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19.4 AN INDEX OF ACCULTURATION THAT IS SIMPLE AND EASY TO ESTIMATE BASED ON MANIFEST BEHAVIOR

The manifest behavior of individuals constitutes a reflection of the senergicons that generated it and of the values that activated those senergicons. As a result, behavior before a valorized object may be used as the indirect index of the presence of an activated senergicon, as well as of its intensity. Consequently, it serves to determine who has a certain value installed and who does not, as well as to infer the intensity with which a senergicon is activated (importance assigned to the value).

In the elaboration of an index of acculturation that is correlated to economic development, we are interested in measuring the attachment of individuals to social norms that define the basic values of a society. The easiest way of achieving this measurement is by observing the frequency with which these values are violated. It is to be expected that this variable (frequency with which a social norm is violated-FSNV) be highly correlated with the proportion P of the installation of the corresponding value and with the intensity of the activated senergicon . Consequently, it is to be expected that it will be correlated with the presence or absence of the senergicon that controls that behavior, as well as its intensity.

As we are dealing with an indirect index, there may be a margin of error in this measurement. Just because an individual violates a norm it does not mean that he does not have the value installed and that the senergicon shame was not activated in him with some degree of intensity. That behavioral result may be the consequence of other objects related to the original object and of other senergicons activated by these that act in reverse fashion. In other words, it may be the result of the difference between a simple attitude and a complex attitude, as we saw in chapter 13. The measurement or the direct registering of the emotional state activated before an object (shame) will be the best index in order to determine if the valorization of the object is installed and with what intensity (importance) and, consequently, will determine if the individual responds or not before the value or social norm under question. Nevertheless, as long as the necessary sufficiently refined scientific methodology has not been developed that can measure a senergicon unequivocally, precisely, and easily, we have no choice but to adopt some practical solutions. As a result, in the absence of other alternatives, the manifest behavior related to the frequency with which a social norm is violated may be the best index of acculturation that we may be able to obtain in this historical context about that specific social norm.

19.5 A SIMPLE INDEX OF ACCULTURATION ABOUT THE NORM "DO NOT STEAL"

The calculus of the index of acculturation of the value "to steal is bad" could be carried out in the following way: a random sample is taken of the population that is representative. Then, each individual is submitted to a situation in which he is exposed to the temptation to steal a certain amount of money, for example $100. The number of persons that gave in to the temptation is registered and it is determined what proportion of the sample these people constitute. This will be a calculus of the proportion of individuals in the population that do not have the value "to steal is bad" installed, or that, if they do have it installed, it does not generate a sufficiently intense senergicon (importance of the value) to counteract the temptation produced by $100.

The experimental situation to which each individual will be submitted in the sample should be carefully established so that it will seem credible to the individual test subject and, consequently, the way he acts will be natural, that is, it will correspond to what he really would have chosen to do under similar conditions that were not experimental but real. The same can be done to other social values that are considered important in the construction to an index of acculturation.

The experimental model that is chosen in order to elaborate an index of acculturation like that one suggested with relation to the social norm "do not steal," should be one that can be applied under similar circumstances in different countries so that its results or the national statistic that is obtained can be compared from country to country. Along these lines, a simple and economical model to apply would be the following: By means of an adequate sampling technique, a sample of the individuals whose attitudes should be representative of the population should be taken. The sample should contain a proportion of people with the same economic level, so that the level of temptation to which they are all submitted will be the same for all. One hundred dollars is not the same to a poor person as it is to a rich person. Three samples can be taken, one from a high social strata, another from the middle class, and another from a poor class, and generate from these three indexes of acculturation--one for each social strata. After having determined the sample or samples, their addresses are located.

When the individual is not home or is not looking, someone dressed as a mailman will place in his mailbox a letter with the name and address of another person. It must look like a mistake on the part of the mailman. The letter should include $10 dollars, $15 dollars, or $20 dollars in cash with the following message:

Dear son,
I hope you are well. Enclosed are the ten dollars that you asked me to send you to buy the book for the chemistry class you are taking. I hope it is enough.

Love always,
Jane Doe





The letter should include the telephone number and address of the mother and this address should not be far, so that it will not cost much to return the letter by mail or to telephone the person directly. The address and telephone number will be, naturally, those chosen by the researcher in order to determine the proportion of those who returned the money versus those who did not.
Observe that in this context, "mother that helps her son" and "student who struggles and makes sacrifices to obtain an education" are objects that are valued in themselves and that activate senergicons opposed to the act of stealing. If the valorization of these objects are the same in all countries, the proportion of individuals who violated the norms in each country will be comparable.
A second experimental design that would correct this situation would be the following: a letter similar to the previous one, but this time the sender would be a governmental agency or a non-profit private agency that supposedly sends economic assistance to someone. This letter should also contain in the envelope a message that reads: "If we have made a mistake, please return the contents of this letter in the addressed stamped envelope we have included. Of course, the address would be that of the researcher. Please observe that using this second experimental model we eliminate the two valorized objects "mother that helps her son," and "student that struggles and makes sacrifices to obtain an education," as well as the counter effect that the senergicons activated by these objects may produce on the behavior of the individual in terms of his decision to steal or not to steal.

In this way we have managed to arrange it so that there are only two senergicons determining the individual's behavior: the senergicon that produces the temptation or the desire to steal the money, and the senergicon that prevents him from stealing the money. In this case, the last senergicon is that of the anxiety caused by the compulsion; that is, of the three dimensions of the tricotomic attitude before the abstract object or the social norm "do not steal," the one that is related to the violation of the social norm before oneself, even though no-one is watching, is regulated by the compulsion (see chapter 14 for a discussion about the tricotomic attitude). It is to be expected, then, that those individuals that have that value installed and in which, consequently, the compulsive senergicon will be activated, will return the money to the private or government agency that sent the letter.
The quantity of $10 dollars instead of $100 is due to how costly the experiment would be if we used the latter amount. Another way to economize on the experiment would be to include a voucher for $100 of economic assistance in the letter the government sends instead of cash. In this third model the voucher should indicate that it can be changed to cash at a specific address. Of course the address will be that which the researcher chooses in order to register the proportion of individuals who show up to cash the voucher. Given that these individuals would be assuming a false identity the researcher should have no problem when he informs them he cannot change the voucher because they are not the person to whom it was addressed. And, because the individual would be acting dishonestly, it would be quite ethical on the part of the researcher if he told him that. This way he would be trying to inculcate the value in a person who lacks it.

Please observe that in this third model the individual would react to two abstract objects or social norms at the same time: "do not steal" and "do not lie." By assuming a false identity he is lying. In this case, the activated senergicon is the sum of the effect of encountering or facing both objects. And, because both effects would be inseparably mixed, it would be impossible to determine what magnitude of the effect corresponds to which object. This would be an example of a complex attitude. The ideal scenario would be one in which we could develop an experimental model where the effect each senergicon has on that behavior is isolated. This way we can determine if the individual has one or two values installed. In the second experimental model (where we send the person some cash so that he return it if he has the value "to steal is bad" installed) we manage to isolate one effect from the other, but the required funds are necessary since it is very expensive.

As the reader may have noticed, each new experimental design that is created with the goal of isolating an effect or a variable, introduces at the same time a new problem.

In this third model the senergicon that controls behavior is not that of anxiety, but rather that of shame. In other words, of the three dimensions of the tricotomic attitude before the abstract objects or the social norms "do not steal" or "do not lie," the one that is associated with the violation of the social norm before the others, is regulated by the emotion of shame (see chapter 14). It is to be expected that people who have this value installed and in whom, consequently, the shame senergicon will be activated, will not claim the voucher for cash.

Please note, however, that the individual may have a value installed with respect to one dimension, for example, not to lie or steal in front of people (shame), and not have it installed with respect to another dimension, for example, not to lie or steal although there are no people looking (anxiety). As a result, he may not lie or steal in the first instance because he would have to do so in front of people that would see him, but he may lie and steal in the second instance if there are no people present to see him. That is why a good index of acculturation should determine the proportion of individuals that have the value installed in each dimension.

As we have pointed out, this third experimental design has two inconveniences: in the first place, one cannot measure separately the effects that the two senergicons activated by the two abstract objects "to lie" and "to steal" in front of people will have on the behavior of the individual and, secondly, we would only be considering the dimension of behavior controlled by the senergicon shame. Let us see how we can resolve this last inconvenience.

If we wanted the senergicon that controlled behavior to be the compulsive one, anxiety, the money would have to be mailed instead of having each person pick it up personally.

Please observe that given that in this fourth design the bonus would be sent by mail, the senergicon that controls this conduct would once again be the compulsive one brought about by the emotion of anxiety, precisely because we would be dealing here with the behavior or violation of the social norm before in the presence of one's self not in the presence of others. Be aware, then, how with a few slight changes in the experimental design one can isolate one dimension from another.

As far as the first inconvenience is concerned, we can isolate a simple attitude from a complex one if we change the experiment and send cash instead of a voucher, just as it was done in the second experimental model. That way the object or norm encountered would be that of stealing only and not stealing and laying at the same time.

As we already mentioned, when the financial funds needed to obtain these measurements are scarce, an experiment should be designed that employs a voucher instead of cash. This is the case of the third experimental model, in which it is necessary to present to the subject of the experiment a story that will seem real and convincing. For example, some type of help awarded to families with many children. In that case the experimental model would be the following:

Once the sample or samples are chosen and the addresses are determined, as well as the number of children for each family, then the fictitious agency will send a letter informing them that if the number of children in the family is greater than___, they will have the right to receive a financial aid bonus of $100. The number of children indicated should be greater than what that family really has. The letter should contain a blank space where the person will indicate the number of children it has. The family should then return the information to the address indicated in the letter. This will be the researcher's address.

The letter could indicate, for example, that if the number of children in the family is seven then the family has a right to receive a bonus of $80 dollars, if it is eight, $90 dollars, and if it is nine or more, $100.

This same experiment could be done using any other variable that is different from the number of children, for example, the individual's monthly income. If this monthly income is less than a certain established amount, then the family would qualify to receive a financial aid bonus, etc.. In this last case, the experiment could not be applied to individuals of a high economic strata since it would lose credibility.




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