Lecture 5. Social Survey Research III: Other Techniques Of Quantitative Data Collection And Generation: Secondary Data, Experiments And Social Indicators Leah Wild

Overview Questionnaire Design: Response Format Pilot Questionnaires Using Existing Sets of Questions & Secondary Data Sets Data Collection and Experimental Design Social Indicators Society at a Glance: OECD Social Indicators 2002 –Study BCS

Questionnaire Design: Response Format Intensity scales. A good way of writing closed-ended questionnaire items is to measure peoples attitudes and opinions with intensity scales. A commonly used one is the Likert scale, a scaling technique designed by Rensis Likert in It typically makes use of a 1 to 5 rating scale where 1 is strongly agree, 2 is somewhat agree, 3 is neutral, 4 is somewhat disagree and 5 is strongly disagree

Pilot Questionnaires And Interview Schedules Clarity Check Adequacy of Instructions Check Gain Experience In Asking Questions (i.e. Interview Schedules)

Secondary Data. secondary data as any information that has not been generated personally (first-hand) by the researcher who uses it. highly quantified sources -statistics to the more qualitative -personal documents and diaries, government and business reports and the mass media. can be contemporary or historical. saving of time, money and effort. use of secondary sources may be a necessity if historical and / or comparative research is being carried-out.

Problems with Secondary Data 1. Authenticity 2. Credibility 3. Representativeness 4. Meaning (literal and metaphorical) 5. Purpose (Scott Documents in Social Research: Social Studies Review, 1990)

Reasons to Use Secondary Data. Availability. Examination of trends / changes over time. Comparisons. Before" and "after" studies. (Bilton et al 1997)

USING META-DATA. Traditionally: metadata has been understood as Data about Data - an integral part of the dataset. Metadata can include such items as: Questionnaires; a keyword list of names and items; a record of how the data were collected; an inventory of related data and publications; information on principal investigators; geographical coverage. Metadata is important as it provides essential information on the use and interpretation of information contained in a data file. It outlines what datasets are available, where they can be found, what format they are in, how they should be used, and can provide a permanent record in catalogues and search facilities of the resources that are available.

Data Collection: Secondary Data Sets British Household Panel Survey (longitudinal) 5,500 Households, 10,000 Individual interviewees 75% response rate Focus is on social and economic change at individual and household level Topics include: Income Employment Housing health Attitudes.

Labour Force Survey 1973 Onwards Up to 60,000 households 80% response rate Topics include: Employment Education and Training, Health and Disabilities

General Household Survey Annual since 1971 (except and 99-00) 10,000 households, 25,000 people 72% response rate Topics include: household and family information housing tenure and household accommodation consumer durables including vehicle ownership employment education health and use of health services smoking and drinking family information including marriage, cohabitation and fertility income demographic information about household members including migration.

British Crime survey a 'victimisation' survey, experiences of property crimes and personal crimes provides a record of the experience of crime unaffected by variations in the behaviour of victims about reporting Unaffected by variations in police procedure/practice Between biennial. From 2001 annual. Target population: All households in England and Wales Sampling unit: People aged 16 or over living in private household. Design/selection of sample: Stratified random sample of postcode sectors. One quarter sector selected at random. Interviews conducted at address Size:20,000 respondents in BCS (2000) core sample, plus 4,000 ethnic minority booster sample. Enlarged sample size in ,000 core sample Core crime counting questions remain unchanged since first sweep (1982). Other questions asked on ad hoc basis. Moved to CAPI /CASI 1994.

Data Collection and Experimental Design When interested in understanding how the manipulation of a variable can explain specific outcomes on another variable, experiments can also be used. Experimental Group Some treatment is conducted on the subjects of the experimental group and measures its effects in comparison to another group. Control Group Control group might not receive any treatment or it might receive a different kind of treatment

Social Indicators Society At A Glance: OECD Social Indicators 2002 Study Context Indicators illustrate national differences in social trends and social status Response Indicators. Four areas of social policy have been operationalised: 1. Self-sufficiency 2. Equity 3. Health 4. Social Cohesion

UK official statistics UN statistics OECD statistics EU statistics europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/