Social Research II: Survey Research And Data Collection

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Lecture 4

• Social Research II Survey Research And Data
  Collection

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Overview

• The Logic Of Survey Research
• Steps In Conducting A Survey
• Advantages And Limitations Of Questionnaires
• Operationalisation And Questionnaires
• Questionnaire Design
• Types Of Questions
• Key Rules For Designing Questions

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The Logic of Survey Research

• Hypothetico-deductive approach
• Mail, Interview, Telephone Surveys
• A Survey Questionnaire
• An Interview Schedule

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Steps In Conducting A Survey

• Develop Hypothesis
• Decide On Type Of Survey
• Write Survey Questions
• Decide On Response Categories
• Design Layout

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Advantages Of Questionnaires

• Questionnaires are less expensive that other
  methods
• Questionnaires can be completed at the
  respondents convenience
• They offer greater assurance of anonymity
• They offer less opportunity for bias or errors
  causes by the presence or attitudes of the
  interviewer
• Questionnaires are a stable, consistent and
  uniform measure without variation
• The use of questionnaires promises a wider
  coverage, since researchers can approach
  respondents more easily than other methods.

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Limitations Of Questionnaires

• They do not allow probing, prompting and
  clarification of questions
• They do not offer opportunities for motivating
  the respondent to participate in the survey or to
  answer the questions
• The identity of the respondent and the conditions
  under which the questionnaire was answered are
  not known. Researchers cannot be sure whether the
  right person has answered the questions.
• Questionnaires do not provide an opportunity to
  collect additional information while they are
  being completed. There is no researcher present,
  for instance, to make observations while the
  questions are being answered.
• Due to lack of supervision, partial response is
  possible.

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Operationalisation And Questionnaires

• Step 1 Identify The Variables To Be Studied
• Step 2 Divide Variables Into Indicators
• Step 3. Translate Indicators Into Questions

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Table 1. Chain Of Translation
Source Sarantakos, 1998 243
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Questionnaire Design

• Types Of Questions
• Open-ended Questions
• e.g. What is your favourite TV programme?
• Close-ended Questions
• e.g. Is the government doing a very good, fair or
  poor job in relation to poverty?

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Exemplary Topics. How would you structure these
questions in a Quantitative Questionnaire?

• demographic information (age, sex, occupation,
  home locale, income range, etc.)
• Health information (height, weight, medical
  conditions, smoking, medication)
• confirmation that the respondent uses a service
  you are investigating
• evaluation of services
• ranking of service attribute importance for
  service users
• Consumption patterns- which brands are used or
  purchased
• how often brands are purchased
• why the respondent likes different brands
• what is disliked about brands
• importance of different brand images
• intent on a five-point scale (definitely, maybe,
  indifferent, maybe not, definitely not)
• What Kind of data would these produce (Nominal/
  Ordinal? Continous/ Discrete)

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Key Rules For Designing Questions

• Avoid Jargon
• Avoid Ambiguity, Confusion And Vagueness
• Avoid Double-Barrelled Questions
• Avoid Leading Questions
• Avoid Asking Questions That Are Beyond
  Respondents Capabilities/knowledge
• Avoid False Premises/ Asking Two Questions
• Avoid Very General Questions
• Avoid Questions That Include Double Negatives
• Avoid Overlapping Or Unbalanced Response
  Categories