George D. Spindler

The Instrumental Activities Inventory: A Technique for the Study of the Psychology of Acculturation

PURPOSE AND RESEARCH SITE O UR PURPOSE is to describe the development and application of a research technique that we have chosen to call the Instrumental Activities Inventory, which we feel to be particularly useful in the study of acculturating communities, and to place it in the context of our study of one particular community. We will summarize inpreliminary fashion some of the research results obtained to date, but our major emphasis is methodological. The inventory technique consists of 24 line drawings that depict specific instrumental activities in three catgeories current on our research site. By instrumental activities we mean those activities that an individual engages in for the achievement and maintenance of a life style and status in the social groups of which e is a member or aspires to be a member. The technique is applied to the Blood Indian Reserve in Alberta, Canada. It is the largest Canadian reserve, with approximately 3,000 Blood Indians in an area of 540,000 square miles. It is a rich reservation, with unusual resources of well-watered grazing and prime wheat-growing la d. A tribal herd and wheat

Measuring Peasant Attitudes to Modernization: A Projective Method [and Comments and Reply]

A photographic test for attitude measurement (PHOTAM) based on the projective principle provides an effective means for evaluating objectively as well as subjectively attitude profiles of modernizing peasants as demonstrated in a study of agricultural change in Campeche, Mexico. PHOTAM involves ten steps: (1) reconnaissance to provide an empathetic overview of the peasant group, (2) a priori selection of attitudes postulated for resolving the research problem, (3) assembly of a set of photographs showing explicit scenes familiar to the group to serve as projective objects, (4) selection of a representative sample of subjects within the group, (5) standardized administration of the test photographic set to each subject, (6) translation and transcription of recorded responses, (7) coding of protocols, (8) objective an subjective interpretation of attitude profiles, (9) testing for reliability and conceptual validity of the a priori attitude structure, (10) (optional) cross-cultural testing and comparison of obtained attitude profiles. PHOTAM is a reliable, diagnostic attitude measurement device which should prove valuable in development planning and the testing of within-group and between-group hypotheses concerning peasant attiudes to modernization. A projective test can yield worthwhile, valid results if structured and applied with precision.

The American Cultural Dialogue and Its Transmission.

The composition of American society American mainstream culture observing America schooling in the American cultural dialogue conflict and accommodation of mainstream and minority values religious movements in America the American hinterland mainstream and minority cultures - a Chicano perspective the Afro-American in the cultural dialogue of the United States.