Mobility Orientation and Stratification of 1,000 Ninth Graders

Abstract

able terms. There is a danger in this, for if the sociologist begins to talk like a physician, he may eventually come to act like a physician and even to think like a physician. If he sacrifices his identity as a sociologist, he loses the unique contribution he can make to medicine. At the same time the sociologist who resolutely sticks to pure sociology in the face of demands for interpretation (and there is need for pure sociology in medicine at the right time and place) will be misunderstood, ignored or rejected. Often, to be successful he must find ways of offering his content and theory so that they will be meaningful in the physician's frame of reference. Successful adaptation for the medical sociologist may require an ability to cast his contributions in accordance with the expectations and needs of the particular medical personnel with whom he is relating. If he becomes a good chameleon, he should be able to do so without sacrificing either his integrity or his professional identification.