EXPE Chapter 4: Alternatives to Experimentation Surveys and Interviews Flashcards
obtains data about opinions, attitudes, preferences, and behaviors using questionnaires or interviews
Survey research
Survey research
efficiently collect large amounts of data.
anonymous surveys can increase the accuracy of answers to sensitive questions. allow us to draw inferences about the causes of behavior and can complement laboratory and field experiments.
does not allow us to test hypotheses about causal relationships because we do not manipulate independent variables and control extraneous variables.
can be answered using a limited number of alternatives and have a high imposition of units.
Closed questions (structured questions)
Major Steps in Constructing Surveys
- Identify specific research objectives.
- Decide on the degree of imposition of units (degree of response restriction).
- Decide how you will analyze the survey data.
require that participants respond with more than a yes or 1-10 rating and have a low imposition of units.
Open-ended questions (open questions)
measures the magnitude of the DV using equal intervals between values with no absolute zero point.
Interval (Measuring Responses)
three concerns when constructing questions
Keep items simple and unambiguous, and avoid double negatives.
Avoid double-barreled (compound) questions that require responses about two or more unrelated ideas.
Use exhaustive response choices
the tendency to guess or omit items when unsure.
Willingness to answer
assigns items to two or more distinct categories that can be named using a shared feature, but does not measure their magnitude.
Nominal (Measuring Responses)
measures the magnitude of the dependent variable using ranks, but does not assign precise values.
Ordinal (Measuring Responses)
selecting an answer based on its position.
Position preference
measures the magnitude of the dependent variable using equal intervals between values and an absolute zero.
Ratio (Measuring Responses)
are tendencies to respond to questions or test items without regard to their actual wording.
Response styles
questions are asked the same way each time. This provides more usable, quantifiable data.
structured interviews
agreeing with an item regardless of its manifest content.
Yea-saying
the plain meaning of the words printed on the page.
Manifest content
disagreeing with an item regardless of its manifest content.
Nay-saying
response set is representing ourselves in a socially appropriate fashion when responding to a question’s latent content (underlying meaning).
social desirability
changes in question interpretation due to their position within a survey.
Context effects
unrelated questions
buffer items
the interviewer can explore interesting topics as they arise. may not be usable for content analysis.
unstructured interviews
consists of all people that share at least one characteristic
population
a subset of the population of interest (population we are studying).
sample
selecting subjects in such a way that the odds of their being in the study are known or can be calculated.
Probability sampling
