“strain” in Mormon life, such as progress versus agrarianism and rationality versus charisma.

Armand Mauss completed several studies of LDS congregations in California and Utah in the 1960s and 1970s. Mauss also compiled a bibliography of LDS studies (1984) and has recently completed a book summarizing the corpus of his work (1994). In 1974, Glenn Vernon published a collection of sociological studies of LDS people at his own expense. He also wrote a book called Sociology of Mormonism (1975) that was privately circulated.

A major expansion in LDS studies occurred with the formation of what is now called the Research Information Division (RID), originally a unit of the Correlation Department of the LDS Church. This group of researchers initially did evaluation research on such topics as visitors centers and Churchnot been published. The RID is one of the premier religious research organizations in the world. Currently it employs about twenty Ph.D. social scientists whose work has been highly praised (Stark in this volume) and who have produced hundreds of studies for the use of Church leaders.

The most famous study produced by this division was the “Young Men’s Study.” The original study was summarized in the Ensign (December 1984, pp. 66–68) and widely discussed by leaders of the Church in many wards and stakes. This study found that young men who serve missions are likely to come from active families who help their children have private spiritual experiences. The influence of teachers and leaders is also important (see also Thomas in this volume).

Most of the published research on