1. Polling/Surveys Lisa Harrison: Chapter 3

2. Surveys Useful for Gathering Five (5) Types of Information (41) Facts: age, income, etc. Perceptions: What people know about the world (who are their elected officials). Opinions: What think about the world (political judgments). Attitudes: Support for certain politics. Behavior: How they act (read newspapers, good or bad voter). …

3. Different Survey Formats: (44/77) Cross-Sectional: a single survey taken at one time: “it is a snapshot of a moving target. Longitudinal: survey taken on more than one occasion to look for stability. Types: Trend: survey certain people within a population. Cohort: same population over a period of time. …

4. Wording in Polls (46/76) Closed Questions: list of options Open Questions: allow respondents to answer in their own words. Scales: 1-10 and Likert Scale (agree, disagree, strongly disagree) Scales are ordinal: they are subjective (and measure individual responses) but are useful to rank responses. …

5. Advantages of Surveys (43) There are certain advantages to surveys/polls. Cost: they are not cheap, or easy, but are cost effective in terms of time involved: They are quick to conduct and analyze. Breadth/Scope: can survey more people than in in-depth interviews. …

6. Disadvantages of Surveys (44) Here are some the disadvantages of polls: 1) Poor response rates. 2) Reactivity: people react to the fact that they are being studied. 3) Resources needed to conduct poll. 4) Meaning of terms change over time (think of polls conducted since 1952) 5) Response Set: disinterested respondents complete poll without much concern. 6) Challenges of being random.

7. Methodological Issues (46) Different types of polls have different acceptable response rates: 1) Face to Face: 60-80% (not as easy for person to slam the door). 2) Telephone: lower (it is easier for people to hang up on you). …