The Structure of Opinion: A "Loyalty Oath" Poll.

A study of public opinion research literature reveals that until recently there has been comparatively little concern with theoretical problems. For example, there have been few attempts to formulate hypothesis regarding the dynamics underlying answers of respondents to poll questions, or to conceptualize the obtained results in terms of any systematic social psychological theory. The concern with the technical problems of sampling, interviewing, and the formulation of poll questions, quite properly perhaps, seems to have precluded an interest in theory. It is even difficult to find a formal definition of the term "public," or a description of conditions under which a public opinion is formed. In several recent papers, a different emphasis has appeared. There is explicit or implicit recognition that there are organizing factors in opinion, and that a public opinion expressed in terms of percentages of responses from individuals who have only one factor in common, namely that have been asked a question by an interviewer, may have very limited meaning.