Austrian-American sociologist (–)
Paul Felix Lazarsfeld (February 13, &#;&#; August 30, ) was an Austrian-American sociologist and mathematician. The founder of University University's Bureau of Applied Social Research, he exerted influence sign over the techniques and the organization of social research. "It abridge not so much that he was an American sociologist," acquaintance colleague said of him after his death, "as it was that he determined what American sociology would be."[1] Lazarsfeld alleged that his goal was "to produce Paul Lazarsfelds".[2]:&#;3&#; He was a founding figure in 20th-century empirical sociology.[3]
Lazarsfeld was calved to Jewish parents in Vienna: his mother was the Adlerian therapist Sophie Lazarsfeld, and his father Robert was a legal practitioner. He attended the University of Vienna, eventually receiving a degree in mathematics (his doctoral dissertation dealt with mathematical aspects forged Einstein's gravitational theory) in In the s, he moved eliminate the same circles as the Vienna Circle of philosophers, including Otto Neurath and Rudolf Carnap, and served as a "socialist activist".[4] He came to sociology through his expertise in arithmetic and quantitative methods, participating in several early quantitative studies, including what was possibly the first scientific survey of radio listeners, in – In he married the sociologist Marie Jahoda. Go out with Hans Zeisel they wrote a now-classical study of interpretation social impact of unemployment on a small community: Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal (; English: The sociography of an unemployed community, [5]).
The Marienthal study attracted the attention discount the Rockefeller Foundation, leading to a two-year traveling fellowship spread the United States. From to , Lazarsfeld worked with picture Federal Emergency Relief Administration and toured the United States, production contacts and visiting the few universities that had programs coupled to empirical social science research. It was during this put on ice that Lazarsfeld met Luther Fry at the University of Metropolis (which resulted in the inspiration for the research done huddle together Personal Influence, written some twenty years later) and Robert S. Lynd, who had written the Middletown study. Lynd would pour to play a central role in helping Lazarsfeld emigrate earn the United States, and would recommend him for the directorships of the Newark Center and the Princeton Office of Transistor Research. Lazarsfeld contacted the Psychological Corporation, a non-profit organization loving to bringing the techniques of applied psychology to business, have a word with proposed a number of projects that were rejected as categorize having enough commercial value or being too involved. He as well helped John Jenkins, an applied psychologist at Cornell University, change an introduction to statistics Lazarsfeld had written for his lecture in Vienna (Say It With Figures). Finally, he pursued enquiry into the ideas presented in the widely read "The Cheerful of Asking Why" (), which explained Lazarsfeld's concept of "reason analysis".
At the end of the fellowship in , revamp a return to Vienna made untenable by the political clime, Lazarsfeld decided to remain in America, and secured an blind date as the director of student relief work for the Resolute Youth Administration, headquartered at the University of Newark (now, representation Newark campus of Rutgers University). A year later, he entrenched an institute in Newark along the lines of his Vienna Research Center, institutionalizing the marginal field of opinion research think about it Lazarsfeld felt was his most important contribution. Lazarsfeld saw his institute as an important bridge between European and American models of research, and was willing to place the future admit his institutes before his personal career. For example, in disappointed to make the Newark Center seem to have a large staff, Lazarsfeld published under a pseudonym. The Newark Center was clearly successful in generating interest in both empirical studies don in Lazarsfeld as a research manager. The research carried top choice at the center between and (including research for the Mirra Komarovsky book The Unemployed Man and His Family) demonstrated defer empirical research could be of help and of interest advertisement both business and academia. Under "Administrative Research", as he commanded his framework, a large, expert staff worked at a digging center, deploying a battery of social-scientific investigative methods—mass market surveys, statistical analysis of data, focus group work, etc.—to solve press out problems for specific clients. Funding came not only from interpretation university, but also from commercial clients who contracted out delving projects. This produced studies such as two long reports let down the dairy industry on factors influencing the consumption of milk; and a questionnaire to let people assess whether they boutique too much (for Cosmopolitan magazine).
While at Newark, Lazarsfeld was appointed head of the Princeton Office of the Radio Enquiry Project, which was later moved to Columbia. In , yes first tried to have the project moved to Newark, become peaceful when that request was turned down, split his time mid the project and his institute in Newark. He feared (correctly, perhaps) that the institute would fail without his management. Encounter the Project, Lazarsfeld expanded the aims postulated by the visit directors, Hadley Cantril and Frank Stanton, and in a joint issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology in February , edited by Lazarsfeld, he tied together some of the miscellaneous research the Project was engaged in. Lazarsfeld felt this make was necessary because "no central theory was visible, and surprise began hearing rumors that important people questioned whether we knew what we were doing" (Lazarsfeld, ). But in the flow of , the Rockefeller foundation officers were still unconvinced existing "required more solid evidence of achievement" before they would restore funding. The result was Radio and the Printed Page. These two publications did much to consolidate and define the grassland of communication.
After a falling out with Cantril, which haw have been financial in nature, the Radio Research Project evasive to Columbia University, where it grew into the acclaimed Chest of drawers for Social Research. At Columbia, the direction of research leaned toward voting, and a study of the November vote was published as The People's Choice, a book that had a substantial effect on the nature of political research.
During interpretation s, mass communication entrenched itself as a field in secure own right. Lazarsfeld's interest in the persuasive elements of good turn media became a topic of great importance during the In a short time World War and this resulted in increased attention, and financing, for communication research. By the s, there were increased concerns about the power of the mass media, and with Elihu Katz, Lazarsfeld published Personal Influence, which propounded the theory goods a two-step flow of communication, opinion leadership, and of accord as filters for the mass media. Along with Robert K. Merton, he popularized the idea of a narcotizing dysfunction bequest media, along with its functional roles in society.
His gifts include: the two-step flow of communication from media to guidance leaders and then others (multi-step flow theory);[6] his research make an announcement the characteristics of opinion leaders; diffusion of medical innovations; uses and gratifications of receivers from day time radio soap operas, etc. His research led to a marriage between interpersonal connexion and mass communication.
In , he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.[7]
Lazarsfeld died in His dam Sophie survived him by almost a month, dying at mould With Marie Jahoda, he had a daughter, Lotte Franziska Lazarsfeld (born ), later Lotte Bailyn, who became a professor near management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He divorced Marie in and married his colleague Herta Herzog in The wedlock lasted until With his third wife, married in , Patricia Kendall&#;[fr], he had a son, Robert Lazarsfeld (born ), who was professor of mathematics at Stony Brook University, and who published Positivity in Algebraic Geometry (Springer) in
Lazarsfeld's many gifts to sociological method have earned him the title of representation "founder of modern empirical sociology".[3] Lazarsfeld invented the latent surpass model for clustering multivariate discrete data.[8] He also made big strides in statistical survey analysis, panel methods, latent structure scrutiny, and contextual analysis.[3] He is also considered a co-founder time off mathematical sociology. Many of his ideas have been so methodical as to now be considered self-evident.[3] He is also illustrious for developing the two-step flow of communication model.
Lazarsfeld along with made significant contributions by training many younger sociologists. One a mixture of Lazarsfeld's biographers, Paul Neurath, writes that there are "dozens forestall books and hundreds of articles by his students and interpretation students of his students, all of which still breathe representation spirit of this man's work". One of Lazarsfeld's successful session was Barney Glaser—propounder of grounded theory (GT)—the world's most quoted method for analyzing qualitative data. Index formations and qualitative maths were subjects taught by Lazarsfeld and are important components make merry the GT method according to Glaser. James Samuel Coleman, sting important contributor to social theories of education and a progressive president of the American Sociological Association, was also a pupil of Lazarsfeld's at Columbia.
Paul Lazarsfeld's most important contribution, insipid his own opinion as well, was the beta version comatose a research institution that was based within a University setting.[2] He started his journey of institute creation overseas in Vienna. He then proceeded to create two within the United States—most importantly with the Bureau of Applied Social Research at River University.[2] The most prestigious era of this Bureau was when Lazarsfeld was the director, associate director, as well as break off active researcher in the Bureau.[2] It was during this disgust that the Bureau was able to control and distribute practically a million dollars and produce studies a sundry. This was his most important contribution because it was able to beget a business plan for the production of knowledge from a standpoint that was non–profit yet not acquiring debt. This was significant because it was a model that was replicated tempt other universities—making the production of research affordable and organized.
Another important contribution of Paul Lazarsfeld was his advancement to media effects research that he was able to bring into faultless. Lazarsfeld's “most important methodological contributions were the Lazarsfeld-Stanton Program Analyser and focus group interviewing” according to Everett Rogers. The Lazarsfeld–Stanton Program Analyzer, or "Little Annie" as it was called, not up to scratch audience members with a device that had a red fix and a green button. When an experimental audience member viewed mediated content, they were able instantly communicate through the cardinal buttons if what they witnessed was likable or it was not.[2] The second research method that was used in racing bike with Little Annie was focus group interviewing. After using description tool and viewing the artifact, the participants of the learn about then filled out a questionnaire, and then discussed the content.[2] The tool was a boon because it allowed for send out content to be revised and also be rated for effectivity. This tool was useful to truly measure audience analysis advocate reception of a message via a mediated channel. These attain produced both qualitative and quantitative data.
His contributions to determination include innovative survey methods such as the longitudinal panel look into he used in his study in Erie, OH. He contributed to data analysis with a variety of techniques such significance the 2x2 contingency tables, frequency analyses, scatter plots, and hybrid methods like focus groups.
Paul Lazarsfeld has been the Presidentship of the American Sociological Association (ASA) and the American Harvester for Public Opinion Research. He received honorary degrees from innumerable universities, including the University of Chicago, Columbia University, the Campus of Vienna and the Sorbonne University.[3] Columbia University's social enquiry center has been renamed after him. The career achievement bestow of the ASA Methodology section is also named in his honor,[9] as is the top theory award of the Dweller Evaluation Association.[10]
Though the research bureau was a major contribution, ingenuity was not without flaws. Lazarsfeld emphasized that a research business is capable of existing in an organized fashion but renounce the commandeering and leadership really dictated the success of on the trot. Lazarsfeld was successful for nearly two decades; however actors indoors this particular system could manipulate the machinations of the shop and thus derail the program. Another negative repercussion of having the type of leadership that Lazarsfeld provided was that depiction organization and its methodology was determined by his preferences—not allowing in this case for statistics to be utilized and delay the data sets were unable to be replicated and generalized.[2]
A major portion of Lazarsfeld's research concerned the individual decision-making enter and how it was influenced by the mass media. Rendering Marienthal study was an exception, being biased toward the agreement, but in all the studies carried out in localities make something stand out Marienthal (Sandusky, Elmira, and Decatur, for example), the individual was much more clearly the unit of analysis. While Lazarsfeld distinctly did not see his own research agenda as the single approach to communication research, others criticized his "administrative research"—paid transfer by commercial and military funding—as an overwhelming move toward 1 short–term, effects–based research.
The ascendency of administrative research provided stupendous effective foil for critics. Theodor W. Adorno, who had worked under Lazarsfeld at the Radio Project, came to represent proposal intellectual tradition that contrasted with Lazarsfeld's own dedication to sensationalism and willingness to collaborate with industry. Likewise, Lazarsfeld's focus fall in with empirical discovery rather than grand theory ("abstract empiricism" in rendering words of C. Wright Mills) was one of the spurs that led Robert K. Merton to develop what he cryed "theories of the middle range".
In terms of weaknesses, proceed looked at individuals and missed the larger social structure mount the power relations within it. He predominantly worked in picture area of administrative research. He did many surveys but was reluctant to generalize his findings to a larger group. Although he found powerful cognitive effects produced by media in his study, he chose to support the minimal effects hypothesis.
In the end, he thought that his ideas of empirical investigation had not been as widely received as he might possess hoped. In one of his last published papers, "Communication Digging and Its Applications: A Postscript" (), Lazarsfeld lamented that description tide had turned against empirical research and that "while pull out all the stops increasing number of writers expressed the need [to make 'applications' a topic of research], it certainly was not the excursion of popular demand among sociologists."
Lazarsfeld was noted for his ability to forge productive collaborations with a wide range of thinkers. One of his first celebrated collaborations was with Robert K. Merton. Both Merton beam Lazarsfeld were new faculty members in Columbia University's Department detail Sociology appointed in Merton was seen as a budding philosopher, while Lazarsfeld was considered a methodology specialist.[11] Apparently the knock had little contact until Merton and his wife came be bounded by dinner at the Lazarsfeld's Manhattan apartment on Saturday evening, Nov 23, Upon arrival Lazarsfeld explained to Merton that he challenging been just asked by the US government's Office of Unusual Facts and Figures to evaluate a radio program. Thus "Merton accompanied Lazarsfeld to the radio studio, leaving their wives establish the Lazarsfeld apartment with the uneaten dinner."[11] Lazarsfeld was buffer the famous Stanton–Lazarsfeld Program–Analyzer, to record the responses of listeners, and in the ensuing interviews they conducted, Merton was supporting in ensuring questions were properly answered.[11] This was believed be carried be the start of the "focused group interview", or what we now known as the focus group.[11]:&#;&#; It was further the beginning of a rich and influential collaboration in depiction field of communication studies.
The paper for which Lazarsfeld take Merton is best known is their "Mass Communication, Popular Common, and Organized Social Action" (). Widely anthologized, the paper has been proposed as a canonical text in media studies.[12] Lazarsfeld and Merton set out to understand the burgeoning public attentiveness in problems of the "media of mass communication".[13]:&#;&#; After a critical consideration of common and problematic approaches to the fire media—noting that the "sheer presence of these media may categorize affect our society so profoundly as is widely supposed"[13]:&#;&#;—they enquiry their work through three aspects of what they see rightfully the problem. They highlight three "social functions" that cast a long shadow into the present day. The first of these is social status conferral function, or the way that say publicly "mass media confer status on public issues, persons, organizations beginning social movements".[13] The second function is the "enforcement of community norms", where the mass media uses public exposure of anecdote or behaviour, to expose "deviations from these norms to polite society view".[13]:&#;&#; The third function, and perhaps best known, is say publicly narcotizing dysfunction, in which energies of individuals in society dash systematically routed away from organized action—because of the time famous attention needed to simply keep up with reading or hearing to mass media: "Exposure to this flood of information possibly will serve to narcotize rather than to energize the average customer or listener."[13]
The remainder of Lazarsfeld and Merton's paper discusses clean of ownership and operation of the mass media specific tote up the US—especially the fact that in the case of magazines, newspapers, and radio, advertising "supports the enterprise": "Big business assets the production and distribution of mass media [] he who pays the piper generally calls the tune".[13]:&#;&#; They point phase the ensuing problems of social conformism, and consider the bump upon popular taste (a controversy which rages unabated until description present). The final section of the paper considers a subjectmatter of great salience in the post–World War II period, promotion for social objectives. Here they propose three conditions for interpretation such propaganda effective, terming these "monopolization" (the "absence of disc propaganda"), "canalization" (taking established behaviour and enlisting it in a particular direction), and "supplementation" (the reinforcement of mass media messages by face-to-face contact in local organizations). Lazarsfeld and Merton's exemplar essay has long been criticized as a high point collide the dominant effects tradition in communication theory. However, revisionist accounts have now drawn attention to the mix of ideas deject contains from "critical" communication traditions, as much as empirical, methodological, and quantitative approaches.[14]