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The article discusses the structuring of congress as preliminary result of congress dynamics research. It says that the instruments of congress research includes participant observation, questionnaires and informal interviews. It mentions that it is necessary to organize the congress according to its purpose and structure it accordingly. It adds that the study of sociodynamic aspect of congress indicates the optimal cooperative research.

The article presents comments on Joan Huber's article, "Symbolic Interaction as a Pragmatic Perspective: The Bias of Emergent Theory." Although several important issues are raised by Huber, her effort involves an incomplete and somewhat inaccurate view of symbolic interactionism (SI) and emergent theory. The significance, implications, and complexities of SI are only realized through frequent, intimate, and continued exposure to it. This is the major reason why many regard SI as simplistic. The Huber portrayal of SI is particularly damaging within this context. Huber's treatment of SI is inadequate in several ways. The methodology of SI should not be, equated with participant observation (P0). Huber's remarks are restricted to efforts in SI to develop emergent theory through P0. Huber concludes that symbolic interactionists have been delinquent in their use of methodological concepts that overlap more traditional meanings, and that these discrepancies have negated the fruitful discussion of certain issues. Although Huber occasionally notes a positive feature of SI, the underlying tone of her article implies that SI has reached the end of its line, and that the attraction of most to the area is a result of dissatisfaction with quantification, love for the underdog, or delight in observing the nuances of human behavior. Given the general complexion of Huber's article and the tendency of many to hold SI in low esteem, a more balanced view of SI should have been attempted.

In an observation analogue situation, the category complexity of the coding system, the predictability of interaction, and the observer's training history with respect to the predictability dimension were varied. An inverse relationship between category complexity and observer accuracy was found. Although there were no effects associated with the predictability of interaction during training, observers trained in viewing predictable behavior sequences showed a performance decrement during transfer, whereas observers trained in viewing unpredictable sequences showed a performance increment. The results suggest that observer accuracy is situation dependent, and point up the need to carefully consider an observer's training history in relation to later observation conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents some of the dynamics and dilemmas of one poverty intervention organization (PIO) as it attempted to enact the expectations and approach the goals of the War Against Poverty. The research methods used in this study were participant observation (in the committee complex and in Topeka Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) staff activities) and unstructured interviews (with Topeka OEO staff and poor and not-poor members of the committee complex). The Topeka OEO is a specific PIO in a specific community--thus generalizations are left to the discretion of the reader. The Topeka OEO has been shown to be a PIO striving to maintain a "functional marginality" between the poor and not-poor and, employing a political organizational style, attempting to bring poor and not-poor together in order to implement on "Overlap Model" for social change. It was concluded that whether or not such organization can endure toward its defined goals, whether or not it can remain functionally marginal without becoming marginally functional, is at this point still a hypothesis being tested.

Three types of participant observation are discussed. Examples from the literature are reviewed to establish the practicability and the validity of three techniques, namely participation by (1) assuming an active function within the system being observed, (2) being a more passive observer, and (3) obtaining the participation of subjects in laboratory experiments. All three types can have their place among the techniques of a modern social science research worker. They are of different relevance and importance to different research problems, and there is a difference in the costs involved in using them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the controversy over the police mentality and suggests a sociological alternative to current speculation about the nature of police personalities. Only a few studies used adequate control groups and some did not use a control group at all. While it is very impressive to learn that 72 percent of the policemen in one study were prejudiced-or that 71 percent were unprejudiced in another--these figures are meaningless until how they compare to some nonpolice control group, is known. In addition, the methods of study and measuring instruments may not be comparable. In the studies mentioned in the article, three different measures of authoritarianism were employed. Prejudice has been "measured" by the subjective accounts of participant observers as well as by paper-and-pencil tests. These divergent methods may account for some of the apparently inconsistent results. Finally, most of the results are subject to a "social desirability" interpretation. The police mentality, as described in the literature, does not develop at the top of the police hierarchy and filter down to the underlings.

The article presents the views of art teachers on the article "Participant Observation As a Research Methodology," by Paul Pohland, which has been published within the issue. Professor of education and creative arts, Hilda P. Lewis, points out the limitations of Pohland's participant observation method in art education. Pohland comments on Lewis' remarks that flexibility and reliability are not compatible. Another response is by professor of art education, June K. Mcfee.

The article discusses the use of the participant observation method for research purposes in art education. After defining epistemology, the author describes the nature, purpose and focus of participant observation and diverse views of art educators regarding it. The dimensions of this methodology have been classified along four types, emphasis on the descriptive narrative, generation of theory, verification of theory and qualification of data. The procedure of this method has been explicated through two branches of epistemology, naturalism and idealism. A brief part of the research done to find out the dynamics of curriculum implementation is also mentioned along with a summary of the matters discussed in the paper.

An application of Coombs' nonmetric multidimensional unfolding procedures to the problem of determining the relevant dimensions along which participant-observers select and describe interpersonal behaviors. 27 graduate students gave free response descriptions of their own classroom behaviors. Each student then divided the set of statements into 2 or more categories on an idiosyncratic basis. Frequency of joint inclusion in a distinct category was used as a measure of the similarity of pairs of stimuli. Coombs' procedures yielded 2 dimensions of simple orders of stimulus statements which were interpreted as involvement and feeling tone. Investigation of other phenomenological issues by the methodology was recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the functions of play within a particular industrial setting and formulates a typological approach to such play. The data for the study were gathered primarily by participant observation. The observations were carried out over a three year period in a metal trades plant located in California. Observations were made on the location and nature of play activities, participants in play, and extent of play. Most workers in the plant would agree that the actual routinized task, comprised the basic negative activity of the day. The ability of the worker to establish personal relationships enabled him to develop positive content to his work day. There are many games being played in the plant. There are games in which workers in the entire plant can engage in. There are some games that were more limited in terms of accessibility. Some games were limited to portions of a given shop, an entire line, or only a few members of a given crew. In some situations, play ties the individual more closely to his colleague group and at the same time binds him into the work organization. In a different situation, play can integrate the worker more closely with his colleague group and alienate him from the work organization. Less frequently, play pulls the worker more closely to the formal organization and is disruptive of his ties to the informal occupation group. Finally, play activity may alienate the worker from both colleague group and work organization. Play activity in the factory serves as a creative release for the individual from the negative content of his working day. However, such play almost always takes place in a social situation and comes to be defined as play only within that situation and such release is not open to the same extent to workers who are spatially isolated, and such workers appear to be more frustrated and more dissatisfied with their jobs.

The present studies are an outgrowth of the earlier research in social perception. They repeat, in the abstract, the prior experiment but ask how an observer (O), rather than a participant (S), would evaluate the note writer. Two experiments are conducted. The first is to see whether the earlier explanation of the S's reaction to the note writer was a necessary one. Perhaps the S's reaction could be explained in terms of how consistent with reality she perceives the note writer's evaluation. In the initial experiment, the S's evaluation of her own performance is presumably realistic. Hence, it might be that the S reacted in terms of the perceived accuracy or realism of the note writer rather than in terms of how consistent the note writer's evaluation is with her (the S's) self-evaluation. If this were so, one would expect that an O, having the same information as S, but not involved as a participant, would evaluate the note writer in essentially the same way as S. The results of the first observer study are summarized in a table, which shows rather striking differences between the Ss' and Os' evaluations of the note writer.

The focus of this article has been the problem of simultaneously protecting research participants without destroying the potential for developing scientific knowledge about social and human phenomena. The damage to participants in social science research is an infrequent occurrence, that there is no objective evidence that it occurs. As social science becomes more potent, some research questions may require that subjects take risks in order to advance knowledge, much as in medical science. Social scientists cannot simultaneously attempt to develop a potent body of knowledge and expect to conduct harmless research. Any procedure, designed to protect human subjects that destroys the potential for creating scientific knowledge about social and human phenomena, is patently self-defeating. A major commitment to both the protection of human subjects, and the creation of science would suggest that substantial resources be committed to a procedure that attempts to achieve a reasonable balance.

A group is a collectivity that has emotional, cognitive and moral substance, has center of judgment and has a seat of government. information. The purpose of this article is to inquire into the nature of the social relations between such groups and the persons who would investigate them and, in the end, to suggest two major methodological and moral issues. The group can solidify its boundary against him, whereupon, the observer is excluded. Or, the boundary may be dissolved bilaterally, the group extending its jurisdiction around the observer while he identifies with it. However, that in either case science loses, for in both instances the investigator vacates the role of independent scientific observer. Self analytic groups are a modern, technical, and, a sociological invention, whereby traditional conceptions of group boundaries are altered and those boundaries are consciously redrawn. The observer's role is incorporated by the group. Members, in addition to acting, observe their own actions. Consequently, detached observation becomes part of the feedback process.

The article discusses the pros and cons of disguised participant observation as a research technique in the field of sociology. Firstly it is unethical for a sociologist to deliberately misrepresent his identity for the purpose of entering a private domain to which he is not otherwise eligible and secondly it is unethical for a sociologist to deliberately misrepresent the character of the research in which he is engaged. But disguises have the effect of establishing a stable point of reference in an otherwise hazy territory. If observations discovers that a substantial number of sociologists are uncomfortable about the practice, then those who continue to employ it will at least know where they stand in respect to the collective conscience of their discipline, and if observations state that only a scattering of sociologists are concerned about the matter, people will at least have the satisfaction of knowing that the profession as a profession has accepted the responsibility of knowing its own mind.

The article presents information on the role of the summer camp in developing a general science course. In objectives of the progressive summer camp, the objectives of a general science course are included to indicate attainment of the general science objectives. To measure camp outcomes, certain evaluation methods should be used. The article offers the objectives of the camp including giving the camper knowledge, developing thinking power of the camper, adjusting the camper emotionally and socially, improving the tastes and appreciations of the camper and improving the physical health of the camper. The general science course that is presented in the article is being taught at the junior high school level. 75% of the topics were found, in a general science course, in normal camp activities.

This article seeks to investigate whether social groups exist among institutionalized mentally retarded patients on a crib ward, and if they exist, to further explore the contributing and inhibiting factors associated with their existence. A classic study of the interpersonal relationships on a psychiatric ward of a private mental hospital offers evidence that refutes the belief that patients on a less disturbed ward of a mental hospital are but a mere aggregate of individuals. These investigators concluded from participant observation conducted on the ward that the patients in fact were a group which tried to meet many of its problems by developing a shared set of values and beliefs translated into action through a system of social roles and small groups. The focus of this study, is on verifying the existence and persistence of social groups among institutionalized crib patients and identifying factors in the environment that are related to the existence and degree of complexity of the social groups. It is expected that there are physical as well as social factors that can be manipulated by the ward staff that either facilitate or inhibit the social functioning of the crib patients collectively.

The contributions that participant observation can make to the area of program evaluation are analyzed, based on research in a therapeutic drug community. Participant observation is approached from the notion of strategies of participation, namely: (1) gaining access to data; (2) evoking behavior; (3) identifying psychologically with the people being studied; (4) connecting concepts with indicators; and (5) formulating hypotheses. The present study supports the usage of these strategies as a framework that is useful in formulating more scientific approaches to evaluation. The implication of the study is that participant observation should be integrated into a network of research techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of questionnaire data supported the hypothesis that representatives of the poor on an OEO poverty board were significantly different from representatives of the non-poor in selected demographic and social-psychological characteristics. The impact of those differences upon board dynamics and decision-making is discussed. The hypothesis that participation in the poverty board and its related activities would engender social-psychological change among representatives of the poor was, with some important exceptions, supported by questionnaire, interview, and non-participant observation data. Some sex and ethnic variations appeared among the findings) and are discussed. Suggestions based upon the data are offered to researchers and to poverty intervention organization staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the qualitative method participant observation, a research approach in which the major activity is characterized by a prolonged period of contact with subjects. Purpose of participant observation; Comparison between participant observer and observant participant; Need for systematic and complete field notes in the method.

Participant observation is approached by considering five strategies of participation, as reflected in the writings of field workers in the social sciences. The strategies considered an: (1) gaining access to data, (2) evoking behavior, (3) identifying psychologically with the people being studied, (4) connecting concepts with indicators, and (5) formulating hypotheses. For each strategy, cases are cited to illustrate the range of participation procedures included in it, and each strategic rationale is examined critically. Evidence from the cases supports the conclusion that different modes of participation are appropriate for different aspects of scientific field work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the influence of one's frame of reference on perception and judgment. It is known that two individuals may offer different, even contradictory, interpretations of the same stimulus. Relatively little attention has been devoted to the problems of how the individuals who offer the disparate judgments react to the diversity and of whether, and how, they seek to discover the source of the contradictions. It is with aspects of these problems that this investigation is concerned. Two children, seated facing each other at a table, received a ruler each. Unknown to them, one ruler was based on the metric system (metric ruler) and the other on the English system of linear measurement (linear ruler). The children were told that they were to use one-quarter of an inch as their unit of measurement. They were to report how many of these units fitted into whatever they measured. Most of these subjects evinced their surprise at the disagreement in non-verbal ways, usually by raised eyebrows, expressions denoting perplexity and bewilderment, by sharp glances at one another and at the experimenter, or by voluntarily remeasuring. But occasionally a pair of children showed no overt signs that anything untoward was occurring despite the fact that there was disagreement in every task.

The article present a note based on a case describing changes in the community role of a field-worker, who conditioned information gained through participant-observation in a small community in the U.S. The field situation for this case was a small mid-Western town located in the lower Ohio Valley. The evidence from this single case of the use of participant-observation study suggested tentative conclusions regarding how the community role of the investigator affects the content of information communicated to him by local persons. During his period of residence his community role undergoes a successive redefinition. This redefinition includes five phases, which are newcomer, provisional acceptance, categorical acceptance, personal acceptance and imminent migrant. In each phase the content of interpersonal communication to the investigator in participant-observer situations is specific for that phase. Rapport with respondents is characteristic of the fourth phase, personal acceptance. Agents of phase redefinition are social circles, loosely structured informal communication networks. From these findings it is concluded that much of the meaning of items of information secured by participant-observation rests in the community role phase between the field-worker and local persons with whom he is interacting.

Until recently the U.S. Air Force included in its research and development planning an extensive social science program. This program, itself part of a larger and more elaborate organization devoted to the Air Force's personnel and training requirements, utilized in its studies classical experimental design, polling, the interview, and, occasionally, observation and the ethno graphic or survey approach. There existed, however, certain aspects of the Air Force training situation which apparently could not adequately be understood through the use of these techniques. In particular, certain officers wished to gain a better notion of how basic and technical training were lived, understood, and felt by new airmen. Hence, after a year of preliminary study, a plan was drawn up and approved for the utilization of a participant observer. The general purpose of the study was to gain insight into the motivations and attitudes of personnel as reflected in both their military and social behavior. Through such insight into airmen's own views and feelings it was hoped to find leads to new ways of reducing disciplinary problems failures in the course of training, poor performance thereafter, and non-re-enlistment.

This article presents a case analysis of the relationship between role behavior and social structure in two hospital wards. The analysis is based on daily observations made over a three-month period in the medical and surgical wards of a 360-bed research and teaching hospital on the Atlantic seaboard. Informal interviews, as well as a limited number of standardized interviews were used for the formulation of cues suggested by participant observation. Since only one hospital was studied, the comparisons to be made here, between the social structure of the medical team and that of the surgical team, and between the behavior of nurses on the two wards, should not be generalized beyond the case observed without further research. They are presented, however, with the aim of formulating hypotheses about the effect on role behavior of different types of authority structure in the hospital setting. The behavior of the head nurse differed significantly on these two wards.

The article presents information about the conference titled "Problems in Foreign Language Testing" held at the Idyllwild campus of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California during November 7-9, 1968. It includes information on the papers presented by the participants, issues addressed and keynote speakers.

It is informed that one of the major problems in the epistemological aspect of the method of participant observation is the question as to what degree a researcher should identify himself with his new role of observer based upon his participation in the studied group. In this article, the author attacks the problem of identification or non-identification of the observer from the epistemological standpoint. By definition, the identification brings about a performance on the part of the researcher. If the observed person is afflicted with pain, under the conditions of identification the observer should go more or less through the same processes as the object. The nature of the knowledge is here different from the knowledge acquired only in terms of a concept of pain. The epistemological problem is which of these two kinds of knowledge is more adequate. It is further informed that in this article, the author has attempted to develop two analytical categories in terms of performance and concept of performance. Both categories were cross-tabulated with the categories of correspondence and non-correspondence between the self and the role. Applying this four-fold table theoretically to the dynamic processes of participant observation and interviewing, it was found that the original correspondence between the self and the role, i.e., the performance, is interrupted under certain conditions.

The article deals with the selected theoretical and empirical work in the areas of observational techniques and the collecting and recording of observational data. Most of the educational research utilizing observational techniques has used mechanical aids in observation, which have been limited to audiotape and videotape recording. The observational techniques includes: (1) participant observer (2) nonparticipant observer. The factors needed in the collection of observational data includes: (a) structured and unstructured observations (b) classification of category items (c) expressive and instrumental aspects of behavior (d) levels of observational categories (e) descriptive vs. evaluative categories (f) exclusiveness and inclusiveness (g) discrete and continuous categories.

The article reports that observation is the only way of access to the facts, statements about which form the very foundation of every science. But, in the treatises and textbooks on methods in the social sciences, observation is often distinguished from testimonial evidence and evidence contained in historical traces (historical, or documentary evidence). Moreover, in the social sciences, the question is debated whether observation can or cannot be supplemented by experiment. These statements seem to imply that there exist other ways of access to the facts than observation. The contradiction is, however, only imaginary because it can be easily demonstrated that testimonial and historical evidence and experiment as ways of access to the facts are merely modalities of observation. There remains the contradistinction between observation and experiment. The line of demarcation between the two is not quite clear. In common opinion, experiment involves the active interference of the inquirer into the facts (i.e. structure of reality) and then observation of the results of interference, whereas, outside the experimental procedure, the inquirer remains passive.

This article presents comments on the willingness to make larger sacrifices of personal consumption to increase the income of fellow men collectively than individually in the paper "One Economist's View of Philanthropy," by Stephen A. Marglin and William S. Vickrey. In his paper, William S. Vickrey points out that an individual might be willing to make a gift to one of his fellows if he knew that others were doing so even if he would not make the gift on his own. The interdependence of the transfers by different donors is the same as that used by Marglin. Clearly both Vickrey and Marglin are correct. Individuals who would not be willing, as individuals, to contribute to various causes may be willing, as participants in a group to make such contributions. Each may consider the sum of his own sacrifice and the sacrifice of others as less important than the gain derived from the joint gift. Vickrey, however, discusses a gift to the poor of this generation while Marglin uses essentially the same mechanism to argue the desirability of a sort of gift to the entire next generation. Neither offers any arguments as to why these particular groups are likely to be the beneficiaries of such collective gifts.

The article discussed sociological research into the elderly and ageing population in Germany. Traditionally the province of the family, aid for the elderly has become in industrial society a societal matter and task of the state. Gerontological research methods and findings based on surveys, interviews, and participant observation studies are reviewed.

This article examines the relationship between religious affiliation and the use of ten types of drugs. A 25-percent random sample of classes in each of grades seven, nine, eleven and twelve, in the Halifax School system, completed a questionnaire concerning their use of drugs. A slightly modified version of the self-report questionnaire used by the Addiction Research Foundation in its Toronto, Ontario study was used as the data-gathering instrument for this study. This questionnaire seeks various types of information, demographic, behavioral, attitudinal and estimates of the extent of drug use in students' classes. Research assistants administered questionnaires to all classes. Catholics and Protestants reported significantly more drug use than Jews and nonaffiliates. There was little difference in the rates of drug use between Catholics and Protestants, nor between Jews and nonaffiliates. High rates of drug use among Jews have also been noted. It seems that the socio-cultural factors that protect Jews from abusing alcohol offer no such protection from drug abuse.

The article presents a study which compares the self-acceptance of conscripted and voluntary participants in a microlaboratory human relations training experience. It is aimed to explore the relative effect of voluntary versus conscripted participation on the outcomes of human relations training. Microlaboratory training sessions were conducted for registered nurses in two varied occassions. There were 18 volunteers in the earlier session, while 17 conscripts in the later session. Results revealed that both volunteers and conscripts rated the microlaboratory favorably.

This article focuses on methods of data collection. As sociologists most of the people have some idea of what is involved in participant observation as a method of data collection. It is, however, possible to formalize this to make clearer the roles that are available to the research worker. This will provide a framework for some of the procedural and ethical decisions in participant observation. Firstly, social systems, institutions, organizations and groups can be characterized by their degree of 'openness', by which is meant ease of access for the research worker. Communities in the country are more open than universities, universities than firms, firms than prisons and so on. 'Openness' is a relative concept but may for these purposes be dichotomized as 'open' and 'closed'. Secondly the research worker can make the choice as to whether he will work openly and overtly or secretly and covertly. This again is not in reality a true dichotomy but will vary between social situations. Combining these two dichotomies, however, gives a useful classification of styles and types of participant observation: The three stages that participant observation passes through, of entry, of maintaining a position and of exit, vary with the four styles. Overt entry into an open system involves publicity, into a closed system sponsorship; covert entry into an open system involves stealth, into a dosed system guile.

The article offers information related to the John Hay Fellows Program that will award 240 Summer Institute Fellowships in July 1963 in the U.S. It is stated that approximately 170 public senior high school teachers and 70 public school administrator will be selected to attend Summer Institute in the Humanities at Vermont, Colorado Spring, Eugene and Massachusetts. All institute participants will receive $300 plus $60 for each dependent to a maximum of four, and a travel allowance to a maximum of $100. There are no tuition fees and the total charge for meals and dormitory room will be $160 for each person. Correspondence should address to Charles R. Keller, the director of John Hay in New York City.

This article presents information about the schedule of the fourteenth quadrennial Congress of ICN Council of National Representatives. Special sessions will be held from June 22, 1969 to June 28, 1969 on topics of specific interest to students. The participants will get an opportunity to attend the meetings of the Council of National Representatives as observers. More details on the Congress will be available from the regional nurses' association.

The article discusses extensive participant observer research by an international team of sociologists looking into the social conditions of German miners. The researchers lived in the same town as the miners, visited their workplaces, attended local meetings, interviewed families, and investigated a host of social influences on miners' lives, summarized in a scientific report.