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Chapter7-SurveyResearch.pptSurvey Research
Chapter 7
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Introduction
Survey: ask people questions for research purposes
Most frequently used mode of observation in social science research
Respondent: individual completing the survey
Topics Appropriate to Survey Research 1
Counting crime – asking people about victimization counters problems of data collected by police
Self-reports – dominant method for studying the etiology of crime
Frequency/type of crimes committed
Prevalence (how many people commit crimes) committed by a broader population
Topics Appropriate to Survey Research 2
Perceptions and attitudes – to learn how people feel about crime and CJ policy
Targeted victim surveys – used to evaluate policy innovations & program success
Other evaluation uses – e.g., measuring community attitudes, citizen responses, etc.
Example: Survey Use
- The Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey collects data from 50,000 youths in schools. Beginning in 1975, the MTF survey produces information on youths’ attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Data collected from the survey has been used in numerous scholarly publications and is also used in the White House Strategy on Drug Abuse to monitor youths’ drug usage (http://monitoringthefuture.org/purpose.html).
Guidelines for Asking Questions
Open-ended questions: respondent is asked to provide his or her own answer
Closed-ended questions: respondent selects an answer from a list
Choices should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive
Questionnaire: a collection of questions
May contain statements as questions
Questions and Statements – Likert scale
Additional Guidelines
- Make items clear – avoid ambiguous questions; do not ask “double-barreled” questions
- Short items are best – respondents like to read and answer a question quickly
- Avoid negative items – leads to misinterpretation
- Avoid biased items and terms – do not ask questions that encourage a certain answer
Bias: any property of a question that encourages respondents to answer in a particular way
Designing Self-Report Items
- Social desirability can be problematic
- Adhere to ethical standards of confidentiality and anonymity
- Be sensitive to respondent embarrassment
Disclaimers can be used to help
- Interview frequently to reduce memory issues
Crime calendars
Questionnaire Construction
- General questionnaire format – critical, must be laid out properly
- Contingency questions – relevant only to some respondents – answered only based on their previous response
- Matrix questions – same set of answer categories used by multiple questions
Ordering Questions in a Questionnaire
Ordering may affect the answers given
Estimate the effect of question order
Perhaps devise more than one version
Begin with most interesting questions
End with duller, demographic data
This is opposite for in-person interview surveys
Self-Administered Questionnaires
Can be home-delivered
Researcher delivers questionnaire to home of sample respondent, explains the study, and then comes back later
Mailed (sent and returned) survey is most common
Researchers must reduce the trouble it takes to return a questionnaire
Warning Mailings, Cover Letters
Used to increase response rates: the percentage of people contacted who actually participate in the survey
Warning mailings – “address correction requested” card sent out to determine incorrect addresses and to “warn” residents to expect questionnaire in mail
Cover letters – detail why survey is being conducted, why respondent was selected, why is it important to complete questionnaire
Include institutional affiliation or sponsorship
Follow-Up Mailings
- Send letter as reminder or a new survey (best)
- 50% response rate is adequate
- 60% is good
- 70% is very good
- We would rather have a lack of response bias than a high response rate
Computer-Based Self-Administration
- Cheap and easy
- Can create attractive questionnaires
- Face issues with representativeness, low response rates, respondents have to have a computer and Internet access
- Can pair with mailed warning letter or give the option of electronically completing the survey or completing hard copy
In-Person Interview Surveys
- Interview survey: researchers send interviewers to ask questions orally and record respondents’ answers
- Typically achieve higher response rates than mail surveys (80-85% is considered good)
- Demeanor and appearance of interviewer should be appropriate; interviewer should be familiar with questionnaire and ask questions precisely
- Interviewer can probe for additional information; probe
- When more than one interviewer administers, efforts must be coordinated and controlled
- Practice interviewing
Computer-Assisted Interviews
Reported success in enhancing confidentiality
Reported higher rates of self-reporting
Computer-assisted interviewing (CAI): interviewers read questions from screens and then type in answers from respondents
Computer-assisted self-interviewing (CASI): respondent keys in answers, which are scrambled so that interviewer cannot access them
Telephone Surveys
Random-Digit Dialing
Eliminates unlisted number problem
Often results in business, pay phones, fax lines
Saves money and time, provides safety to interviewers, more convenient
May be interpreted as bogus sales calls; ease of hang-up
Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI)
- A set of computerized tools that aid telephone interviewers and supervisors by automating various data collection tasks
- Easier, faster, more accurate but more expensive
- Formats responses into a data file as they are keyed in
- Can automate contingency questions and skip sequences
Comparison of the Three Methods
Self-administered questionnaires are generally cheaper, better for sensitive issues than interview surveys
Cost and speed are inversely related
Using mail – local and national surveys are same cost
Interviews – more appropriate when respondent literacy may be a problem, produce fewer incompletes, achieve higher completion rates
Validity low in survey research; reliability high
Surveys are also inflexible, superficial in coverage
