Making Good on a Promise: The Impact of Larger Social Structures on Commitments

Abstract

We present here research on the impact of three levels of social structure – large-scale, intermediate, and proximate – on commitment to three types of role-related relationships: family, work, and voluntary associational. This research is carried out using data from a sample survey of Whites, Blacks, and Latinos drawn from a five-county area of southern California. The central problem of this paper is to explicate the social structural sources of commitment to social network relationships. Our interest in this problem arises out of earlier work on Identity Theory.

Citation

Stryker, S., Serpe, R.T. and Hunt, M.O. (2005), "Making Good on a Promise: The Impact of Larger Social Structures on Commitments", Thye, S.R. and Lawler, E.J. (Ed.) Social Identification in Groups (Advances in Group Processes, Vol. 22), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 93-123. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0882-6145(05)22004-0