is the growing uncertainty of all concerned about what is appropriate, proper intergroup behavior. This, along with the decreased personal interaction between whites and Negroes (especially middleand upper-class Negroes), is compounded with the relative impersonality of the new urban South, to create an unprecedented in which further changes can occur with a rapidity that would have been thought impossible only a few years ago. The social scientist who wishes to study the processes by which unpatterned situations come to be defined by their participants is faced with several major problems, not the least of which is the difficulty of finding situations that can be studied systematically. It is not sufficient to create hypothetical situations and to ask people how they think they would behave in them. People's responses to hypothetical situations are patterned in the same way as ordinary opinionitems-for example, they can be ordered into unidimensional scales. But behavior studied in actual intergroup situations has not proven scalable; such behavior encomi We wish to acknowledge our very considerable debt to our research collaborators, John P. Dean and Robert B. Johnson. John Dean was primarily responsible for inaugurating this research, and both he and Robert Johnson participated actively in the field work. t Melvin Kohn was at Cornell University at the time this research was carried out. His participation in the research was supported by the Social Science Research Council. 1 We shall define a as a series of interactions, located in space and time, and perceived by the participants as an event: in this usage situation is a delimiting term, cutting out from the flow of experience a particular series of inter-personal actions which are seen by the participants as a describable event, separable from preceding and succeeding events, constraining the participants to act in particular ways, and having its own unique consequences. 2 Although situations are in their very nature dynamic and unique, as soon as they become socialized-that is to say, built into the framework of society-they tend to become standardized to a certain extent. Thus we must distinguish between what is called patterned and unpatterned situations. [Karl Mannheim, Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction, (London: Kegan Paul, Trench. Trubner. and Co 1940). n qn, 1

Political science · Situational ethics · Sociology · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology

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