The institute is a unit that houses five separate but interdependent centers which conduct research and maintain data archives.

CPS has both a domestic and international focus, researching individual political behavior and the role of institutions in contemporary society.

[11][12] The unit has over 250,000 files of research in the social sciences, over 750 global member organizations, and hosts 21 special collections.

It has been funded since 1976 by a population center grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

The Research Center for Group Dynamics (RCGD), directed by Richard Gonzalez, was founded due to the perceived need to integrate psychology, sociology, and cultural anthropology.

[22] ISR offers summer courses for undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral training, and doctorate and master's degrees in methodology.

SRC also runs the Summer Institute in Survey Research Techniques, which provides graduate-level training courses but does not grant academic credit.

[26][7] The 1964 and 1968 national, cross-sectional surveys of the presidential election led to the creation of the Michigan Model of voter choice theory.

[27] In 1968 scholars within SRC initiated a study investigating the attitudes, experiences, beliefs, and expectations with respect to race relations of both white and Black people in fifteen major American cities.