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On The Meaning of Alienation
Abstract
The problem of alienation is a pervasive theme in the classics of sociology, and the concept has a prominent place in contemporary work. This paper seeks to accomplish two tasks: to present an organized view of the uses that have been made of this concept; and to provide an approach that ties the historical interest in alienation to the modern empirical effort. Five alternative meanings of alienation are identified: powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, isolation, and self-estrangement. The derivation of these meanings from traditional sociological analysis is sketched, and the necessity for making the indicated distinctions is specified. In each case, an effort is made to provide a viable research formulation of these five alternatives.
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Citations
Cited by
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Rotter, J. B. (1966) · Psychological Monographs: General and Applied · doi:10.1037/h0092976 · Cited by 21,937
Internal versus external control of reinforcement: A case history of a variable.
Rotter, J. B. (1990) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037//0003-066x.45.4.489 · Cited by 1,256
Resilience in the study of minority stress and health of sexual and gender minorities.
Meyer, I. H. (2015) · Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity · doi:10.1037/sgd0000132 · Cited by 1,152
Evolutionary Personality Psychology
Buss, D. M. (1991) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.ps.42.020191.002331 · Cited by 930
A meta-analysis and review of organizational research on job involvement.
Brown, S. P. (1996) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037//0033-2909.120.2.235 · Cited by 855
Metadata
- Authors
- Seeman, M.
- Venue
- American Sociological Review
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1959-12
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 783
- ISSN
- 0003-1224 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2321180122
- Cited by
- 1,940
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 32.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Seeman, M. (1959). On The Meaning of Alienation. American Sociological Review. https://doi.org/10.2307/2088565
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