1- Survey

Why Should I Care?

Surveys are very common. However, many are not done well. There are many traps most people don’t know about that reduce their scientific validity.

Definitions

Survey: the act of measuring objects.

Social survey:  a research technique that obtains information from a sample of individuals by asking questions and analyzing the responses.

Questionnaire: a written set of questions organized in a sequence appropriate to the purpose of a survey, or psychological test.

Interview: a loose set of questions, mostly designed to produce an open-ended conversation.

Usefulness

Allows for a “real-time” expression of opinions and attitudes on a particular topic.

In politics, allows to identify shifts in opinions, and relate them to a particular event (speech, riot, etc.)

Business people need them to prepare marketing strategies, advertising campaigns, etc.

Objects of Measurement

Type of Object	Yes	No	Maybe	Example
Personal Characteristic	X			Eye colour, Height, Accent
Socio-Demographic Characteristic	X			Religion, Language, Income, Gender, Ethnicity, Marital Status
zOpinion	X			I don’t like Rice Krispies Cereal
Motivations			X	Fear, Hope, Ambition, Greed
Ideology	X			Right-Wing, Left-Wing
Biases / Prejudice	X		X	I trust tall people more than short people
Preferences	X		X	Commercial example: pricing, marketing
Personal History / Background	X		X	Immigration, Settler, Indigenous, Divorce
Family Dynamics	X		X	Number of siblings, Rank in Family, Class
Cultural History	X		X	Military History, Political History, Class
Perception / Self-Perception	X		X	Other people are smarter than me
Aptitude /Ability	X		X	Can hit 3-point shot. Can manipulate others
Behaviour / Actions		X		Domestic Violence. Narcissist. Kind.
Personality
Moods / Emotions
Performance
Level of Knowledge	X			School test. Diagnostic quiz.

Sampling

Hopefully _random___ and _large____.

Possible using phonebooks as lists of population, but not so much through _email and internet_ .

With interviews, samples are non-random and tiny.

Types of Surveys

1. Cross-sectional: compare many independent variables to a dependent variable
2. Longitudinal: compare a few variables over time
   • Trend: similar samples taken at different time points
   • Panel: same sample followed through time

Instruments

1. Questionnaire (116): set question list, closed-ended questions, larger sample
   • In-person
   • Telephone
   • Internet
   • Group
2. Interview: starting question list, open-ended questions, smaller sample
   • Field interview
   • Formal Face-to-face interview

Scientific Power

Exploratory: possible but not likely if the topic is taboo or difficult to discuss.

Mostly descriptive studies, which focus on who, where, how and what.

But may also be used for explanatory studies which validate hypotheses and their causal relationships (why).

Warning – “Surveys” are also used as a commercial ploy to build email mailing lists for advertising.