The Problem with Survey Research

2012-08-14
The Problem with Survey Research

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  • Author: George Beam
  • Publisher: Transaction Publishers
  • ISBN: 1412846323
  • Category : Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 447

The Problem with Survey Research makes a case against survey research as a primary source of reliable information. George Beam argues that all survey research instruments, all types of asking—including polls, face-to-face interviews, and focus groups—produce unreliable and potentially inaccurate results. Because those who rely on survey research only see answers to questions, it is impossible for them, or anyone else, to evaluate the results. They cannot know if the answers correspond to respondents’ actual behaviors (objective phenomena) or to their true beliefs and opinions (subjective phenomena). Reliable information can only be acquired by observation, experimentation, multiple sources of data, formal model building and testing, document analysis, and comparison. In fifteen chapters divided into six parts—Ubiquity of Survey Research, The Problem, Asking Instruments, Asking Settings, Askers, and Proper Methods and Research Designs—The Problem with Survey Research demonstrates how asking instruments, settings in which asking and answering take place, and survey researchers themselves skew results and thereby make answers unreliable. The last two chapters and appendices examine observation, other methods of data collection and research designs that may produce accurate or correct information, and shows how reliance on survey research can be overcome, and must be.

Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods

2008-09-12
Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods

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  • Author: Paul J. Lavrakas
  • Publisher: SAGE Publications
  • ISBN: 150631788X
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 1073

To the uninformed, surveys appear to be an easy type of research to design and conduct, but when students and professionals delve deeper, they encounter the vast complexities that the range and practice of survey methods present. To complicate matters, technology has rapidly affected the way surveys can be conducted; today, surveys are conducted via cell phone, the Internet, email, interactive voice response, and other technology-based modes. Thus, students, researchers, and professionals need both a comprehensive understanding of these complexities and a revised set of tools to meet the challenges. In conjunction with top survey researchers around the world and with Nielsen Media Research serving as the corporate sponsor, the Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods presents state-of-the-art information and methodological examples from the field of survey research. Although there are other "how-to" guides and references texts on survey research, none is as comprehensive as this Encyclopedia, and none presents the material in such a focused and approachable manner. With more than 600 entries, this resource uses a Total Survey Error perspective that considers all aspects of possible survey error from a cost-benefit standpoint. Key Features Covers all major facets of survey research methodology, from selecting the sample design and the sampling frame, designing and pretesting the questionnaire, data collection, and data coding, to the thorny issues surrounding diminishing response rates, confidentiality, privacy, informed consent and other ethical issues, data weighting, and data analyses Presents a Reader′s Guide to organize entries around themes or specific topics and easily guide users to areas of interest Offers cross-referenced terms, a brief listing of Further Readings, and stable Web site URLs following most entries The Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods is specifically written to appeal to beginning, intermediate, and advanced students, practitioners, researchers, consultants, and consumers of survey-based information.

The Problem with Survey Research

2017-09-08
The Problem with Survey Research

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  • Author: George Beam
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 1351476254
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 243

The Problem with Survey Research makes a case against survey research as a primary source of reliable information. George Beam argues that all survey research instruments, all types of asking-including polls, face-to-face interviews, and focus groups-produce unreliable and potentially inaccurate results. Because those who rely on survey research only see answers to questions, it is impossible for them, or anyone else, to evaluate the results. They cannot know if the answers correspond to respondents' actual behaviors (objective phenomena) or to their true beliefs and opinions (subjective phenomena). Reliable information can only be acquired by observation, experimentation, multiple sources of data, formal model building and testing, document analysis, and comparison. In fifteen chapters divided into six parts-Ubiquity of Survey Research, The Problem, Asking Instruments, Asking Settings, Askers, and Proper Methods and Research Designs-The Problem with Survey Research demonstrates how asking instruments, settings in which asking and answering take place, and survey researchers themselves skew results and thereby make answers unreliable. The last two chapters and appendices examine observation, other methods of data collection and research designs that may produce accurate or correct information, and shows how reliance on survey research can be overcome, and must be.

Social Science Research

2012-04-01
Social Science Research

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  • Author: Anol Bhattacherjee
  • Publisher: CreateSpace
  • ISBN: 9781475146127
  • Category : Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 156

This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class. This book is currently used as a research text at universities on six continents and will shortly be available in nine different languages.

100 Questions (and Answers) About Survey Research

2018-10-19
100 Questions (and Answers) About Survey Research

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  • Author: Erin Ruel
  • Publisher: SAGE Publications
  • ISBN: 150634884X
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 150

Erin Ruel′s 100 Questions (and Answers) About Survey Research covers the entire survey research process, starting with developing research questions and ending with the analysis and write-up. It includes the traditional survey topics of design, sampling, question writing, and validity; includes a chapter on research ethics; covers the important topics of preparing, cleaning, and analyzing data; and ends with a section on how to write up survey results for a variety of purposes. Useful as a supplementary text in the classroom or as a reference guide for anyone starting a new survey project, the guidance is presented in a FAQ style to allow readers to jump around the book, so as to accommodate the nonlinear and iterative nature of research.

Overcoming Survey Research Problems

2004-04-10
Overcoming Survey Research Problems

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  • Author: Stephen R. Porter
  • Publisher: Jossey-Bass
  • ISBN:
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 128

Paper and electronic surveys of students and faculty have become increasingly popular in higher education research and are now used in almost all facets of assessment and planning. Yet as the demand for survey research has increased, survey response rates have been falling. Low response rates are problematic because they can call into question the validity of the results, as well as increase survey administration costs. This volume examines an array of survey research problems and best practices, with the aim of providing readers with ways to increase response rates while controlling costs. Many institutional researchers face additional demands such as administering multiple surveys over time, or administering surveys on sensitive subjects such as student alcohol or drug use. New technologies for survey administration also provide many different options. This volume discusses these issues in terms of the survey research literature as well as the experiences of practitioners in the field. This is the 121st volume of the higher education quarterly journal New Directions for Institutional Research.

Designing and Doing Survey Research

2012-03-22
Designing and Doing Survey Research

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  • Author: Lesley Andres
  • Publisher: SAGE
  • ISBN: 1446273091
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 210

Designing and Doing Survey Research is an introduction to the processes and methods of planning and conducting survey research in the real world. Taking a mixed method approach throughout, the book provides step-by-step guidance on: • Designing your research • Ethical issues • Developing your survey questions • Sampling • Budgeting, scheduling and managing your time • Administering your survey • Preparing for data analysis With a focus on the impact of new technologies, this book provides a cutting-edge look at how survey research is conducted today as well as the challenges survey researchers face. Packed full of international examples from various social science disciplines, the book is ideal for students and researchers new to survey research.

The Problem of the Self-report in Survey Research

1997
The Problem of the Self-report in Survey Research

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  • Author: David A. Northrup
  • Publisher:
  • ISBN: 9781550143126
  • Category : Confidential communications
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 66

Survey Research in the United States

2011-12-31
Survey Research in the United States

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  • Author: Jean M. Converse
  • Publisher: Transaction Publishers
  • ISBN: 1412815797
  • Category : Political Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 587

Hardly an American today escapes being polled or surveyed or sampled. In this illuminating history, Jean Converse shows how survey research came to be perhaps the single most important development in twentieth-century social science. Everyone interested in survey methods and public opinion, including social scientists in many fi elds, will find this volume a major resource. Converse traces the beginnings of survey research in the practical worlds of politics and business, where elite groups sought information so as to infl uence mass democratic publics and markets. During the Depression and World War II, the federal government played a major role in developing surveys on a national scale. In the 1940s certain key individuals with academic connections and experience in polling, business, or government research brought surveys into academic life. By the 1960s, what was initially viewed with suspicion had achieved a measure of scientific acceptance of survey research. The author draws upon a wealth of material in archives, interviews, and published work to trace the origins of the early organizations (the Bureau of Applied Social Research, the National Opinion Research Center, and the Survey Research Center of Michigan), and to capture the perspectives of front-line fi gures such as Paul Lazarsfeld, George Gallup, Elmo Roper, and Rensis Likert. She writes with sensitivity and style, revealing how academic survey research, along with its commercial and political cousins, came of age in the United States.

Handbook of Survey Research

2013-10-22
Handbook of Survey Research

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  • Author: Peter H. Rossi
  • Publisher: Academic Press
  • ISBN: 1483276309
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 775

Handbook of Survey Research provides an introduction to the theory and practice of sample survey research. It addresses both the student who desires to master these topics and the practicing survey researcher who needs a source that codifies, rationalizes, and presents existing theory and practice. The handbook can be organized into three major parts. Part 1 sets forth the basic theoretical issues involved in sampling, measurement, and management of survey organizations. Part 2 deals mainly with ""hands-on,"" how-to-do-it issues: how to draw theoretically acceptable samples, how to write questionnaires, how to combine responses into appropriate scales and indices, how to avoid response effects and measurement errors, how actually to go about gathering survey data, how to avoid missing data (and what to do when you cannot), and other topics of a similar nature. Part 3 considers the analysis of survey data, with separate chapters for each of the three major multivariate analysis modes and one chapter on the uses of surveys in monitoring overtime trends. This handbook will be valuable both to advanced students and to practicing survey researchers seeking a detailed guide to the major issues in the design and analysis of sample surveys and to current state of the art practices in sample surveys.