Samuel A. Stouffer

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Prof. Stouffer

Samuel Andrew Stouffer (June 6, 1900 – August 24, 1960) was a prominent American sociologist and developer of survey research techniques. Stouffer spent much of his career attempting to answer the fundamental question - How does one measure an attitude?

Dr. Stouffer served as a professor of sociology at both the University of Chicago and Harvard University, and also directed the Laboratory of Social Relations at Harvard.

Biography

Born in Sac City, Iowa, Stouffer received a Bachelor of Arts at Morningside College, Sioux City in 1921, then went on to earn a Master of Arts in English at Harvard University in 1923. He returned to Sac City in 1923 to manage and edit his father's newspaper, the Sac City Sun until 1926 when he sold it and started his doctoral studies.[1] During that time, he married Ruth McBurney in 1924, with whom he would have three children. Dr. Stouffer earned his PhD in sociology in 1930 at the University of Chicago. His dissertation was “An Experimental Comparison of Statistical and Case-History Methods of Attitude Research”. He then served at various a professor of sociology, statistics, and social statistics at universities such as the University of Chicago, the University of London, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Principal Works

Studies in Social Psychology in World War II: The American Soldier.

(Princeton University Press, 1949).

Stouffer surveyed over a half million American soldiers during World War II using interviews, over two hundred questionnaires, and other techniques to determine their attitudes on everything from racial integration to their officers’ performance. Their answers, almost always complex and often also counterintuitive, reveal individuals both defining and defined by their society and their primary groups. Stouffer’s work in World War II led to the Expert and Combat Infantrymen’s Badges, revision of pay scales, the demobilization point system, and influenced what appeared in Yank, the Army Weekly, Stars & Stripes, and Frank Capra’s “Why We Fight” propaganda films. Additionally, it was Stouffer and his colleagues who during their research for The American Soldier developed the important sociological concept of “relative deprivation”, which roughly stated is the idea that one determines his status based on comparison with others.[2]

Communism, Conformity & Civil Liberties: A Cross Section of the Nation Speaks its Mind

(Doubleday & Co., 1955).

In the summer of 1954, 500 interviewers under Professor Stouffer’s supervision polled a cross section of 6000 Americans to determine their attitudes on nonconformist behavior. Through both anecdotal and highly disciplined research data, Stouffer illuminated the attitudes of Americans to nonconformist behavior in general, and to the intolerance of the McCarthy Era in particular. Although he found no “national neurosis”, what he did find was that Americans remained mostly concerned about their day-today existence – an important discovery in the face of an increasingly mass-culture society. He also found differing levels of tolerance based on socio-economic factors.

Among his other major works is Social Research to Test Ideas, (The Free Press, 1962).

Activities

Professor Stouffer was a delegate to the International Conference on Population in Paris, 1938, President of the American Sociological Society 1952-3, President of the American Association of Public Opinion Research 1953-54, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Association, Phi Beta Kappa, the American Statistical Association, the Sociological Research Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the Population Association of America, the Psychometric Association, and the Harvard and Cosmos Clubs.

He also consulted with scores of private and public institutes, a partial listing of which includes:

  • American Standards Association,
  • Cooperative Test Service of the American Council on Education,

University of California,

  • American Economic Association,
  • Population Association of America,
  • Atomic Scientists of Chicago,
  • National Committee on Atomic Information,
  • The American Psychoanalytic Association.[3]

Personality

Stouffer is described by his family and those who knew him well as a gentleman of warmth, compassion, restless energy, high standards, depth, and a puckish sense of humor. His academic lectures, through which he often chain-smoked, were littered with allusions and quotations from Shakespeare, and these would often be accompanied by baseball statistics. Deeply intellectually curious and impatient for survey results, Prof. Stouffer would frequently sit by the IBM punched card sifting machine to see the raw answers to his queries. (These traits help to explain how he produced the classic Communism, Conformity and Civil Liberties so quickly). In his few free hours he favored Mickey Spillane novels and listening to baseball on the radio. His correspondence reveals a clear thinking pragmatist with a deep sense of responsibility to his society and to his profession. As James Davis writes in the introduction to Communism, Conformity and Civil Liberties (reprinted in 1992 by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick), “Sam was a great sociologist….”

Legacy

Samuel Stouffer’s influence reaches well beyond military history and sociology. His work is cited in journals as diverse as Child Development Abstract, The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, and Commentary. His research has had a lasting effect on polling procedures and analysis, market research and interpretation, race relations, population and nuclear policies, education, and economics. Additionally, his clear, honest writing style, free of unexplained jargon and “bureaucratese”, remains a model of the simple, elegant use of the English language.

Notes

  1. ↑ Ryan, Joseph W (Spring 2010). "Samuel A. Stouffer and The American Soldier". Journal of Historical Biography 7: 100–137. Retrieved 17 February 2013. 
  2. ↑ Stouffer, Samuel A., Edward A. Suchman, Leland C. DeVinney, Shirley A. Star, and Robin M. Williams, Jr. Studies in Social Psychology in World War II: The American Soldier. Vol. 1, Adjustment During Army Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949. 125
  3. ↑ Stouffer Correspondence, 1946-1960, Harvard University Archives (Pusey Library)

Sources

  • Who Was Who in America, vol IV, 1961-1968. (St. Louis: Von Hoffman Press, 1968), 910. John A. Garraty, ed.
  • Dictionary of American Biography 1956-1960, suppl. 6. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1980), 604.
  • New York Times, Thursday, August 25, 1960, page 29 (obit.)

External links

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