Book Review: International Social Science Bulletin; Public Opinion Research
| Date | 01 June 1955 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205501000226 |
| Author | Wilfrid Sanders |
| Published date | 01 June 1955 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
154
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
INTERNATIONAL
SOCIAL
SCIENCE
BULLETIN;
PUBLIC
OPINION
RESEARCH.
Vol.
5.
No.
3.
1953.
(New
York:
International
Secretariat,
Institute
of
Pacific
Relations.
665pp.
$1.00)
Just
seven
years
ago,
a group
of
about
seventy-five
sociolog-
its,
teachers,
and
practitioners
of
opinion
research met
in
a
colourful
ghost
mining
town in
Colorado,
with
the
pretentious
name
of
Central City.
Most
of
us
were
strangers
to
each
other,
apart
from
name and
reputation,
and
about
all
we
had
in
common
was a
keen
interest
in
and
faith
in
methods of
measuring
public
opinion.
Out of
that
1946
meeting
has
now
grown
the
World
Associa-
tion
for
Public
Opinion
Research,
whose
sole
purpose
is
to
facili-
tate
international
contacts
in
the
opinion
research
field,
and
foster
the
use
of
high
standards
of
sample
surveying.
This
issue
of
The
Social Science
Bulletin,
then,
provides
a
remarkable
indication of
solid
growth.
WAPOR
has
a
member-
ship
of
nearly
150
individuals,
from most
of
the
countries
in
the
democratic
world;
a
full-fledged
constitution,
and,
in
the
Bulletin,
an
official
journal.
Even
to
one
not
concerned
with
opinion
research
as
a
full-
time
occupation,
this
issue
would
make
good
reading.
Because
of
the
international
flavor of
the
reports,
Institute
members
will
find
it
of
particular
interest.
Among
more
technical
papers,
this
issue
contains
a
report
by
William
Buchanan,
of
the
Social
Science
Research
Center,
Mississippi
State
College,
on
UNESCO's
International
Public
Opinion
survey.
This
survey
was
part
of
UNESCO's
study
of
"Tensions
affecting
International
Under-
standing,"
and
the results
have
just
been
published
in
book
form;
"How
Nations
See
Each
Other,"
University
of Illinois
Press.
In
the
bulletin, Buchanan
describes
the
intriguing
"Security
Complex,"
a
national
summation
of
individual
security
levels.
As
Buchanan
points
out,
the
scores
of
the
nine
nations
involved
in
the
study
is
a
rough
measure
of
that
nation's
physical
distance
from
the
center
of
hostilities
in
the
second
World
War.
This
two
hundred
page
issue
of
the
Bulletin
opens
with
an
introduction by
famed
pollster
Dr.
George
Gallup,
who
deals
with
the
question
as
to
whether
human
behaviour
is,
in
a
scientific
sense,
predictable.
(Dr.
Gallup
believes
it
is.)
In
another
article, Dr.
Louis
Moss,
Director
of
the
Govern-
ment
Social
Survey
of
Great
Britain,
describes
the
ways
in
which
sample
surveys
can
be
useful
to
administrators,
with
case
his-
tories
from
the
files
of
the
Social
Survey.
Articles
by
opinion
research practitioners
in
Norway,
France,
Britain,
and
of
course
United
States,
and
a
brief
descriptions
of
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