Transcript CHAPTER 10 Survey Research

You will learn:
1) The main ingredients of GOOD SURVEY research
2) The LIMITATIONS of the survey method
CHAPTER 10
Survey
Research
Survey Research
Introduction
• The survey is the most widely used data-gathering
technique in sociology, and it is used in many other fields as
well
• It’s easy to conduct a survey that yields misleading or worthless
results
• Good surveys require thought and effort
• Surveys can be well made or poorly made and can be used in
appropriate or in appropriate ways
Research Questions Appropriate for a Survey
Surveys produce:
1) Quantitative information about the social world
2) Describe features of people/social world
Survey used to explain and explore
Surveys are appropriate for research questions about selfreported (beliefs/behaviors)
Surveys are strongest when the answers people give to
question measure variable
Surveys have many variables (often with multiple indicators) and
test several hypotheses
The following can be asked in a survey
Overlapping categories
Behavior
Attitudes/beliefs/opinions
Characteristics
Expectations
Self-classification
Knowledge
A History of Survey Research
The modern survey can be traced back to old forms of the census
A census includes information on characteristics of the entire
population
It’s based on what people tell officials or what officials observe
Early census assessed the property available for taxation and military service
Later, officials used the census to assign the number of elected representatives
The survey used for social research in USA and UK began with social service
professions documenting the conditions of urban poverty
At first, survey were overviews of an area based on questionnaires and
other data. Scientific sampling and statistics were absent
Social survey grew into: modern quantitative survey research and
qualitative field researcher in a community
Four forces greatly reshaped the social survey into modern quantitative
survey research in USA
1) Researcher applied statistically based sampling techniques and precise
measurement to the survey
2) Researcher created scales and indexes to gather systematic quantitative data
on attitudes, opinions, and subjective aspects of social life
3) Others found uses for the survey and adapted it to a variety of applied areas
(e.g., marketing, Journalists, Religious, Government agencies, Social scientists
There was a major reorientation of most empirical social research, which
created respectable “scientific” methods modeled after the natural sciences
Social research became more professional, objective, and nonpolitical
This orientation was stimulated by
1) A competition among researcher and universities for status, prestige and funds
2) Researchers turning away from social reform ideals after the end of Progressive era
3) A program of major private foundations to fund the expansion of quantitative,
positivist social research
The Logic of survey research
What’s a Survey?
Survey researchers measure variables that represent alternative
explanations (i.e., control variables)
They think in of alternative explanations when planning a survey
and measure the alternatives with control variables
Survey research is often called correlational.
Survey researchers use control variables and correlations in
statistical analysis. They approximate the rigorous test for causality
that experimental achieve with their physical control over temporal
order and alternative explanations.
Example
A group of people is randomly divided into an
experimental and a control group (alternative
explanations). The control group is given an
aptitude test after having eaten a full
breakfast. The experimental group is given the
same test without having eaten any breakfast.
Experimental unit = person
Response =
Score on test
Factor = meal
Levels = Breakfast or no breakfast
Treatments: Breakfast or no breakfast
Example
Is the attention span of children affected by
whether or not they had a good breakfast?
Twelve children were randomly divided into
three groups and assigned to a different meal
plan. The response was attention span in
minutes during the morning reading time.
No Breakfast
Light Breakfast Full Breakfast
8
14
10
7
16
12
9
12
16
13
17
15
k = 3 treatments. Are the
average attention spans
different?
Steps in Conducting a Survey?
The survey researchers follows a deductive approach. He or she
a) Begins with a theoretical (or applied) research problem
b) Ends with empirical measurement and data analysis