Pengukuran Opini Publik

Survey Research Survey research is a technique that well designed for assessing the prevalence and distribution of attitudes, as well as factual material about respondents Surveys measure the attitudes of a population of interest. In particular, scientific sample surveys ask questions of a sample of members of that population, taking enough interviews to be able to generalize to that larger population and trying to minimize nonresponse by people included in the sample, while using tested methods to measure the attitudes of respondents

Survey Research Surveys are generally weak in assessing causation. Finding that a difference between respondent is associated with a difference in their opinion does not determine the real cause of the opinion difference. Experiments are better suited to determining causation Another limitation of surveys is that they measure individual opinions, whereas opinions are often generated as part of group processes. Focus group and ‘deliberative polls’ may be better suited than regular surveys for measuring opinions within a group context

Survey Errors Early work on survey accuracy emphasized mainly the sampling error in surveys, probably because the precision of the formulas for calculating sampling error for some type of sample allowed that error to decreased by simply increasing the sample size It was sometimes admitted that non-sampling error also exists, but the other sources of error could not be computed and minimized

Designing Reliable and Valid Questionnaire Obtaining accurate, reliable and valid assessment of public opinion is critical for any survey project It requires considerable knowledge, skill, and experience in question wording and questionnaire structure Requires attention to subtle relationships between questions, and how those relationship might affect the meaning of the question for the respondent Also requires an understanding of basic concepts associated with reliability and validity and with techniques employed to produce questions with these qualities and methods to measure the degree of reliability and validity present

Designing Reliable and Valid Questionnaire Designing reliable and valid public opinion questionnaires brings together elements from: Psychometrics, the discipline formally concerned with reliability and validity in measurement Survey methodology, especially focusing on techniques developed to write clear, unambiguous survey questions psychology of survey responding, a discipline aimed at understanding the task respondents face as they encounter a survey question

Validity from a Psychometrics Perspective For survey questionnaires, a key feature of validity is that it explicitly links a particular survey question to researcher purpose for conducting the research Researcher are to be good at thinking about their purpose in abstract conceptual terms. However respondent can only properly answer specific, concrete question The art of questionnaire development is to map clear, specific, concrete questions to the abstract concepts of the researcher in such a way that the data obtained meet the researcher’s goal Validity is the link between the survey question an the researcher objective

Turning Ideas into Questions In public opinion research, the goal is to make sure that the data are an accurate reflection of research topics of interest Fowler (1992) states two conditions for this to be accomplished: Survey questions should be understood by all respondents in a consistent way Survey respondent must interpret the questions in the same way that the researcher has intended the question to be interpreted

What Can Be Measured in Public Opinion Surveys A distinction should be made between obtaining a person’s ‘opinion’ and measuring ‘public opinion’ Public opinion surveys measure attitudes, behaviors, behavioral intentions, belief, circumstances, knowledge, values, and opinions with respect to a political topic, entity, or event It is impossible to imagine that most citizens have the detailed knowledge necessary to judge the performance of such multi- faceted, incredibly complex job. The variety of things one might measure under the rubric of ‘public opinion’ presents researchers with a wide array of choices with which to understand the political arena

Question Wording and Structure The choice of words is a major consideration for public opinion questions Studies has shown that when asking questions about social programs, both the way the program is construed or the implication of positive action in the question stem can affect responses Question that are double-barreled- those that have two references- often show up in public opinion surveys The placement of questions in the questionnaire is important to consider. For attitude or opinion questions, related prior questions can affect responses to questions about little known topics, or to questions about which the respondent has mixed feelings.