Paul Lazarsfeld facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Paul Lazarsfeld
Paul Lazarsfeld at age 40
Born	Paul Felix Lazarsfeld (1901-02-13)February 13, 1901 Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died	August 30, 1976(1976-08-30) (aged 75) Newark, New Jersey, US
Nationality	Austrian American
Alma mater	University of Vienna (PhD, 1925)
Spouse(s)	Marie Jahoda ​ ​ (m. 1926; div. 1934)​ Herta Herzog (div. 1945) Patricia Kendall [fr] (m. 1949)
Children	Lotte Bailyn Robert Lazarsfeld
Parent(s)	Robert Lazarsfeld Sophie Lazarsfeld
Scientific career
Institutions	Columbia University
Doctoral students	James Samuel Coleman
Influenced	Barney Glaser Elihu Katz C. Wright Mills

Paul Felix Lazarsfeld (February 13, 1901 – August 30, 1976) was an important sociologist from Austria who later became an American citizen. He founded the Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia University. He greatly influenced how social research is done and organized. One person said he "determined what American sociology would be." Lazarsfeld was a key figure in creating modern empirical sociology, which means studying society through observation and data.

Discovering Sociology: Paul Lazarsfeld's Early Life

Paul Lazarsfeld was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1901. His mother, Sophie Lazarsfeld, was a therapist, and his father, Robert, was a lawyer. Paul studied at the University of Vienna. In 1925, he earned a PhD in mathematics. His math studies included parts of Albert Einstein's ideas about gravity.

In the 1920s, he was part of a group of thinkers called the Vienna Circle. He was also a socialist activist. Lazarsfeld became interested in sociology because of his strong math skills. He used numbers and data to study social issues. One of his first studies was about radio listeners in 1930-1931. This was possibly the first scientific survey of its kind.

In 1926, he married Marie Jahoda, who was also a sociologist. They worked with Hans Zeisel on a famous study. It looked at how unemployment affected a small community. This study was called Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal (The Unemployed of Marienthal).

Moving to America: A New Chapter

The Marienthal study caught the eye of the Rockefeller Foundation. This led to Paul Lazarsfeld getting a two-year scholarship to travel in the United States. From 1933 to 1935, he worked with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. He traveled across the U.S., meeting people and visiting universities. These universities had programs for studying social science using real data.

During this time, Lazarsfeld met Luther Fry and Robert S. Lynd. Lynd later helped Lazarsfeld move to the U.S. permanently. He also suggested Lazarsfeld for leadership roles in research centers. Lazarsfeld also worked on ideas from his paper "The Art of Asking Why" (1935). This paper explained his idea of "reason analysis," which looked at why people do things.

Building Research Centers: The Newark Years

In 1935, Lazarsfeld decided to stay in America. The political situation in Vienna made it hard to go back. He became the director of student relief work for the National Youth Administration. This was based at the University of Newark.

A year later, he started a research center in Newark. It was similar to his center in Vienna. He wanted to make "opinion research" a recognized field. Lazarsfeld saw his center as a link between European and American research styles. He even used a fake name for some publications to make his staff seem larger.

The Newark Center was very successful from 1935 to 1937. It showed that studying real-world data could help both businesses and universities. He called his approach "Administrative Research." A team of experts used surveys, statistics, and focus groups. They solved problems for clients. Funding came from the university and from companies. For example, they studied what made people drink milk. They also created a questionnaire for Cosmopolitan magazine.

While in Newark, Lazarsfeld also led the Princeton Office of the Radio Research Project. This project later moved to Columbia University. He worked hard to define the field of communication. His publications, like Radio and the Printed Page, helped a lot.

Columbia University: Shaping Communication Studies

After some changes, the Radio Research Project moved to Columbia University. There, it became the famous Bureau of Applied Social Research. At Columbia, Lazarsfeld's research focused more on voting behavior. A study of the 1940 election was published as The People's Choice. This book greatly influenced political research.

In the 1940s, mass communication became its own field of study. Lazarsfeld was interested in how mass media could persuade people. This became very important during World War II. This led to more attention and money for communication research.

By the 1950s, people worried more about the power of mass media. Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz published Personal Influence. This book introduced the idea of the two-step flow of communication. This means ideas flow from media to "opinion leaders," and then from leaders to other people. They also talked about how communities filter media messages. With Robert K. Merton, he also explained the idea of "narcotizing dysfunction." This means too much media can make people feel informed but not act.

His research showed how personal talks and mass media work together. In 1956, he was chosen as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. Paul Lazarsfeld passed away in 1976.

How Paul Lazarsfeld Influenced Social Science

Paul Lazarsfeld made many important contributions to how we study society. He is often called the "founder of modern empirical sociology." He improved how we analyze surveys and use "panel methods." He also helped create mathematical sociology. Many of his ideas are now so common that they seem obvious. He is also known for developing the two-step flow of communication model.

Lazarsfeld also trained many young sociologists. One of his biographers, Paul Neurath, said that his students' work still shows his influence. Barney Glaser, who created "grounded theory" for analyzing qualitative data, was one of his students. James Samuel Coleman, a key thinker in education and a future president of the American Sociological Association, also studied with Lazarsfeld.

Lazarsfeld believed his most important contribution was creating research centers within universities. He started this idea in Vienna. Then he built two in the U.S., especially the Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia University. Under his leadership, the Bureau managed a lot of money and produced many studies. This model helped make research affordable and organized for other universities.

Another key contribution was his work on media effects. He developed the Lazarsfeld-Stanton Program Analyzer, also called "Little Annie." This device let audience members press a red or green button to show if they liked or disliked content. This tool was used with focus group interviews. After watching content, participants filled out a questionnaire and discussed it. This helped broadcasters improve their shows. These tools gathered both qualitative (descriptive) and quantitative (number-based) data.

He also improved survey methods, like the "longitudinal panel survey." This survey followed the same people over time. He also used techniques like 2x2 tables and scatter plots to analyze data.

Paul Lazarsfeld served as President of the American Sociological Association and the American Association for Public Opinion Research. He received honorary degrees from many universities. Columbia University's social research center is now named after him. Awards for achievement in sociology are also named in his honor.

Challenges and Criticisms of Lazarsfeld's Work

While Lazarsfeld's research centers were a big step forward, they had some challenges. He believed that strong leadership was key to a center's success. However, this also meant that his personal preferences could shape the research. For example, some felt his methods didn't always allow for findings to be easily copied or applied to larger groups.

Much of Lazarsfeld's research focused on how individuals made decisions. He looked at how mass media influenced these choices. The Marienthal study was different, as it focused on a whole community. But later studies often looked at individuals.

Some critics felt his "administrative research" focused too much on short-term effects. This research was often paid for by businesses or the military. Theodor W. Adorno, who worked with Lazarsfeld, had different ideas. He believed in a more critical approach, not just gathering data.

C. Wright Mills called Lazarsfeld's focus on facts over big theories "abstract empiricism." This led Robert K. Merton to develop "theories of the middle range." These theories were not too broad or too narrow.

Critics also noted that Lazarsfeld often missed the bigger picture of social structures. He mostly worked on administrative research and surveys. Even when his 1940 study found strong media effects, he supported the idea of "minimal effects." This meant media had only a small impact.

Towards the end of his life, Lazarsfeld felt his ideas about empirical research were not as widely accepted as he hoped. In one of his last papers, he wrote that the interest in empirical research among sociologists was declining.

Working Together: Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton

Lazarsfeld was known for working well with many different thinkers. One of his most famous collaborations was with Robert K. Merton. Both Merton and Lazarsfeld became professors at Columbia University in 1941. Merton was seen as a theorist, while Lazarsfeld was an expert in methods.

Their collaboration began in November 1941. Lazarsfeld had been asked to evaluate a radio program. Merton went with him to the radio studio. Lazarsfeld used his Program Analyzer to record listener reactions. Merton helped make sure the follow-up questions were well-answered. This is believed to be the start of the "focused group interview," which we now call the focus group. This was the beginning of a very important partnership in communication studies.

Their most famous paper together is "Mass Communication, Popular Taste, and Organized Social Action" (1948). In this paper, they explored how mass media works. They looked at three main "social functions" of media.

The first function is giving social status. Media can make public issues, people, or groups seem important. The second is enforcing social norms. Media can show when people break rules, making it public. The third, and perhaps best-known, is the narcotizing dysfunction. This means that too much information from media can make people feel informed but less likely to take action. They spend so much time reading or listening that they don't do anything else.

The paper also discussed how media is owned and operated in the U.S. They noted that advertising supports most media. They pointed out that "he who pays the piper generally calls the tune." This means those who pay for media can influence its content. They also looked at how this affects popular taste. Finally, they discussed how propaganda for social goals could be effective. They suggested three conditions: "monopolization" (no opposing messages), "canalization" (guiding existing behaviors), and "supplementation" (media messages reinforced by face-to-face contact).

See also

In Spanish: Paul Felix Lazarsfeld para niños

• Hindsight bias
• Statistical survey
• Public opinion
• Two-step flow of communication

Images for kids

• 

  Paul Lazarsfeld at age 40