Slides

1. GEOG 420 / POL 420 / SOC 420
Spring 2018

3.  Forms of Survey Research:
 Face-to-Face Surveys
 Mail Surveys
 Telephone Surveys
 Internet Surveys

5.  What is validity? What is reliability?
 Validity: True and accurate measure
 Reliability: Consistent results across individuals
 Types of Error:
 Random Error – Occurs by Chance
 Systematic Error – Occurs by Design
 Research Goal: Minimize Error!

10.  Intensity of Feelings aboutTopic
 Willingness to Complete Research
 Desire to Please Interviewer
 Interviewer Characteristics (Race, Gender)
 Context of Research

11.  R must know what I deems relevant answer
 R must be motivated to provide I information
 R must know how to provide information
 I must accurately record R’s response

17.  Goal: Make valid and reliable inferences about
a population of interest with a sample
 “Law of Large Numbers”
 Randomly selected and independent observations
 Larger the sample size, the more likely it is that
the sample mean is close to the population mean

19.  Exploratory
 Acquire new information
 Descriptive
 Measure population of interest
 Explanatory
 Test hypotheses
 Verify observed patterns in data

20.  #1: Survey Design
 #2: Sampling and Pre-Testing
 #3: Survey Evaluation
 #4: Data Collection
 #5: Data Collation and Management
 #6: Data Analysis

24.  Traditional Mode of Surveying / Interviewing
 Respondent’s Natural Surrounding
 Home or Business
 Structured Questionnaire
 Interviewer Presence: Pros and Cons
 Pro: Provide Context to Respondents
 Con: Social Desirability Effects

27.  #1: Low Cost
 #2: Reduction in Error
 #3: Greater Anonymity
 #4: Consider Answers / Consultations
 #5: Accessibility

28.  #1: Simple Questions
 #2: No Opportunity to Probe Respondents
 #3: No Control over Questionnaire
 #4: Low Response Rate

29. Professor Don Dillman,
Washington State University

30.  Focuses on identifying aspects of survey
process and modifying them to obtain best
response rate
 Response Rates:
 First Mailing: 24%
 Follow-Up Postcard: 42%
 First Replacement Questionnaire: 50%
 Second Replacement Questionnaire: 72%

31.  “KISS”Test – “Keep it Simple, Stupid”
 Personalize Survey
 “Dear Austin” vs. Respondent”
 Get Sponsor
 Offer Monetary Incentives:

33. ADVANTAGES
 Moderate Cost
 Speed
 High Response Rate
 Quality
DISADVANTAGES
 Social Desirability
 “Broken” Interviews
 Less Information
 Cell Phones

35.  Too early to judge overall effectiveness
 What are the advantages to this mode?
 Rise of Internet Polling prevented by:
 Access
 “Click-In” Polls

37.  Closed-Ended Questions
 Open-Ended Questions
 Double-Barreled Questions
 Ambiguous Questions
 Leading Questions
 Filter Questions

38.  Combines two questions into one
 Example: Do you agree with the statement
that the situation in Iraq is deteriorating and
that the United States should increase the
number of troops in Iraq?

39.  Question that contains a concept that is not
clearly defined
 Examples:
 What is your income?
 How many children do you have?
 Do you prefer Brand A or Brand B?

40.  Encourages respondents to choose
particular response because the
question indicates researcher expects it
 Example: Don’t you think that global
warming is a serious environmental
problem?

41.  Branching and Filter Questions
 Sorts respondents into subgroups
 Directs subgroups to answer different questions

43.  Helping “the needy” versus
those “on welfare”
 “Socialized medicine” versus
“National Health Insurance”
 “Going toWar” versus
“Fighting againstTerrorism”

45.  #1: Saliency: Effect that mention of one issue in survey may have in
causing respondent to mention the issue in connection with a later
question.
 #2: Redundancy: Reverse of saliency; Respondent does not want to
repeat themselves
 #3: Consistency: Answer to later question may be constrained by
answer given earlier
 #4: Fatigue: Respondents may give quick answers to questions late in
the survey because they are tired
 #5: Primacy: Respondents select first response option given in survey
 #6: Recency: Respondents select last response option given in survey