1. Surveys

2. Most Likely Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Surveys
Why do we use surveys?
What do surveys address?
How do we construct surveys?
How do we implement surveys?
We’re going to talk about why we use surveys in psychology, what types of questions do surveys ask, how to construct surveys, and how to get people to take our surveys

3. Why Conduct Surveys? Why are surveys used? Issue of response sets
Study relationships among variables
Study how attitudes and behaviors change over time
Issue of response sets
Surveys are used to study relationships among variables. For example, you might want to see if and how self-esteem and gender are related. You could give a self-esteem survey as well as ask for their gender and then analyze the data from the survey. Surveys are also used to study how attitudes and behaviors change over time.
When we give a survey we assume that people are willing and able to provide truthful and accurate responses. However, some times people will answer in a skewed or biased way. Therefore whenever we give a survey we need to be aware of response sets. A response set is when a person tends to provide answers in a particular way rather than provide answers directly related to the questions. The most common response set is the social desirability response set which leads a person to answer in a way that they think will be more socially acceptable or will make them look good. Ex: If we gave a survey at SPU regarding alcohol and drug use, people might say they never drink or never do drugs because they feel that is what everyone else will say and it will make them look good.

4. Types of Survey Questions
Three general types of survey questions
Facts and demographics
Attitudes and beliefs
Behaviors
Format- Open vs. Closed ended
Facts and demographics: gender, age, ethnicity, etc. Attitudes and beliefs: how people think about and evaluate issues. How do you feel about the current government or are you satisfied with your recent purchase of a new car. Behaviors: past or future. Ex: alcohol or drug use
Open: free to answer in any way – helps know what people are thinking and how naturally view world. Describe your satisfaction with your most recent romantic relationship.
Closed: limited number or response alternatives – dimensions of variable well-defined. How much do you agree with something on a scale of 1 to 5.
Can lead to different conclusions because you are providing answers in close-ended questions. Ex: What’s the most important part of being independent from your parents – may say “forming own beliefs” whereas in an open-ended answer for the same question may never mention this.

5. Constructing Questions
Question wording- potential problems
Unfamiliar technical terms: If a computer survey using terms such as cpu, ram, gigabyte, etc.
Vague or imprecise terms
Ungrammatical sentence structure: hinders participant’s ability to understand purpose of the question
Phrasing that overloads working memory: too long of a question or with too many variables to remember. Double-barreled questions: Ask two things at once.
Loaded questions: Written to lead people to respond in one way. Did you feel ashamed when you engaged in pre-marital sex?
Negative questions: Do you think the school should not change to a semester system? If yes, then you disagree with the proposal. If no, then you agree with the proposal. Is confusing.

6. Rating Scales Formats of rating scales
Simplest and most direct scale is five to seven response alternatives with the end-points on the scale labeled to define the extremes.
Strongly agree _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ Strongly disagree

7. Ratings Scales Labeling response alternatives
Sometimes needed to clearly define the meaning of each alternative
__________ __________ __________ __________ __________
Strongly Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly
Agree Disagree

8. Ratings Scales Graphic rating scale
Requires a mark along a continuous 100- millimeter line that is anchored with descriptions at each end
Not very enjoyable Very enjoyable
A ruler is used to measure the score on
a scale that ranges from 0 to 100.

9. Ratings Scales Semantic differential scale
Respondents rate any concept on a series of bipolar adjectives using 7-point scales
Good _____: _____: _____: _____: _____: _____: _____ Bad
Strong _____: _____: _____: _____: _____: _____: _____ Weak

10. Ratings Scales Nonverbal scale for children
Children may not understand other types of scales

11. Finalizing the Questionnaire
Formatting
Don’t change from 5- to 4- to 7-point scales
Ask the most interesting and important questions first
Ask demographic questions last
Pilot testing
Written vs. Interviews
Formatting: Try not to change scales, ask the most important and interesting questions first and then ask demographics
Pilot testing: Formal – give a sample the survey to analyze reliability and validity.
It’s a good idea to have your friends or other people you know to look over the survey to catch any grammatical errors, or confusing questions, etc. Ex: my study! Yay!
Interviews: higher response rate, rapport, clarify problems but interviewer bias and more time and money intensive. Paper: less costly, anonymity but problem of motivation or reading/understanding

12. Sampling Probability sampling
Simple random sampling – equal probability
Stratified random sampling – divided into subgroups (strata) and random samples are taken from each strata
Simple random: each member of the population has an equal probability of being chosen for the study. Ex: list of all students at spu and then choose randomly.
Stratified: population divided into subgroups (strata) and random samples taken from each strata. Dimensions that are relevant to the study. Ex: study habits and grades – may want to choose based on where people live because this might affect study habits and grades.
Cluster: Identify clusters and sample from them. Ex: Can’t get a list of all students at school, so choose certain classes and then have the whole class participate.

13. Sampling Nonprobability sampling
Haphazard sampling – convenience sampling
Quota sampling – sample reflects the numerical composition of various subgroups in the population
Nonprobability: Arbitrary – little done to ensure sample accurately represents the population
Haphazard: Convenience. Wherever you can get participants. Ex: on campus – go outside of Gwinn or in dorms
Quota: Reflects numerical composition of subgroups in population. No random sampling occurs! Make sure you have the correct percentages of a breakdown in the population and then use haphazard techniques. Ex: Need political party breakdown of SPU – 60% Republican 37% Democrat 3% Independent of 1000 students. Get enough people in sample in each political party to reflect the percentages of the population (but in a smaller sample) – 100 students