Complete Entire Week 3

Give Feedback/response, write 150 to 200 words to all four paragraphs below. Follow the assessment_rubric_for_participation attachment when responding.

1. When setting out to carry out a survey study it is important to have the goals and the objectives of the study at hand. The next step in constructing a survey is to develop the research questions; this comes after identifying the goals and objectives of the study.  Research questions are different from questionnaires, they are global in nature and the questionnaires help in answering the research questions (Kitchenham & Pfleeger 2002). The goals and the objectives of the study help design the type of research questions and also helps identify the methods of answering those research questions. The goals of the study help identify what the study is about and it guides all the processes of the survey that follow after coming up with the goals and objectives. The goals and the objectives are stated as either the general objectives then narrowed down to the specific objectives.  Objectives help keep the research processes more focused. The research issues are narrowed and the goals are made clearer as the process of survey continues. These goals are easily transformed into the research questions which are global and broad in nature (O'Brien& Toms, 2010). When one have the goals and the objectives set out right then the nest steps of the survey follow just right as they should. Outlining the goals of the research means that one understands what the study is all about and also knows what is to be done in order to obtain results from the study. Understanding the study is key to carrying out any survey and also helps with the development of relevant goals and objectives (O'Brien & Toms, 2010).  The steps that follow after coming up with the objectives are meant to help realize the goals of the study and to make the right conclusions. This makes the first step of constructing a survey be to define the goals.

 

Kitchenham, B. A., & Pfleeger, S. L. (2002). Principles of survey research: part 3: constructing a survey instrument. ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, 27(2), 20-24.

 

O'Brien, H. L., & Toms, E. G. (2010). The development and evaluation of a survey to measure user engagement. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 61(1), 50-69.

2. Instructor and class, based upon the question at hand, I am assuming that the purpose/objective of the survey has already been established, indicating a need for such an assessment. If this has been determined, I believe that the first step would be to determine the types of questions to be used. Cozby and Bates (2015) indicate three types of general survey questions that need to be considered, which are attitudes and beliefs, facts and demographics, and behaviors. Depending upon the information that one is attempting to extract from the survey, he/she would consider one or a combination of these types of questions.

Using one of my research articles, I was able to identify an example, where a questionnaire/survey was used. Nathanson, Alade, Sharp, Rasmussen, and Christy (2014) had parents answer questions regarding "demographics and the sleep and media habits of the participating child" (p. 1499). This survey did not question attitudes and beliefs, but information that portrayed differences in demographics and behaviors, two of the identified types of questions.

 

Cozby, P. C., & Bates, S. C. (2015). Methods in Behavioral Research (12th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Nathanson, A. I., Alade, F., Sharp, M. L., Rasmussen, E. E., & Christy, K. (2014). The Relation between Television Exposure and Executive Function among Preschoolers. Developmental Psychology, 50(5), 1497-1506.doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0035714

3. Instructor,

The purpose of a survey is to gather information. According to Cozby, (2015) the first step in conducting a survey is, "explicitly determine the research objectives". What this sentence is explaining is that the first step in conducting a survey is to determine what the objectives or the purpose of the survey are. If one does not clearly understand and note the purpose for conducting the research survey then he or she may gather information that is not conducive to the reason of conducting the survey. When reviewing an article on how personality traits correlates with suicide attempts in young adults, I find that the author first determined in the introduction a list of predisposed factors that may cause suicide rate to rise in young adults. Brezo et al. (2006) goes on to explain that the objective of the study is to gather information on the relationship between personality traits and suicidality concerns. This is an example of the first step of conducting a survey, to determine what one is trying to find out.

Cozby, P. C., & Bates, S. C. (2015). Methods in Behavioral Research (12th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

BREZO, J., PARIS, J., TREMBLAY, R., VITARO, F., ZOCCOLILLO, M., HÉBERT, M., & TURECKI, G. (2006). Personality traits as correlates of suicide attempts and suicidal ideation in young adults. Psychological Medicine, 36(2), 191-202. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/docview/204492172?accountid=458

4. Anytime that an interview is conducted, one must be aware of the possibility of interviewer bias, which "describes all of the biases that can arise from the fact that interviewer is a unique human being interacting with another human" (Cozby & Bates, 2015, p. 145). This bias can arise from a number of subjects, including "race, sex, and age," among others (Cozby & Bates, 2015, p. 145). Additionally, interviewers could lead the interviewees to answer certain ways or interpret the results that will favor their study (Cozby & Bates, 2015). Obviously, the less bias in the study, the more truthful the study.

In a number of my research articles, they use interviews to conduct studies. For example, Vandewater, Park, Huang (2005) conducted a survey of 1065 participants, who were asked about parental rules and the use of various forms of media. As the telephone interviews were conducted, some physical characteristics could be eliminated, since they can not be seen, which therefore may limit some biases. However, the interviewer could have also stretched the results or inquired more about certain areas, leading to more skewed answers.

 

Cozby, P. C., & Bates, S. C. (2015). Methods in Behavioral Research (12th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Vandewater, E. A., Park, S., Huang, X., & Wartella, E. A. (2005). "No-You Can't Watch That: Parental Rues and Young Children's Media Use. American Behavioral Scientist, 48 (5), 608-623. DOI: 10.1177/0002764204271497