Part-whole combinations of questions are believed to be particularly vulnerable to question-order effects. A split-ballot experiment was used in a telephone survey to vary the order of a general well-being question and a set of questions on well-being in eight specific life domains. A number of order effects on multiple regression parameters were found for married respondents; no order effects were found for unmarried persons, however. These results show that conclusions about the relative importance of specific life domains for general well-being and conclusions about the effects of unmeasured variables can be substantially affected by the order of the general and specific items. Several explanations for the order effects are discussed.Numerous experiments have shown that responses to questions on interview surveys may be affected by the order of those questions (for an overview of previous research see Bradburn, 1983;Schuman and Presser, 1981; and Smith, 1982; for more recent findings see Bishop, Oldendick, and Tuchfarber, 1982a, 1985). Considerable difficulties remain, however, with respect to clarifying the types and causes of order effects. This paper focuses on an important class of order effects which occur when the interview includes part-whole combinations of questions in which a general question is intended to contain or summarize one or more specific questions (Schuman and Presser, 1981).Subjective quality of life research provides a classic illustration of a part-whole question format. In this type of interview, respondents are asked to give their level of satisfaction with their lives in general and with specific subareas or domains of their lives such as marriage, work, neighborhood, and standard of living. The central task of analysis is to MCKEE J. MCCLENDON is Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Akron, DAVID J. O'BRIEN is Professor in the identify the relative effects of satisfaction in the specific domains on satisfaction with life in general (see Andrews and Withey, 1976; Campbell, Converse, and Rodgers, 1976).Survey specialists often recommend that a "funnel" sequence be used for specific and general questions in which the specific questions follow the general question (Converse and Presser, 1986:41; Sudman and Bradburn, 1982:220-221; Kahn and Cannell, 1957:159-160). For topics with low salience, however, they state that the inverted sequence may be used to insure that the specific dimensions have been considered in reaching the general evaluation. In practice, surveys frequently have used the inverted sequence (i.e., the specific-first order) for quality of life questions (e.g., Davis and Smith, 1985; Sudman and Bradburn, 1982:306-310; Campbell, Converse, and Rodgers, 1976), although Andrews and Withey (1976) placed a general life satisfaction question both before and after a set of specific satisfaction questions. We report the results of a split-ballot experiment which investigates the effects of placing a set of specific well-being questions before versus afte...

A direct ELISA for the thiocarbamate herbicide molinate was used to study distribution and dissipation of the compound in a treated rice field. No sample preparation other than buffering and dilution was required for the analysis of field water samples. Analyses were performed in 96-well microplates and required less than 0-5 man-hour per sample (three dilutions per sample, four replicate wells per dilution). Spiked samples and selected field samples were split for analysis by ELISA and gas chromatography. Two control samples of 92 and 93 ppb (after dilution) had between run coefficients of variation of 13.8 and 13.9% for 37 ELISA runs. A nested ANOVA analysis revealed that the largest source of error for the ELISA was due to within replicate variability, partly attributable to interwell variability of the 96-well plates. Practical aspects of reducing assay error and handling ELISA data are discussed. Quality control data showed that reliability of the direct ELISA is comparable to the gas chromatography method for molinate. ELISA data from field samples showed concentration differences among sites in the same check which coincided with differences in water flow. The half-life of molinate in the field, as determined by ELISA, was comparable to the value determined by chromatography.

ABSfRAGr The relationship between community attachment and depression is examined in a sample survey (N = 295) in two midwestern rural towns and their surrounding open-country areas. When community attachment, a variable through which a rural resident's social integration into the local community affects mental health, was low, higher levels of symptoms of depression were observed. The economic viability of the local community was found to have a relationship to mean depression scores in the towns but not in the open-country areas.

O'Brien D. J., Phillips J. L. and Patsiorkovsky V. V. (2005) Linking indigenous bonding and bridging social capital, Regional Studies 39 , 1041–1051. Reconciling indigenous bonding and bridging social capital remains a difficult issue in economic development and global issues of inequality. A failure to address this problem weakens the legitimacy of liberal democratic political institutions. Mancur Olson's Logic of Collective Action (1971) is used as the starting point to identify the structural properties of bridging social capital, and the broad parameters within which strategies for using indigenous social capital to create these properties may be found. Empirical examples from the authors’ research are used to illustrate alternative ways and the costs and benefits of different strategies for linking indigenous bonding and bridging social capital.Social capital, Economic development, Collective action, Russia, Native American, Valeur de l'interaction sociale, Développement économqiue, Action collective, Russie, Amérindien, Sozialkapital, Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung, Kollektives Handeln, Rußland, Amerikanische Eingeborene, Capital social, Desarrollo económico, Acción colectiva, Rusia, Americano nativo, JEL classifications: O15, O17, O18, O57,

The relationship between the different ways leaders may relate to rural communities and their ability to relate to extracommunity individuals and organizations is examined. Drawing from the insights of Merton (1957) into local and cosmopolitan influentials and a newer literature on community attachment, two dimensions of attachment to the local community are identified. A survey of 75 leaders in five midwestern rural communities provides evidence that sociodemographic and socialnetwork characteristics of leaders have different relationships to the two dimensions. Implications of the findings for understanding the effectiveness of leadership in rural communities are discussed. I This is a revised version of a paper presented at the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society in Columbus, Ohio, August 18-21, 1991. We wish to thank anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions for revision of the manuscript. Address all correspondence to David]. O'Brien, Department of Rural Sociology, 204A Sociology Building, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211.