Sociology ETDs

Publication Date

5-25-1970

Abstract

This study is an application of the "limited case study" method to a group of drop-outs from, and to Senior cadets in, the Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps at the University of New Mexico during the years 1963-1965. Specifically, it is concerned with the reasons why some members of the Air Force ROTC attain maximum involvement in the organization and its leadership group while others do not. Involvement is the social reality which is examined. Through exposition of the sequential variables necessary for maximum involvement, the factors which produce the other levels of involvement are also explained. The "analytic induction" approach utilized has been employed in the past in the study of various social phenomena. For example, Cressey used it to study embezzlement, and Howard S. Becker applied it to an inquiry concerning the use of marijuana for pleasure. The present study explains the phenomenon investigated through what Becker terms a "sequential model,” and tests an hypothesis evolved from examination of individual Senior and drop-out interviews. These interviews were conducted and taped by a research project staff whose work was sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The data used in the present study are therefore secondary data, gathered for a project entitled "Influence of a Campus Environment on Student Commitment to a Para-Military Organization." The principal value of the study to sociological research is found in the universality which emerges from it. The importance of what is called a "confirming experience" for an individual member in a voluntary organization is emphasized. It is shown to be a process which takes place during the social interaction between the leadership group and individual members. Thus, as in other studies where an analytic induction method is employed, the value of universal generalizations is shown to be useful: (1) in the study of exceptions to those generalizations, and (2) for the acquisition of a better understanding of the ways in which the objective characteristics of a group of people and their subjective reactions are related.

Degree Name

Sociology

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Sociology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Charles E. Woodhouse

Second Committee Member

Morris Allan Forslund

Third Committee Member

Harold Charles Meier

Project Sponsors

AFOSR Grant Nr 507-64 and 507-65

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

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