UNDERGRADUATES CORNER

Welcome to the Undergraduate Corner!
The descriptions you see below offer brief summaries of some of the best research occurring in the field of sociology. Each paragraph describes a recent article appearing in the American Sociological Review. We know you will find some intriguing ideas here. If you would like to read further, please contact your library to view the complete articles. Please also visit: http://asr.sagepub.com/.


I'd Like to Thank the Academy, Team Spillovers, and Network Centrality
Gabriel Rossman, UCLA; Nicole Esparza, USC; and Phillip Bonacich, UCLA
Why are certain Hollywood film actors nominated for Oscars while others are passed over? Researchers at UCLA and USC address this question with an analysis of data from the Internet Movie Database and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on almost 150,000 acting performances from 1936 to 2005. Actors are much more likely to be nominated when a film has an elite writer or director, and to a lesser extent, elite co-stars. Because elite workers (like star actors and star directors) are especially likely to work together, the fact that much work occurs in teams implies a possibility for cumulative advantage. The researchers measured star power by constructing a social network out of who outranks whom in the credits, such that a leading role with elite supporting performers implies more status than a leading role with a supporting cast of unknowns. This measure strongly predicts which actors will get nominated for Oscars (and appear on the cover of Entertainment Weekly). Curiously, how experienced an actor is does not seem to matter except insofar as it provides the opportunity for an actor to develop star power. The authors conclude that there is a very good reason why Academy Award acceptance speeches are so long—they should be, because an actor’s collaborators are largely responsible for his achievement. If the rest of us had occasion for acceptance speeches, due humility would suggest a similar practice.

Moving Out But Not Up: Economic Outcomes in the Great Migration
Suzanne C. Eichenlaub, University of Washington; Stewart E. Tolnay, University of Washington; and J. Trent Alexander, University of Minnesota
Between 1910 and 1970, millions of black and white southerners moved from the U.S. South to non-southern destinations in what is called The Great Migration. The combination of poor economic and social conditions in the South, coupled with expanding economic opportunities and a more accepting social climate for blacks in the non-south, are thought to be the main reasons why so many people moved, especially in the early years of the Great Migration. Scholars have assumed that southerners who left the South during the Great Migration improved their life circumstances by moving. Using data from the U.S. Census, sociologists from the University of Washington and the University of Minnesota test this assumption by comparing migrants who left the South with southerners who remained in the South, both those who moved within the South during the same time period and those who did not move. They compared migrants on three economic indicators: whether they were employed, how much income they earned, and their occupational standing. The researchers find that migrants who left the South did not do better economically than those who remained in the South. In fact, migrants who left the South, on average, often fared worse than those who stayed in the South.

The Myth Incarnate: Recoupling, Process, Turmoil, and Inhabited Institutions in an Urban Elementary School
Tim Hallett, Indiana University
Sociologists have long considered schools and many other organizations to have weak links between formal rules and actual work activities. Tim Hallett, a sociologist at Indiana University, examines what happens when a formal policy such as “accountability” moves from being a “myth” to a work place reality. Using data gathered from an urban elementary school over a two year period, Hallett shows how an organization moves from a loose coupling of accountability rules to a system that is tightly coupled with work practices among teachers. Ironically, the move to accountability, which was supposed to provide more order and stability, led teachers to experience great turmoil in their everyday work lives. Accountability is a major component of the federal No Child Left Behind program; in debating the program’s reauthorization, Congress should consider the unintended effects of instituting accountability practices in schools. At the school Hallett studied, accountability was translated from a rational model of how schools should operate into problematic turmoil.

Still Separate and Unequal? A City-Level Analysis of the Black-White Gap in Homicide Arrests Since 1960
Gary LaFree, University of Maryland; Eric Baumer, Florida State University; and Robert O'Brien, University of Oregon
More than four decades ago, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders prepared a national report (popularly known as the Kerner Report) that noted substantial inequalities between African Americans and others in America. The report predicted that, absent significant social change, the United States was headed toward two racially separate and unequal societies. Racial differences in violence was a key focus of the Kerner Report, as black violence rates far surpassed white violence rates in the 1960s. In a new article in the American Sociological Review, Gary LaFree, Eric Baumer, and Robert O’Brien use the Kerner Report to develop a set of hypotheses about black-white differences in violence rates and how they may have changed during the past four decades. They measure violence by looking at black and white homicide arrest rates and use census data to measure social, economic, and political conditions in 80 of the largest U.S. cities from 1960 to 2000. They find that the gap between black and white homicide arrest rates narrowed substantially in the 1960s and 1970s but stalled after the mid-1980s. Consistent with the Kerner Commission’s predictions, they find that the racial gap in homicide arrests declined substantially in cities where black-white differences in the prevalence of single-parent families declined and in cities that experienced greater population growth. By contrast, the race gap in homicide arrests widened in cities with an increasing ratio of black to white drug arrests. Contrary to the Kerner Report, racial integration had no discernible impact on the black to white homicide arrest ratio. There has been much progress in reducing race-based differences in arrests for violent crimes in American cities since 1960, but at current rates it will be many years before the concerns about two separate societies will be finally put to rest.

Social Change and Socioeconomic Disparities in Health over the Life Course in China: A Cohort Analysis
Feinian Chen, North Carolina State University; Yang Yang, University of Chicago; and Guangya Liu, North Carolina State University
Does the health gap between individuals with higher and lower socioeconomic status (SES) increase or narrow when people age? Is the process different for people who were born at different time periods? An article in the February issue of the American Sociological Review tries to answer these questions in the context of China, a country that has undergone dramatic social changes in recent decades. Consistent with recent U.S. studies, the researchers find that people with higher SES have better health than individuals in the lower SES group in China – and this advantage increases as people age. They also find that people born at different time periods experience the process of health decline differently. For example, education and income have stronger positive influences on health for people who were born in the 1930s than for those who were born in the 1960s. This cohort effect is different from that found in studies of the United States. These cross-national differences could be due to the relationship between SES and health behavior, China’s stage of health transition, and the changing power of the state government.

Is There a Downside to Shooting for the Stars? Unrealized Educational Expectations and Symptoms of Depression
John R. Reynolds, Florida State University and Chardie L. Baird, Kansas State University
Should we encourage all high school students to get a college degree? The vast majority of today’s high school students report that they expect to complete a college degree in the future, but many will not achieve these plans. Are there lasting emotional consequences of failing to realize one’s expectations? Should we counsel high school students with less college potential to lower their expectations, and thereby spare them the depression and self-doubt that might come from unrealized plans? In an article in the February issue of the American Sociological Review, sociologists John R. Reynolds and Chardie L. Baird find that students are not harmed by aiming high but falling short. Drawing on data from two national surveys of youth, Reynolds and Baird find clear evidence that concerns about unrealized educational expectations leading to depression among young adults is misplaced. Being overly ambitious presents no lasting mental health risk, at least for depression, among young adults. On the contrary, higher expectations are associated with fewer symptoms of depression in adulthood. In fact, the only way to guarantee negative mental health outcomes is by not trying. Aiming high and failing is not detrimental to mental health, while trying may lead to higher achievements and resulting mental and material benefits. The results suggest there are no emotional downsides to teachers and parents encouraging all students, even unpromising ones, to “shoot for the stars.”