REFLECTIONS ON DATA SOURCES IN OPINION RESEARCH.

The article stresses that researchers in the field of public opinion should pay more attention to available data for purposes of raising better problems for new surveys and interpreting survey results within broader frameworks. The author attempts to explore some of the possible differences between available data and new questionnaire data obtained by researchers themselves. The available data greatly extend the findings of the survey over space. They show the extent to which questionnaire findings from a single area may be consistent with information for the country as a whole. The available data are used in advance to formulate the theoretical problems for the new research. After the new data had been collected and analyzed, further recourse was made to existing materials, this time in order to interpret fully and develop the larger theoretical implications of the new research. It is obvious that the data which happen to be available on given topics will range enormously in scope and in theoretical potential.