The past 25 years have seen a period of unparalleled growth in the field of statistical data collection. Through its own programs, the Bureau collects and publishes vast amounts of demographic, economic and social statistics. Historically, these statistics have provided the benchmarks needed by agencies charged with carrying out Federal programs and the Bureau has been in the forefront in planning, developing and carrying out data gathering programs to meet these needs. However, as Federal programs have become more extensive and complex, the need for data tailored to the specific needs of individual agencies has grown at an even faster rate. The great depression of the thirties - followed by World War II - stimulated the creation of many programs requiring statistical information. The rapid expansion in the social and economic programs of the government in the post -war period accelerated this demand. In the past several years, the demand for program -oriented data has been increasing as a consequence of the recently instituted programs in the fields of poverty, education, and medical care insurance for the elderly.

The Bureau has responded to these requests, extending its services to more and more groups and, in the process, undertaking numerous and more complex surveys. Although the Bureau has had a strong predilection for factual as opposed to attitudinal or motivational questions, it has been necessary to consider expanding the scope of the Bureau's work in recent years. Without either extensive background or experience in this area, the Bureau has found it difficult to establish standards against which, to measure requests for these "new" types of data. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to provide the framework for a discussion which might explore the problems connected with the use of questions involving attitudes, motivations, values or personality characteristics in surveys conducted by the Bureau. To this end, it will discuss the Bureau's past practices with regard to collecting such data, its present position and the problems which confront it.