-;’alnr.’"\‘v1:.M'mufiuqld.~no.r“.- _-,,,_-_ . _ ‘ to a ’ I a £ £ 1 I 1 “arid .A FACTOR AN ALYT iC lNV‘EST‘lGATION 05F! .MOD-ERNIZATION AMONG KENYA VlLLAGERS Thesis for the Degree of M. A. . MECHiGAN STATE UNIVERSTIY " Joseph R. Ascroff ' 1966 A FACTOH AhALYTIC INVESTIGATION OF MODERNIZATICN AMONG KENYA VILLAGERS By Joseph R. Ascroft A Thesis Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Communication 1966 ABSTRACT A FACTOR ANALYIIC IN’ESTIGAIION OF MODhRNIZATICN AMONG KENYA VILL.GER by Joseph R. Ascroft There is currently much activity within less develOped nations to seek ways and means of urging and accelerating technological change in the rural sectors of their economies. Their common goal is manifestly modernization, perceived by them as the minimization of the material differences between theirs and the lifeways of the relatively developed nations of this world. It is the thesis of the present study that the introduction of new technologies 23; §g_do not of themselves seem to generate sufficient power to produce the desired agri- cultural revolution among the inhabitants of less developed nations. Account needs to be taken of the many interacting, interdependent variables, involving not only material, but also social, cultural and intellectual factors whose peculiar- ities of configuration in psychological space may dispose an individual to be more or less favorable to modernizing influences. The purpose of the present investigation is the explor- ation of the interdependencies among such variables with a view to determining meaningful dimensions which can be used in explaining and predicting the process of transition from traditional subsistence to modern commercial systems of agri- cultural production in predominantly agrarian peasant communities. Joseph R. Ascroft To this end, the interrelations among 43 variables indicating various aspects of peasant community life were examined. In order parsimoniously to summarize the inter- relations among so many variables, factor analyses were utilized as a means of determining the number and nature of underlying factors among the 43 variables. The use of factor analysis was exploratory, rather than confirmatory, and there- fore, was performed without specific hypotheses as to the nature and number of meaningful dimensions underlying the process of modernization. Separate factor analyses were performed on the 43 by 43 intercorrelation matrices of each of three Kenya village locations and of the three village locations combined into one, yielding a total of four separate factor analyses. Personal interviews with 624 heads-of-household were conducted in three village locations in the Republic of Kenya. Area sampling techniques were used to locate final informants who responded to a pre-tested interview schedule administered by specially selected County Council Community Development assistants under the supervision of trained personnel. The principle axis solution with Varimax rotations, using the Kiel-Wrigley criterion for terminating factor analysis, extracted between seven and nine factors from the factor inter- correlation matrices. These were reduced to five in each village and in the combined sample by application of a second arbitrary criterion derived from a comparison of factor \/ Joseph R. Ascroft similarities across the four solutions. No one factor in each of the four solutions predominated appreciably over the other factors in terms of proportion of total variance explained. Thus, it was concluded that modernization was a multidimensional phenomenon, having at least five meaningful dimensions: 1. Ability to understand communication . Family Structure Receptiveness to change 2 3 4 Aspirational orientation 5. Agricultural productivity The nature of the ability to understand communication and the family structure dimensions evinced remarkable similarity across villages. The receptiveness to change and aspirational orientation dimensions attained moderate similar- ity across villages, while the agricultural productivity dimension indicated the least similarity across the three villages. The five dimensions now require substantiation through future confirmatory research and analysis, drawing from a thorough sampling of the spectrum of aspects which pertain to the "way of life" of peasant farmers. To this end, it may be hypothesized that there are at least five dimensions of modernization, and the nature of these dimensions can be specified. , wfiVfiF. .ry Joseph R. Ascroft Since the present investigation has essentially done no more than reduce a large number of variables to a manageable few underlying factors, it is not possible, on the basis of these findings alone, to infer, even conjecturally, the probable time order of the acquisition of the attributes of each of the five dimensions. Whether or not it is possible to infer time order, therefore, is a matter for further investigation wherein it is suggested that a second approach to factor analysis be used in conjunction with the approach used in the present investigation. The second approach is a P analysis which identifies "types" or clusters of people sharing a common syndrome. By this means, it can be invest- igated whether there is any order in which each of the five dimensions are "adopted" as we progress from people "types" who are relatively traditional in their orientation to life to people "types" who are relatively modern in such an orient- ation. AC KM 01*] LEDGIEE NTS The author is deeply grateful for the encouragement, assistance and good counsel accorded him by his advisor, Dr. Everett M. Rogers. The author also extends his sincere appreciation to Dr. R. Vincent Farace and Lawrence E. Sarbaugh who served on the author's guidance committee. Particular thanks are eXpressed to Dr. Gordon M. Wilson, Chairman of Marco Surveys Ltd., Nairobi, Kenya, and to Dr. Harry L. Naylor of the United States Agency for International Development, for making the data for the present study avail- able to the author and for their generous sponsorship of the author's academic career. To the author's colleagues, and eSpecially to Robert F. Keith and Albert E. Talbot is extended deep appreciation for their assistance and constructive thoughts. Finally, the author reserves a special word of thanks for his wife, Irene, for her understanding and co-Operation, and for typing the present thesis. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . Background to the Study Objectives of the Study Justification for the Study II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND RELATED RESEARCH Defining Modernization Review of Related Aggregate Analysis Research A Critique of Aggregate Analysis Research Review of Factor Analytic Investigations at Individual Level A System View of Modernization III METHODOLOGY . . . . . . . . . The Sample and Sample Setting Interview Schedule and Pre-test Data Collection Operationalization of Variables Scale Construction Data Analysis IV FIIQDII‘TGS O O 0 O O O O O O O 0 Results of Factor Analysis Patterns of Modernization Variables V SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION . . . . . . . Summary . Comparison of Factor Analytic Investigations Implications for Future Research BIBLImI—Wi-{Y O O O O O O 0 O O O O O O APENDK O O O O O O O O O O O O O (FUJI-H l-‘ (X) 12 16 21 29 29 31 32 33 44 47 49 49 51 7O 7O 72 79 85 87 Table (j! 10 ll 12 13 14 LIST OF TABLES Number of Factors and Variance EXplained by Village using the Kiel-Wrigley Criterion for Terminating Rotations Number of Factors and Variance Explained by Village using the Factor Similarity Criterion for Terminating Rotations Comparisons of Highest Primary Loadings on Ability to Understand Communication Factor Similarity Matrix: Ability to Understand Communication Comparisons of Highest Primary Loadings on Family Structure Factor Similarity Matrix: Family Structure Comparisons of Highest Primary Loadings on Receptiveness to Change Factor Similarity Matrix: Receptiveness to Change Comparisons of Highest Primary Loadings on ASpirational Orientation Factor Similarity Matrix: Aspirational Orientation Comparisons of Highest Primary Loadings on Agricultural Productivity Factor Similarity Matrix: Agricultural Productivity Comparisons of Communication Variables across Six Factor Analytic Investigations Idealized Combinations of Three Hypo- thetical Dimensions by Four Hypothetical People Types ’ iv Page 49 50 62 63 78 33 APPENDIX Table Page I Five Factor Solution for 43 Variables: Samia Location 83 2 Five Factor Solution for 43 Variables: Kabondo Location 90 3 Five Factor Solution for 43 Variables: Bomet Location 7 92 4 Five Factor Solution for 43 Variables: Combined Locations 94 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Background to the Study Most Africans today live, as they did in earlier times, by subsistence farming. However, this is an era of vastly improved and expanded communications, the age of the United Nations and similar agencies of international social change, and the plight of the African is no longer unheeded. There is general awareness that, to achieve a better material life, farm products that are surplus to those necessary to feed the farmer and his family, must be produced. To this end, govern- ments of developing African nations whose agricultural production is based largely on traditional patterns of sub- sistence farming are constantly seeking ways and means of urging and accelerating technological change in the rural sectors of their economies. Their common goal is manifestly modernization, perceived by them as the minimization of the material differences between theirs and the lifeways of the relatively more develOped nations of this world. There is great impatience among African nations to achieve this goal speedily. Thus, they solicit aid, they pass decrees, yet all too frequently their harvest is frustration. In spite of, and, in many instances, in seeming defiance of well- intentioned governmental efforts, most Africans continue to live by subsistence farming. The acquisition of a new tool or I a new seed variety does not of itself seem to generate sufficient power to produce the desired agricultural revolution in Africa. Thus, by way of example, we are told by Hapgood (I965, p.60) that the climate for the "rapid development of agriculture", left by the French in Dahomey, was dissipated: "The plows and tools were never adopted: Dahomeyans farm today as they did before the French came". There is, therefore, also a great naivety among African nations in their perception of the disposition of their con- stituents to sacrifice the ancient customs of their fathers for a promised but often evanescent higher standard of living. Effective communication is essential to planned develop- ment. Rogers (1966) stated that: A central principle of effective communication is that one must know his audience. Programs of directed social change designed to reach peasants are likely to fail unless based upon understanding of the values, attitudes and motivations of their audience. A few developing nations in Africa today are paying heed to this dictum. Governments in multi-tribel situations are realizing the importance of learning to "talk" to their diverse people, to empathize with them, to overcome the subtle barriers to communications produced by differential attitudes, values, and orientations. Such is the case with the government of the Republic of Kenya which recognises the need for scientific behavioral research as a means of enhancing its effectiveness in analysing and assessing those factors which stimulate or inhibit the passage of directed social change. To this end, it -X- commissioned a research investigation of the factors which affect agricultural development, data from which have yielded the present thesis. While the present thesis addresses itself primarily to the factors which affect agricultural develOpment in Kenya, it is, at the same time, hopeful that the information thus 5 gained will prove useful to other developing countries in the world. Objectives of the Study The present thesis is concerned with the further explor- ation of the Kenya data with a View to determining meaningful dimensions which can be used in eXplaining and predicting the process of transition from traditional subsistence to modern commercial systems of farming in predominantly agrarian peasant communities. This transitional process is labeled modernization in the present paper. The interrelations among 43 variables treating of various aspects of peasant community life will be examined. These variables have been selected on the basis of * The impetus for the three-village research project emanated from the Kenya Ministry of Labour and Social Services, whose original intention was to gather information bearing upon its community development programs. The notion burgeoned to encompass the activities and areas of interest of many other ministries in the Kenya government and generated a before/after experimental design with controls. Professional advice was gained from the United States Agency for International DeveIOpment and a private research organization, Marco Surveys Ltd., of Nairobi, Kenya, was commissioned to undertake the project. The pretest was completed in 1965 and the gross analyses presenting the per- centaged frequencies and some cross-tabulations of the findings have already been submitted to the Kenya government in a private report (Marco Surveys Ltd. 1965). {I availability of data to provide purposive representation of such aspects of the peasants' lifeways as his communication behavior, his family structure, his agricultural productivity, his health, economic and educational activity, his demographic configuration, and certain socio—psychological orientations. However, working with so many variables is unwieldy. Thus, a method of parsimoniously summarizing them will be utilized. The main statistical objective of the present study, therefore, will be the substitution of a factor matrix for the 43 by 43 intercorrelation matrix by factor analysis. Factor analygis is defined as ”a method for determining the number and nature of the underlying variables (called factors) among large numbers of measures" (Kerlinger, 1965, p.650). A factor is defined as an hypothesized latent variable which is assumed to underly several measures and which therefore summarizes them. The approach to factor analysis that will be used is explor- atory rather than confirmatory, and hence will be performed without hypothesis as to the nature and number of dimensions explaining the process of modernization. R analysig is a response or ”trait” approach dedicated to providing indices of the homogeneity with which variables cluster around an under- lying factor or set of factors. By this means, it is intended to determine the extent to which one factor structure can be uncovered to describe the process of modernization i.e. to determine whether or not modernization is a unidimensionsl phenomenon. So far as can be ascertained from a search of the liter- ature, previous factor analytic studies having objectives allied to those of the present study were either based on analyses of aggregate data from secondary sources of information (Farace, 1965), or defined only a narrow subset of the modern- ization process as their area of interest (Deutschmann and Falls Borda, 1963). In contrast to previous investigations, the present study defines its unit of analysis and primary source of data as the individual in a peasant community and aspires to a broader definition of the process of modernization. Justification for the Study DevelOpment economists and planners are in constant quest of an objective, scientific vantage point whence they can survey the complex of variables bearing upon the processes of national development. All too often, for want of systematic information, they cannot see the wood for the trees. In recognition of this condition, the Conference on Productivity and Innovation in Agriculture in the under-developed Countries (1965, p.56) included in its report the following statement, which will be taken as cardinal to the justification of the present thesis. The transformation of a traditional agriculture involves important and fundamental changes in the attitudes, values and orientation of farmers and of those who work with them .... Behavioral science research can aid in promoting the adoption of more productive practices by analyzing the structure, the values and the operations of agricultural administrative units and of the peasant society and by investigating precise ways in which social institutions, individual attitudes and personal values hold back or stimulate the innovative process. A growing body of literature has documented the need for fundamental socio-cultural—psychological re-orientations to accompany the development processes in emergent countries. Following are a set of basic assumptions which appear to be generally held in common by students of international develop- ment and which themselves provide additional justification of a specific nature for the present thesis. 1. That the historical organization of relatively self- contained socio-economic units for human survival based upon clan and tribal affiliations in predominantly agrarian situations is no longer compatible with the aspirations of the developing nations striving to modernize their lifeways. 2. That subsistence farming, heretofore adequate for human survival, must progress toward surplus farming to meet the rising needs and expectations of rural peOple. 3. That the rural economies of most deve10ping countries are in some stage of transition from traditional subsistence to modern commercial systems of agricultural production. 4. That this transition affects and is itself profoundly affected by the attitudes, values and orientations of peoples within traditional social systems. 5. That opposing forces are evident in the process of transition: (a) a reluctance to sever the long-established bonds of attachment with the customs of tradition, and (b) a great pressure upon individuals to enter into and be fundamentally modified by new competitive life forces. 6. That the resolution of this dilemma engenders powerful social, cultural and psychological conflicts which may either result in more rapid assimilation of change or lead to firmer entrenchment of traditionalism. The present study is regarded as an initial step toward determining the degree to which these Opposing forces are in evidence among the inhabitants of three Kenya village locations. Although beyond the scape of the present thesis, it is, never- theless, recognised that the eventual goal of research invest- igations such as the present study, should be the determination of what kinds of modernizing programs, presented in what ways, are adopted or not adopted by what kinds of people. CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.AND RELATED RESEARCH Defining Modernization The Age of Exploration, the Renaissance, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the Industrial Revolution, were, as Lerner (1958, p.43) indicated, all stages in an historical sequence of a dynamic process of change whereby "all men of the West had acquired a new style of life". A similar process is underway in Africa, as it is in other under-develOped parts of the world. People are in many ways attaining new styles of life: some are becoming literate, others are becoming urbanized, and still others are commercializing their farming Operations. The process of reshaping the world in a modern image required the course of several centuries to reach its current state of progression, the Space Age. In Africa today, the process is being urgently and consciously accelerated to run out its entire course in a matter of one or two decades. African leaders tend to recognise, among the interactive multi-facets of this complex process, chiefly the need for sweeping and immediate technological transformations, without at the same time recognising the concommittant changes required in societal norms. To the extent that they exhibit this tendency, to this extent will the decades extend themselves into centuries. For indeed, while modernization may conceiv- ably be considered unidimensional, it is, nevertheless, also. 1" r1 a multivariate interactive system containing both economic and non-economic behavioral components, each of which exhibits interdependence, in that systematic variation in one component is inextricably linked with systematic variation in other components. The number and nature of the components forming this multi- variate complex are theoretically boundless. Still, it is the purpose of science to reduce the unwieldy many to a manageable few. Rogers (1965) synthesized what is presently known about the motivations, values, attitudes, and orientations of social systems with essentially traditional norms, thereby achieving a description of the characteristics of a modern society by antithetically looking at those of a traditional society. He described the subculture of peasantry in terms of the central distinguishing tendencies of its elements: namely, that peasant societies tend to exhibit: l. A mentality of mutual distrust, suspiciousness, and evasiveness in interpersonal relations. 2. A lack of innovativeness in their reaction to new ideas. 3. A fatalistic, passive view of the world. 4. Low aspirational levels of desired future states of being. 5. A lack of the ability to defer immediatedgratification i in anticipation of future rewards. 6. A limited time perspective accentuated by an orientation to the past rather than to the future. I. u .5 .—L . x. K r l I ' . . . , , . - - - . K . L , .. - ( , t . a N _ . . . . v t > s ~. . ,- A . . -.. a. v ‘ ‘ ‘p .1 \_ u. L k p. s o D u f — r . . . ,. . ._ - , ‘ . i. a) .1 - .. _ ‘ y .1 v r. .. _ .7 \. - A: f. 10 7. A strong sense of familism often involving the authorit- arianism of a patriarch. 8. A dependency upon, compounded with a hostility toward, governmental authority. 9. A localiteness which secludes them from cosmopolite influences. Low empathetic ability, especially with individuals out- side of the social system, which further immunizes peasants «from modernizing influences. While this list of elements* is by no means exhaustive or self-evident, it does, nevertheless, alert us to the complex nature of the interrelationships among variables in the modern- izing process. It also alerts us to the fact that modernization does not have to do solely with the acquisition of higher standards of living. Old, inefficient tools and unproductive farming practices must certainly be discarded, but so too must old, fettering notions and beliefs give way to the new. Indeed, a change in modes of farming affects a change in deep- seated beliefs and vice versa: such changes are interdependent upon each other. There is need also to give some consideration to the contextual use of the term "modernization" in the present thesis. Lerner (1958, p.44) noted that modernization is a term "imposed by recent history". It superseded such notions as *The present study contains measures which allude only to four of these elements, namely: innovativeness, aspirational levels, familism and cosmopoliteness. ll EurOpeanization, Americanization and Westernization, all terms which are essentially synonymous with modernization, but which 95399 connotations distasteful to the sensitivities of newly- emerged nations. Modernization possesses the eclecticism of suggesting a neutrality of association which at once repudiates any overt links with specific sources of influence and also envelope all sources of influence to change. Students of develOpment in emerging countries tend to use the terms "modernization" and "national develOpment" inter- changeably. It would seem that whichever term is favored depends to some extent upon the unit of analysis. Farace (1965) described national develogment in terms of the differing "way of life" between nations at differing levels of development. Lerner (1958, p.43) describes modernization as the process whereby individuals acquired "a new style of life". Both terms convey essentially the same meaning; they are conceptually equivalent. Similarly, the present thesis draws no distinctions between modernization and national development. The process of national development is essentially the process of national modernization. Thus, for the purpose of the present thesis, modernization is defined as the process of acquiring new styles of life by individuals within social systems and, consequentfig, by social Lsystems themselves. This definition is grounded in the Lerner (1963, p.329) proposition that: l2 ... Modernity is an interactive behavioral system. It is a style of life whose components are inter- active in the sense that the efficient functioning of one of them requires the efficient functioning of all others. The components are behaviorgl in the sense that they operate only through the activity of individual human beings. They form a system in the sense that significant variation in in the activity of one component will be associated with significant variation in the activity of all other components. Whether or not modernity is unidimensional (albeit a multivariate interactive system), or multidimensional (i.e. varying in more than one way), is a matter for investigation in the present paper. Finally, modernity is not an ideal state of being. As a process, its limits are infinite. It is, therefore, a conceptually convenient term which enables us to make relative distinctions between one state of being and another in terms of the degree of the attribute modernity possessed by each. Thus, one country is considered to be more modern only in relation to another country or set of countries. Similarly, one individual is modern only to the extent that he possesses more of the attribute as compared with another individual or set of individuals. Review of Related Aggregate Analysis Research For many behavioral scientists, there exists a substantial number of secondary sources of available materials which are amenable to quantification and analysis. Such sources are 13 termed "secondary" inasmuch as their data were originally compiled for a use other than that to which subsequent analysts seek tp put them. Some useful and frequently used sources include country census and registration materials and the records of international agencies providing estimates of national characteristics. Studies based on such materials are often termed "aggregate" studies since the data which they seek to analyze generally reflect modal characteristics of large socio-geographical entities such as nations. The particular importance of aggregate studies derives from their great utility in exploring the nature of relations among variables, frequently with a view to suggesting hypotheses which may subsequently be tested systematically, using a more elemental unit of analysis such as the individual. Previous aggregate studies investigating the correlates of modernization in less develOped countries have been concerned primarily with determining linkages between modern- ization and mass media communication. Among the earlier investigators in this field was Lerner (1958, p.61-65), who posited a stage-develOpment process of national evolution in which a country's scattered pOpulace first gathers into clusters in limited areas which eventually develop into urban centres. When urbanization achieves certain proportions, teaching literacy to the citizenry becomes feasible and functional. Increasing numbers of literates in the community occasions increasing participation in the mass media, I1 14 especially the print media. Such participation engenders awareness of and involvement in political matters by the pOpulace. Thus, by examining the correlates of mass media facil- ities across 54 countries, Lerner was able to explain up to 70 per cent of the variation in mass media deve10pment on the basis of urbanization, literacy and political participation variables. An important socio-psychological concomitant of these transformations is the development and spread of empathetic ability, which Lerner (1958, p.41) defined as "The capacity to see oneself in the other fellow's situation" and which "enables newly mobile persons to Operate efficiently in a changing world". Cutright (1963) was similarly interested in linking media development with political develOpment across countries. His findings are very closely aligned with those of Lerner. Increasing political complexity in a country is accompanied by increasing urbanization and rising educational levels of its peoples. Development of communication, therefore, maximizes in countries where the greater part of the active labor force is not engaged in agriculture. Caplow and Finsterbusch (1964) focussed their attention upon a country-by-country examination of the economic, welfare, and demographic aspects of modernization across 66 nations and autonomous states. Using Spearman rank order correlation, I « \_z x4 , (I . J ‘ v u .r i, x ‘ Q ~ -L, , ‘tr , l “.17 ,_ .— ’ l ,1 , \ ,. .. C -l \,. .. .— ~ ._. . v 15 they developed a modernization index comprised of three primary indicators which were found to have a common applicability across all the nations studied. Each nation was ranked on this index, the components of which were energy consumption, telephones per thousand, and inhabitants per physician. Among findings of particular pertinence to the present thesis are the following: 1. The level of modernization achieved by a country is almost unrelated to its national resources, i.e. to its land and human potentiality. 2. Countries with relatively higher levels of modernization were characterized by increasing transition from parochial to cosmopolitan orientations, greater material welfare in terms of per capita incomes, and better health and nourishment dispositions of their inhabitants. These previous studies relied principally on the statist- ical method of correlational analysis. More recently, a study by Parace (1965) utilized a somewhat different analytic approach of factor analysis in order to reduce a large number of modern- ization variables to some smaller number of latent underlying factors. Like Lerner and Cutright, however, his primary interest was the explanation of the role of mass media commun- ication in national deve10pment. Farace utilized 54 variables representing such different aspects of life in each of 109 countries as political activities, health and nourishment capabilities, agricultural productivity, climate, population a , \ . 4 . _ -.4 l; l l x r. 1 . .1 _ , I . .. \J V/ K V ~J I ,, , J ».J . \— , 16 characteristics, economic and cultural manifestations, and mass media. Factor analysis indicated that the 54 variables could be reasonably explained by one principal underlying dimension which Farace labeled national development. The economic indices in the matrix were found to have the highest loadings on the national develOpment factor and were, therefore, considered to reflect its "core". The mass media indices were nearly as highly loaded on the factor, suggesting that economic development was accompanied by a develOpment and spread of the mass media. Farace finally (1966) attempted to classify 109 countries into national systems on the basis of clusters of countries sharing common syndromes or patterns of develOpment across the 54 different measures of national characteristics. Six such clusters resulted, the one of principal interest to the present thesis being the national system labeled CEntral/South Africa, wherein is included Kenya. This national system was character- ized as having, among other properties, high illiteracy, relatively low media eXposure levels, and a predominantly animist religion. A Critique of Aggregate Analysis Research Aggregate studies are most frequently criticized for the lack of generalizability of their findings to sub-pOpulations and individuals within their units of analysis. Furthermore, 17 they do not directly reflect basic attitudinal, motivational and orientational socio-psychological differences prevailing within and among their units of analysis. These cr