Peter Callero

Western Oregon University | WOU · Department of Sociology

This chapter explores the intricate relationships between identity, meritocracy, and freedom.

Conversations about liberty in the U.S. often focus on freedom from – such as freedom from government. This focus can sometimes come at the expense of the freedom to – such as the freedom for all Americans to live the lives they imagine for themselves, and the conditions that might be necessary for this to be realized. In Expanding the Meaning of F...

Social identity theory offers a social psychological explanation of intergroup prejudice, discrimination, and conflict. Its origins lie in the work of Henri Tajfel (Tajfel and Turner, 1979) and his associates who have been instrumental in the development of a distinctly European approach to psychology. This approach is broadly concerned with the re...

What form of politics and political engagement is most likely to promote an altruistic orientation, resolve moral conflicts, and facilitate social solidarity in modern society? Durkheim believed that the answer to this question is to be found in an elitist form of liberal democracy where a strong and active state functions as an “organ of reflectio...

A unique feature of human social structures is that they emerge from symbolic interaction. For this reason, self and identity processes are foundational to the study of social inequality. This chapter reviews research that demonstrates support for the relationship between identity and inequality at three levels of analysis: person, interaction, and...

Author's introduction The process of globalization can be defined in neutral terms as the increasing cross‐border flows of goods (e.g., coca‐cola, cocaine), services (e.g., McDonalds, prostitution), money (e.g. family cash, corporate banking), people (e.g., migration, vacation), information (e.g., internet, movies), and culture (e.g., fashion, reli...

The process of globalization is transforming society with unprecedented speed and scope. Along the way, social roles are being altered and identities are being transformed. How do the forces of globalization shape the self? How do changes to the self affect social relationships and alter larger social structures? This paper offers a conceptual fram...

Social identity theory offers a social psychological explanation of intergroup prejudice, discrimination, and conflict. Its origins lie in the work of Henri Tajfel (Tajfel & Turner 1979) and his associates who have been instrumental in the development of a distinctly European approach to psychology. This approach is broadly concerned with the relat...

In this paper we argue for the incorporation of critical pedagogy in the teaching of sociology. We first establish the theoretical and emancipatory rationale for critical pedagogy with a review of the neomarxist concept of reproduction. We then examine a specific application of critical pedagogy in the sociology curriculum of Western Oregon Univers...

The increasing demand for voluntarily donated blood has generated research concerned with the development of commitment to regular blood donation. Taking a developmental perspective, this paper explores the longitudinal impact of background, situational, and dispositional factors measured at one's first donation. Questionnaire responses from a samp...

A conceptualization of role that transcends traditional structural and interactionist conceptualizations is developed. Following Mead, a role is said to be both a social object and a perspective; thus allowing for both universal and personal features. Implications for structural symbolic interactionism, various conceptualizations of structure, and...

While the interactionist tradition of sociological role theory has been recognized as a promising conceptual framework for linking theories of social structure and social cognition, there remains little empirical research that examines the link between cognitive structure and role behavior. Our study tests the fundamental assumption that commitment...

Abstract An emerging sociological approach to the self reflects new emphases on power, reflexivity, and social constructionism. The significance of power in shaping the self is central to a new scholarship associated with Foucault. This body of work offers an important corrective to traditional sociological orientations associated with Mead and sym...

The theoretical tradition of symbolic interactionism is often criticized by more macro-oriented sociologists for its failure to consider and develop issues of power that go beyond the dynamics of interpersonal relations. During the decades of the 1960’s and 70’s critics such as (1970) and (1973) chastised symbolic interactionists and microoriented...

In this chapter we offer a conceptual framework for the understanding of public service that allows for the incorporation of sociological themes of organizational structure and institutional power. We build on sociological conceptualizations of the self found in role identity theory, using examples from research on health care workers to show how r...

Any attempt to conceptualize social structure must ultimately confront the dilemma posed by the problem of agency. The emerging consensus among sociologists is that society consists of both powerful, determining structures and actors that posses a degree of efficacy, freedom, and creative independence. This paper is an attempt to aid in developing...

The Burke-Tully technique for the measurement of role-identity offers a theoretically sophisticated quantitative measure of self-in-role. Since its development it has been used to explain a wide range of behaviors from a symbolic interactionist perspective. Three general problem areas, however, challenge its reliability and validity: (1) the identi...

Sociologists generally study macrolevel institutions and social processes with little reference to the individual. Psychologists, on the other hand, tend to study individual-level processes with little reference to society. This volume, featuring contributions from influential scholars in US social psychology, brings the link between the individual...

Sociologists generally study macrolevel institutions and social processes with little reference to the individual. Psychologists, on the other hand, tend to study individual-level processes with little reference to society. This volume, featuring contributions from influential scholars in US social psychology, brings the link between the individual...

In this study we compare predictions derived from the theory of reasoned action and identity theory regarding intentions to give blood and blood donation behavior over a seven-month period. Using a sample of 658 blood donors stratified by number of donations, we found that the addition of measures of the importance of the blood donor role identity,...

Dominant approaches to the study of helping behavior are characterized by an empirical focus on temporally isolated acts of helping with little concern either for social structure or for interactional history. We suggest that Mead's conceptualization of role offers a unique theoretical basis for incorporating dimensions of both social structure and...

A collection of original papers on the nature of AIDS social research, this volume brings together anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and public health researchers to consider the methodological, empirical, and conceptual aspects of the problem. Unlike other studies, which focus on the medical and epidemiological aspects of AIDS, this st...

The concept of role-identity salience plays a critical role in many contemporary discussions of the self-concept. It has also been invoked, in one form another, in a variety of other areas within sociology. However, there has been conspicuously little empirical investigation of the concept. This paper attempts to fill this void with an empirical ex...

In 1971, Richard Titmuss published a book called The Gift Relationship in which he compared the British and American blood collection and distribution systems. Speaking of the British system, which is based entirely on the voluntary Community donor, he described such donation as “a free gift of blood to unnamed strangers” (p. 239). In this chapter,...

Explores the possibility that one of undoubtedly several interacting motives behind commitment to regular blood donation is the development of an affective "addiction" to the behavior, based on initial anxiety, through the mechanisms postulated by opponent-process theory. Pre- and post-donation responses to 1,846 blood donation experiences were sub...