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One means by which planning agencies may "hear" the constructive views of the public is the questionnaire technique. "A questionnaire is not just a list of questions. . .. It is essentially a scientific instrument for measurement and for correlation of particular kinds of data . . . it has to be specially designed." (Oppenheim). This paper considers the problems of questionnaire design, a number of examples of the use of the questionnaire in the United States and Britain, and attempts to draw lessons and profit from experience for those people committed to the use of the technique in exercises of public participation in the planning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with a task which is typical for sociological research. In the aspect of content it was stated in the following manner: supposing there is a set of occupations; sociologists can collect questionnaire data for analysis. The task is to scale these occupations according to the subjects' answers. The matter of scaling is in replacing the object designations by numbers in such a manner that the relationships on objects might be retained in numerical relations. The measuring procedure is in assigning numerical values to the objects, and it is executed by the third element of the scale, namely by the function. Depending on arbitrary definitions of the function, the following scale types are considered: absolute, interval, differential, ordinal and nominal. Thus, constructing a scale of designations would consist merely in replacing different names of occupations by different numbers. The representatives of the same occupation would not differ from each other. In constructing mathematical models such distinction is insufficient as the proportion of studies in which the results of nominal scaling are used is very small.

In the course of conducting a study concerning interracial attitudes of Negro youth in Washington, D.C., the principal investigator, a white person, customarily absented herself from the room where a Negro research assistant to assembled groups of Negro youths was administering the questionnaires. This policy was based on the common-sense assumption that the presence of a white person might bias the subject's responses, and on the findings of several experiments involving both performance on cognitive tasks and racial issues where the "color" of the experimenter had proved to be an influential variable. The experiments alert to a complicating variable in research, particularly in interracial research; that is, the likelihood of incongruency between the researcher's self-perception and the subjects' perception of him. The two experiments also suggest incongruency between the researcher's conceptions and vocabulary and the respondents. For while the researcher instructed the subjects to use one of only two terms "white" or "Negro" many of the respondents did not confine themselves to these two discrete terms.

The effects of etifoxine on healthy Ss was measured employing perceptual, psychophysiological and motor tests, in addition to which a personality inventory was given. All Ss took both drug and placebo with an interval of one week according to a balanced design. The same experimental procedure was used on both occasions under double blind conditions. The difference between the two sessions was tested for significance. Analyses of covariance were carried out with respect to the personality factors psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism. The drug had depressant effects on performance in perceptual tests, particularly flicker fusion, and it also affected habituation to tones of both the evoked cortical potential and the GSR in the same direction. The drug seemed completely inactive with respect to motor performance. There was a distinct interaction between drug-effect and personality factors. Ss whose scores indicated a low level of cortical arousal were less affected by the drug than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various shortcomings and imperfections inherent in mass surveys as a research tool used in sociological investigations. The different aspects of social differentiation are the customs of the society with regard to making interpersonal contacts outside the context of primary group relations, the degree of free expression and of its individuation and the degree of the acculturation of surveys in the society. According to the article, the full acculturation of survey techniques in a society may be effected by the quantitative familiarization of the population with surveys, a general rise in educational attainments, facilitating the understanding of the scientific purpose of surveys, as well as the role of science in general, and the popularization through mass media of the idea of surveys and their role in society. Mass surveys require an elaborate institutional infrastructure. The formulation of the researcher's questionnaire is made intuitively and it therefore requires methodological consultations.

The article presents evaluation of sixty-three journals of sociology by Sociologists in the United States. In February 1970 a questionnaire was mailed to a randomly drawn sample of 250 professors and associate professors in departments with sociology Ph.D. programs listed in the "Guide to Graduate Departments of Sociology, 1969." The letter that accompanied the questionnaire explained that the instrument was designed to gather data to be used to construct an index of the productivity of sociologists. If the purpose of the study had been merely to arrive at a prestige ranking of the journals, a simple rating scale could have been used, and it would not have been necessary to use the average importance of any kind of publication as a unit of measurement. Although there was less dissensus on the general journals than on the specialized and interdisciplinary ones or on journals in other disciplines, there was nevertheless a great deal of disagreement even about the best-known general journals.

This article discusses the measurement of sociological productivity. One of the focuses of empirical investigations in the sociology of sociology has been publication output. In reading the literature on the productivity of sociologists, however, one becomes aware of a lack of research continuity. While numerous data have been reported, they have been not cumulative but, rather, ambiguous and often contradictory. One of the major obstacles to linking the results of the various studies together is the disparate procedures that have been employed to measure productivity. One measure with potential as an index of publication quantity was developed by Glenn and Villemez in research concerned with the productivity of American Graduate departments of sociology. The Glenn-Villemez Comprehensive Index (GVCI) was designed to cover a wider range of publications than most previously published indexes had covered. As originally formulated, the GVCI included all articles in twenty-two journals of sociology and allied fields. By means of a mailed questionnaire to a sample of professors of sociology Glenn and Villemez derived a system of weighting the various types of publications. A number of arguments can be made for the use of the GVCI as a measure of productivity. One is that it is composed of a broad range of journals and circumscribes most general sociological work as well as important specialty areas within discipline.

Presents a series of questions that have been derived exclusively from the information contained in the October 1970 issue of "The American Journal of Gastroenterology."

The article presents information about various activities taking place in the executive office of American Sociological Association (ASA). Ballots for the national election of officers have been mailed to all voting members in January 1972. A two-part referendum is included on the proposed by-laws change to abolish the joint membership classification and to change the structure of the Annual Meeting Program Committee. Along with the ballots, members will receive a brief questionnaire for the ASA readership survey. It will take only a few minutes to complete and should he returned in the same envelope as the ballot. Preparation has begun for the 1972-73 Guide to Graduate Departments of Sociology. The chairman of each department listed in last year's Guide will receive a request for pertinent information next month. Since the publication of the roster of ASA committees in the November Socio-Log, some additions and changes have been made. Norval O. Glenn has been elected chairman of the Committee on Classification and Joel Smith has been elected chairman of the Committee on Training and Professional Standards.