Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Theory of Status Achievement

博士论文研究：地位成就理论

• 批准号: 0402607
• 负责人: Edgar Kiser
• 金额: $ 0.75万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-04-01 至 2006-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0402607&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Theory; Status

This dissertation studies how status affects peoples' investment in voluntary associations. According to the proposed theory, the utility of status takes the form of positive self evaluations that occur when people interact in groups with shared focal activities. Therefore relative performance in the activity becomes a source of incentives, and desire to control the level of performance should affect investment. Rational actor and identity theories have neglected this foundation for explaining investment, and therefore status achievement may solve some long-standing anomalies in the explanation of costly participation. Although status is expected to affect investment similarly across social settings, comparisons will also be used to reveal the limits of the theory, and show how status achievement processes may vary across institutional settings. Three types of analyses are employed: (1) Agent based simulation is used to model the micro level process and to develop conditional expectations for the empirical analyses. (2) Longitudinal analyses test the individual level implication that investment depends on status and change in status. (3) Cross group comparisons reveal the scope limitations of the theory. Data are drawn from recently published ethnographies on avocations, vocations, and social movements. This project will assemble longitudinal datasets from a range of online groups and study how status and change in status affects level of investment. The broader impacts of this research will include substantive, theoretical, and practical benefits. Substantively, this research helps explain how social settings generate status incentives and alter patterns of investment. Understanding this process should be valuable to leaders of groups (e. g., managers, teachers) who often need to motivate members to invest their time and resources in the group. Theoretically, status achievement can explain why people invest in high cost activities when alternative paradigms (rational actor theory) predict they will not invest. The theory also describes a general micro-foundation for explaining investment in groups, and therefore the development of social capital. Finally, the study will generate several data sets of practical use to scholars of voluntary associations and online discussion groups. These data will be available from the International Consortium for Political and Social Research after the primary analyses are completed.

本文研究地位如何影响人们对自愿协会的投资。 根据拟议的理论，地位的实用性采取了当人们以共同的焦点活动群体互动时发生的积极自我评估的形式。 因此，活动的相对表现成为激励措施的来源，控制绩效水平的愿望应影响投资。 理性演员和身份理论忽略了这一基础来解释投资，因此，地位成就可以解决一些长期存在的异常，以解释昂贵的参与。 尽管预期地位会在整个社会环境中类似地影响投资，但还将使用比较来揭示该理论的局限性，并展示地位成就过程如何在机构环境中如何变化。 采用了三种类型的分析：（1）基于代理的仿真来对微级别的过程进行建模并为经验分析开发条件期望。 （2）纵向分析测试个人级别的含义，即投资取决于状态和状态的变化。 （3）跨组比较揭示了该理论的范围限制。 数据来自最近发表的有关助教，职业和社会运动的民族志。该项目将从一系列在线组中组装纵向数据集，并研究状态和变化如何影响投资水平。这项研究的更广泛影响将包括实质性，理论和实际收益。 这项研究实质上有助于解释社会环境如何产生状态激励措施和改变投资模式。 了解这一过程对于经常需要激励成员在小组中投入时间和资源的团体的领导者（例如，经理，教师）应该很有价值。 从理论上讲，地位成就可以解释为什么人们在替代范式（理性演员理论）预测他们不会投资时投资高成本活动。 该理论还描述了一种一般的微观基础，用于解释群体的投资，从而解释社会资本的发展。 最后，该研究将为自愿协会和在线讨论小组的学者生成几个实际使用数据集。 主要分析完成后，将从国际政治和社会研究联盟获得这些数据。