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Do the portrayals of human misery in the media act to arouse our sympathy & pity? Sentiments are relevant to socialization because they determine to what extent an individual will be sensitive to the coexistence & demands of others. Lois B. Murphy's research (SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND CHILD PERSONALITY: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF THE ROOTS OF SYMPATHY, NY: Columbia U Press, 1937) is cited to show that observing violence & distress is just as likely to provoke sympathetic as aggressive impluses in children. What we define as aggression & what we consider justified aggression affects our sympathies, & our sympathetic behavior may in turn become aggressive. The general dullness of our conceptions, along with other variables, accounts for the lack of sympathy in many of us, despite wide exposure through the media to painful & distressful situations. Probably only a few individuals are capable of having their sympathies aroused as a direct result of contemporary media presentations. S. Karganovic.

A review of S. Stouffer's SOCIAL RESEARCH TO TEST IDEAS, (See SA A7116), & the contributions of Stouffer as a methodologist,empiricist, & survey analyst. Stouffer's keenness re the dangers attendant on the use of controls & multivariate analysis & his ability to graft a soc-psychol'al projection to a simple survey finding are discussed. It is noted that 'Stouffer, as the man between 2 sci'fic cultures, demography & survey res, was fortunate in seeing the possibilities, & we should follow his good example.' I. Taviss.

The concept of reference groups (RG), was coined 20 yrs ago whil studying the way individuals appraised themselves & their soc frames of reference. In the interim the concept has gained wide currency owing primarily to the careful formulation by Merton & Kitt, but certain aspects of the theory have been relatively neglected; (1) the dependence of one's self-appraisal on the RG's used as a point of comparison should receive considerably more attention. For instance while it is routine to cross-tabulate an opinion by a status variable of the R, the fact that the meaning of status is relative to some RG is usually ignored. Often several measures, such as educ & occup, with which opinions are separately related are combined in a single index, or one variable is controlled while diff's in opinion are related to the other. Handled in this orthodox way the possibly signif diff's in relation deprivation of persons having little educ & a high status occup & those with high educ & low status occup are obscured. (2) The individual as a referent in attitude formation & self-appraisal has been largely neglected compared to groups as referents. Several researchers, however, have noted the signif of interpersonal contact in attitude formation & decision-making. But, the signif of the generalized or distant referent individual who is not an intimate also merits res attention. To avoid having reference group become a 'magic term' explaining everything & anything, careful attention must be given to operational res procedures. Of note are: (a) the identification of RG's as at present in studies of the subjective meaning & identification of SC's, (b) the procedures used in the Elmira & Michigan voting studies to secure identification with various types of soc aggregates, (c) the utility of the 'guessing technique' for determining the R's extent of awareness of the reference group's norm, (d) this technique also can be used to obtain the S's awareness of differentiation in group norms, & (e) to determine the clarity with which group members perceive the norm. Another important dimension of the RG is the felt legitimacy of the group in exercising its norm. There are even simpler procedures, such as the length of group membership, which might be, but rarely are, used to indicate the extent of identification with & internationalization of group norms. C. M. Coughenour.

If theory is equated with 'middle range' theory rather than with overall synthesis then PO theory is making headway & the collection of empirical data is not antithetical to it. A review of PO res in the US during the past 20 yrs shows 2 major gaps impeding the building of middle range theories: (1) 'The continuous attention of opinion res to the transient issues of the day has meant a discontinuity in the study of particular content areas & a corresponding lack of a sound theory of soc determinants of opinion formation & change,' (2) the emphasis in opinion res on the adult pop & on a narrow psychol'al emphasis make it difficult to formulate theories on the soc substratum of PO. It is concluded that the outlook for PO theory is bright particularly if indices are developed to measure public opinion rather than individual opinion & if indices are developed to measure the normative requirements of PO in relation to varying pol'al structures. S. F. Fava.