Citizens ViewPoint

The Citizens' ViewPoint 1980 and 1990 Surveys

In 1980, under the leadership of Dan Moore, an extension rural sociologist at Penn State, the first Pennsylvania Citizens’ Viewpoint study was carried out to ascertain the perceptions of the state’s residents concerning a wide range of local state, and regional issues. The goals of the study were to obtain information to assist Cooperative Extension educators, public officials, and community decision-makers in identifying issues of concern to their constituents, to encourage public discourse on these matters, and to provide information for educational programming. More than 14,000 Pennsylvania residents participated in the 1980 Citizens’ Viewpoint study, and an extensive array of resource papers directed to meet the needs of local and state leaders were produced. [ 1980 Report ]

In 1990 a second Citizens’ Viewpoint survey sponsored by Cooperative Extension was conducted by research faculty in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at Penn State. This study sought not only to meet the goals of the previous Citizens’ Viewpoint survey, but also to assess changes in public views across time and to provide information for strategic planning within the College of Agricultural Sciences. Fern K. Willits and Donald M. Crider served as project directors. The 1990 Citizens’ Viewpoint study was more modest in scope than its predecessor (the sample size was just over 3,600). Nevertheless, the project yielded 35 publications targeted for use by Cooperative Extension and the general public, a sound/slide program, and a three-panel poster display, as well as several professional papers and journal articles. [ 1990 Report ]


A Study by Penn State University Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology