A photographic test for attitude measurement,
abbreviated PHOTAM, has been developed and applied in a
case study of attitudes to agricultural change in peasant
groups currently undergoing transformation from traditional
to modern. The aim of this research was to develop a structured
cultural method for combining the holistic intuitive
insight of anthropological and cultural geographical inquiry
with the rigour of objective behavioural assessment techniques.
This method involves the use of a test based on the projective
principle, which bridges the gap between cultural and
behavioural approaches by establishing a common data source
for subjective and objective interpretations set in the overall cultural and regional context.
PHOTAM involves 10 steps: (1) preliminary cultural
geographic reconnaissance to provide an holistic empathetic
overview of the study area and peasant life-way; (2) selection
of attitude categories critical for understanding the given
problem; (3) assembly of a series of photographs depicting
various aspects of the attitudes selected and for use in
testing internal consistency of responses; (4) selection
of sample subjects in representative groups; (5) standardized
administration of the test photographic set to each
subject; (6) translation of tape recorded responses into
English and transcription of selected responses in the original language; (7) coding of protocols using a binary
decision tree involving an attitude scale and other desired
attitude dimensions such as activeness, change - orientation
and modernity; (8) subjective and objective interpretation
of attitude profiles; (9) testing for reliability and
conceptual validity of postulated attitude structure;
(10) (optional) cross-cultural testing and comparison of
obtained attitude pro files.
A sample of 68 subjects in five peasant groups
possessing experience with modern irrigation and mechanized
agricultural projects ranging from none up to two years,
was selected from the Mayan Camino Real and Los Chenes regions
of northern Campeche, Mexico, where a government sponsored,
internationally financed small irrigation programme has
recently been initiated. A set of 21 photographs was
employed representing easily recognizable culturally
appropriate situations within the realm of experience of
the typical Mexican oam-pesino. The subjects were requested
to invent a story about each photograph in turn which fully
describe d its content and context. The resulting protocols
yielded data concerning 17 attitudes which were processed in
60 coding categories; more than 40,000 binary measurements
(seven for each attitude identified) were taken on the
responses.
Subjective evaluation of the protocols revealed that
most of the typical characteristics of peasantry encountered in the academic literature do not apply to the study groups
in Campeche, and suggests that these general conceptions of
the peasant sub-culture are outdated, at least as far as
modernizing peasants are concerned. Thus, it seems probable
that attitudinal inconsistencies and discontinuities are
more prevalent amongst contemporary peasant societies than
the traditional, stable, clearly-defined patterns. If these
out-moded stereotypes are not discarded, costly development
programming errors may result.
Objective evaluation indicated that the initial
attitudes selected for examination had acceptable conceptual
validity, high interrater reliability (with two judges) and
reasonable internal consistency. It is also clear that
the PHOTAM protocols are amenable to objective coding into
a-priori attitude categories which distinguish effectively
within and between groups. Attitudinal differences were
most pronounced between the groups of peasants having the
longest development project membership compared with the
inexperienced groups.
The results indicate that PHOTAM is a reliable diagnostic measurement device, capable of penetrating beyond superficial opinions into the realm of deeply-felt attitudes.
Thus, PHOTAM should prove useful as a tool for cultural
geographic research, and in development planning applications
where attitudes are often the critical factor in determining
project outcomes. The richness of the response stories confirms the advantages of projective instruments especially involving the use of photographs, for breaking down barriers
to deep communication with illiterate peoples. In addition,
there is evidently considerable potential for cross-cultural investigation of peasant attitudes. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/41222 |
| Date | January 1972 |
| Creators | Gates, Marilyn G. |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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