ASKING PEOPLE ABOUT THEMSELVES: SURVEY RESEARCH CHAPTER 7 ASKING PEOPLE ABOUT THEMSELVES: SURVEY RESEARCH © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES Compare the two ways to administer surveys: written questionnaire and oral interviews Define interviewer bias Describe a panel study Distinguish between probability and nonprobability sampling techniques © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES Describe simple random sampling stratified random sampling, and cluster sampling Describe haphazard sampling, purposive sampling, and quota sampling Describe the ways that samples are evaluated for potential bias, including sampling frame and response rate © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

WHY CONDUCT SURVEYS? Provides a methodology for asking people to tell about themselves To study relationships between / among variables To study how attitudes and behaviors change over time Provides useful information for making public policy decisions Important complement to experimental research findings © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

ISSUES WITH SURVEYS? Response Set: A tendency to respond to all questions from a particular perspective rather than to prove answers that are directly related to the questions. Social desirability: “Faking good” Individual answers in the most accepted way Underreported behaviors or emotions towards sex, drugs or over report on positive behaviors such as exercise and eating healthy © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

CONSTRUCTING QUESTIONS TO ASK Defining the Research Objectives Attitudes and beliefs Facts and demographics Behaviors Must keep it simple to avoid confusion Avoid jargon and technical terms when possible If needed, provide a brief description of the background for more complex questions © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

CONSTRUCTING QUESTIONS TO ASK Question Wording Potential problems that stem from difficulty understanding the question: Unfamiliar technical terminology Vague or imprecise terms Ungrammatical sentence structure Phrasing that overloads working memory Embedding the question with misleading information © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

CONSTRUCTING QUESTIONS TO ASK Important considerations when writing questions: Ensure simplicity Avoid: Double-barreled questions Loaded questions Negative wording Yea-saying and nay-saying © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

I enjoy studying and spending time with fiends on weekends. CHOOSE ONE FOR EACH ANSER: Double-barreled questions, Loaded questions, Negative wording, Yea-saying and nay-saying, Simplicity Professors should not be required to take daily attendance, 1=strongly disagree and 5= strongly agree I enjoy studying and spending time with fiends on weekends. Do you support the legislation that would unfairly tax hardworking farmers? I would describe myself as attractive and intelligent Do you believe the relationship between cell phone behavior and consumption of fast food is orthogonal? Restaurants should not have to be inspected each month. Are you in favor of the boss’s whim to cut lunchtime to 30 minutes? © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

CONSTRUCTING QUESTIONS TO ASK Professors should not be required to take daily attendance, 1=strongly disagree and 5= strongly agree Negative wording I enjoy studying and spending time with fiends on weekends. Double barreled Do you support the legislation that would unfairly tax hardworking farmers? loaded I would describe myself as attractive and intelligent Do you believe the relationship between cell phone behavior and consumption of fast food is orthogonal? simplicity Restaurants should not have to be inspected each month. Are you in favor of the boss’s whim to cut lunchtime to 30 minutes? Loaded © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS Closed- Versus Open-Ended Questions Example of Open- ended question Who are you voting for and why? What are some of your healthy eating habits? Example of Closed- ended Question Are you voting for Trump or Hillary? How many times do you exercise in a week? A. once a week B. twice a week C. Everyday D. none © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS Number of Response Alternatives vs. Labeling Response Alternatives © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS Rating Scales Simplest and most direct scale that presents people with five or seven responses. Graphic rating scale Requires a mark along a continuous 100 millimeter line that is anchored with descriptions at each end Semantic differential scale Rate a concept. Ex. Persons, objects, behaviors, ideas Rated on three dimensions: evaluation, activity, and potency Nonverbal scales for children    © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

GRAPHIC RATING SCALE © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALE © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

NONVERBAL SCALE © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

FINALIZING THE QUESTIONNAIRE Formatting the Questionnaire Should appear attractive and professional Neatly typed and free from errors Use point scales consistently Refining Questions Proof questions with others © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

ADMINISTERING SURVEYS Questionnaires Personal administration to groups or individuals Mail surveys Internet surveys Other technologies “Computerized experience-sampling” © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

ADMINISTERING SURVEYS Interviews Face-to-face interviews Telephone interviews Focus group interviews Problem: Interviewer bias © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

SURVEY DESIGNS TO STUDY CHANGES OVER TIME Questions Are the Same Each Time Surveyed Tracks Changes Over Time Repeated surveys of incoming freshman at university Effects of sexual situations on TV Teen pregnancy rates Panel Study The same respondents are studied over time Helps to study the relationships between two or more variables over time © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

SAMPLING FROM A POPULATION Confidence Intervals Level of confidence that the true population value lies within an interval of the obtained sample Sampling error or margin of error Sample Size A larger sample size reduces the size of the confidence interval Must consider the cost / benefit of increasing sample size http://infosolutionsgroup.com/sample-size-calculator/ © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUES Two basic techniques for sampling Probability Sampling Simple random sampling Every member of the population has an equal probability of being selected Stratified random sampling Population divided into subgroups (strata) and random samples taken from each strata Cluster sampling – identify clusters and sample from three clusters © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUES Nonprobability Sampling—unknown probability of any member being chosen Haphazard sampling – convenience sampling Purposive sampling – sample meets predetermined criterion Quota sampling – sample reflects the numerical composition of various subgroups in the population © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

HAPHAZARD SAMPLING © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

PURPOSIVE SAMPLING © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

QUOTA SAMPLING © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

EVALUATING SAMPLES Representative of the population Sampling Frame - Actual population from which the sample is drawn Response Rate - Percentage of respondents who complete Reasons for Using Convenience Samples Less costly in terms of time and money Concerns May not be generalizable © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.