John P. Robinson is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Robinson founded and directed the Survey Research Center at the University of Maryland and the Communication Research Center at Cleveland State University. He has published more than 100 articles in professional journals and books and is a contributing editor to American Demographics magazine. Dr. Robinson was an American Statistical Association/National Science Foundation fellow at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1992-93, a Fulbright scholar at Moscow State University and Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1990, a Research Consultant at BBC News in 1978 and Research Coordinator for the U.S. Surgeon General's Program on Television and Human Behavior in 1970. He received the 1987 Fordham University McGannon Award for Social and Ethical Relevance in Communication Policy Research for his research on improving public understanding of the news. His areas of specialization include social science methodology, attitude and behavior measurement, social change, and the impact of mass communication and other home technology. Additionally, he is an Editor of the Encyclopedia of Food Science, Food Technology & Nutrition.

This volume is sponsored by Division 9 of the American Psychological Association: The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. This is an essential reference book for any social scientist or student who uses measures of attitude or personality in his or her research. The earlier version, published twenty years ago, was to be found on the shelf of virtually everyone who worked in the field. It serves as an update and extension of a highly useful book published twenty years ago. It employs a systematic standardized evaluation of 150 scales. Chapters on specific types of scales are written by experts in those subfields.