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This book provides a critical introduction to the key writings of Paul Lazarsfeld (1901-1976), edited by two prominent sociologists. It includes Lazarsfeld's early work on youth and occupation, which shows the intellectual influences of Austro-Marxism, academic psychology, and the philosophy of the Vienna Circle, and how they were applied to specific social issues. They also show how Lazarsfeld's concerns about the intellectual and methodological aspects of sociology, which foreshadowed some of the major issues in current sociological methods, played an important role in shaping the direction of the discipline in the United States. The essays demonstrate how Lazarsfeld laid many of the foundations for reliable social survey techniques and qualitative methods for understanding key aspects of contemporary society. Some examples of these aspects are voting studies, opinion polling, occupational research, and mass media research. Lazarsfeld's early work in "administrative research" laid the groundwork for a lot of market and business research. The essays in this book are accompanied by a detailed and illuminating biographical introduction by the editors. This collection is an important addition to the history of 20th-century sociology. It is also the only English-language source of Paul Lazarsfeld's early writings.
List of contents
Introduction.- Part I: Youth and Occupation.- Behind the Scenes of School.- Motives in Occupational Choice.- Notes on Young Workers' Career Attitudes.- Young People on Authority and Family.- What Young People Want.- Part II: Unemployment.- An Unemployed Village .- Emotional Attitudes and Specific Moods of the Unemployed .- Marriage and the Sex Mores.- Who Gets a Job?.- Part III: Qualitative Methods.- . Principles of Sociography .- Psychological Aspects of Market Research.- The Art of Asking Why: Three Principles Underlying the Formulation of Questionnaires.- Some Remarks on the Typological Procedures in Social Research.- Notes on the Logic of Generalization in Family Case Studies.- The Quantification of Case Studies.- Remarks on Administrative and Critical Communication Research.- Part IV: Quantitative Methods.- Market Research on a Psychological Basis.- The Techniques of Market Research from the Standpoint of a Psychologist.- Interchangeability of Indices in the Measurement of Economic Influences.- The Change of Opinion During a Political Discussion.- Part V: Retrospect and Summary.- Historical Notes on the Empirical Study of Action: An Intellectual Odyssey.
Summary
This book provides a critical introduction to the key writings of Paul Lazarsfeld (1901-1976), edited by two prominent sociologists. It includes Lazarsfeld's early work on youth and occupation, which shows the intellectual influences of Austro-Marxism, academic psychology, and the philosophy of the Vienna Circle, and how they were applied to specific social issues. They also show how Lazarsfeld's concerns about the intellectual and methodological aspects of sociology, which foreshadowed some of the major issues in current sociological methods, played an important role in shaping the direction of the discipline in the United States. The essays demonstrate how Lazarsfeld laid many of the foundations for reliable social survey techniques and qualitative methods for understanding key aspects of contemporary society. Some examples of these aspects are voting studies, opinion polling, occupational research, and mass media research. Lazarsfeld's early work in "administrative research" laid the groundwork for a lot of market and business research. The essays in this book are accompanied by a detailed and illuminating biographical introduction by the editors. This collection is an important addition to the history of 20th-century sociology. It is also the only English-language source of Paul Lazarsfeld's early writings.
