The implication is that changing individual incentives to engage in legal activity may fuel social change in some national contexts but not others, and that such contextual effects are predictable. Steven Rytina, McGill University Occupational mobility trend is compared using SSIC versus prestige and SEI scales. A preliminary survey of what occupational scales measure leads to a contrast between older, normative scales and a norm-independent conception of occupational dominance. Dominance may be assessed by three convergent algorithms that assess relative rank by taking averages over origins and destinations. These are shown, to a good approximation, to be averages over advantage, no matter how advantage is indexed.
Trend is summarized as nondecreasing and quite possibly increasing intergenerational rigidity.
Tentative evidence of a big shake-up after 1986 is presented. The declining role of education in access to rank and as mediator of ascription is described. Although scientists from various disciplines stress the importance of estimating random measurement error, these discussions have little effect on experimenters who do behavioral sociological research. In this paper I examine the role of abstract measurement theory in modern experimental sociology, giving particular emphasis to the improvement of data analysis and theory building. I detail the cause and effect of random measurement error in the laboratory and review how the reliability of behavioral data is estimated and interpreted.