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Most of the soc sci's are trying to instil new life into their own methods & to study the possibility of applying to their own sphere the exact methods which have already proved their worth in the natural sci's. Cybernetics is defined as an exact sci dealing with the general principles of the structure of complex systems of control & the general principles of control processes. Res has shown that phenomena relating to the admin of society & to law present the character of complex soc phenomena which qualify them as objects of cybernetic res. The basic problems of the use of cybernetics in law & the administration of society are methodological problems. An attempt is made to describe the main trends followed in the application of cybernetic to law & the administration of society. Intensive res is being carried out on the application of information theory to law & admin. Projects have been elaborated with a view to devising cybernetic or mathematical models of the org'al & functional components of gov'al or pol'al machinery. Even complex power relationships within the State are to some extent amenable to exact sci'fic analysis. The most extensive res & the main practical applications of cybernetic methods relate to automation projects for the updating, retrieval & analysis of information in the sphere of legislation, the administration of justice & admin'ive practice. E. Weiman.

The dependent variable method is again demonstrated superior to the check data method in assessing sampling bias in an incompletely constituted random sample. 51 R's from a 10% randomly chosen subsample of 585 potential R's excluded from an initial wave of interviewing because of removal to an unknown address were located through analyses of R characteristics (occup'al, health, soc, econ, & legal) & over 420 contacts with former co-tenants, relatives, building superintendants, landlords, health, welfare, & other gov agencies, retailers & employers. Dependent variable measurements, the soc functioning of the R fam as determined by the St Paul Scale of Fam Functioning, indicated a statistically signif ()2 5.90, 2df; Ranksum z-score -3.07) positive sampling bias when compared with the fam functioning scores of 59 R's chosen randomly from the 559 fam's interviewed on the initial wave. Earlier comparison on the basis of demographic information (race, legitimacy of first child's birth, occup, type of dwelling, neighborhood characteristics (2), census tract data), independently obtained for the entire sample from vital statistic sources & census materials, had shown no statistically signif ()2) diff's between fam's originally interviewed & not located. AA.

The use of PO survey methods with sampling experts in cross-nat'l studies of developing countries is explored. The authors explain their methodology & approach in a 1964 crossnat'l survey of 445 expert informants in 13 developing countries. Measures of knowledgeability of R's & tests of the quality of reports obtained, as built into the M, are discussed. Many diff tests established that the reports of the experts generally were informed by their knowledge & only rarely distorted by error. Tests on memory error suggested that the passage of time had tinted the experiences of some informants. Checks on sources of error, however, insured relatively correct results. It is stipulated that this tool of inquiry will serve the cause of soc change. Use of expert sampling to study change in local communities in developing countries is recommended as a systematic & efficient res tool. M. Maaxfield.

A discussion of methods for collecting price data on goods & services where the selling price differs from the list price, or where the selling price or cost of the service is not readily apparent. It describes ways of standardizing shopping procedures so as to obtain comparable prices from various sellers. Included are lengthy descriptions of methods of obtaining prices on new automobiles, appliances, & the cost of mortgage loans. AA.

Concern centers on actions undertaken to effect social change where a minimum group discipline is exerted to: (1) not initiate violence, & (2) not respond with physical violence when attacked by the opponent. A brief historical review of such events indicating the roles of various civil rights groups is followed by a discussion of the objectives (eg, voter registration, desegregation of public facilities) & tactics (marches, sit-ins) of the movement. The major concern is to develop an ideal-typical model of a local civil rights campaign, using models by Martin Oppenheimer & James H. Laue as points of departure. In addition to identifying the phases of a campaign & illustrating them with material from specific campaigns, a distinction is made between the Upper South & the Deep South, especially in the 'crisis & confrontation' phase. Changes in the ideology of nonviolence are noted during the decade under question. A discussion of the effectiveness of nonviolent methods is included. 2 Figures. J. N. Mayer.

3 methods of locating opinion leaders in a soc system are described & 1 measure, the Self-Designating Opinion Leadership (OL) scale, is discussed in detail. A synthesis of res on OL is included from which generalizations re the concept of OL are made. Data on the self-designating OL scale are taken from a statewide area sample of 104 Ohio farm operators. Other Ohio studies provide is relating the scale to 1 or both of the other 2 methods of measuring OL (the key informants & the sociometric method). The scale is reliable, valid, & unidimensional. AA.

Observations on factor costs in public elementary & secondary Sch's, & on efforts made to measure the productivity of educ'al systems. In current dollars, the instructional expenditures per pupil per day have risen from $ 0.357 in 1929-1930, to $ 1.311 in 1957-1958. The increase for the same period in constant dollars (1949-1950 = 100), is from $0.748 to $0.915. The mean/average of all earned income in the US is used as the deflator for the salary portion of the instructional budget, under the assumption that relative changes in teachers' pay affect the calibre of staff &, hence, the output of Sch systems. Progressive Sch authorities now appear to respond to the demand for higher standards of performance by seeking to make changes in the instructional process via curriculum revision, redeployment of staff, & the use of new physical devices. Costbenefit analysis in educ is not sufficiently developed to make close judgments on the efficiency of alternative combinations of inputs, primarily because unobtrusive means of observing the teaching process are not yet available. Should teaching machines come into widespread use, however, it will be possible to link the individual instruments to a central data bank. Examination of the data obtained may allow fairly sophisticated types of systems analysis to be applied in educ. AA.

Four procedures for selecting telephone survey Rs within a household unit -- Troldahl-Carter, M/F alternation, next-birthday, & no-selection methods -- were compared in an interview survey of 230 households. The data indicate that the next-birthday method is a relatively efficient procedure for selecting a sample that is representative of all household members. 3 Tables. AA.

The 'jury method,' a technique permitting study of 2 person persuasive interaction, is used to examine the natural behavior of the persuader. The technique allows (a) manipulation of pairs of S's into opposition about an issue, & (b) observation of S's as they attempt to reach agreement. In a previous study by the authors ('The Jury Method: Some Correlates of Persuading,' Human Relations, in press), investigation of the antecedents of persuasion in the described situation suggested that persuasion is a function, not of demographic characteristics, prediscussion conviction, position with respect to the issue, nor manifest ability, but of the expression of confidence during discussion. That is, for each of the 2 discussants we may derive a vector by subtracting from the number of statements indicating confidence the number of statements indicating doubt; in discussion, the S with the larger vector will persuade the other. This hypothesis is tested in a jury method investigation in which 11 pairs of F Coll students were studied. Their discussions were tape-recorded & evaluated for the expression of confidence by means of a coding manual, prepared prior to the study. Data analysis supported the hyp. Ruling out alternative explanations for the finding suggests the propriety of a causal interpretation of the hyp. AA.