Chapter 7 Flashcards
What is a survey?
A survey is a technique of data collection that is based on asking people questions about their beliefs, feelings etc. This is appropriate to use if your research question is about self-reported behaviours.
What are the phases of constructing a survey?
In the first phase, you develop an instrument that you use to measure variables.
Then you must conceptualise and operationalise all your variables as survey questions.
You will want to write and rewrite questions for clarity and completeness. In addition, you must organise questions on the questionnaire based on the research question, the respondents, and the type of survey.
You should also use pilot-tests.
What is a questionnaire?
In a questionnaire, the respondents read the questions themselves and mark answers themselves. It differs from a survey because it has introductory statements and instructions to add comfort and clarity and reduce potential errors.
What is an interview schedule?
In an interview schedule, an interviewer reads questions to the respondent and then records the respondent’s responses.
What type of language should one use when designing a questionnaire?
Language that is clear and precise. There should be no slang (only if the study requires it), no ambigous phrases and no double negations. This is all necessary so as to not confuse the respondent. Furthermore, neutral tone and language must be employed.
What is prestige bias?
Issues linked to people with high social status can nuance how respondents hear and answer survey questions. Avoid associating a statement with a prestigious person or group. Respondents may answer on the basis of their feelings toward the prestigious person or group rather than addressing the issue.
What are double-barreled questions?
A double-barreled question consists of two or more questions joined together. In order not to make the answer ambiguous, one should make each question about one and only one topic.
What are leading questions?
A leading (or loaded) question is one that leads the respondent to choose one response over another by its wording. There are many kinds of leading questions (You don’t smoke, do you?). The respondent should not be aware of the answer that the researcher is seeking.
What are false premises?
When conducting a questionnaire the researcher may put forward a premise that might frustrate the respondent as they do not agree with it. One should always ask for a hypothetical situation.
What types of questions are there?
Threatening, socially desirable, knowledge, skip (or contingency) questions, open and closed questions.
What are threatening questions?
Respondents may be reluctant to answer the questions at all, or to answer them completely and truthfully. If you wish to ask such questions, it requires great care and you must be extra cautious about the results. Threatening questions are part of a larger issue of self-presentation and ego protection. Respondents usually want to try to present a favourable image of themselves to other people.
What are socially desirable questions?
Social desirability bias is when respondents distort answers to make their reports conform to social norms. You can reduce social desirability bias by phrasing questions in ways that make norm conformity or violation appear to be less objectionable.
What are knowledge questions?
At times, you may want to learn whether respondents know about an issue or topic. Such questions can be threatening because respondents do not want to appear ignorant. They introduce recall bias which argues that participants do not always remember past events which will make them feel irritated during the study.
What are skip (or contingency) questions?
You want to avoid asking questions that are irrelevant for a respondent. Yet, some questions apply only to specific respondents. A contingency question is a two-(or more) part question. Contingency questions select respondents for whom a second question is relevant. On the basis of the answer to the first question, the respondent or an interviewer goes to another question or skips certain questions.
What are rating questions?
Rating questions ask the participant to rate different elements, such as the likelihood.
What are ranking questions?
Ranking questions ask the participant to rank between some elements. However, if the participants feels like two or more elements are equal, he will necessarily have to rank them.
What are agreement questions?
Agreement questions ask the participant whether they agree or disagree with a statement. This introduces acquiescence bias, the tendency to agree with statements, and dissent bias, the tendency to disagree with statements
What are reverse coded questions?
Reverse coded questions provide two or more statements aimed at detecting response set bias. For example, on a Likert scale you are initially asked “How happy are you today?” and you respond with Agree and then you are posed with the questions “How unhappy are you today?” and you respond with Agree, there is a response set bias. You are more likely to agree with the statements, no matter their contents.
What are open-ended questions?
An open-ended (unstructured, free-response) question asks a question (e.g., “What is your favourite television program?”) to which respondents can give any answer.
What are closed-ended questions?
A closed-ended (structured, fixed-response) question both asks a question and gives the respondent fixed responses from which to choose (e.g., “Is the president doing a very good, good, fair, or poor job, in your opinion?”).
What are some advantages and disadvantages for open-ended questions?
On one hand, open-ended questions permit an unlimited number of possible answers which allow the respondents to go into detail with their perspective. This helps answer questions about complex issues.
On the other hand, open-ended questions can contain a number of irrelevant detail that is hard to transcribe, process and analyse. Coding such answers will also be inefficient.
