Withey held appointments in SRC, the Department of Psychology, and the Department of Communication at Michigan. He applied social–psychological theory and quantitative methods to research into public perceptions and attitudes toward big business, science, and technology; the values and behavior of adolescents; and the effects of mass media on social behavior. Withey also included perceived life-satisfaction measures in his survey methods. His 1976 book with Frank Andrews, “Social Indicators of Well-Being in America,” remains a classic work in survey methodology.