Centers
Center for Political Studies
The Center for Political Studies analyzes interactions among
institutions, political processes, and individuals. The Center's research themes -- values and participation,
media and politics, race and politics, and international peace and security -- are united by a concern for
democracy and for the advancement of political analysis. CPS has its origins in the development of the National Election Studies, first conducted in 1948 and, in
1977, designated a national resource by the National Science Foundation. The goal of NES is to assess public
opinion and to understand how and why citizens vote as they do. Worldwide interest in these studies has led to comparable efforts in more than 20 countries, which, in turn, have stimulated the growth of comparative political studies.
Long-recognized for its work on political processes, CPS is forging new ground in cross-national research with its current focus on world politics and international relations. Participating in the Human Dimension of Global Environmental Change Program, CPS scientists who study the effectiveness of environmental treaties are contributing to knowledge of how human behavior-- "isolated" actions as simple, say, as the choice of air-conditioner fluid by a local garage mechanic -- can have global repercussions.
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
 Created in 1962, the Inter-university Consortium for
Political and Social Research is the largest archive of quantitative social science data in the U. S. ICPSR has over 550 member institutions, including all of the major research universities in the U.S. and many more around the world.
ICPSR's computerized data have been the foundation for thousands
of research articles, reports, and books. Findings from these research data are used by scholars, policy analysts, policymakers and the public. As an
extension of its proactive role in facilitating research, ICPSR offers scholars and students the Summer Program in Quantitative Methods, an in-depth summer training session in statistical analysis, research design,
and computer applications.
ICPSR's Data Archive includes some 450,000 discrete files for research and instruction, spanning sociology, political science, demography, history, economics, gerontology, public health, criminal justice, education, and international relations.
Population Studies Center
The Population Studies Center was established in 1961, originally as a unit within the Department of Sociology. PSC has had close connections to the Department of Economics since 1966 but has become increasingly interdisciplinary over time, drawing faculty from Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Natural Resources, Political Science, Psychology, Public Health, Public Policy, Social Work, Sociology, and Statistics. The energy and intellectual curiosity of the Center's researchers, fostered by the strong support environment and leavened by their interaction with visitors and students at all levels, is a major source of Center momentum.
PSC comprises independent population researchers who pursue their own agendas with the support of the PSC staff. A large portfolio of both domestic and international research is supported by the Center. PSC is strong in several key areas of demographic research:
- Family Formation, Fertility, and Children
- Human Capital, Labor and Wealth
- Health, Disability, and Mortality
- Population Dynamics
- Aging
- Methodology
- Regional Studies
Research Center for Group Dynamics
Basic research in the Research Center for Group Dynamics focuses on the individual in society, with interest in group processes and social
cognition. Experimental studies in laboratories and in natural settings such as schools, businesses, and
community groups probe processes like decision-making, prejudice, judgment, and emotion. Understanding how people behave in groups and how social forces influence their behavior has practical applications to many social concerns: crime, delinquency, and racism.
RCGD studies have shown a clear link between aggression and media violence, for example. RCGD researchers have also identified factors that increase scholastic achievement in minority students.
They used these findings in designing the 21st Century Program, a U-M initiative that has been dramatically
successful in retaining minority students and improving their grades.
RCGD is the nation's largest research center on African Americans and has trained many of the people who study this group's needs. Recent work has expanded to the study of racism throughout the world. A distinctive development is the Culture and Cognition Program, which originated in RCGD. It examines inter-cultural contact, highlighting the often-surprising differences in reasoning among people of different cultures and how these may lead to misunderstandings.
Survey Research Center
For more than 50 years, the Survey Research Center has been a national and international leader in interdisciplinary social science research involving the collection or analysis of data from scientific sample surveys. First, this involves conducting basic and applied empirical survey-based research that is theoretically informed. SRC and the Institute for Social Research are pillars of empirical social science, but seek to bring their empiricism to bear on problems that are of both social and scientific importance. Second, SRC's leadership involves the development, refinement, and propagation of the scientific method of survey research through teaching and training.
The research programs of the SRC are in continuing evolution. From the initial four programs in the 1940s and 1950s -- economic behavior, political behavior, organizational behavior, and survey methodology -- the SRC has grown to include a wide array of active research programs:
- Economic Behavior
- Family & Demography
- Life Course Development
- Quantitative Methodology
- Social Environment & Health
- Socio-environmental Studies
- Social Indicators
- Survey Methodology
- Urban & Environmental Studies
- Youth and Social Issues
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