Slide 1 ___________________________________ - - PDF document

Slide 1

Chapter Seven

Survey Research

___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 2

Why Conduct Survey Research

• Employs questionnaires and interviews asking

people to provide information about their attitudes, beliefs, demographics (age, gender, income, marital status), and past or intended future behavior.

• Method used to study relationships among variables

and ways that attitudes and behavior change over time.

• Survey research can also help complement

experimental research findings.

• Survey research is conducted on a given sample or

population.

___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 3

Sampling from a Population

Population: larger group about whom we wish to

• btain information
• E.g., high school teachers in California, readers of the

National Review, students at UT Austin, truck owners.

• In most cases studying the entire population would be

impossible.

• Select a sample from the population which we can then

test.

• With proper sampling, whatever results you find with your

sample can be applied to the population as a whole.

___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________

Slide 4

Confidence Intervals

• Confidence interval  the interval within

which your true/population score lies.

• This interval gives you information about

the likely amount of error in your findings.

• When using a sample population, the
• btained score is not the true score of the

population.

• sample value  your best estimate of

the population value

___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 5

Sample Size

• Larger sample sizes reduce the size of the

confidence interval thereby reducing the amount of sampling error .

• Determined by using a mathematical formula

that takes into account the size of the confidence interval and population of interest.

• Homogeneous vs. Heterogeneous Populations.

___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 6

Sampling Techniques

• Probability sampling  each member of

the population has a specifiable probability

• f being chosen.
• Nonprobability sampling  we don’t

know the probability of any particular member of the population being chosen

___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________

Slide 7

Probability Sampling

• Simple random sampling  every member of

the population has an equal chance of being selected.

• Stratified random sampling  used when it is

important to ensure that subgroups within a population are adequately represented in the sample .

• Cluster sampling  rather than randomly

sampling from a list of individuals, the researcher can identify “clusters” of individuals and then sample from these clusters

___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 8

Non-Probability Sampling

• Haphazard sampling  you select a

sample any way that is convenient.

• Advantage: it is easy to do
• Disadvantage: it might not be a

representative sample of the population, and the survey results might be biased

___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 9

Sources of Bias in a Sample

• Sampling frame
• Response rate

___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________

Slide 10

Constructing the Questionaire

• Defining the Research Objectives
• Three types of Survey Questions

– Content Items – Factual Items – Behavior Items

___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 11

Question Wording

• Simplicity
• Double-barreled questions
• Loaded questions
• Negative wording
• Yea-saying and Nay-saying

___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 12

Response to Questions

• Closed vs. Open ended questions
• Number of Response Alternatives
• Rating Scales
• Semantic Differential Scale
• Non-verbal scale

___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________

Slide 13

Finalizing & Administering

• Formatting Questionnaire
• Refining Questions
• Forms
• Ways of Administration: Survey vs.

Interview

___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________