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Survey Research. Survey Research. Structured interview of: Sample of individuals in order to generalize to a larger population Survey modes: Face-to-face Paper-and-pencil RDD telephone Direct mail Internet. Advantages & Disadvantages. Generalizability - external validity
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Survey Research • Structured interview of: • Sample of individuals in order to generalize to a larger population • Survey modes: • Face-to-face • Paper-and-pencil • RDD telephone • Direct mail • Internet
Advantages & Disadvantages • Generalizability - external validity • Representativeness - unbiased sample • Customizability - wide variety of research questions • Time - 6 months from start to finish • Cost - Face-to-face vs. Telephone vs. Mail • Hard to find facilities and experts • Causality - Non-experimental design
Misconceptions • Single time-point >>> Longitudinal, Panel Designs • Must be face-to-face >>> Can use telephone, mail • Interviewers read questions >>> Self-administered • Individuals as unit of observation >>> Family • Non-experimental >>> Can embed experiments • Atheoretical >>> Can test hypotheses Surveys are a very flexible research technique
Reliability of Survey Research • Stability: • In panel designs, test-retest correlations of same respondents’ answers • Reproducibility: • Open-ended querstions: • Agreement between coders • Internal Consistency: • In testing scales, the homogeneity of items
Validity of Survey Research • Face: • Do items capture concepts? • Content: • Are relevant dimensions represented by indicators? • Convergent: • Are multiple indicators correlated? • Divergent: • Do indicators allow us to differentiate from other concepts? • Do indicators differentiate between distinct concept dimensions?
Stages in Survey Research • General Research Questions • Specific Research Questions • Sampling Design • Questionnaire Development • Interviewer Training • Pretest • Fieldwork - Test • Content Coding • Analysis Computation • Report Writing
Questionnaire Construction • Length: • :30 for telephone, longer for personal/self-administered • Ordering: • Put an easy question first, funnel toward specific • Save sensitive question for the end • Transitions: • Ease them from one section to another • Probes: • Further information, elaboration
Training Interviewers • Two parts: • 1. Basic interviewing skills • 2. Specific interview schedule, questionnaire
Motivations and Barriers • Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivations: • expression, boredom, loneliness, politeness, curiosity, loyalty • Barriers: • Suspicion, fear, inadequacy, privacy, distractions, time to answer, etc. • Overcoming Barriers: • confidentiality, listening, probing, repeating, focus, and practice