Survey Lecture Notes PDF

Research Methods Dr Yasmeen Aliyeldeen Survey types Survey design Survey questions Questions and scales  Usage of survey audience and consumer surveys are commonplace in all areas of life. This becomes immediately evident by searching the Internet for “a...

Research Methods Dr Yasmeen Aliyeldeen Survey types Survey design Survey questions Questions and scales  Usage of survey audience and consumer surveys are commonplace in all areas of life. This becomes immediately evident by searching the Internet for “audience surveys” or “consumer surveys.” Decision makers in businesses, consumer and activist groups, politics, and the media use survey results as part of their daily routine. Fortunately, the increased use of surveys has created changes in the way many of the studies are conducted and reported.  Types of survey There are two major types of surveys: Descriptive and Analytical.  1- Descriptive survey attempts to describe or document current conditions or attitudes—that is, to explain what exists at the moment. For example, the Department of Labor regularly conducts surveys on the rate of unemployment in the United States. Ex: Professional pollsters survey the electorate to learn its opinions of candidates or issues. Ex: Broadcast stations and networks continually survey their audiences to determine programming tastes, changing values, and lifestyle variations that might affect programming In descriptive surveys, the interest is in discovering the current situation in the area under study.  2- Analytical survey attempts to describe and explain why situations exist. In this approach, two or more variables are usually examined to investigate research questions or test research hypotheses. The results allow researchers to examine the interrelationships among variables and to develop explanatory inferences. For example, television station owners survey the market to determine how lifestyles affect viewing habits or to determine whether viewers’ lifestyles can be used to predict the success of syndicated programming. Ex: television networks conduct yearly surveys to determine how the public’s tastes and desires are changing and how these attitudes relate to viewers’ perceptions of the three major commercial networks.  Surveys have several advantages 1. They can be used to investigate problems in realistic settings. Newspaper reading, television viewing, radio listening, and consumer behavior patterns can be examined where they happen rather than in a laboratory or screening room under artificial conditions. 2. The cost of surveys is reasonable when one considers the amount of information gathered (some online surveys are free). Researchers also can control expenses by selecting from five major types of surveys: mail, telephone, personal interview, group administration, and the Internet  Surveys have several advantages 3. A large amount of data can be collected with relative ease from a variety of people. Surveys allow researchers to examine many variables (demographic and lifestyle information, attitudes, motives, intentions, and so on) and to use a variety of statistics to analyze the data. 4. Surveys are not constrained by geographic boundaries; they can be conducted almost anywhere. 5. Data helpful to survey research already exist. Data archives, government documents,  Disadvantages of survey 1-The most important disadvantage is that independent variables cannot be manipulated the way they are in laboratory experiments. Without control over independent variables, the researcher cannot be certain whether the relationships between independent variables and dependent variables are causal or non-causal. That is, a survey may establish that A and B are related, but it is impossible to determine solely from the survey results that A causes B. Causality is difficult to establish because many intervening and extraneous variables are involved. Time series studies can sometimes help correct this problem.  Disadvantages of survey 2-Inappropriate wording or placement of questions within a questionnaire can bias results. The questions must be worded and organized unambiguously to collect the desired information. This problem is discussed in detail later in the chapter. 3. The wrong respondents may be included in survey research. For example, in telephone interviews, a respondent may claim to be between 18 and 24 years old but may in fact be over 30 years old; a mail survey or Internet survey may be completed by a teenager when the target respondent is a parent in the household. 4. Some survey research is becoming difficult to conduct because response rates continue to decline. This is especially true with telephone surveys  :Survey has three components A) Introduction B) Questions C) Instructions/Directions  A) Introduction It must include some main points - the title of the research -The organization - the reason beyond this research A welcoming and thanking note - promising the respondents that the result is never published and only for the research purposes  B) Questions Although most people think that survey design is simple— just put together a series of questions—the fact is that survey design takes a lot of practice. Part of this practice is :to understand five basic rules of questionnaire design Understand the goals of the project so that only relevant.1.questions are included.Questions should be clear and unambiguous.2 Questions must accurately communicate what is.3.required from the respondents Don’t assume respondents understand the questions they.4.are asked  B) Questions The specifics of questionnaire design depend on the -5.choice of data collection technique Questions written for a mail survey must be easy to read and understand because respondents are unable to ask questions. Telephone surveys cannot use questions with long lists of response options; the respondent may forget the first few responses by the time the last items are read. Questions written for group administration must be concise and easy for the respondents to answer. In a personal interview, an interviewer must tread lightly with sensitive and personal questions because his or her physical presence might make.the respondent less willing to answer  Types of questions Surveys can include two basic types of questions: open-.ended and closed-ended An open-ended question requires respondents to generate- :their own answers What could your favorite radio station change so that you would listen more often? What type of television program ?do you prefer to watch most often Open-ended questions give respondents freedom in- answering questions and an opportunity to provide in-depth responses they give researchers the option to ask, “Why did you say- ?that?” or “Could you explain your answer in more detail  Open ended question open-ended questions are particularly useful in a pilot test of a study. Researchers may not know what types of responses to expect from subjects The major disadvantage associated with open-ended questions is the amount of time needed to collect and analyze the responses. Open-ended responses require interviewers to record long answers.  Close ended question the case of closed-ended questions, respondents select an answer from a list provided by the researcher. These questions are popular because they provide greater uniformity in responses and the answers are easy to quantify. The major disadvantage is that researchers often fail to include some important responses. Respondents may have an answer different from those that are supplied. One way to solve the problem is to include an “Other” response followed by a blank space to give respondents an opportunity to supply their own answer and sometimes we call it semi closed questions  We apply the types of questions by using the measurement scales whether likart's or the semantic scale  Measurement Scales Scales are generally used with complex variables. So measurement of some variables, such as attitude toward TV news requires the use of scales. On the other side, variables , such as age, number of televisions in the house, can be measured without scaling techniques. Likert scales:  Likert Scale is a psychometric scale.  survey questions which use likert scale are essential in measuring a respondent's opinion or attitude towards a given topic.  With respect to a topic, a number of statements are developed.  Respondents can strongly agree, agree, be neutral, disagree, or strongly disagree with the statements.  Each response option is weighted, and each subject’s responses are added to produce a single score on a topic. Ex: If the researcher measure attitudes toward foreign ownership of broadcasting stations: 1-Only Egyptian citizens should be allowed to own broadcasting stations. Response score assigned ______Strongly agree 5 ______Agree 4 ______Neutral 3 ______Disagree 2 ______Strongly disagree 1 2- preventing foreign ownership of broadcasting stations is bad for business. ______Strongly agree 1 ______Agree 2 ______Neutral 3 ______Disagree 4 ______Strongly disagree 5 Note: To maintain attitude measurement consistency, the scores are reversed for a negatively worded item. Statement(1 )is positive item; statement (2 )is a negative item.  Semantic differential scales Communication researchers use this scale to measure attitudes. How to use the technique? -A name or a concept is placed at the top of a series of seven- point scales anchored by bipolar attitudes. Ex: Measuring attitudes toward “ BBC “ channel: Biased : 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 :7 Unbiased Trustworthy : 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 :7 Untrustworthy Valuable : 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 Worthless Unfair : 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 Fair The more appropriate name for this technique is bipolar rating scales.  Instructions/ directions There are 2 types of directions: 1- General instructions 2-Operational instructions  General instructions -1 — The general instructions that you give to the respondent with respect to the way you want him to answer the questions. — Example: “Answer Briefly ”  Operational instructions — The type which takes you from one question to the other. — Example: “Move to question 8” End of lecture