George M. Guthrie

The Philippine Nonverbal Intelligence Test

Summary Problems arising from the cultural bias of intelligence tests can be reduced by developing new tests within the society in which they are to be used. With the use of an item format in which S points to one of five illustrations which does not belong with the other four, a nonverbal test of 100 items was developed by Filipinos for Filipino children. Standardized on 1200 school children in the Philippines, the test showed high reliability and satisfactory validity. Results indicate that different norms are needed for urban and rural children. The format readily permits new items and a new analysis when new cultural groups are tested.

Belief systems and breast feeding among Filipino urban poor

Mothers living in squatter areas of a Philippine city were interviewed each month for a year beginning from 3 months prior to 3 months after delivery. Special attention was paid to beliefs and practices that influenced the continuation of lactation. During pregnancy women severely restricted their gain in weight, thereby limiting fat reserves for later milk production. Rituals were observed after delivery to assure adequate milk of good quality. Once established, lactation might be interrupted if the mother felt that her temperature was different from the babys. These differences in temperature might come from warm or cold food or drinks, being caught in the rain or working in the sun. Breast feeding was often terminated if the baby developed diarrhea or if mother or child became ill. A program designed to support and encourage breast feeding must take indigenous belief systems into account. Mothers want to nurse their babies and they want to have an adequate supply of what they consider good milk. Their belief systems, beginning with weight gain during pregnancy, and including the need for rituals after delivery may curtail and/or delay early lactation. Subsequently, they may terminate breast feeding if the baby or mother have certain folk-defined illnesses. Women hold these beliefs and at the same time accept many of the beliefs and practices of modern medicine. Family and neighborhood pressures may prompt them to curtail or eliminate breast feeding when indigenous beliefs are invoked even though these beliefs are contrary to currently accepted medical opinions. We do not have satisfactory education and persuasion programs to deal with traditional beliefs and practices that we believe to be harmful.

The Resurgence of Natural Child Feeding: A Study of 129 Middle Class Mothers in a College Community

By contrast to these American data, 89 per cent of Philippine mothers were breast feeding~ as were equally high percentages in some European Catii3trles.’ Indeed, a majority of the world’s babies are fed this way. In a British hospital, where patients were urged strongly to breast feed, some 83 per cent of mothers attempted this method four days after delivery and by two weeks the percentage who were continuing was still 60. After one month 60 per cent of mothers from professional classes while only 3£1 per cent from families of unskilled workers were breast feed-

PERSONALITY MEASUREMENT: DO THE SCALES HAVE SIMILAR MEANINGS IN ANOTHER CULTURE?

There has been a good deal of discussion in recent years about the transfer of technology from industrialized to developing countries. It may, therefore, be appropriate to consider the degree to which the technology of personality measurement can be transferred from one society to another. Can English-speaking Filipinos, for instance, use a test developed in the United States without having to repeat the steps of scale construction and standardization? Translation, of course, makes the transfer of tests a much more complicated matter. Avoiding the problem of translation by using Filipino students fluent in English, we are asking the question whether scales developed and standardized with Americans are measuring the same traits when they are answered by Filipino students. Does a high score on Achievement or Aggression or Dominance imply the same constellation of behaviour patterns with Filipinos as it does with Americans? More fundamentally, one has to ask the question whether the concepts of achievement, aggression or dominance can be used in a second society without extensive modification. It is not merely a question of transfer of tests, which may not be very important, but the transfer of the very conceptual systems themselves, as applied to human behaviour.

A Social-Psychological Analysis of Modernization in the Philippines

Four field studies of aspects of modernization in the Philippines are summarized: transitory ownership of space in a city, the development of the fishing industry in a provincial town, the practices of market vendors, and the development of modern attitudes. Processes of change and resistance are interpreted with reference to laboratory studies of cross-situational consistency, gaming strategies, avoidance learning, and operant conditioning.

Symptoms of Stress in Four Societies

Summary A questionnaire of 33 items concerning reactions to stressful situations was administered to samples of French, American, Filipino, and Haitian college students. Differences in reported frequency were found for sex, level of industrialization, language, and nationality. Factor analyses of the total sample and of male and female national samples revealed cultural differences in patterns of reaction with French speakers showing different combinations of physical and cognitive disruptions.

Early termination of breastfeeding among Philippine urban poor.

The research objective was to identify factors that caused mothers to terminate breastfeeding prematurely, i.e., before the infant reached his or her 1st birthday. Nursing for at least 1 year was a minimum goal of health authorities in the area of this research. The study was conducted in 2 urban poor areas and in 2 fringe squatter settlements of Cebu City, a metropolitan area of 500,000 people in the central Philippines. The data were collected by 2 women field workers. The 130 participants, who were within 3 months of delivery, pre- or postpartum were recruited in 1979. They were visited in their homes once a month by the worker who weighed the mother and the baby, inquired about their diets, and recorded breastfeeding experiences and plans. Special attention was given to any problems the mothers were having that might interfere with continued nursing. Other than encouraging mothers to use the local health center, workers did not intervene to support breastfeeding. The mothers were followed for at least the crucial 1st 6 months. Many were followed for a year or more. Of those who agreed to participate prior to delivery, and who composed 1/3 of the total group, some 95% initiated breastfeeding. Of the 3 who did not, 2 tried to nurse but gave up when the newborn showed persistent diarrhea. Between 10-20% of babies were on a mixed diet of breast and bottle feeding, some beginning as early as the 1st month when mothers returned to part-time work. Other mothers, feeling that the babies were not getting enough to eat, added bottles regularly. This pattern did not necessarily lead to the early termination of breastfeeding. With the exception of 2 instances when mothers decided that their babies were big enough to get along without breast milk, the mothers were forced by circumstances as they perceived them to wean the child. Almost all the terminations were abrupt, with the mother continuing to have an adequate supply of milk. The insufficient milk situation reported by 9 mothers is an exception. In most cases, stopping was a crisis, because the mothers felt that to continue would endanger the child while to stop would sacrifice the benefits of breastfeeding. The major reasons for early termination are discussed: diarrhea, insufficient milk, returning to work, mother sick or pregnant, infant refuses the breast or is not growing, and milk is salty or not good.

AN EVALUATION OF THE VALIDITY OF THE PERSONALITY RESEARCH FORM WITH FILIPINO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract The cross-cultural validity of a North American personality inventory, namely, the Personality Research Form (Jackson 1984) was examined using 394 university students in the Philippines who were able to speak and read English. Scale validities, with self and peer ratings as criteria, were generally significant but modest. Moderate scale and peer rating reliabilities probably contributed to these results. Elevated scores on a PRF scale designed to detect careless responding suggested failure to understand instructions or insufficient motivation may also account for the findings. Interestingly. recalculating validities for subsamples comprising ‘dependable’ and ‘undependable’ subjects yielded no substantial differences in overall validity. Implications for cross-cultural personality assessment are discussed.

Determinants of Political Party Preference

rather than the factors that cause respondents to reply the way they do. A second approach, which might be referred to as demographic, seeks to relate voting statistics to a wide range of factors, primarily social, economic, ethnic, and religious. Knowledge of these factors without any knowledge of individual preferences within the group permits prediction of voting choice with a rather high degree of accuracy. Still another, in which category this study falls, is an attempt to study the factors operating on an individual which cause him to make a certain choice, or to change his choice. An extensive review of the psychology of voting has been presented by Lipset, Lazarsfeld, Barton, and Linz in Lindzey (6). A major portion of their review is devoted to the study of political behavior through an analysis of voting statistics. Their review of panel technique studies indicated that voters’ choices were analysed most frequently by the study of demographic or social factors. Rarely has the individual, as an individual, been followed intensively in a panel. The rdle of personal experience and personality structure in the formation and retention of attitudes on political and social issues has been studied intensively by Smith, Bruner, and White (9). These authors studied a small number of people in an attempt to relate ideographically their opinions about communism to their total outlook on life. They were able to show how the particular personality structure of each of their subjects constituted a stabilizing and unifying framework for their attitudes toward communism and Russia, These opinions were not simply random events but were closely allied to the personality characteristics of each subject. Studies of voting choice and psychological test data have been most fre

Maintenance and termination of breast feeding in rural and urban Philippine communities.

Three samples of Filipino mothers from urban and rural settings with at least 1 baby less than 2 years of age were interviewed. There was a unanimous preference for breastfeeding. About 90% succeeded in starting breastfeeding and at least half continued until the baby was at least 1 year old. Those who failed cited no milk or insufficient milk, or that the mother had an acute or chronic illness at the time of delivery, as reasons for termination of breastfeeding. Others found breastfeeding too painful to continue, and some became pregnant within 3 months of delivery. At 1 year of age, the child was considered old enough to take the same food as the family, and nursing was not encouraged. Another pregnancy was the most common cause for termination at almost every age interval. Folk beliefs and practices also contributed to unnecessary weaning from breastfeeding.