Data Collection Methods: Survey Research
50 Summary
As you can see, there are a lot of things to consider when putting together a survey or interview. The questions you ask as a researcher and how you ask them significantly impact the outcome of your survey. Ensuring that the content reflects the objectives of your study is only one aspect to consider. Researchers must also ensure that the questions they ask are worded in such a way so as not to bias the responses and maximize the potential to collect information that accurately reflects the respondents’ beliefs, attitudes or opinions.
It is also very important that, where possible, you pilot test your questions. It can be difficult for a researcher who designed the questions to identify ambiguities or context effects etc. in the survey, so having other sets of eyes testing the survey can be very informative. It is very easy for a survey to end up with a “bad” question that ends up needing to be thrown out of the analysis – any methods to minimize this should be utilized.
Though this module has focused on a very specific use of surveys/ interviews, these are lessons that should be kept in mind when working in your profession. Think about how the types of questions you ask and the way you ask them can lead you to different conclusions. This might mean that you choose an ineffective treatment for a wrong diagnosis, or to the wrong suspect in an investigation. Here too focusing on the objective (i.e., treating the patient, identifying and arresting a suspect, identifying the cause of a fire) will keep you focused on the types of questions to ask and how to ask them.
Key Takeaways
- Survey research is a quantitative method whereby a researcher poses some set of predetermined questions to an entire group, or sample, of individuals; There are a variety of types of surveys, including: cross-sectional, longitudinal, trend, panel, cohort & retrospective.
- Cross-sectional surveys are those that are administered at just one point in time. Whereas, longitudinal surveys are those that enable a researcher to make observations over some extended period of time. Three of the more common types include: Trend, panel and cohort surveys. Retrospective surveys are similar to longitudinal studies in that they deal with changes over time, but like a cross-sectional study, they are administered only once.
- Administration of surveys can in a hard copy format and either mailed or administered in person. Surveys can also be sent through the internet.
- Survey questions are usually close-ended and should be designed so they are relevant, and within the knowledge, and experience of the participant.
- Close-ended questions provide respondents with a limited set of options for their responses and are the most common type of survey questions. However, surveys often include open-ended questions too. These types of questions do not include response options. Rather, respondents are asked to reply to the question in their own way, using their own words;
- Effective survey questions are not double-barreled, provide mutually exclusive choice options, avoid negative language, or regionally or culturally specific language.
- Social desirability refers to the idea that respondents will try to answer questions in a way that present them in a favourable light.
- A filler question is designed to identify some subset of survey respondents who are asked additional questions that are not relevant to the entire sample.
References
Babbie, E. (2010). The practice of social research (12th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
McKay, S. (2015, April 13). Are you using a questionnaire or survey to collect data? Retrieved from https://www.surveygizmo.com/resources/blog/taking-the-question-out-of-questionnaires/
Palys, T., & Atchison, C. (2014). Research decisions: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). Toronto, ON: Nelson Education Ltd.
Schmitz, A. (2012). Principles of sociological inquiry; Qualitative and quantitative methods. Washington, DC: Saylor Academy.
