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Presents an introductory statement to the July 1963 issue of "The Journal of Social Issues."

Based on data from 1,521 families in the City of Cebu, the second largest city in the Philippines, this paper reports on the structure and role constellations of the urban family in Cebu. Findings include: (1) Kin solidarity is a function of both the class and the ethnic variations. The unilateral system of the Chinese family and its economic functions reinforce the clan solidarity but are in-adaptive to the political structure. The bilateral system of the mestizo ad the Filipino family is more responsive to the polity than the Chinese kinship system. (2) The peer-group system serves as an agent in the shaping of conjugal roles in the nuclear unit. (3) Sex-segregated friendship patterns in the community greatly influence the affective relations between husband ad wife. (4) Finally, such segregated role relationships within the nuclear unit give the wife a greater monopoly and autonomy of household decisions and family activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on part of the analysis of data of a sample of East Indian children whose perceptions of parental preferences were studied by means of an adoption story—a technique used in an American study by Hartley et al. The Indian study confirmed the American finding of "no generalized partiality for either sex" in perceptions of children and same-sex preference of the story father figure, but it failed to confirm similar-sex preference of the story mother figure. Cross-cultural differences are discussed in light of indian culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hill's typology of comparative family research is a challenging attempt to classify international, e.g., cross-cultural, research. This paper intends to criticize some details of this classification, particularly concerning methodological issues. The main point stressed here is the problem of the reconceptualization of the research problem for each different country in which the research has to be carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-national comparisons represent for the social scientist a combination of challenging opportunities and of tricky methodological pitfalls. The opportunities lie in the chance such comparisons provide of shaking hypotheses free from particular sets of cultural entanglements and for catching strategic variables in new ranges and combinations. The pitfalls lie not only in the problems to be faced in the cross-national translation of variables, but also in the fact that most such comparisons involve the reconciliation of basically non-comparable data, gathered by diverse investigators with diverse methods and for diverse purposes. The present paper deals with a set of data which permit some direct cross-national comparisons of child-rearing practices in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany. The data for both samples were collected by the same investigators, employing nearly identical methods and procedures, and the subjects employed in the comparisons have been carefully matched with respect to a number of possibly contaminating demographic variables.

The article offers the author's insights concerning personnel management abroad. The author explores the concept of cross-cultural approach of anthropologists and theory of communication developed by Bell Telephone Co. He states that cross-cultural approach has been applied in various fields including sociology, education, and literature. He says that the original papers and books on communication theory are strictly for the people having mathematical bent. Furthermore, the author associates the cross-cultural approach and communication theory in explaining personnel management in terms of their use in the interpretation and communication of beliefs on personnel problems.

A multiple regression analysis using "dummy" variables is utilized in a study of family organization in 412 societies selected randomly from Murdock's "Ethnographic Atlas." Results indicate that type of family is significantly related to variables of societal organization, that these latter variables can be categorized by rank as to productivity and/or societal complexity, and that the limited family type is more likely to be found in complex societies than is the general family type. The family typology proposed here, which emphasizes the comparative amount of economic responsibility that must be assumed by the family bead, appears more useful in dealing with family-societal relationships than the previously used independent-extended family dichotomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author, in this article, comments on the cross-cultural education. Since sociologist David Mandelbaum has commented upon historical evidence of earlier experiments in cross-cultural education and upon aspects of personal adjustment, the author of this article confines his remarks to certain theoretical considerations of the problem area, from the point of view of macrocosmic social and cultural consequences. The sojourn of foreign students in a host country, whatever special characteristics it may have, is clearly an instance of what anthropologists have labeled acculturation. Looking at the community background of the student, there are a number of significant types of information that people should like to have. In the first place, it is important to assess the habits of association and interaction of the student in his own country. This leads to a consideration of the meaning of the foreign experience within the goal system of the individual and the community from which he came.

The article presents the abstract from the December 1973 issue of Columbia Journal of World Business of the study Studies in Cross-Cultural Organization by Pjotr Hesserling. Hesserling began his study with a conceptualization of three degrees of cooperation between people of different cultures and nations. He discussed the problems of comparative management arising from the differences in managers' concepts of image of societal, organizational and role systems among cultures. Hesserling said that the problem with cross-cultural studies is the balancing of the strengths and weaknesses to stimulate growth towards autonomy within an industrial confederation.

This article provides Professor William Samarin's, a sociologist, reactions to an article which was published in a journal three years ago. The main thrust of Samarin's present arguments may be summarized as follows, a sociolinguistic and religious explanation of glossolalia is fully sufficient and does not necessitate, even forbids any psychological or neuropsychological inquiry; one cannot claim to have undertaken any cross-cultural study since it was concerned only with Pentecostals who spoke related languages and the specific identical features in the glossolalia of various groups constitute simply a "style of discourse." Explaining a behavior, or any phenomenon for that matter, involves showing that, in philosophical terms, the consequent is potentially present in the antecedent. No explanation can be considered complete unless it accounts for all observed consequents. Samarin mentions in a footnote to an article that some glossolalia syllables get extra stress and volume.

Discusses four areas of cultural differences of significance to businessman between the United States and Latin America. Notion of individuality; Differences in organization building; Similarity between two countries on the emphasis on the role of individuals in the community.

The article presents a list of films and short stories which are suggested for use in cross-cultural studies. The list includes the films "Angotee," which is a story of an Eskimo Boy, and the 17-minute feature "First Days in the Life of a New Guinea Baby." Also included is the short story "The Apple Tree," by John Galsworthy.

5 age groups (CA 7-9, 10-12, 13- 16, 20-21,∼ 27) of Ss were selected from 2 contrasting populations in urban and rural Yucatan. Whereas all urban Ss were in school, only the 2 younger rural age groups were in school--older rural Ss had little or no schooling. The Ss were tested on a short-term and incidental memory task. The developmental changes in memory performance of the urban-educated Ss were very similar to those reported for analogous tasks with American middle-class Ss. The performance of rural Ss did not show these consistent developmental changes. This fact, along with the results of several features of the data, support the hypothesis that formal schooling is an important factor in the development of mnemonic skills in short-term memory. Data from the incidental memory task implied that the development of selective attention is independent of short-term memory development and is probably influenced by both school and certain cultural factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using national sample data the family composition, living arrangments, and family contacts of persons aged 65 and over in the United States are compared with those of the elderly in Denmark, Britain, Yugoslavia, Poland, and Israel. In every country the right of older people to live separately from adult children is recognized. Nonetheless, a majority of the American elderly with children live either with a child or within ten minutes' distance from him. Old people in the United States are seen frequently by their children, their siblings, and their relatives. In the United States, as in other countries, the elderly find their primary supports in the family and kin network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a large-sample cross-cultural study, correlates of freedom of choice in mate selection were investigated. Freedom of choice of spouse is associated with greater male-female contact in general, including more frequent marriage into the local community and greater importance and frequency of dances. Freedom of choice is also associated with greater romantic love as a basis of marriage, with impractical grounds of choice, and with greater male-female antagonism in courtship. The results support speculations stemming from structural-functional theory, cognitive dissonance theory, emotion- labeling theory, and other social theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English and Spanish questionnaires designed to measure family and social-psychological variables were randomly distributed to bilinguals to determine the proportions of items and scales which produced nonequivalent scores after using back translation procedures in the questionnaire construction. The nonequivalent rate for demographic items was below that expected by chance while the nonequivalent rate for family and social psychological items was greater than chance with approximately 25 percent of items and scales producing nonequivalent measures. The data point to the need for cross-cultural family researchers to pretest their instruments on a group of bilinguals and then discard those items and/or scales which produce nonequivalent measures before the research is carried out. This is seen as a necessary step in the research process in order to increase the probability of equivalent measurement across cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately 700 ninth-grade students of each sex, representing the total population in that grade in agricultural towns in northern India and western United States, answered questionnaire items concerning family cohesiveness, decision-making, and autonomy. Results clearly showed adolescents perceived greater cohesiveness in India and more self-decisiveness in America. Fathers were seen as more influential in India than in the United States. Interviews with Indian fathers further confirmed the continued traditional orientation of the Hindu family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an attempt to add empirical relevance to some of the theories which pertain to relationships between types of family and forms of social stratification. In addition, it makes new contributions to this segment of sociological theory. Using a worldwide sample, it was found that there is a relationship between these two variables. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the lineal family is positively associated with complex systems of social stratification. In addition, the current theory—that the independent family is associated with complex systems of social stratification—is refuted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his "World Ethnographic Sample,' George Peter Murdock identified four major types of family organization: independent, extended, lineal, and stem families. Persons using this ethnographic sample for family studies have tended to combine the three latter types into a single category in their analyses. The purpose of this study is to examine the justification for this combination. After an analysis of the family types with all variables provided in the sample, the author concludes that the analytical combination of these three different family types will reduce, rather than strengthen, the extent of association between family types and other variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the lower class there are environmental pressures to modify conventional middle-class values and attitudes. There are also social pressures to conform to the conventional patterns. These social pressures point to one source of variability in lower-class attitude, toward "deviant" behavior. The hypothesis tested is: The greater the pressure upon a group so adhere to conventional values, the lower the likelihood that members of the group will normatively accept "deviant" patterns of behavior. This hypothesis is confirmed for data on Trinidad and Detroit on nonlegal marriage, but not for the data on premarital sexual intercourse. The complementary nature of the data on nonlegal marriage and on premarital sexual intercourse is discussed, as well as related data on attitudes toward illegitimacy in Detroit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This third Burgess Award Lecture, like the two that have preceded it, focuses upon empirically based theory-building within the family field. Drawing upon the author's cross-cultural research on premarital sexual intimacy, it demonstrates how norms and values intervene to affect behavioral outcomes. Empirical generalizations are stated in propositional form and the pro pospositions are then converted into a "Theory of Relative Consequences," which sees negative affects adhering to value-behavior discrepancy. Restrictive societies, as compared with permissive ones, show evidence of both greater deviation from local standards and greater negative consequences attached to such deviation. Suggestions are made for further development of the theory and for applying it to problems of moral decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stem family in Japan is seemingly not consonant with the idea of life cycle which has produced important contributions to the study of the conjugal family, but the life cycle pattern of the Japanese family can be described as having three distinct stages which are manifest in the sequence of the role complex unique to it. A similar analysis is attempted with regard to the Chinese joint family. A new set of cycle stages is developed in order to cope with the changing status of the contemporary Japanese family. Thus, extensive applicability of the developmental framework is demonstrated for a cross-cultural study of the family in world revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After defining types of cross-cultural research, studies of the following types are critically assessed: documentary studies, 'current statistics' studies, impressionistic field studies, field studies based on long-term observation, field studies based on interviews, 'case collection' studies, polling survey, social-psychological surveys, laboratory experiments, field experiments. Methodological problems are discussed in the following areas: sampling, instrument development and testing, data collection, generalization of findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview of the activities of the global international organization, International Social Science Council in France. Aiming to improve its organization, it organized meetings and elections with various social science associations, thus developing and reinforcing its links with these institutions. Its scientific activities included the expansion of its cross-cultural studies, the arrangement of its data archives and the application of these studies for comparative and development research. It also conducted surveys on the trends of social science research and performed studies on international relations.

Because family experiences arouse so much emotion and social philosophers continue to believe that the family is a major element in the social structure, the field has for over two millennia attracted more ideologists than theorists and has been the object of much speculation but little rigorous research. Personal acquaintance with a family system has usually been confused with valid knowledge, and journalistic descriptions of the past have been the main source of information for the analysis of family changes. The divorce system becomes in effect part of the courtship and marriage system, that is, it is part of the sifting out process, analogous to the adolescent dating pattern. Individuals marry, but there is a free market both in getting a first spouse, and in getting a second spouse should the individual not be able to create a harmonious life with the first one. Indeed, to the extent that marriage becomes a personal bond between husband and wife, and they marry after they are formed psychologically, there would seem to be at least some ideological arguments for their being free to shift about in order to find someone who fits better.

Evidence is offered in this article on progress in family research to show that the attention of students of the family is turning once again to cross-cultural and comparative studies. Historians of family research remind that the first systematic treatment of the domestic phenomenon in society sought universal common human patterns which transcended the bounds of regions and cultures. These early reports were macroscopic in scope, covering great sweeps of social space and social time, comparing marriage, kinship, and socialization patterns in several societies with a view to establishing phases of evolutionary development of family forms. The study deals with the problems which are more or less peculiar to cross-national research and strategies which have developed to deal with them. It begins by identifying types of comparative research undertaken, the inventorying of already published research of visiting scholars collecting and analyzing data from two or more societies, and the more involved research of collaborative cross-national teams. The article concludes with an analysis of the methodological stance and the theoretical emphases which have characterized comparative family research in the present and the immediate past.

In a previous study, which used a cross-cultural method, apparently stressful infant-care practices, including immunological inoculations, were found to be associated with greater adult stature. In the present study, data from 2 longitudinal-growth studies were analyzed. With parental stature held constant statistically, the adult stature of individuals inoculated before 2 years of age was significantly greater than that of individuals not so inoculated. This and a variety of other sources of evidence bearing on the possible growth-accelerating influence of early physiological stress were compared and the present status of the question evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to construct a level-of-living scale that is valid cross-culturally. Level-of-living and related socioeconomic indices have been widely used in social science research. All of these scales have been culture-bound and seldom, if ever, even adequate for longitudinal studies. New approaches for measuring such phenomena are needed. Previous level-of-living scales have been based on possession of items rather than on their functional use. For this study a list of functions fulfilled within the household through the utilization of material items was compiled. Gradations in technological efficiency in performing these functions were given weights ranging from one to five. Functional alternatives to the items listed are permitted. The resulting 14-item household level- of-living sale was tested by use of data from rural Georgia, Puerto Rico. and the Dominican Republic Evidence is presented that the instrument is a valid and reliable measure of level of living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A contribution is made to the growing literature on cross-cultural studies of social stratification by an empirical study of the stratification system in an Italian rural community. The findings indicate that similar methods and techniques used for American and Italian societies reveal stratification systems common to both societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A model for cross-cultural measurement was studied. The analysis was based on data on the level of living of 1,654 families in Puerto Rico and 549 families in Broome County, New York. The first problem is encountered in obtaining a sufficient number of items for study in both cultures. It may be assumed that this problem will become more acute as other cultures are added to the sample. There may be "clusters" of nations for which a sufficient number of items can be found. Additional problems are encountered in testing the validity of items. The need to control culture in these tests is demonstrated. The range of level of living is great from one culture to another. Therefore, cutting points for "possession" of an item cannot always be the same for every culture. It is tentatively suggested that items go through the same "stages" in each culture, and that several cutting points may be drawn for these stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the problem of culture-integration and methods of their study. Both the causal-functional and the logico-rneaningful methods of interpreting the culture-integration serve as ways of arranging the infinitely numerous and complex phenomena of the socio-cultural world into comprehensible systems. The systematizing natures of the causal and of the logico-meanirigful principles are different, but their cognitive functions are similar. On the level of the logically integrated layers of culture, the logico-meaningful method is much more important than the causal method. The causal method, especially in the natural sciences, obtains its formulae mainly through breaking up complex phenomena into their simpler units, and the more general the formula, the further the reduction of complex to simple, until ultimate simplicity. The primary difference between the causal and logico-meaning-hit connections leads to a further derivative difference between them. Finally, in the study of logico-meaningful relationships the proper method is neither a mere sequential descriptor, nor a causal formula, but the appropriate unification of the fragments into a whole according to their logical significance or their logical co-existence.

This article examines the structure of the affective meaning systems in several different subjective cultures using multilingual semantic differentials. The semantic differential method, a psychological measuring instrument, constituted the major theoretical approach in the research. The major interest of the research is to assess to what extent the affective meaning systems of the Japanese conform to those which seem to exist in other subjective cultures. There seem to be at least three aspects in which the systematic analysis of values is crucial in the rational understanding of the interactions among different subjective cultures.

We conclude by summarizing the main lines of the argument advanced in this essay. programs of cross-cultural education are concerned with promoting diverse and multiple valued outcomes which may be broadly classified under the following headings: international understanding, technical and specialty training, personal growth and general educational development. Certain theoretical and methodological implications follow if we adopt the value-position (that is avowed by most students of Exchange programs and endorsed by the issue editor) that cross-cultural education, in a democratic and open society, is committed to facilitate the process of education of the whole person as an international student and as an individual. The studies by Selltiz and Cook and by Bjerstedt suggest, on the basis of their survey and experimental data, several useful hypotheses regarding the relationship between personality-social variables and conditions of intergroup contact that favor the reduction of nationality stereotypes and an increase of differentiated perspectives on American life, especially a deepened appreciation of American friendship and family patterns. We proposed that a naturalistic documentation of preparatory experiences of the student sojourner before his arrival in the new cultural situation will help us improve our conceptual understanding of the various conditions under which cognitive organizations of new social experiences (images and stereotypes, for example) and affective attitudes (involving beliefs and values) become shaped and organized over time into relatively stable developmental attainments. We have sketched some outlines for a conceptual clarification of the terms attitudes, images, and stereotypes. The two other studies, which have a stronger theoretical orientation, identify certain patterns of coping behavior responses to the initial demands of new cultural situations under conditions which favor self-image maintenance or self-image modification (Bailyn and Kehnan), and differential effectiveness in learning behavior-norms prescribed by the host culture (Schild). To improve our theoretical insights into personal styles in various coping strategies and their functions in psychosocial development, we proposed comparative short-term as well as long-term longitudinal studies. This type of research strategy would specify in advance the valued outcome-one of several possible effective patterns of coping behavior or valued developmental attainments-and then seek to clarify, through naturalistic studies of these various types of successful cases of cross-cultural education, the following question: What preparatory functions are served by such coping behavior patterns in stimulating the student's psychosocial development during the sojourn experience or after return home? The systematic search for ways and means of identifying a certain developmental attainment or adaptive competency makes one aware of the value-problem. Social scientists are not immune from becoming aware of and perhaps excessively embarrassed by value-problems in this research area. Sound precedents in social science exist to demonstrate the validity of possible resolutions of the value-issue. In conclusion, the vague concept of international understanding can be reformulated into useful operational questions through a research focus on personality growth and educational development of overseas students at home and broad. These are questions that social psychologists have clear and unique opportunities today to answer in collaboration with psychiatrists, sociologists, and cultural anthropologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the problems and methods of cross-cultural research comparing the Middle East and the U.S. The problems of this cross-cultural research concerns on the following: research design, data collection process, sampling, timing of data collection, and analysis and reporting. Studies within a culture are concerned with individual variation about the norm for the culture while cross-cultural studies provides information about variation of norms as a function of cultural differences. Items that may exist as a problem in cross-cultural compatibility can be identified as objective, subjective, relative, and attitudinal. Frame of reference is significant in comparative research. The correlational approach is needed in studying a cultural area, however, it doesn't differentiate between stimulus and response equivalence but identifies cultural similarities and differences. Inclusion of certain social customs is an important tool in cross-cultural research particularly for studies concerned with attitudes and values. Centers were established to administer the program in the U.S., Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. The studies are concerned with the measurement of variables in broad areas such as family relations, personality, and attitudes. The sample data gathered are treated through subscales and subgroups.

The article presents a perspective for further research on cross-cultural education. Ordering present research in terms of the locus of sojourn and the locus of effects studied leads to several observations concerning areas of concentration and neglect. Research has heavily emphasized the situation of "foreign" nationals sojourning in the U.S. Very little has been done in regard to processes and effects pertaining to U.S. nationals abroad or to exchanges between third countries. For obvious practical reasons, American sponsored research in cross-cultural education has been "ethnocentric" in this respect. Practical considerations will probably continue to favor this unbalance in emphasis. From the standpoint of cumulative scientific understanding of cross-cultural education, however, it is unfortunate. In today's world, the U.S. happens to be a unique country in a number of respects. It is important to know the extent to which findings involving the U.S. as locus of exchange can be extended to cross-cultural situations generally.

The author, in this article, comments on current studies of cross-cultural education. The current studies of cross-cultural education can be viewed against two broad backgrounds, one historical, another methodological. From the large historical perspective it can be noted that there have been made episodes of cross-cultural education in the past, even in quite a distant past. Some have been successful, as gauged by the aims of the participants, and others less so. A glance at the varying outcomes of several such educational histories may suggest a possible historical approach toward understanding modern efforts in cross-cultural education. In some of the centers of ancient civilizations there were institutionalized ways of receiving students from other cultures who came for formal training. China, India, and Rome were among the civilizations in which there existed such academic opportunities. Whatever may be the social consequences of cross-cultural education as seen in historical perspective, the returned student generally feels that the experience was an important and a good one for him personally.

The article presents a sociological discussion to theoretical approaches of consistency and inconsistency. Rulers, judges and moralists have long speculated about behavior labeled by these terms which ran counter to their interests. To minimize it, they have experimented through the ages with the sanctions of religion, of the scaffold, of the bayonet, of the ritualistic inculcation of "correct" principles in the young, and of the paycheck. They have thus attempted to make overtly accepted societal cultural patterns into more effective instruments of social control. But their writings and their experiments add little to our understanding of inconsistent behavior except to attest again and again to its frequency in the affairs of the world. It was not until cross-cultural studies began to shed light upon cultural relativity and until psychiatrists and psychologists began successfully to probe scientifically into human motivations that some progress was made in understanding hypocrisy, delinquency, and straining.

The article discusses the findings of a cross-cultural study between the U.S. and Peru about the influence of culture on the attitude of workers in large electrical utility companies. The study found that Peruvian workers have a different conception of the nature of a work group. They also tend to less identify themselves with a work group. Peruvian white-collar workers tend to evaluate their supervisors in terms of his administrative and technical or structure abilities. The biggest difference between the American and Peruvian workers was with regard to emphasis on production and closeness of supervision.

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This article focuses on a cross-cultural study of need satisfaction and importance for operative employees. A need satisfaction questionnaire was utilized to collect data from 83 operative employees in a glass factory in the U.S. and 94 operative employees in a similar glass factory in Mexico. The two factories produced identical products for the same parent company. Product lines, production technology, job requirements and organization structure were similar. The findings show that there were significant differences in nearly every need item score between the two countries. The Mexican operatives were generally more satisfied in the needs and they also placed more importance on the needs than did the American operatives. The cluster scores for the various need categories also reflected this difference.

The article presents information on a cross-cultural comparative research of juvenile deviance in two specific cities--one in the United States and the other in Argentina. Data from the juvenile court files at Toledo, Ohio, and Rosario, Argentina, for the years 1966 and 1967 were used. This study used statistical court records, participant observation notes, and published documents. The statistical data from Toledo were taken from the juvenile court reports for the years 1966 and 1967, and from the Model Cities Crime and Delinquency Report published in 1969. Toledo and Rosario are both in the northern temperate zones of their respective countries. Both are inland port cities that handle goods moved internationally by way of the Atlantic Ocean. There are, however, notable differences. Rosario does not have a racial minority as does Toledo with its Afro-American and Mexican populations. Although Toledo is about two-thirds the size of Rosario, it had more juveniles adjudicated by its juvenile agencies during 1966 and 1967. Specifically, Toledo had 2.5 times the adjudicated delinquents that Rosario had.

Compares the reactions of French and English consumers on attitude research devices based on two experiments. Differences between French-English and Canadian marketing practices; Importance of appropriate rating scale when comparing English and French attitudes.

The article presents the author's comment on professor Donna Hendrickson Christensen and his contribution to cross-cultural family research. It includes information on various intra- and cross-cultural research that Christensen conducted to study various general values of the human society. The article reports on some intra- and cross-cultural approaches suggested by professor Christensen to conduct the sociological study of the family.