Neighborhood and Community Activities Study

This survey of Marion County residents focused on the social psychology of inequality, including attitudes and beliefs about social inequality and respondents’ evaluations and explanations of their socioeconomic attainment. The survey focused on four substantive areas: (1) neighborhood perceptions and attitudes; (2) equity theory including vignette evaluations of income; (3) attributions of success/attainment; (4) occupation information related to the respondent, respondent's spouse, and respondent's family head at age 16. The survey also measured general attitudes (such as self esteem and alienation), perceptions of the work environment, household socioeconomic information, and other personal background and demographic information.

Surveys were conducted with 328 Marion County residents between the ages of 18 and 64. About two-thirds of the data were collected through 222 personal, face-to-face interviews; the remainder were gathered through 106 telephone interviews. The sampling frame was stratified by racial composition in order to adequately represent the ethnic diversity in the population, and block clustering methods were used to minimize costs and increase the efficiency of the sample.

This study was supported by funding from the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University-Bloomington.