Goods, Bads, and the Foa Resources: Analyzing Their Operation in the New Unified Theory of Sociobehavioral Forces

Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Critical Issues in Social Justice book series (CISJ)

Abstract

In this chapter, Guillermina Jasso concludes that virtually all theoretical and empirical work in the social sciences incorporates one or another of the Foa’s six resources. One of these approaches, the new unified theory of sociobehavioral forces, posits that personal quantitative characteristics (such as wealth, skill, and other goods and bads) generate the primordial sociobehavioral outcomes (such as status, power, and the sense of justice) within groups formed by personal qualitative characteristics (such as citizenship and gender). Moreover, the theory indicates that further outcomes (e.g., love and social cohesion) arise from the individuals’ sociobehavioral outcomes (status, justice, etc.) and that the Foa resources are at work in all corners of the new unified theory. This chapter initiates an analysis of the precise ways that goods, bads, and the Foa resources operate in the new unified theory, and suggests that resource theory and the new unified theory might benefit from explicit theoretical integration.

Keywords

Eating Disorder Unify Theory Quantitative Characteristic Classical Tradition Relative Rank 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Aristotle. ([384–322 B.C.] 1952). The Works of Aristotle, 2 volumes (trans: Ross, W. D.). Chicago: Britannica Press.Google Scholar
  2. Blau, P. M. (1974). Presidential address: Parameters of social structure. American Sociological Review, 39, 615–635.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Danto, A. C. (1967). Philosophy of science, problems of. In P. Edwards (Ed.), Encyclopedia of philosophy (Vol. 6, pp. 296–300). New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
  4. Foa, U. G. (1971). Interpersonal and economic resources. Science (New Series), 171, 345–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Foa, U. G., Converse, J., Törnblom, K., & Foa, E. N. (1993). Resource theory: Explorations and applications. San Diego: Academic.Google Scholar
  6. Goode, W. J. (1978). The celebration of heroes: Prestige as a control system. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
  7. Homans, G. C. (1974). Social behavior: Its elementary forms (Revisedth ed.). New York: Harcourt/Brace/Jovanovich.Google Scholar
  8. Jasso, G. (1978). On the justice of earnings: A new specification of the justice evaluation function. American Journal of Sociology, 83, 1398–1419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Jasso, G. (1980). A new theory of distributive justice. American Sociological Review, 45, 3–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Jasso, G. (1988). Distributive-justice effects of employment and earnings on marital cohesiveness: An empirical test of theoretical predictions. In M. Webster & M. Foschi (Eds.), Status generalization: New theory and research (pp. 123–162 [references, pp. 490–493]). Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
  11. Jasso, G. (1990). Methods for the theoretical and empirical analysis of comparison processes. Sociological Methodology, 20, 369–  419. Press.Google Scholar
  12. Jasso, G. (2001a). Comparison theory. In J. H. Turner (Ed.), Handbook of sociological theory (pp. 669–698). New York: Kluwer/Plenum Press.Google Scholar
  13. Jasso, G. (2001b). Studying status: An integrated framework. American Sociological Review, 66, 96–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Jasso, G. (2008a). A new unified theory of sociobehavioral forces. European Sociological Review, 24, 411–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Jasso, G. (2008b). Shall we kill or enslave Caesar? Analyzing the Caesar model. Advances in Group Processes, 25, 327–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Jasso, G. (2010). Linking individuals and societies. Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 34, 1–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Jasso, G., & Kotz, S. (2007). A new continuous distribution and two new families of distributions based on the exponential. Statistica Neerlandica, 61, 305–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Plato. ([c. 428–348/7 B.C.] 1952). The dialogues of Plato (trans: Benjamin, J.). Chicago: Britannica.Google Scholar
  19. Popper, K. R. (1963). Conjectures and refutations: The growth of scientific knowledge. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
  20. Smiles, S. (1875). Thrift. London: J. Murray.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. Sørensen, A. B. (1979). A model and a metric for the analysis of the intragenerational status attainment process. American Journal of Sociology, 85, 361–84.Google Scholar
  22. Toulmin, S. (1978). Science, philosophy of. In The new encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia 16 (15th ed., pp. 375–393). Chicago: Britannica.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of SociologyNew York UniversityNew YorkUSA

Personalised recommendations