Studying attitude structure does not require a random sample.

Evidence

Abrams saw the problems as lying above all in analysing the data. The problem that groups could only with difficulty be formed according to the principles of the random sample or the quota sample did not seem to him a serious obstacle, so long as one was concerned not with accumulating diverse opinions but with the structure and dynamics of attitudes. Even Freud and his pupils had not been concerned with random samples of the general population when studying their patients, and they had nevertheless developed a general theory of the human psyche. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 460

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how far did this justification travel inside the Institute’s own deflated empirical ambitions?
• XREF: connects to: Objectivity in pedagogy does not require excluding learners from investigation. — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 306; Studying gender does not require or imply feminist consciousness — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as…, 225
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Objectivity in pedagogy does not require excluding learners from investigation. — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 306; Studying gender does not require or imply feminist consciousness — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as…, 225