AGGRESSION RESEARCH GROUP
The University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research
and Research Center for Group Dynamics:
65 Years of Social Science in the Public Interest
L. Rowell Huesmann
Director, Research Center for Group Dynamics,
Institute for Social Research
Amos Tversky Collegiate Professor of Psychology and
Communication Studies
The Institute for Social Research
ISR Structure
Comprised of five research centers originating over time and each with
a particular social science focus, which are supported by a central
administrative center

Survey Research Center (1946)

Research Center for Group Dynamics (1948)

Population Studies Center (founded 1961,
merged with ISR 1990)

Center for Political Studies (1970)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and
Social Research (founded 1962, unique center
1998)

Center for Institute Services
ISR Personnel
Ph.D. Scientists & Professors
276
Faculty with Joint Appointments 160
Permanent Staff
Contingent Staff
555
1,028
Total ISR Personnel
1,859
Interdisciplinarity
ISR is a Bridge across U-M’s Campus

Over 20 disciplines represented on our
research faculty and working on our research
teams
 Approximately 58% of our research faculty
have appointments in academic departments
around campus
 ISR is critical to the University to attract the
best and brightest quantitative social scientists
ISR Researchers Come from
More than 20 Disciplines
Ph.D. Career Tracks in ISR

Research Professor Track
–

Research Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor
Research Scientist Track
–
Research Investigator
– Assistant, Associate, and Full Research Scientist

Joint Appointments
–

Above plus ‘Faculty Associate’
Differential Salaries
 What does ‘tenure’ mean on the research
tracks?
Funding Sources
Federal
Foundation
Industry & Others
U-M Internal Grants
6%
7%
6%
81%
ISR Funding
Cumulative Awards by Fiscal Year
with Stimulus Funds
July
August
September
October
November
December
January
Month
February
March
April
May
June
The Origins of the
Institute for Social
Research at the
University of Michigan
The Survey Research
Center
SRC
SRC Comes to Michigan
Angus Campbell
&
Rensis Likert
 1926 Likert graduates from U of M in sociology
 1939 – 45 As director of surveys for USDA Likert attracts top social
scientists to work on surveys for the war effort. He is joined by Angus
Campbell, Charlie Cannell, Dorwin Cartwright, George Katona, and
Leslie Kish.
 1946 War ends and entire group moves to U of M where Don
Marquis, Robert Angell, and Ted Newcomb are located. The group
becomes the Survey Research Center with Likert as the director. They
are quickly joined by Bob Kahn, Dan Katz, & others
Iconic Moment 1
Soon To Be ISR Researchers Help
Defeat Axis and Save the USA
Iconic Moment 2
“The Funding Deal”
 The U of M Regents established the SRC
with the provision that no internal funds
would be used to support it.
 To compensate for this they agreed that
the center could keep whatever indirect
costs came with its grants and contracts
 However, the center would have to pay
rent for its space, its utility costs, and all
other expenses on its own.
 Finally, the center would not be located
administratively within any higher order
unit but would report directly to the
Provost as did the colleges at Michigan
Iconic Moment 3
SRC Defeats Gallup Pollsters
Iconic Moment 4
ISR Helps Defeat Polio
The Research Center for
Group Dynamics
RCGD
BACK TO THE FUTURE
A successful individual typically sets his
next goal somewhat but not too much
above his last achievement. In this way
he steadily raises his level of aspiration.
- Kurt Lewin
RCGD FOUNDERS
LEON FESTINGER
DOC CARTWRIGHT
RON LIPPETT
ALVIN ZANDER
JACK FRENCH
Founding of ISR
ISR’s FIRST HOME
JACK FRENCH, LEON FESTINGER,
DOC CARTWRIGHT, & RENSIS LIKERT
Feb. 1, 1949
SRC & RCGD merge to
form ISR
ANGUS CAMPBELL,
RENSIS LIKERT, &
‘DOC’ CARTWRIGHT
Administration of ISR
Provost
Exec VP Academic Affairs
ISR Director
Center Director s
Research Faculty
VP for Research
ISR Policy Comm
Center Exec Comm
Advisory Role
Elector Role
Flow of Funding for Typical
Academic Department
Provost
Hard
Money
Provost Decides Amounts
Dean
Dean Decides
Amounts
Department
Chair Decides
Amounts
???
Researcher
Grant Indirect Costs
Grants
Grant Direct Costs
Flow of Funding for ISR
Provost
Hard
Money
Only Special Initiatives
ISR Central Admin
Centers Decide
Amounts
$27/sq ft rent + 7% of ICR
Center
Centers Decide
Amounts
Grant Indirect Costs
Grant
Researcher
Grant Direct Costs
ISR Accumulated Assets 2011
120
Millions
100
Total
Cash on hand
Investment Fund
Capital Assets
Receivables
80
60
40
20
0
TYPE
ISR Centers’ Accumulated
Assets 2011
70
60
Millions
50
CPS
ICPSR
PSC
RCGD
SRC
40
30
20
10
0
Center
The Survey Research
Center
SRC
SRC’s
Programs of Research
SRC’s “Gold Standard” Repeating
Surveys
• Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers
• Monitoring the Future
• American National Election Studies
• Panel Study of Income Dynamics
• Health and Retirement Study
• Army STARRS
Surveys of Consumers
Monthly surveys since 1946 gauge how
consumers feel the economic environment
will change.
Data from the Surveys of Consumers have
proved to be accurate indicators of the future
course of the national economy. The data are
widely used by a broad range of business
firms, financial institutions, and federal
agencies.
October 2012 Findings
Consumer confidence posted record gain in October, and
consumers were more confident about economic prospects in
October than any other time during the last five years, according to
the latest survey, which have been monitoring consumer attitudes
and expectations for more than 60 years.
Monitoring the Future
Surveying 50,000 U.S. teens every year
since 1975.
12th graders have been surveyed since
1975, 8th and 10th graders were added in
1991.
Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse
as part of the National Institutes of Health, and
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
NIDA Funding was recently awarded for the next
five years, totaling $35 million.
American National Election Studies
An ANES study represents one or more interviews conducted with a sample of
U.S. eligible voters during one or more interview periods, usually coinciding
with U.S. elections of the House of Representatives.
Begun in 1948, with support from the Social Science Research Council, as a
pilot study of the national electorate.
Funded by the National Science Foundation, The University of Michigan and
Stanford University.
Panel Study of Income Dynamics
Longest running household
panel study in the world
begun in 1968
Examines dynamics of socioeconomic lives of
Americans
Currently collects data on over 22,000 Americans
Replicated in numerous countries
Primarily funded by NSF and NIH
Transformative scientific impact
With additional funding from the Russell Sage
Foundation
Largest project funded by Economics Program at NSF
More than 3,000 peerreviewed articles have
used the data
Used by scholars across the country
and world
Large-scale longitudinal project that studies the labor force participation and
health transitions that individuals undergo toward the end of their work lives
and in the years that follow.
Nationally representative of population 50 and older.
Over 150,000 interviews with over 30,000 participants.
In 2006, expanded to add biological measures, richer psychological measures, and
DNA. In 2012, the genetic information from 12,500 consenting participants was
added to the online genetics database of the NIH.
Begun in 1990 with Congressional authorization to NIA to provide data on
aging and retirement.
Now the largest single U-M federally-funded project, which is supported by the
National Institute on Aging and the Social Security Administration. Additional
funding by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Army Study to Assess Risks and Resilience
in Service Members (STARRS)
Army STARRS is the largest study of mental health risk and resilience
ever conducted among military personnel.
Five year study that will run through 2014.
Beginning in 2004, the suicide rate among Soldiers began to rise,
reaching record levels in 2007.
The Army engaged the National Institute of Mental Health to help
address the issue.
Several Component Studies
The Historical Data Study
The All Army Study
The New Soldier Study
The Soldier Health Outcomes Study
RCGD
Although RCGD’s original mission – to study the
dynamics of groups – has undergone a number of
transformations over the past fifty years of its existence,
the Center remains focused on the advancement of
understanding human behavior in a societal context.
 The Center is really now a Center for the Study of Social
Dynamics.
 Programs of research endeavor to explain particular
aspects of the complex interdependence between the
psychological life of an individual and the social system in
which that person exists.

THE GROUP DYNAMICS SEMINAR
One of the major vehicles for interaction in the Center is
the Group Dynamics Seminar. This is probably the oldest
social science seminar on campus, if not the world. It has
been running uninterruptedly since it was founded by Kurt
Lewin in the 1920’s in Berlin. It meets every term, usually
with a theme such as “Close Interpersonal Relations,” or
“Economics and Social Behavior,” or “Stereotyping and
Prejudice.” Group Dynamics Seminars are open to the
entire University community and provide an opportunity
for researchers, scholars, staff, and students to meet and
learn about new and ongoing research activities.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHGIGAN
INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH
RESEARCH CENTER FOR GROUP DYNAMICS

Center Directors
Dorwin Cartwright
Alvin Zander
Philip Brickman
Robert B. Zajonc
Richard E. Nisbett
James S. Jackson
L. Rowell Huesmann
1948-1958
1959-1978
1979-1982
1982-1989
1990-1995
1996-2004
2005-2012
BACK WHEN WE WERE YOUNG…
Current RCGD Research Programs
• Gender &Achievement Research Program
• Aggression Research Program
• Analysis of Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood Program
• Communications Neuroscience Program
• Culture, Mind & the Brain Program
• Culture and the Self Program
• Evolution and Human Adaptation
• Gender and Achievement Research
• Media Psychology Program
• Program for Research on Black Americans
• Program on Teaching, Learning, & Technology
RCGD Website
http://www.rcgd.isr.umich.edu
RCGD INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES
INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL STUDIES
EXCHANGE PROGRAM
Initiated by Robert Zajonc and now directed
by Eugene Burnstein, RCGD supports an
exchange program with the Institute for
Social Studies at Warsaw University in
Poland. The program is funded by the U.S.
State Department and allows faculty and
graduate students in Ann Arbor and Warsaw
to collaborate on research as well as teach
and study at each other’s institution.
SUMMARY
ISR and RCGD’s Continuing Goals
 Social Science in the Public Interest
– Providing valid empirical data
– Advancing social-science theory
– Championing applications in the public interest
 Interdisciplinarity
 Establishing the Gold Standard for precision in
measuring social phenomena
 Training the Next Generation of empirical social
scientist around the world
 Partnering with institutions around the globe to develop
capacity in the social sciences
 Pioneering data archiving and sharing
Building for the Future
ISR Building Wing 4 – Perspective from the West - Division Street Side