Chapter 4 surveys and interviews

Survey research

is a useful way of obtaining information about peo- ple's opinions, attitudes, preferences, and behaviors simply by asking.

Surveys

allow us to gather data about experiences, feelings, thoughts, and motives that are hard to observe directly.

Surveys

allow us to gather large amounts of data efficiently.

Surveys

they can range from low to high in the imposition of units.

Written questionnaires and face-to-face interviews

are the two most com- mon survey techniques in psychology research.

first step in constructing survey

is to map out your research objectives, making them as specific as possible.

first step in constructing survey

Once you have a list of the specific aspects of your topic that you want to measure, you can write one or more questions to evaluate each aspect. To get ideas for your objectives, you may want to look up research done by others on your topic.

first step in constructing survey

Finally, put your objectives in writing so you can refer to them as you construct your questionnaire.

second step in constructing survey

to design the survey items.

second step in constructing survey

The first step is to decide how you are going to address the imposition of units.

Closed questions

(also called structured questions)

Closed questions

take the form

Closed questions

ask question and provide a set of response option for participants to choose from

Open-ended questions

(also called open questions)

Open-ended questions

solicit information about opinions and feelings by asking the question in such a way that the person must respond with more than a yes, no, or 1-10 rating.

Content Analysis

To quantify answers to open questions, however, a system must be designed to evaluate and categorize the content of each answer.

Content Analysis

responses are assigned to categories that are created from the data according to objective rules or guidelines.

items simple, people involved

Constructing questions: Keep __, and keep .

Constructing questions

Many problems come about because subjects do not understand the meaning of a certain question.

words, understand

Constructing questions: do not use __ they did not __.

double negative

Constructing questions avoid

ambiguous

Constructing questions: Perhaps your question was .

exhaustive

Constructing questions: response choice should be

level of measurement

is called a nominal scale

level of measurement

which classifies response items into two or more distinct categories on the basis of some common feature.

Nominal scaling

is sometimes called the lowest level of measurement because it provides no information about magnitude.

Ordinal scale

, which is a rank ordering of response items.

Interval scale

measures magnitude or quantitative size using measures with equal intervals between the values.

Ratio scale

, which has equal intervals between all values and a true zero point.

Nominal scaling

What kind of level of measurement: Fav. candy bar

Ratio scale

What kind of level of measurement: Weight of luggage

Ordinal scale

What kind of level of measurement: egg size

Ordinal scale

What kind of level of measurement: military rank

Ratio scale

What kind of level of measurement: number of children

Interval scale

What kind of level of measurement: temperature

Ratio scale

What kind of level of measurement: kelvin

Czaja and Blair

According to them, first question should have these characteristics: 1. Relevant to the central topic 2. Easy to answer 3. Interesting 4. Answerable by most respondents 5. Closed format

end

When collecting demographic information (people's vital statistics) , consider placing those questions at the __of the questionnaire.

value laden

Make sure your questions are not

Response styles

are tendencies to respond to questions or test items in specific ways, regardless of the content

Response styles

willingness to answer, position preferences, and yea-saying and nay-saying.

Willingness to answer

comes into play whenever ques-tions require specific knowledge about facts or issues.

position preference

When in doubt about the right answer on a multiple-choice exam, perhaps you always answer c.

position preference

always selecting particular response

position preference

multiple-choice survey gathering data about attitudes toward abortion, for instance, do not always put "prochoice" responses as option c.

Yea-sayes

are apt to agree with a question regardless of its manifest content

Nay-sayers

tend to disagree no matter what they are asked

pretested

Once the questions have been designed, they need to be

context effects

Pretesting can also catch

context effects

; sometimes the position of a question can influences how the question is interpreted.

Self-Administered Questionnaires

instructions are simple and clear.

Self-Administered Questionnaires

If possible, let subjects fill out the questionnaire in private. Col-lect questionnaire data anonymously

Mail Surveys

a polite and professional cover letter

Mail Surveys

Including a monetary incentive can be especially effective in mail surveys; as little as a dollar can significantly increase response rates.

Computer and Internet Surveys

One of the most popular data collection sources, where a set of survey questions is sent out to a target sample and the members of this sample can respond to the questions over the world wide web.

Telephone Surveys

according to Dillman, Smyth, and Christian (2009) this had its peak of popularity in the 1980

Interviews

participants face-to-face for more in depth

Focus group

a small and relatively homogenous group brought together for the purpose of technique

Reliability

is the extent to which the survey is consistent and repeatable.

validity

usually refers to the extent to a survey actually measures the intended topic

sampling

, deciding who the subjects will be and then selecting them. Selecting subjects is an important part of any research regardless of its design, and it is a particularly critical issue in survey research.

population

consists of all people, animals, or objects that have at least one characteristic in common

sample of subjects

is a group that is a subset of the population of inter-est

sample of subjects

investigation

representativeness

, or how closely the sample mirrors the larger population

Probability sampling

the researcher must use an unbiased method for selecting subjects

Simple Random Sampling

random way

Systematic Random Sampling

can be listed in a unbiased way, a researcher may select every nth person from the population

stratified random sample

is obtained by randomly sampling from people in each subgroup in the same proportions as they exist in the population.

Cluster sampling

naturally occurring subgroups

nonprobability sampling

, the subjects are not chosen at random.

nonprobability sampling

a biased form

Convenience sampling

is obtained by using any groups who happen to be available

Convenience sampling

choosing whoever is most accessible

Purposive Sampling

most accessible. specific criterion

Snowball Sampling

one sampled person to lead you to other who also meet the criteria