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Survey Research

Survey Research . When creating survey instruments, there are six main things to consider. Creating Survey Instruments. Substance What do you really want to know? What questions do you need to ask to find these things out?. Creating Survey Instruments. 2.  Number

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Survey Research

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  1. Survey Research When creating survey instruments, there are six main things to consider.

  2. Creating Survey Instruments • Substance • What do you really want to know? • What questions do you need to ask to find these things out?

  3. Creating Survey Instruments 2. Number • How many questions should you ask? • How many is too many?  •  Respondent fatigue

  4. Creating Survey Instruments 3. Organization/ Order: Where to put the stuff on the survey Standard order is: • Intro • Warm-up • Substantive questions • Demographic or sensitive information

  5. Creating Survey Instruments • Form: Types of questions • Open-ended questions • Close-ended questions • Mix of both • Pros & Cons

  6. Creating Survey Instruments 5. Layout: Look of the survey instrument • Is it appealing? • Amount of time? • Coding

  7. Creating Survey Instruments 6. Wording:  How you ask questions and phrase things • Leading questions • Double-barreled questions • Clarity in Wording • Social desirability element

  8. Recap of Survey Instruments 1.     Substance 2.     Number 3.     Organization/ Order 4.     Form 5.     Layout 6.     Wording Survey Instrument

  9. Pre-testing • Real or True Pre-test • Pseudo Pre-test

  10. Population • What is the population? • What is a case? Cases Population

  11. Samples • Sample: Part of a population • Case • Census v. sample • Simple random sample • Every member of population equal chance of being picked

  12. Samples 2 main considerations: • How to pick cases • How many cases • These help ensure reliability of the results Representative sample • Confidence interval (CI)- wiggle room • At most want to see +/-3% • Confidence level (CL)- certainty in CI • Usually 95% is acceptable

  13. Evaluating Data Who to trust • Major polling organizations • Gallop • Nielsen • Big media outlets • Wall Street Journal • NY Times • Washington Post • 3 major TV networks (CBS, NBC, ABC)

  14. Evaluating Data Who not to trust • Unless CI is given, don’t trust without looking it up • General media outlets • Other TV networks, newsprint surveys, radio stations, Internet sites

  15. Representative Sample The National Housing Quarterly Survey done in 2011 found 64% of Americans think “owning their own home is a safe investment”. In 2010, 70% thought it was a safe investment, while in 2003, 83% it was. *CI +/-3% Is there a significant change from 2010 to 2011? How about from 2003 to 2011?

  16. Representative Sample

  17. Representative Sample We want to know how racial minorities in the U.S. view gay marriage.A poll conducted to assess Americans’ attitudes toward gay marriage has an insufficient sample size to evaluate individual racial minority groups reliably. However, in surveying Americans, support for gay marriage is essentially identical among whites (53%) and nonwhites (54%). CI +/-3% -Why can’t the polling company reliably report the racial breakdown?

  18. Representative Sample • Would need a large enough sample size for each racial group • Thus, CI not reliable for the racial breakdown • Poll has sufficient sample size to represent Americans in general • Can’t guarantee 9.5 /10 Asians, Blacks, Latinos, would respond the same way as the ‘nonwhite’ respondents • Latinos might actually be at 20%, Blacks at 60%

  19. Measures Of Central Tendency Mean Median Mode

  20. Measures of Central Tendency Mean: Average Formula: Add all, divide by total number (N) What is the mean of the following college students’ ages? 18, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 52 Using formula: 174/7 =24.85

  21. Measures of Central Tendency Median: Middle Formula: Odd number—mid point; Even number—number of points +1 divided by 2 What is the median age for these college students? 18, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 52

  22. Measures of Central Tendency Mode: Frequency Formula: Identifying the ‘modal points’ What is the mode age for these college students? 18, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 52 Using formula: That which occurs most

  23. Measures of Central Tendency If these are the ages of the college students, why does matter whether the mean, median, or mode is reported? Ages: 18, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 52 • Mean-24.58 • Median-21 • Mode-18

  24. Why Median? The Economist noted that “The National Association of Realtors reckons that the median house price fell to a near-nine-year low.” Why did the NAR report the median house price? Think in terms of the student ages: 18, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 52 • Mean-24.58 • Median-21 • Mode-18

  25. Why Median? Mean=average Median=middle point • Reporting mean includes outliers • Reporting median controls for outliers

  26. Measures Of Dispersion • Nominal: No numerical value • Names • Examples? • Ordinal: Numerical value • Rank ordered • Bracketed • Examples? • Interval: Numerical value • Know distance between actual numbers • Examples?

  27. Nominal • Names of places • Louisville and Covington are cities in KY. • Columbus and Akron are cities in OH. • Assigned numbers, but they are meaningless: • Akron (1) • Columbus (2) • Covington (3) • Louisville (4)

  28. Ordinal What do we know from this information? • Louisville is the biggest city in KY. • Covington is the 5th biggest city in KY. • Columbus is the biggest city in OH. • Akron is the 5th biggest city in OH.

  29. Interval Louisville’s population is 597,337 Covington’s population is 40,640 Columbus’s population is 787,033 Akron’s population is 199,110 What do we know from this information?

  30. Recap of Measures

  31. Issues with Reporting Data • Is the confidence interval given? • If so, you can assume a CL was also used • Are figures given consistent? • Mean or median? • Are examples anomalous or representative? • False cause and hasty generalization fallacies

  32. Which Methodology? Qualitative or Quantitative?

  33. Which Methodology? You want to know how people will vote in the upcoming election.

  34. Which Methodology? You want to determine which US foreign policies in the last decade have had the biggest impact on trade.

  35. Which Methodology? You want to know whether adding new sewer lines or repaving the roads in your district is a better use of city money.

  36. Which Methodology? You want to see what impact putting wells in developing countries has had on the number of people stricken with diarrhea.

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