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Utilizing the Kaufman (1959) and Sutton-Koloja (1960a, 1960b) conceptualization of community, empirical techniques are developed to identify community boundaries. These techniques are unique because they allow simultaneous consideration of boundary and interaction aggregation problems. A sociological conceptualization of community is coordinated with layman respondent's perceptions so empirical data, faithful to both perspectives, may be gathered from community residents. Community boundaries are identified from conditional probability matrices applied to residents identified as business, education, and government leaders in ten rural areas of Illinois. Township boundaries regularly coincide with community boundaries. Techniques developed here appear widely applicable to identifying community and other boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine the public policy implications of industrial development and its effects on the income status of weak competitors in a community system. Age, sex, education, and labor force status were regarded as resources which indicate the competitive capacity of individuals. Using longitudinal data (1966&ndash1971) from a rural Illinois region experiencing industrial development and a control region with no industrial development, changes in the parameters of a causal model which relates competitive capacity and income are estimated. Income differences between strong and weak competitors tend to increase over time. However, there is no evidence that the changes are due to industrial development. Finally, it was found that sex and labor force status have a stronger net effect on income than either age or education. The public policy implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses rural community development in the United States by tracing its historical origins, reviewing its status within sociology, contrasting development of the community with development in the community, and reviewing three basic strategies of rural community development: authoritative intervention, client-centered intervention, and radical reform. The author concludes that federal intervention policies have created elaborate and complex interdependencies among state and federal governments, the private sector, and communities, and that rural community development requires a sociology that maps these relationships and provides explanations for changes in them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No research results are any better than the quality of the data. As scientists, survey researchers must share the problems of measuring, understanding, and controlling bias in their data. The potential sources of bias in survey research are many and varied. They may appear at any one or all of the several stages of the data gathering process. For example, they may occur in the selection of the sample, in the development of measuring instruments, in securing the responses of the persons in the sample, in the respondents replies, in the recording of the responses, and in processing the recorded responses. Even beyond the data collection process, bias may occur, as in the misapplication of statistics and in the interpretation of data. Progress has been made toward identifying and controlling sources of bias in some of these stages of the research process. Perhaps most progress has been made in the sampling stage and in the statistical application stage. Much advance has been made also in the reduction of error at the instrumentation stage. However, considerable work remains to be done on the problems of error control, especially biasing error, at all stages of the research between instrumentation and statistical analysis. This includes getting full response from the sample, accurate answers to the questions asked, and accurate recording and processing of responses. The accumulation of bias from these and other possible sources may be referred to as total or aggregate bias. The total bias may then be divided for analytical purposes into the following types: (1) sampling bias, (2) instrumentation bias, (3) non-response bias, (4) respondent bias, (5) interviewer bias, and (6) processing bias. This paper is an effort to deal with the problem of respondent bias in survey research. That respondent bias is a potent force in diminishing the validity and reliability of results from survey research is well recognized. The recognition of this condition has led to an enormous amount of activity aimed at isolating factors which determine this weakness of research results. These studies, by and large, have dealt with the problem of determining the direction of respondent bias, its magnitude, the speearle variables which produce respondent bias, and the effect of such bias on research results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a study that focused on the use of multitrait-multimethod matrix in the validation of reputational leadership. The continued use of reputational methods for identifying community leaders contribute to the establishment of such methods. Objections were raised against the methods because the final list of nominees may include too many people including nonleaders. The nomination of a limited number of people however, may exclude leaders. The convergent and discriminant validity of four reputational techniques for identifying general community leaders and educational leaders was examined. The utility of the multitrait-multimethod matrix for the solution of measurement problems in sociology was illustrated.

The prevalence of psychiatric impairment symptoms appears to be lower in rural communities than in previously studied urban areas, particularly in New York City. This suggests the possibility that the rural life style generates less stress, or perhaps fewer stressful situations. The observed differences may result from deviations in population composition along dimensions known to be associated with prevalence of symptoms. This article examines how the rural population performs in the Midtown Psychiatric Impairment Index. In addition, this article compares the prevalence rates of psychiatric symptoms in a sample of rural communities with that of previously reported rates.