Chapter 9

Survey Research

Key Terms• Respondent: Person who provides data

for analysis by responding to a survey questionnaire.

• Questionnaire: Instrument designed to elicit information that will be useful for analysis.

Types of Questions• Open-ended questions

Respondent is asked to provide his or her own answer to the question.

• Closed-ended questionsRespondent is asked to select an answer from among a list provided by the researcher.

Guidelines for Asking Questions• Choose appropriate question forms.• Avoid double-barreled questions and

biased terms/ideas.• Respondents must be competent and

willing to answer.• Questions should be relevant.• Shorter is better.

Guidelines for Questionnaire Construction

• Be aware of issues with ordering items.• Include instructions for the questionnaire.• Pretest all or part of the questionnaire.

Bias• Refers to any property of questions that

encourages respondents to answer in a particular way.

Comparisons of WordingMore Support Less Support

Assistance to the poor Welfare

Halting rising crime rate Law enforcement

Dealing with drug addiction Drug rehabilitation

Improving conditions of blacks

Assistance to blacks

Protecting social security Social security

Contingency Question• Survey question intended only for some

respondents, determined by their response to some other questions.

Self-Administered Surveys• Mail surveys can be helpful, but it is often

necessary to send several copies to the same group of people since responses are low

• Concern about validity of answers as well or confusion

Response Rate• Number of people participating in a

survey divided by the number selected in the sample.• 50% adequate• 60% good• 70% very good

Interview• A data-collection encounter in which one

person (an interviewer) asks questions of another (a respondent).

• ProbeA request for elaboration.

Telephone Surveys

Advantages:• Money and time.• Control over data collection.

Disadvantages:• Surveys that are really ad campaigns.• Answering machines.

New Technologies and Survey Research• CAPI - computer assisted personal

interviewing.• CASI - computer assisted self

interviewing.• CSAQ - computerized self-administered

questionnaires.• TDE - touchtone data entry.

Strengths of Survey Research• Useful in describing the characteristics of

a large population.• Make large samples feasible.• Flexible - many questions can be asked

on a given topic.

Weaknesses of Survey Research• Can seldom deal with the context of social

life.• Inflexible in some ways.• Subject to artificiality.

Secondary Analysis• A form of research in which the data collected

and processed by one researcher are reanalyzed—often for a different purpose—by another.

Ethics and Survey Research• Surveys almost always requires people to

provide information that is not readily available.• “Cognitive Short-cuts”

• Some of this information could be embarrassing if it became public, so maintaining confidentiality is particularly important.