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

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

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

13. 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.

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

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

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

17. 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.

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

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

20. 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.

21. 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
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

22. 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.

23. © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

24. © 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

25. 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.

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

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

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

29. 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.