Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys

Stanley Presser is interested in the interface between social psychology and survey measurement. His research focuses on questionnaire design and testing, the accuracy of survey responses, nonresponse, and ethical issues stemming from the use of human subjects. His books include Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys (with Howard Schuman), Survey Questions (with Jean Converse), and Survey Research Methods (with Eleanor Singer). In addition to being professor of sociology, he teaches in the Joint Program in Survey Methodology, which he founded in 1992 with colleagues at the University of Michigan and Westat, Inc. He has served as editor of Public Opinion Quarterly, was president of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, and is an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association. Presser was director of the Maryland Survey Research Center from 1989 to 2000.

`Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys makes an enormous contribution to the field of survey methodology and ranks with such classics as Hyman's Interviewing and Kish's Survey Sampling. To the extent that survey research is only as reliable as its methodology, this book becomes a long-missing foundation stone for the social sciences in general' - Tom Smith, American Journal of Sociology

Scope and MethodQuestion Order and Response OrderOpen versus Closed QuestionsThe Assessment of No OpinionThe Fine Line between Attitudes and NonattitudesMeasuring a Middle PositionBalance and Imbalance in QuestionsThe Acquiescence QuagmirePassionate Attitudes Intensity, Centrality, and Committed ActionAttitude Strength and the Concept of CrystallizationTone of WordingSome Final Thoughts on Survey Research and Research on SurveysAppendix A: Mysteries of Replication and Non-ReplicationAppendix B: Special Sampling and Interviewing ProblemsAppendix C: Education and Information MeasuresAppendix D: Additional Items and Codes Bearing on Acquiescence