Evaluation of agricultural research in Eastern,Central, and Southern Africa

Research and Development (R&D) evaluation within agriculture is becoming increasingly important as a planning tool in the research management process in eastern, central, and southern Africa. Evaluation of agricultural research in the region is performed at various levels for different purposes. This article traces the evolution of R&D activities, and looks at the current status of the agricultural research evaluation and the capacity to undertake such evaluations as a part of research management-both at the national and regional levels. It critically examines the experiences of the region in evaluating agricultural research and the efforts made to promote such activities, summarizing the lessons learned. Finally, the article analyzes the critical constraints impeding the successful adoption of the agricultural research evaluation process and offers suggestions, which could alleviate these constraints. From 1993 to 1997, he was an advisor on impact evaluation and policy analysis to the Southern Africa Center for Cooperation in Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Training (SACCAR), in Botswana. Graduated in agricultural economics from the University of Guelph, Canada, he started his professional career in Africa, at the University of Dar-es-Salaam in 1979. From 1982 to 1991, he worked for CIMMYT, and was then a senior economist at the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics in Canberra. He has worked and published in a range of subjects, including agricultural policy and development, agricultural marketing, production economics, farming systems research, capacity building, and impact assessment. Anandajayasekeram is the current president of the Association for Farming Systems Research and Extension and the Southern African Association for Farming Systems Research and Extension. Dr. David R. Martella has, since 1991, been Regional Agricultural Advisor at the United State Agency for International Development, Regional Economic Development Support Office for East and Southern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya. He previously worked as an agricultural economist and advisor for USAID in Mozambique. Martella has fifteen years of experience in farming and related enterprises as owneroperator in California, in Mexico, and in Swaziland. He also has sixteen years of research and program management experience in Africa. His areas of specialization include economic theory, econometrics and quantitative methods, and experimental design. Martella has a graduate degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University.     

Fitting a square peg in a square hole: Using metaphor in narrative therapy

This paper examines the assumptions of the narrative mode of therapy and the assumptions of therapeutic metaphors. The premise is that the use of metaphor fits the assumptions of narrative therapy and can enhance and expand narrative therapy. This paper examines the structure and types of metaphor, explores their fit within the narrative model, and gives three case examples which illustrate the use of metaphor in narrative therapy.Kevin Lyness, MS, is a doctoral candidate, MFT Program, 1269 Fowler House, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1268, and a doctoral candidate in the MFT Program, Purdue University. Volker Thomas, PhD, is assistant professor, Marriage and Family Therapy Program, 1269 Fowler House, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1269. Reprint requests should be sent to the first author.     

Motivation and Academic Achievement: The Effects of Personality Traits and the duality of Experience

The present study examined the relationship of personality, experience while studying, and academic performance. One hundred and seventy talented high-school students (68 males, 102 females) completed the Personality Research Form (PRF) and recorded their experience via the Experience Sampling Method (ESM). The results showed that controlling for ability, work orientation, a PRF factor, was a better predictor of grade than experience. However, an experiential variable,intrinsic motivation while studying, was related to the difficulty level of courses students took over the 4 years of high school. The results supported the notion that there are two kinds of motivation in scholastic achievement, one directed toward long-term goals, the other directed toward ongoing experience.     

Perceptions of primary supervisor interpersonal skills: A critical incident analysis

This study surveyed a randomly selected group of Approved Supervisors of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (n = 280) and their supervisees (n = 266) on their perceptions of the primary supervisor interpersonal skill used in supervisory incidents that had a positive effect on supervisee development. Supervisor directiveness was the most identified skill by both supervisors and supervisees.This study was funded in part by grants from the Research Committee of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy; the Agricultural Experiment Station, Purdue University; and the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Purdue University Calumet.     

自古圣贤皆“寂寞”?——独处及相关研究

独处(solitude)是指个体与外界无互动,或意识上与他人分离,并能够自由选择个人身心活动的状态.与孤独感只能体验到消极情绪不同,独处是一种能够容纳不同情绪体验的开放性客观状态,对个体有积极的建设性意义.目前关于独处的研究方法主要有自我报告法和经验取样法.研究发现随着年龄增长,个体用于独处的时间增加,并对独处的态度更为积极.独处对个体的心理健康、创造力和自我整合等方面均有积极的促进作用.未来的研究应进一步明确独处的构成,考察独处的发展机制、独处的文化差异,而独处的大脑神经机制将是该领域一个比较有价值的研究方向.     

Perceptions of primary family therapy supervisory techniques: A critical incident analysis

This study surveyed a randomly selected group of Approved Supervisors of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (n=275) and their supervisees (n=266) on their perceptions of the primary supervisory technique used in supervisory incidents that had a positive effect on supervisee development. Individual case consultation was the technique most often identified by both supervisors and supervisees.This study was funded in part by grants from the Research Committee of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy; the Agricultural Experiment Station, Purdue University; and the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Purdue University Calumet.     

Assessing clients in their natural environments with electronic diaries: rationale, benefits, limitations, and barriers

Increasingly, mobile technologies are used to gather diary data in basic research and clinical studies. This article considers issues relevant to the integration of electronic diary (ED) methods in clinical assessment. EDs can be used to gather rich information regarding clients' day-to-day experiences, aiding diagnosis, treatment planning, treatment implementation, and treatment evaluation. The authors review the benefits of using diary methods in addition to retrospective assessments, and they review studies assessing whether EDs yield higher quality data than conventional, less expensive paper-pencil diaries. Practical considerations--including what platforms can be used to implement EDs, what features they should have, and considerations in designing diary protocols for sampling different types of clinical phenomena--are described. The authors briefly illustrate with examples some ways in which ED data could be summarized for clinical use. Finally, the authors consider barriers to clinical adoption of EDs. EDs are likely to become increasingly popular tools in routine clinical assessment as clinicians become more familiar with the logic of diary designs; as software packages evolve to meet the needs of clinicians; and as mobile technologies become ubiquitous, robust, and inexpensive.     

Evaluation from the inside: Participatory evaluation of agricultural research in the Philippines

This paper discusses the experience of a Philippines-based agricultural research program, where participatory evaluation is embedded in a broader, user-centered participatory research approach. Three case projects illustrate and analyze participatory evaluation of agricultural research in a developing country context. Different evaluation types are identified and their use in different phases of the research process is discussed. These field experiences show how “evaluation from the inside” can contribute to effective research planning and implementation, particularly in enhancing sensitivity to user needs and situations. network for user participatory rootcrop R&D sponsored by the International Potato Center in Asia. Under his leadership, UPWARD has increasingly sought to build participatory monitoring and evaluation into the network’s research and development activities. He has a Ph.D. in communication and innovation studies from Wageningen Agricultural University in The Netherlands. Prior joining UPWARD, Campilan worked with the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction and the Philippine Root Crop Research and Training Center. His research interests include communication of innovations, institutional linkage development, participatory research methods and tools, and strengthening local knowledge systems. From 1991 until 1997 he was coordinator of Users’ Perspectives With Agricultural Research and Development (UPWARD) network. He was previously based in Latin America. His main research interests include the socioeconomic and cultural aspects of crop genetic diversity conservation and utilization involving ethnobotanical studies, on-farm conservation, and work on seed systems. He is also interested in research on rural enterprise development. He has been actively involved in capacity building initiatives among national agricultural researchers, especially in participatory research methods and planning techniques. He can be contacted CIP-ESEAP, Kebun Percobaan Muara, Jalan Raya Ciapus, Bogor 16610, Indonesia, fax (62 251) 316 264, e-mail: G.Prain@cgiar.org. Her major responsibilities include facilitating the network’s activities on sustainable crop management R&D and on capacity building in participatory approaches and methods. At the UPWARD coordinating office, she is in charge of training, publications, and information management. She has extensive training and hands on experience in the use of participatory methods and tools, particularly through a Philippines project on soil resource management for sweetpotato production. She has an MSc in family resource management and development communication from the University of the Philippines at Los Ba?os. Her research interests include sustainable crop management, strengthening local R&D capacity, and field testing participatory methods and tools.     

Cognitive and social consequences of exposure to emotional narratives: Two studies on secondary social sharing of emotions

People who listen to a narrative concerning another's experience feel the urge to share in turn their experience of listening. This phenomenon is called secondary social sharing of emotion and has been widely investigated in the last ten years (Christophe & Di Giacomo, 1995; Christophe & Rimé, 1997). The present two studies aimed to provide new evidence concerning secondary social sharing of emotion. In the first study, participants were asked to recall an emotional narrative they had been told no more than three months before and to specify their social sharing about the narrative. In the second study, a diary strategy was used in order to encourage participants to recall an emotional narrative they had listened to during the day that had just elapsed. A follow‐up, three weeks after the completion of the diaries, was used to assess secondary social sharing over time. Results from both studies confirmed that secondary social sharing is a widespread phenomenon, involving many partners, mainly belonging to the circle of intimates, and affected by the intensity of listeners' emotional reactions. Adults exhibited significantly higher ratings of secondary social sharing than young people. In the first study, the valence (positive vs. negative) of the emotional experience affected secondary social sharing. However, no differences were found for sharing positive and negative experiences in the diary study.     

An alternative two stage least squares (2SLS) estimator for latent variable equations

The Maximum-likelihood estimator dominates the estimation of general structural equation models. Noniterative, equation-by-equation estimators for factor analysis have received some attention, but little has been done on such estimators for latent variable equations. I propose an alternative 2SLS estimator of the parameters in LISREL type models and contrast it with the existing ones. The new 2SLS estimator allows observed and latent variables to originate from nonnormal distributions, is consistent, has a known asymptotic covariance matrix, and is estimable with standard statistical software. Diagnostics for evaluating instrumental variables are described. An empirical example illustrates the estimator. I gratefully acknowledge support for this research from the Sociology Program of the National Science Foundation (SES-9121564) and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California. This paper was presented at the Interdisciplinary Consortium for Statistical Applications at Indiana University at Bloomington (March 2, 1994) and at the RMD Conference on Causal Modeling at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana (March 3-5, 1994).     

Perceptual sampling of orthogonal straight line features

Summary Among mathematical models of visual confusion of letters and similar material, those that posit a feature detection process have been especially popular. The present study provides direct tests of several of the central assumptions of such models with feature-stimuli composed of the blank, one of two straight line features, or both line features positioned at a right angle. In one condition, the two features were connected when they appeared together, whereas in the other condition they were separated by a gap. A model which makes the strong assumptions that the features are sampled (detected) independently and then reported in a direct, unbiased fashion, performed acceptably in both conditions. Feature dependency models and those positing a biased decision process were ruled out on the basis of poor fits or lack of parsimony. The perceptibility (d) of a specific feature depended on the stimulus that contained it in the Gap condition but not in the Connected condition. The relative perceptibility of the horizontal vs in the vertical features was also different in the Gap vs Connected conditions. The results were compared with other recent studies, including ones in which sampling independence was falsified, apparently because of greater stimulus complexity, and employing a stimulus set that did not contain all possible combinations of features.We would like to thank J.T. Berning for help in conducting the experiments. The first and second authors were supported by NSF Grant #BNS 76-84053 and the third author by Purdue Research Foundation Grant #XR 0104 during the early portions of this research. The latter portions were aided by National Science Foundation Grant #BNS 79-20298 to the first author. The third author is now at Human Performance Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210. Send for reprints to Dr. James T. Townsend, Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA     

The impact of generic word choices: An empirical investigation of age- and sex-related differences

Previous studies of receivers' responses to generic words have found that adults generally develop masculine imagery for neutral words and that men do this more than women. The present investigation of school-aged children (n=471) found that they, like adults, develop sex-specific masculine imagery in response to apparently neutral messages. Early adolescents, however, reported significantly more inclusive imagery than 6–7-year-olds. Different pronoun conditions elicited different mental imagery for the receivers of the messages with he/she eliciting more of a balance between male and female images and they eliciting more inclusive imagery.This work was supported by a grant from the Indiana University—Purdue University at Fort Wayne Research and Instructional Development Support Program.     

The guttman-harris uniqueness estimates

It is shown that, under very general conditions, uniqueness estimates proposed independently by Guttman [1957] and by Harris [1963] provide tighter upper bounds on the unknown uniqueness values of factor analysis than do existing estimates.The Illinois Department of Mental Health Drug Abuse Program is co-sponsored by the State of Illinois and the Department of Psychiatry, Division of the Biological Sciences and Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago. Send reprint requests to Drug Abuse Programs—Research, East Pavilion, Museum of Science and Industry, 57th Street and South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60637.     

The state version of the recovery experience questionnaire: A multilevel confirmatory factor analysis

Although many studies in the field of recovery from work utilize a quantitative diary design, little is known about the validity of the daily measures used in such studies. The present study analyses the factor structure of the state version of the Recovery Experience Questionnaire (REQ) on the between-person (trait) and within-person (state) levels. A total of 127 employees participated in the study. Most of them filled out the questionnaire on three consecutive workdays (N = 375 observations). Results of multilevel confirmatory factor analyses (MCFA) showed that a four-factor model fit the data better than alternative models at both levels of analysis (between and within). In addition, some factor loadings of the four recovery experience dimensions (particularly for relaxation and control) were lower on the day level as compared to the general level. Nevertheless, we conclude that both state and trait versions of the REQ show good psychometric properties. Implications for future research on recovery are discussed.     

An Overview of Primary Care Family Psychology

This paper describes the application of family psychology to the primary care setting—in service, education and training, and scholarship. Primary care family psychology integrates family systems with biopsychosocial theory, yielding an approach that is uniquely suited to the generalist demands of primary care. This approach attends especially to the effects of relationships on health and healthcare, using the family as a potential resource to the patient just as the healthcare team is a resource to the clinician. Training opportunities in primary care family psychology are growing. The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry fellowship is described as an example, with core primary care family psychology training in four different clinical sites: Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Obstetrics/Gynecology. Susan H. McDaniel is Professor of Psychiatry & Family Medicine, Director of Family Programs & the Wynne Center for Family Research in Psychiatry, and Associate Chair of Family Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York. Dr McDaniel also directs the Primary Care Family Psychology Fellowship. Picter LeRoux is Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Pediatrics, and Director of the Family Therapy Training Program in Psychiatry, University of Rochester School Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York. Dr. LeRoux also heads the Pediatric Track of the Primary Care Family Psychology Fellowship.     

Factor analysis of the revised UCLA loneliness scale

The Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (R-UCLA) is described and used as a unidimensional measure of loneliness; conceptualizing and assessing loneliness as a unitary, global experience. The present study suggests that the R-UCLA is a multidimensional measure of loneliness that assesses more than one construct of the loneliness experience. Results of principal axis factor analysis suggest that the R-UCLA measures three dimensions of loneliness: loneliness related to (a) “intimate others,” (b) “social others,” and (c) the “affiliative environment.” These findings may affect the utilization of the R-UCLA in future assessment, research, and intervention. These implications are discussed. This article is based on the author’s master’s thesis, submitted for the Master of Counseling degree at Arizona State University. This research was supported by a grant from the Arizona State University Graduate Student Association Research Development Program.