This paper reports on the relationship between the stressfulness of the social environment, smoking and mortality rates for malignant neoplasms of the respiratory system and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A macro-social approach was employed with the 50 states of the United States...

Robert Bales' theory explains rates of alcoholism in populations by the combination of socially induced stress and tension together with a normative system that promotes the use of alcohol for releasing that tension. This paper provides the first systematic test of that theory by combining the...