TITLE

The Open/Closed Questioning Controversy--A Postscript

AUTHOR(S)

Pasanella, Ann

PUB. DATE

December 1984

SOURCE

Public Opinion Quarterly;Winter84, Vol. 48 Issue 4, p817

SOURCE TYPE

Academic Journal

DOC. TYPE

Article

ABSTRACT

This article is a comment to the issue of open/closed questioning in survey. In her article on the open/closed questioning controversy of the 1940s, Converse traces rivalry between the Polling and Survey Sections of the United States Office of Facts and Figures. In the midst of this battle between the pollsters and the psychologists, Paul Lazersfeld was called in to devise some sort of rapprochement. As Converse noted, although his policy suggestions were not adopted, he did produce a seminal paper in the methodological controversy. The story can be extended in another direction. According to Lazersfeld, from the time of his first visit to the United States in the midst 1930s, he was very much impressed by Likert, and they became close friends. They shared several interests, both professional and personal. The conflict between open- and closed-question proponents continued and intensified. As consultant to the OWI closed-question camp, Lazarsfeld found himself in a strange situation. However, Lazarsfeld was less troubled by this methodological turn of events than by the emerging competition between the Michigan Survey Center and the Columbia Bureau of Applied Social Research.

ACCESSION #

5550692

Tags: SURVEYS;  QUESTIONNAIRES;  RESPONDENTS;  SOCIAL sciences -- Methodology;  SOCIAL science research

 

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