TOWARD EMPIRICAL HUMANIZATION OF MASS SURVEYS.

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.