CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 716Qualitative Comparative Analysis ResearchCritical Realism in SociologyContemporary Sociological Theory and Practice

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 59 of the 59 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Transcending General Linear Reality

Abbott, Andrew·1988·Sociological Theory
DOI 10.2307/202114
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

This paper argues that the dominance of linear models has led many sociologists to construe the social world in terms of a general linear reality. This reality assumes (1) that the social world consists of fixed entities with variable attributes, (2) that cause cannot flow from small to large attributes/events, (3) that causal attributes have only one causal pattern at once, (4) that the sequence of events does not influence their outcome, (5) that the careers of entities are largely independent, and (6) that causal attributes are generally independent of each other. The paper discusses examples of these assumptions in empirical work, considers standard and new methods addressing them, and briefly explores alternative models for reality that employ demographic, sequential, and network perspectives.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.2307/202114

Cites

59 of 59 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Show all 59 references

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 501–600 of 709

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Abbott, A.
Corresponding author
Abbott, Andrew
ORCID
Abbott, Andrew
Venue
Sociological Theory
Publisher
JSTOR
Published
1988
Volume
6
Issue
2
Pages
169
ISSN
0735-2751 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.2307/202114
OpenAlex
W2011306009
Cited by
716
References
59
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 36 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 54 · 2018: 40 · 2017: 33 · 2016: 33 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 28
FWCI
12.46
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Sociological Theory (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Critical Realism in Sociology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice
Keywords
general linear model, linear models, causal inference, network models, demographic models, sequential model, sociology of knowledge

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review