Professor Jackson has research interests in experimental and survey methodology, cultural influences on mental health, social influence, attitude theory and change, and aging and human development. In addition to directing the Institute for Social Research, he serves on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Institute on Aging, as a Member-at-Large of the Social for Personality and Social Psychology Executive Committee, and as director of the National Survey of American Life, a survey funded by the National Institute of Mental Health that is designed to document the physical, emotional, mental, structural, and economic conditions of African Americans at the beginning of the new century.