Exam 3 Review Sheet Chapters 7 9 and 11 Survey design and construction Chapter 7 Open ended and close ended questions Open ended is when the respondent is asked to provide his or her own answer Room to response o Disadvantages problematic to code leaves room for misunderstanding and researcher bias o Advantages allows the subject free expression better data Closed ended question the respondent is asked to select an answer from among a list provide by the researcher Give the person a specific answer to pick o Advantages more uniform responses easily processed o Disadvantages limits the subject may not be mutually exclusive or exhaustive Making items clear o Know all the various ways that were discussed for how to make your survey questions clear to respondents avoiding double barreled questions asking two questions in one avoiding ambiguity jargon slang spell things out so you are not depending on peoples interruption asking emotional questions avoid leading questions crime is a big problem what is a big problem in America Avoid false premises and avoid unbalance response categories o Short items are best o Avoid Negative item Do you think this is not not a problem Remember to ask things at a low level of understanding o Biased items and terms for ex questions that encourage respondents to answer in a particular way are biased o Designing self reports items social desirability is one of the problems that plagues self report crime questions in general population surveys Designing self report items o Question ordering Just use logic when ordering your questions Needs to be clear if you do an in person interview you need to lead into the questions not just drop to hey how many times have you been victimized email surveys need to be interesting from the start Based on the type of survey your doing o Social desirability of questions and answers whenever we ask people for information they answer through a filter of what will make them look good Questionnaire construction o Contingency the subsequent questions in series whether they are to be asked and answered is contingent on the response to the first question in the series o Have you ever been arrested yes or no o If so what type of crime o Matrix questions Asking several questions that have the same set of answers problem generate response sets Advantages it uses space efficiently respondents probably find it easier to complete a set of questions presented in this fashion last this format may increase the comparability for the responses given to different questions for the respondents as well as for the researcher o Ordering self administered vs interviews You are not going to ask obvious questions to a person you are interviewing in person o Pretesting Giving the subject a test before the real test The actual study survey ect or you can pre test a different group to see if your study is reliable Do this to make sure there are no problems Types of surveys o Self administered surveys Written surveys require minimum resources staff time and cost and are best suited to eliciting confidential information o Minimal sampling error occurs due to the relatively low cost per survey mail o Minimal interviewer and respondent measurement errors due to the absence of direct contact o Written surveys may be distributed using either postal or electronic o Written surveys are subject to coverage error where population lists are incomplete or out of date o They are also typically subject to nonresponse error o Less educated illiterate and disabled people are particularly less likely to respond to written surveys o Advantages o By far the cheapest o Can be conducted by a single researcher o Easy to offer anonymity o Avoids interviewer bias o Response rates can be high for population that is well educated or has a strong interest in the topic o Disadvantages o Can have a low response rate o Face to face Verbal surveys include telephone and face to face interviews In Person Interview Surveys o Face to face interviews are best for complex questionnaires and other specialized needs o Most interview surveys require more than one interviewer o Can capture verbal inflexion gestures and other body language of respondents The Role of the Interviewer surveys o In person interview surveys obtain higher response rates than mail Properly designed and executed interview surveys ought to achieve a completion rate of 80 85 o An interviewer s presence should not affect a respondent s perception of a question or answer given Familiarity with the Questionnaire o Interviewers must be able to read the questionnaire items to respondents without stumbling over words and phrases o Interviewer must also know the organization and content of the specifications well enough to refer to them efficiently o Probing for Responses Probes are frequently required to elicit responses to open ended questions Probe must not affect the nature of the response o Advantages Highest response rates Permits the longest questionnaires Can observe non verbal communication Can use visual aids Well trained interviewers can ask all types of questions Can ask complex questions o Disadvantages High cost is the biggest disadvantage Training travel supervision personnel costs Interviewer bias is greatest Appearance tone of voice question wording Supervision is more than telephone interviews o Telephone interviews o Telephone surveys are fast and relatively low cost o Greatest advantages involve money and time o Advantage of speed of data collection while supporting longer instruments than mail surveys and supporting open ended responses though not as well as face to face interviewing o Moderate control over interviewer bias since interviewers follow predetermined protocols and there is high control over respondent interaction with others during the interview o Can be a good moderate cost compromise between mail and face to face survey research o Advantages o About 95 of the population can be reached by telephone o Works quickly and efficiently o Staff of interviewers can interview 1 500 respondents across the nation in a few days o With callbacks response rates can reach 90 o Has many of the advantages of face to face but with half the cost o Can control the order of the questions o Can clarify questions o Can use CATI which allows for complex sets of contingency questions o Disadvantages o Limited to those that own telephones o Unable to reach those who do not own homes o Sampling problem of unlisted
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