social survey

Question 1

What is a social survey?

Answer 1

A method of collecting large amounts of data, from a large group of people, in a relatively short space of time.

Question 2

What type of data are social surveys used to collect?

Answer 2

Quantitative data on a large scale, so it is easier to analyse and compare the data.

Question 3

What are social surveys usually done through?

Answer 3

Usually one through questionnaires or less commonly structured interviews.

Question 4

What are the aims of social surveys?

Answer 4

• They are useful for discovering straightfoward factual information about a group of people.
• They are useful for discovering differences in beliefs, values and behaviour between people, but only when these are clearly measured.

Question 5

What are the different types of surveys?

Answer 5

Cross-sectional and longitudinal.

Question 6

What do cross-sectional surveys do?

Answer 6

• Provides information about one moment in time.
• Collects data only once, and in one short period of time.

Question 7

What do longitudinal surveys do?

Answer 7

• Collects data from one sample of people on more than one occasion.
• Allows for changes in behaviour or attitude to be traced over time.

Question 8

British Social Attitude Survey:
- Sample size and how sample is chosen.
- What does it ask people?

Answer 8

• Conducted every year since 1983, with a sample around 3,000 people.
• The sample is chosen at random using a post office list of post codes (sampling frames).
• Asks people what it’s like to live in Britain and what they think about how Britain is run.
• Asks people to measure opinions on range of topics - such as family life, religious belief, immigration and environmental issues.

Question 9

What is census?

Answer 9

• The census is a count of all people and households in the UK which is sent out to every UK household every 10 years.
• It asks basic information about who lives in the household, employment, education, religion and health.

Question 10

Strengths of social surveys?

Answer 10

• They deliver objective, accurately measured, “scientific” data which can be easily put into statistical form.
• Easy to conduct on a large scale (generalisable data).
• They provide a high degree of reliability as they are easy to replicate.
• The quality of data is not dependent on the skills and objectivity of a single researcher.

Question 11

Weaknesses of social surveys.

Answer 11

• The survey may be misinterpreted, especially or respondents may lie, affecting the validity.
• The most important questions may not be asked.
• Practical problems - can be very costly and time consuming.
• Low response rate can impact the representativeness of surveys.