Meaning, Purpose, development, merit and demerits of survey research

1. Dr. Heena Parveen
Assistant Professor
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh

2.  Studies large and small populations by selecting and studying samples chosen
from the populations to discover the relative incidence, distribution, and
interrelations of sociological and psychological variables.
 Widely used data collection method in social sciences
 Can provide reliable, valid and accurate Data
 Asks a large number of people (usually called respondents) about their beliefs,
opinions, characteristics, and past or present behaviors.
 A "survey" can be anything form a short paper-and-pencil feedback form to an
intensive one-on-one in-depth interview.
 Often survey researcher study samples drawn from populations and from these
samples they infer the characteristics of the defined population. Such type of
surveys are called ‘Sample Survey’.

3.  (a) Descriptive questions (e.g., percentage of some phenomenon)
 (b) Questions about the relationships between variables
 (c) Questions about predictive relationships between variables over time
 Hence survey researcher is interested in the accurate assessment of the
characteristics of whole populations of people. For example How many
persons in India vote for a particular party and the relation between such
voting and variables like sex, religion, race, caste, age and the like.

4.  Government census of population, employment,
 household surveys,
 economic data,
 organizational surveys of markets,
 sales, economic forecasts, employee attitudes.
These may be carried out on a periodic basis, with frequent
regularity or continuously, or ad hoc or one-off occasions.
They may also be limited to sector, time, area.

5.  To discover the universal laws operating in society.
 Unlike experimental design survey usually sample many
respondents and ask all of them the same questions.
 It measure many variables with the questions and test multiple
hypotheses simultaneously.
 It infer temporal order from questions about past behavior,
experiences, or characteristics. about self-reported beliefs or
behaviors.
 To provide scientifically gathered information to work as a basis
for the researchers for their conclusions.

6. 1. Behavior: When did you last visit a close friend?
2. Attitudes/beliefs/opinions: What is the biggest challenge
facing the nation these days?
3. Characteristics: Are you married, never married, single,
divorced, separated, or widowed?
4. Expectations : Do you think the education level in your city
will grow, decrease, or stay the same?
5. Self-classification. Would you say you are highly religious
or not religious?
6. Knowledge. About what percentage of the students in your
university are Hindu, Muslim And Christian?

7. Step 1:
 Develop hypotheses.
 Decide on type of survey (mail, interview,
telephone).
 Write survey questions.
 Decide on response categories.
 Design layout.

8.  Plan how to record data.
 Pilot test survey instrument
As you prepare a questionnaire, think ahead to how you will
record and organize the data. You also should pilot test the
questionnaire with a small set of respondents who are similar to
those in the final survey. If you use interviewers, you must train
them with the questionnaire. In the pilot test and interviewer
training, you ask respondents and interviewers whether the
questions were clear, and you need to explore their
interpretations to see whether your intended meaning was clear

9. Step 3
 Decide on target population.
 Get sampling frame.
 Decide on sample size.
 Select sample
This is the stage at which you would draw the
sample of respondents.

10. Step 4
 Locate respondents.
 Conduct interviews.
 Carefully record data
After the planning phase, you are ready to collect data. You must
locate sampled respondents in person, by telephone, by mail,
or over the Internet. You provide respondents the instructions
on completing the questionnaire or interview. The questions
usually follow a simple stimulus/response or question/answer
pattern. You must accurately record the answers or responses
immediately after they are given.

11. Step 5:
 Enter data into computers.
 Recheck all data.
 Perform statistical analysis on data.
After all respondents have completed the questionnaire and you thank them
for participating, you organize the quantitative data and prepare them for
statistical analysis.
 After collecting all of the data, you will want to review responses on
individual questionnaires, store original questionnaires, and transfer
information from questionnaires to a computer-readable format for
statistical analysis. Meticulous bookkeeping and labelling are essential.

12. Step 6:
 Describe methods and findings in research report.
 Present findings to others for critique and evaluation.
This involves writing a research report and discussing
your results.

14.  Is the purpose of survey design stated?
 What type of design will be used?
 What is the Rationale for choosing a particular design?
 What is the nature of survey(longitudinal/cross-sectional)?
 Is the population and its size mentioned?
 Will the population be stratified? If yes how?
 How many people will be in the sample?
 What will be the procedure of this sampling?
 What instrument will be used in survey?
 What are the psychometric properties of this instrument?
 What is the timeline of administering this survey?
 How will the variable be used to answer your research questions?
 What are the steps of data analysis? (eg. Check for response bias,
reliability etc.)
 How will the results be interpreted?

15.  The site of this study was a small (enrollment 1,000), religious,
coeducational, liberal arts college in a Midwestern city with a
population of 175,000 people. [Authors identified the research site and
population.]
 The dropout rate the previous year was 25%. Dropout rates tend to be
highest among freshmen and sophomores, so an attempt was made to
reach as many freshmen and sophomores as possible by distribution of
the questionnaire through classes. Research on attrition indicates that
males and females drop out of college for different reasons (Bean,
1978, in press; Spady, 1971). Therefore, only women were analyzed in
this study.

16.  Cont..
 During April 1979, 169 women returned questionnaires. A homogeneous sample of 135
women who were 25 years old or younger, unmarried, full-time U.S. citizens, and
Caucasian was selected for this analysis to exclude some possible confounding variables
(Kerlinger, 1973).
 Of these women, 71 were freshmen, 55 were sophomores, and 9 were juniors. Of the
students, 95% were between the ages of 18 and 21. This sample is biased toward higher-
ability students as indicated by scores on the ACT test. [Authors presented descriptive
information about the sample.]
 Data were collected by means of a questionnaire containing 116 items. The majority of
these were Likert-like items based on a scale from “a very small extent” to “a very great
extent.” Other questions asked for factual information, such as ACT scores, high school
grades, and parents’ educational level. All information used in this analysis was derived
from questionnaire data. This questionnaire had been developed and tested at three other
institutions before its use at this college. [Authors discussed the instrument.]

17.  Cont…
 Concurrent and convergent validity (Campbell & Fiske, 1959) of these measures
was established through factor analysis, and was found to be at an adequate level.
Reliability of the factors was established through the coefficient alpha. The
constructs were represented by 25 measures—multiple items combined on the basis
of factor analysis to make indices—and 27 measures were single item indicators.
[Validity and reliability were addressed.]
 Multiple regression and path analysis (Heise, 1969; Kerlinger & Pedhazur, 1973)
were used to analyze the data. In the causal model . . . , intent to leave was
regressed on all variables which preceded it in the causal sequence. Intervening
variables significantly related to intent to leave were then regressed on
organizational variables, personal variables, environmental variables, and
background variables. [Data analysis steps were presented.]

18.  Can be used surveys for exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory research.
 Wide Scope: A great deal of information can be obtained from a large population.
 surveys are an excellent vehicle for measuring a wide variety of unobservable data,
such as people’s preferences (e.g., political orientation), traits (e.g., self-esteem),
attitudes (e.g., toward immigrants), beliefs (e.g., about a new law), behaviors (e.g.,
smoking or drinking behavior), or factual information (e.g., income).
 A large area, such as an entire country, can be covered using mail-in, electronic
mail, or telephone surveys using meticulous sampling to ensure that the population
is adequately represented in a small sample.
 survey research is economical in terms of researcher time, effort and cost than most
other methods such as experimental research and case research.

19.  Survey information ordinarily does not penetrate very deeply below the
surface.
 It Demands time and money
 It is subject to a large number of biases such as non-response bias,
sampling bias, social desirability bias, and recall bias.
 Survey interview can temporarily lift the respondent out of his own social
context which may make the results of the survey invalid for example, a
mother when queried about her child rearing practices, may respond in
social desirable manner rather her actual practices.
 It requires a good deal of research knowledge and sophistication.

20.  Useful tool for educational fact finding
 Ideally suited to the study of integration and its
impact on communities and their schools.
 Best adapted to obtain personal and social facts,
beliefs and attitudes.

21.  Kerlinger F.N. (1983).Foundations of Behavioral research.
Surjeet Publications: Delhi.
 John W. Creswell & J. David Creswell . Research Design_
Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches
 Newman W,L. (2008). Social research methods: Qualitative and
quantitative approaches. New Delhi: Pearson Education.
 https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-research-
methods/chapter/chapter-9-survey-research/