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The Survey of Consumer Attitudes and Behavior series (also known as the Surveys of Consumers) was undertaken to measure changes in consumer attitudes and expectations, to understand why such changes occur, and to evaluate how they relate to consumer decisions to save, borrow, or make discretionary purchases. The data regularly include the Index of Consumer Sentiment, the Index of Current Economic Conditions, and the Index of Consumer Expectations.

This survey was undertaken to assess consumer sentiment and buying plans, as well as to provide information on their savings and investment habits and perceptions of government. Open-ended questions were asked concerning evaluations and expectations about personal finances, employment, recession, price changes, and the national business situation. Additional variables probe respondents' buying intentions for a house, automobiles, appliances, and other consumer durables, and respondents' appraisals of present market conditions for purchasing houses and other durables. Other variables probe respondents' assessments of their financial status relative to the previous year, their views of the government in Washington, the need for governmental changes, military spending, government support for Black people, and their satisfaction with their income and their jobs, as well as their opinion of married women working outside the home, women's liberation, and penalties for marijuana use. Information is also provided on respondents' political party identification, time spent with their children, savings accounts, contributions to charitable organizations, and car ownership and plans to buy a new one. Demographic variables provide information on respondents' age, sex, race, ethnic group, marital status, education, occupation, employment status, and family income.

The study was conducted during the spring and summer of 1971. The aim of the 1971 Detroit Area Study was to gather information on social change in the Detroit area by replicating items from nine earlier Detroit Area Studies that were conducted in 1953-1959, 1968, and 1969. The criteria used for selecting the question items were that they: (1) not be dated by wording or subject matter, (2) be relevant to some problem of current public concern or a continuing issue of sociological theory, and (3) be of the type that would be manageable in a long interview on diverse subjects. The questions chosen to be included in the 1971 Detroit Area Study examined issues such as values in marriage, ideal number of children, satisfaction of wives with marriage, decision-making and division of labor within a marriage, attitudes toward women and work, child-rearing, social participation, religious participation and beliefs, moral and job values, political orientation and participation, evaluation of various institutions, and racial attitudes. In addition to the items replicated from the previous studies, respondents' attitudes toward the United States sending troops to Vietnam were explored. Background variables established respondents' age, sex, race, educational level, marital status, occupation, class identification, and relationship to head of household. Demographic information was also collected on the respondent's spouse and parents.

This study of 797 adults in the Detroit metropolitan area provides information on their attitudes toward work and their motivations for working, as well as their orientation toward many social and political issues. The study was a combination of two separate studies: ORIENTATION ON MORAL ISSUES IN A METROPOLIS by Robert Angell, and THE MEANING OF WORK by Robert Kahn and Robert Weiss. Respondents were asked about the importance of work in their life, the things in their job that made them feel important, the things they wanted from their job that it did not provide, the other areas of their life that made them feel useful, and the people in their lives that influenced their choice of occupation. A number of questions that focused on women working outside the home probed respondents' feelings about how a husband was affected by a working wife, and if there were kinds of jobs that women should not have. Other questions probed respondents' views about what the United States should do in the event of an attack by the Soviet Union on a western European country, a parent not allowing a child to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in school, the proposed racial integration of schools, appointment or election of government officials, effecting changes in the United States Constitution, trial by a jury or a judge, ways to effect world peace, the most important problem for the United States in the future, and a Communist revolution in a Latin American country. Additional items explored respondents' opinion of the Detroit newspapers and the Detroit newspaper strike, and their satisfaction with their neighborhood. Respondents were also asked about their political party preference, as well as their use and ownership of telephones. Demographic variables specify age, sex, race, education, place of birth, marital status, number of children, nationality, religious preferences, occupation, family income, length of residence in the Detroit area, home ownership, length of time at present residence, and class identification.

This study of 438 women aged 18-65 in the Detroit metropolitan area in 1974 provides information on their participation in the labor force. Data are provided on the job histories of respondents, up to 14 previous occupations in order to assess the nature of work, length of stay on the job, and the status of public or private employment. Respondents were asked questions about the various jobs they had held, such as their feelings toward their jobs, their reasons for working, job titles held, membership in labor unions, health conditions that might have affected their work, reasons for leaving their jobs, and the geographic location of their workplace, as well as their feelings of job security and job satisfaction. Other questions probed respondents' feelings about equal job opportunities for men and women, equal privileges for women and men, the removal of the glass ceiling for women in America's corporate and political life, the implications for the marriage if a wife earned more than her husband, career-oriented wives, husbands' share of household chores, and working mothers. Additional items explored respondents' opinions of government's efforts to eliminate sexual and racial discrimination, and the idea of changes in divorce laws to make divorce easier or harder to obtain. Demographic variables specify age, sex, education, marital status, income, relationship to head of household, household composition, nationality, political party affiliation, and social class identification. Also provided is demographic information on family members.