Extending Expectation States Theory: Comparative Status Models of Participation in N Person Groups

Abstract

This paper develops some ideas consistent with expectation states theory about how status affects participation in status differentiated task groups larger than the dyad. The aim is to provide a precise account of the distribution of participation in n person task groups. The basic assumption is one implicit in expectation states theory, namely, that the behavioral effects of an actor's status derive from how it compares with the status attributed to others in the group. The key concept, then, is the actor's comparative status. The theory of participation is set out formally and its implications tested using Caudill's data on participation in the daily administrative conferences of a psychiatric hospital. The theoretical expectations are supported, the better account being given by a model which represents the group's status structure as differentiated along a primary status dimension, position in the hospital hierarchy, and then differentiated along a secondary status dimension, clinical competence, within groups equal in status along the primary dimension.