| Sumario: | (1) An investigation of public opinion seeks to turn the attitudes in the minds of the population investigated into an impression on the mind of the reader of the report. In doing this, five stages of transformation are used. Each transformation is only an approximate representation of the stage before. (2) The five transformations are: (i) The selection of a representative sample of the population. (ii) The expression of opinion in words and action. (iii) The collection and analysis of opinions (iv) The presenting of the analysis as a report. (v) The formation of an impression in the minds of the readers of the report. (3) The introduction of modern methods of sampling limited the errors of the first transformation. Attention is now being turned to the errors of the second transformation. (4). Too great weight has hitherto been given to errors on of the third transformation. (5) Investigators should acknowledge responsibility for guiding the impressions aroused by their report, in the minds of readers of their reports. If this is done, the attention paid to errors in the fourth and fifth transformations needs adjustment. (6) The aim must be to increase the final validity of the report even at the expense of accuracy of any figures obtained. (7) The chief test of validity is the consistency of the results of different investigations. (8) The consistency of qualitative results is an even more important test than the consistency of numerical results. (9) Checks on validity are in need of much research, and this can be more easily done in America, where Public Opinion Research is already recognized as a science.
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