A Tension Theory of Societal Action
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5251000 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stuart C Dodd (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1939 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 56 |
| Publication date | 1939-02-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Sociological Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-1224 • E-ISSN: 1939-8271 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2084994 |
| OpenAlex | W2321282000 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
EFINITIONS. The first assumption in this theory is that behavior is determined by the principle that People objects of meaning that people continually want objects of psychic and physiological satisfaction and therefore behave so as to increase or retain such objects.Let the term designate an object of value, i.e., anything desired by people, since value has many confusing connotations. To make this platitude useful, as in an equation from which we can solve for unknowns, let P be the number of people desiring specified desideratum, let D be their average intensity of for it,' and let V denote the available quantity of that desideratum. Thus, twenty athletic competitors may one of three prizes with an average intensity of expressible in standard deviation units on some behavioristic scale, such as the number of hours each will spend in training for that contest, or on an attitude scale of endorsing such statements as, I would rather win this prize than graduate. (P = 2o, D = x?, V= 3.) Towards defining these three basic concepts, note that positive desideratum is anything towards which people behave so as to increase it or retain it. A negative desideratum is that towards which they behave so as to decrease it or avoid it. Desiderata may be economic goods and services, or political office, mate, graduation, prestige, a clear conscience, or any other tangible or intangible object of conscious or unconscious desire. Such objects are desiderata strictly relative to specified persons at specified times. While the object may be unchanged, the for it, the evaluation of it, may vary, of course, between persons and dates. This variable intensity of is very difficult to observe objectively, but, with ingenuity in research, attitudinal and behavioristic indicators of are being progressively developed.2 The concept of desire should be interpreted
Action (physics · Classical mechanics · Physics · Political science · Sociology · Tension (geology · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.04 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1945 - 1973 (29) |
| Highly cited | No |