Change and Stability: A Cross-national Analysis of Social Structure and Personality

In societies that experience rapid social transformation, does an individual's social position have a major influence on their personality? Exploring this, and related questions, Melvin Kohn presents a detailed overview of how social structure relates to personality in a variety of different countries in vastly different political and social contexts. Case studies include the US, communist Poland, Japan, and Poland and the Ukraine during their transition to capitalism.

Table of Contents:
List of Tables and Figures, Preface, Acknowledgments, 1. Social Structure and Personality under Conditions of Apparent Social Stability: The United States, Japan, and Poland, 2. Doing Social Research under Conditions of Radical Social Change: The Biography of an Ongoing Research Project, 3. Rationale and Research Design for the Comparative Study of Poland and Ukraine under Conditions of Radical Social Change, 4. Class, Stratification, and Personality under Conditions of Radical Social Change: A Comparative Analysis of Poland and Ukraine, 5. Extending the Analysis to the Nonemployed: Part 1. Complexity of Activities and Personality under Conditions of Radical Social Change, 6. Extending the Analysis to the Nonemployed: Part 2. Structural Location and Personality during the Transformation of Poland and Ukraine, 7. Social Structure and Personality during the Process of Radical Social Change: A Study of Ukraine in Transition, 8. Reflections, Appendix: My Two Visits to My Mother’s Village: A Glimpse at Social Change in Rural Ukraine, References, Index, About the Author

About the Author :
Melvin Kohn is a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, is former president of the American Sociological Association and author of many acclaimed research books and articles.

Review :

“Change and Stability is the culmination of more than five decades of research conducted by Melvin Kohn, one of the most influential scholars working in the social structure and personality tradition. … One of Kohn’s most valuable contributions is explicating the proximate pathways that link the macro and micro: he has demonstrated persuasively that the nature of one’s social and occupational roles, particularly the opportunity to practice self-direction and intellectual flexibility, account for part of the link between social stratification and personality. … By reading his book, they may acquire important insights into how an esteemed scholar conceptualizes, develops, and carries out a methodologically rigorous and theoretically cohesive research program, amasses data to evaluate hypotheses across a range of social and cultural contexts, develops enduring and successful research collaborations, and navigates the practical challenges of research. … One of the main contributions of Change and Stability is that the book does not simply describe the results of sociological research; rather, it describes the process and politics of carrying out an influential program of research over the span of a more than five-decade career. ”
—Social Forces

“Melvin Kohn has labored almost a half century examining the relationship between social structure and personality. In this volume, he describes the origin, development, and testing of that relationship in two stable societies and two others undergoing change…an important methodological contribution.”
—William Form, in Contemporary Sociology, Ohio State University