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Direct magnitude estimation scales, patterned after S. S. Stevens's work in psychophysics ('A Metric for the Social Consenses,' Science, 1966, 151, 530-541; Psychophysics and Social Scaling, Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press, 1972) offer an approach to measurement of opinions & attitudes. These scales are utilized for 3 telephone interview surveys conducted with registered voters (number of cases = 226, 431, & 376) in Santa Clara County, Calif. It is found possible to use these scales successfully in surveys of this type; reliability, predictive validity, & construct validity are good, though construct validity is not directly tested. 1 Figure. Modified HA.

This paper examines the association of opportunity and choice enhancing societal conditions and perceived autonomy with life satisfaction in Europe. Building on the capability approach, I investigate whether the positive effects of six basic functionings - safety, friendship, health, financial security, leisure, and respect - on people's life satisfaction are weaker when people have more opportunity and choice. This paper addresses two main questions: (1) Are people more satisfied with their life when they have more opportunity and choice? (2) Do basic functionings play a smaller role for life satisfaction in societies that enable more opportunity and choice and for individuals with more perceived autonomy? The analyses are based on the European Quality of Life Survey (2016), covering 36,460 individuals in 33 European countries and using multilevel linear regressions. My study finds that both choice and opportunity enhancing societal conditions and individual's perceived autonomy are positively associated with on life satisfaction. Further, all six basic functionings are conducive to individual life satisfaction. The positive effects of health, financial security, respect, and friendship are reduced when people experience a great deal of autonomy over their lives. Societal conditions that provide people with more opportunity and choice further lower the positive effects of financial security, leisure, respect, and safety on individual life satisfaction. This corroborates the importance the capability approach attributes to individual opportunities and freedom of choice.

The concept of legitimate culture plays a crucial role in the study of the relationship between the differentiation of tastes and the reproduction of social inequalities. Nevertheless, the actual role of legitimate culture in present society is often disputed in light of a supposed crumbling of the privileged structure of the fine arts. Meanwhile, the existing practice of survey research often neglects this institutional dimension of the legitimisation of taste and researchers often withdraw from attempts to develop an empirically-based scale to measure the legitimacy of taste. The aim of this paper is to develop a method of measurement of cultural capital which is based on empirical evaluation of the legitimacy of respondents' taste. Specifically, this measurement links responses to open-ended questions about favourite cultural goods with institutionalized critical ratings. The particular focus is to answer how this methodologically innovative approach relates to prevalent instruments for measurement of cultural capital (highbrow culture attendance, educational credentials) and how it could inform the study of the change of legitimate culture. The study uses data from a survey of Czech youth cultural consumption (N=524). The results show close ties between the institutional measurement of cultural capital and the Bourdieusian application of Multiple Correspondence Analysis as a mean to identify significant cultural differences. While the feasibility of institutional measurement of cultural capital in survey data could be disputed, it is a useful tool to advance our understanding of how legitimate culture operates in present society.

On the basis of a survey among Polish foresters, the socio-cultural context of the Polish state forest organization is explored. The study is based upon Grid-group cultural theory, which assumes four political cultures (hierarchical, egalitarian, individualistic, fatalistic). These cultures comprise different perceptions of nature, compassed as nature myths. Yet testing the influence of the adherence to these nature myths on some variables (organizational level, main tasks, years in forestry, gender) showed that they are not a highly discriminating factor in this regard. However, they seem to influence opinions on the need for adaptation to climate change. Those foresters adhering to the hierarchical nature myth, who are the majority, consider it to be less important than the other foresters. Through additional measurements, it could also be shown that the socio-cultural context of state foresters is not only hierarchical, but also egalitarian. This is attributed to the particularities of the foresters' work that requires flexibility when dealing with nature.

Corruption is seen in nearly every society since ancient times. However, economic and social costs it caused attracted more attention especially in the last decade. It is widely agreed upon that, corruption affects economic growth and development negatively. In the literature, there is almost a consensus about that corruption of the public officers discourages entrepreneurs, causes inefficiencies and waste of resources, discourages foreign investment, distorts income distribution and harms democracy and ethics. Putting the diagnosis truly and knowing the deep causes of a problem correctly are the most important steps in solving the problem. In this article, first, a survey of the literature on costs of corruption, measurement methods ve causes is given. Then regression analysis are done to find probable causes of corruption in Turkey. Results of the regression analysis show that, corruption has increased in Turkey after trade liberalization. On the otherhand, inflation, weight of pubic in the economy and personel expenditures of the government seems not to be important factors in explaining corruption.

Presented are research results comparing levels of error in survey Rs' self-reported registration & voting behavior, & independent verification of it. The consequences of these measurement errors for standard models of electoral participation & for estimates of the partisan division of the vote are assessed. Data come from 2 national surveys, each involving 2,300+ interviews with members of the US electorate, conducted in 1976 & 1978. These data were combined with field visits to local election administration offices to verify reported electoral participation. The analysis shows consistent misreporting of political behavior in both surveys of 12 percentage points for both registration status & voting. There was strong evidence of a bandwagon effect in the reported direction of the vote, favoring the winner but tempered by the candidate's relative electoral performance. No major changes were observed in the fundamental nature of basic relationships in 3 standard models of political participation when the dependent variable was switched from a self-reported to validated measure. 6 Tables, Appendix. AA.

This study is aimed at determining how the financial data of public benefit organizations (PBOs) affects donations received by them and if the donors use financial and non-financial information in order to donate. In order to achieve our aim we used different methods of research: quantitative research (econometric model and survey) and qualitative research (laboratory test). The research allowed us to draw the conclusion that Polish donors make very limited use of PBOs' financial statements in the donation process and that non-financial information plays greater role for donors in making decisions to give charitable donations. The most important information is the organization's goals and descriptions of its projects. At the same time, many donors stated that they donated under the influence of people they knew. This article fits into the scope of world research on PBOs and uses the concept of civil society.

In a report of research on extreme response style (ERS) in rating scale responses, it is proposed that, when ERS is defined as a proportion of extreme responses, an ERS measure will be more accurate if the items are uncorrelated & have equal extreme response proportions. Further, appropriate stochastic models should be used to assess the internal reliability & convergent validity of these measures. An ERS measure is created & validated with this method, using data from 1975 & 1987 surveys of large samples of US adults serving on a consumer panel. Findings show that ERS is stable over a lengthy survey compared to a benchmark stability for a "perfect" measure. Further, the distribution of ERS over this population is stable over time. Respondents' ERS is related to their age, education level, & household income, but not to their gender. 4 Tables, 1 Appendix, 46 References. Adapted from the source document.

Data from the 1978 & 1980 vote validation studies conducted by the U of Michigan Survey Research Center are used to test the extent to which false claims about voting are affected by the presence of third parties during the interview, a situation that is far more frequent than commonly assumed. The tendency of Rs to give socially approved answers appears not to be affected by the presence of others; thus, additional efforts to avoid contamination by eliminating third parties are not likely to reduce the exaggeration of self-reported vote. The findings suggest that declared intention to vote is a far more important factor in whether people falsely report voting than is the presence of others. Additional efforts to understand the motivational basis of voting & nonvoting could shed light on variation in voting overreports. 4 Tables, 23 References. Modified HA

Research on public opinion has found that respondents to survey questions lack true attitudes towards different economic and moral issues. Given the latter, these respondents do not use their stance towards these issues to decide for which party or candidate to vote for. One of the main reasons for these dismal findings lies on the existence of measurement error. The paper presents a technique that corrects for measurement error and tests the importance of issues stances in the vote choice of the Mexican electorate during the 2006 Presidential Election. The paper also analyzes the significance of a "perceived issue space" and demonstrates that this concept is important to understand which particular issue stances matter and which ones do not in a voting decision. Adapted from the source document.

This open access book demonstrates how data quality issues affect all surveys and proposes methods that can be utilised to deal with the observable components of survey error in a statistically sound manner. This book begins by profiling the post-Apartheid period in South Africa's history when the sampling frame and survey methodology for household surveys was undergoing periodic changes due to the changing geopolitical landscape in the country. This book profiles how different components of error had disproportionate magnitudes in different survey years, including coverage error, sampling error, nonresponse error, measurement error, processing error and adjustment error. The parameters of interest concern the earnings distribution, but despite this outcome of interest, the discussion is generalizable to any question in a random sample survey of households or firms. This book then investigates questionnaire design and item nonresponse by building a response propensity model for the employee income question in two South African labour market surveys: the October Household Survey (OHS, 1997-1999) and the Labour Force Survey (LFS, 2000-2003). This time period isolates a period of changing questionnaire design for the income question. Finally, this book is concerned with how to employee income data with a mixture of continuous data, bounded response data and nonresponse. A variable with this mixture of data types is called coarse data. Because the income question consists of two parts -- an initial, exact income question and a bounded income follow-up question -- the resulting statistical distribution of employee income is both continuous and discrete. The book shows researchers how to appropriately deal with coarse income data using multiple imputation. The take-home message from this book is that researchers have a responsibility to treat data quality concerns in a statistically sound manner, rather than making adjustments to public-use data in arbitrary ways, often underpinned by undefensible assumptions about an implicit unobservable loss function in the data. The demonstration of how this can be done provides a replicable concept map with applicable methods that can be utilised in any sample survey.

This open access book demonstrates how data quality issues affect all surveys and proposes methods that can be utilised to deal with the observable components of survey error in a statistically sound manner. This book begins by profiling the post-Apartheid period in South Africa's history when the sampling frame and survey methodology for household surveys was undergoing periodic changes due to the changing geopolitical landscape in the country. This book profiles how different components of error had disproportionate magnitudes in different survey years, including coverage error, sampling error, nonresponse error, measurement error, processing error and adjustment error. The parameters of interest concern the earnings distribution, but despite this outcome of interest, the discussion is generalizable to any question in a random sample survey of households or firms. This book then investigates questionnaire design and item nonresponse by building a response propensity model for the employee income question in two South African labour market surveys: the October Household Survey (OHS, 1997-1999) and the Labour Force Survey (LFS, 2000-2003). This time period isolates a period of changing questionnaire design for the income question. Finally, this book is concerned with how to employee income data with a mixture of continuous data, bounded response data and nonresponse. A variable with this mixture of data types is called coarse data. Because the income question consists of two parts -- an initial, exact income question and a bounded income follow-up question -- the resulting statistical distribution of employee income is both continuous and discrete. The book shows researchers how to appropriately deal with coarse income data using multiple imputation. The take-home message from this book is that researchers have a responsibility to treat data quality concerns in a statistically sound manner, rather than making adjustments to public-use data in arbitrary ways, often underpinned by undefensible assumptions about an implicit unobservable loss function in the data. The demonstration of how this can be done provides a replicable concept map with applicable methods that can be utilised in any sample survey.

Purpose: In this article we apply the age perspective to assess the quality of life (QoL) of persons with disabilities. Using a single measurement tool, we compare age profiles in the quality of life of persons with disabilities to the population without disabilities. By doing so, we examine whether the general patterns (such as U-shaped profile) are observed also among the population with disabilities, hence assessing how heterogenous this group is. Methods: We have constructed a multidimensional measurement model identifying overall and nine dimensions of the quality of life using structural equation modelling. The model conceptually is based on the Eurostat guidelines. All analyses are based on EU-SILC survey data, carried out in Poland in 2015. Results: The quality of life for both groups has inverse, right-skewed U-shape. The maximum value is achieved for the age group of 30–34 and after this threshold a constant decline is observed. The QoL scores for the population with disabilities are obviously significantly lower. Additionally, they are more heterogenous, and with greater variation between men and women. In a majority of the domains we also observe lower scores for persons with disabilities. However, people with disabilities are similarly diversified by age as persons without disabilities. Conclusion: Our study suggests that people with disabilities are similarly diversified by age as persons without disabilities. Therefore, disability means something different for younger and older persons and this difference is reflected in their quality of life. It means that public policy for persons with disabilities should also be diversified, avoiding 'one-for-all' policy.