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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.
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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 questionsRespondent 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.
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.