UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 28, Page 2
April 20, 1995
Allan McCutcheon named '95-96 Fulbright Scholar

     Allan McCutcheon, associate professor of sociology, has received
a Fulbright Scholar research award for 1995-96 and will serve as a
visiting research professor at the Work and Organization Research
Center (WORC) and the Department of Social Science Methodology at
Tilburg University in The Netherlands.
     His research project, entitled "Latent Class Analysis of Work,
Unemployment and Poverty in Comparative Perspective," is an
examination and comparison of categories of work, unemployment and
poverty in six European Union (EU) nations.
     Over the past 20 years, unemployment has risen significantly in
EU countries, and there are concerns about the emergence of an
impoverished "underclass," McCutcheon said.
     He will be working with a colleague, Jacques Hagenaars, who
chairs the methodology department at Tilburg.
     A sociological methodologist, McCutcheon will use statistical
models he has developed and refined in past research projects. He has
applied these models to such topics as abortion attitudes in different
countries, drug use in prisoners, religious intermarriage and
religious beliefs in reunited Germany.
     While statistics may not lie, there is a margin of error in most
studies that can distort the overall picture, according to McCutcheon.
Eliminating error and establishing greater accuracy is important in
sociological studies because research and public policy are based on
this  information, he said. In analyzing European unemployment and
poverty, McCutcheon said he will factor in the error factor for a more
accurate interpretation of data.
     Using data from WORC, McCutcheon will conduct an in-depth study
of the factors related to unemployment and poverty, such as education,
gender and parents' economic status and also will make distinctions
between temporary and chronic unemployment.
     Another area of concern is how data are collected. The way
questions and surveys are worded is important as they are subject to
individual interpretation. For example, some people who say they are
unemployed may actually have jobs but say they are unemployed for any
number of reasons, such as holding down a temporary job or a job they
do not like and wish to leave, McCutcheon pointed out.
     Questions in a survey may act as checks and balances for each
other. For example, when conducting a survey on religious beliefs for
a previous study, McCutcheon had two sets of questions that asked for
the same information in different ways. One set questioned belief in
God; the other dealt with feelings of closeness to God. But,
essentially the questions counterbalanced each other in the collection
of more accurate data.
     "Sociological research on current issues affecting European
democracies and a scientific approach to methodology have always been
my two strong interests. During my sabbatical in The Netherlands, I
will combine them both," McCutcheon said.
                                                   -Sue Swyers Moncure