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Contents -- Contents, Volume 2 -- Preface -- Part I. Background -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 Origins of the Study -- 1.2 Domain of the Study: Objective and Subjective Phenomena -- 1.3 Subjectivity and ""Social Facts"" -- 1.4 Putting Surveys and Their Problems in Perspective -- 1.5 Organization of the Volume -- Part II. Uses and Abuses of Surveys -- 2. The Development and Contemporary Use of Subjective Surveys -- 2.1 The Development of the Survey Method -- 2.2 The Survey Enterprise -- 2.3 The Use of Subjective Survey Measurements -- 2.4 The Effects of Surveys and Polls

Contents -- Contents, Volume 1 -- Preface -- Part I. Measurement of Subjective Phenomena in the Social Sciences -- 1. Attitude Measurement in Psychology and Sociology: The Early Years - Jean M. Converse -- 2. Utility in Economics: A Survey of the Literature - J. G. Tulip Meeks -- 3. The Use of Survey Data in Basic Research in the Social Sciences - Stanley Presser -- Part II. Quasi-Facts -- 4. The Subjectivity of Ethnicity - Tom W. Smith -- 5. Measuring Employment and Unemployment - Barbara A. Bailar and Naomi D. Rothwell

Choice decisions are inherently subjective but capturing and explaining nuanced variation in respondents' attitudes is difficult and needs more than the simple socio-demographic variables traditionally used in economic research. In recent years, environmental economists have been shifting towards a more holistic approach to economic valuation, making an increased use of psychology within behavioural economics, to better understand subjective preferences on the environment. This research applies a novel mixed-methods approach to integrate the results from a Q-methodological analysis, which reveals respondents' latent traits and perceptions about river management, into a choice experiment which estimates respondents' preferences for potential future improvements to river water quality. The purpose is to improve the quantification of subjectivity within stated preference experiments. Q-methodology reveals five statistically distinct narratives (characterised as Ecological, Financial, Leadership, Collaboration, Legislation) which define the main perspectives respondents hold for river management strategies. Choice experiment results suggest subjectivity causes significant differences in respondents' choice behaviour. Statistically verified Q-methodological narratives provide plausible explanations for differences in respondents' choice preferences regarding river water quality improvements. By triangulating between quantitative and qualitative research methods, we demonstrate a research strategy that can contribute to a better understanding of the impact socially contested perspectives have on respondents' choice behaviour.

"Subjective indicators have been proven to possess predictive power for a large array of social and economic outcomes. However, most of these measures face serious psychometric shortcomings, namely that the items used are not psychometrically investigated. Further, for the assessment of one and the same construct various different item phrasing and response formats are used in different surveys. In the present paper several recommendations are made to increase the quality and by that also the acceptance and usage of subjective indicators. These include to develop more ultra-short but multi-item measures for subjective indicators. Further, surveys should try to use the same form of measurement, i.e. the same item phrasings and the same response scales. In terms of psychometric properties it is recommended to investigate reliability and validity of the indicators in as much depth as possible. In addition suggestions are made how to investigate the respondent's judgmental process for the subjective indicators' measures which allows to obtain a clearer picture of how the item is understood by the respondent and on which cues he bases his judgment." [author's abstract]

This paper explores the subjective psychophysiological research of the so-called subjective audition conducted by the Czech physician and endocrinologist Stanislav Vomela in the 1930s. It examines Vomela's attempts to analyze his own peculiar experience of hearing what he called subjective music (music heard only by the subject) and introduces the concept of acousmatics Vomela developed to study this kind of auditory perception. Vomela's methodology is studied against the background of J. E. Purkyně's understanding of the subjective empiricist methodology of self-knowing in the physiology of the senses and in the context of research into eidetic imagery by E. R. Jaensch and Victor Urbantschitsch.