Fundamentals of social science research - Week 3

Two types of survey questions

Open ended, close ended

Pros and cons of open ended? More suited for which type of study?

Pros: Responses are more complete

Cons: Harder to code, more prone to coding errors, requires more effort from ppt

More suited for smaller studies

Pros and cons of close ended

Pros: Easier to code, less prone to coding errors

Cons: Info may be more simplistic, ppts could have picked artificial forced choices,

More suited for larger studies

Different types of surveys

Categorical, visual analogoue scale, likert scale

Major pitfalls of survey

• Address one single issue clearly per item

• Avoid double barrelled question

• Questionnaires used should be unambigious

• Order effects = answers to some questions may be biased if they were to follow some others

• Social desirability tendency = Tendency to respond in a way that's socially acceptable, even if it's untrue

• Acquiescence: Participant’s tendency to agree regardless of the content of solutions

• Framing: Avoid writing questions in a way that will bias results, and ask sensitive questions sensitively

Different ways to administer the survey

• Face to face

• Telephone

• Written

• Computerised

Different types of sampling

Non-probability sampling VS probability sampling

Type of non-probability sampling

Convenience sampling

Convenience sampling

Using whoever is available

Types of probability sampling

Simple random sampling, stratified random sampling, cluster sampling

stratified random sampling

sample looks like ratio we have in population

cluster sampling

Using clusters/groupings from a larger population

Observations

• Conducted in natural environment with as little disturbance as possible

• Unobtrusive, non reactive

• Still requires specific, objective measurement of behavior

Archival

• No new data collected

• Using existing data for research

• Employment/retrenchment trends

• Health data

• Crime statistics

Case study

Examining individual cases/phenomenon