textbook : https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/psychmethods4e/chapter/constructing-surveys/
Complementary video:
https://www.pewresearch.org/methods/2018/03/21/video-explainer-understanding-survey-question-wording/
Classmate’s survey Link 1:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1L_aGkGeoyVBkL2f9vHEnXNSFsNHR3pnVKH6yQ0b1908/edit?pli=1
Classmate’s survey Link 2:
https://forms.gle/9R8Bypcy8BVV9vRdA
Part III: Survey Participation & Feedback – First participate in at least 2 of your classmate’s surveys then –
- Provide feedback to at least two of your classmates. Please include the following in your responses:
Identify at least one strength and one weakness for the open-ended questions.
Identify at least one strength and one weakness for the closed-ended questions.
For each weakness, provide a possible solution.These responses should incorporate your knowledge of survey construction – consider BRUSO and the cognitive model for responding to surveys when evaluating and discussing what worked and what didn’t.
Each response should be at least 6 sentences.
Note:
- Your posts must be in your own words. Work that is not original will not receive credit.
- Your responses must be in college-level English.
- Please refer to the rubric for full scoring criteria.
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Survey Research
The following lecture on Survey Research was written by Heidi Iseman, a graduate student in
Clinical Psychology at Cal State University, Fullerton. She is currently working on her master’s
th
esis. She and her thesis advisor are using survey research to conduct the research.
Overview of Survey Research
What is a survey and why would you use one when conducting psychological research? Survey
research can be either qualitative or quantitative and involves asking respondents to provide
self-report responses to questions about their thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Researchers who
use survey research prefer to have random samples that are as large as possible so their findings
represent the population as much as possible. Surveys are a great research method to use if you
need a large number of participants.
Survey research started around the beginning of the 20 century when English and American
“social surveys” were used to learn more about social issues, such as poverty. Surveys are widely
used by researchers within the government, as well as among academics in many fields, such as
psychology, sociology, political science, market research, and public health.
Why is survey research useful?
In addition to its important uses in many different fields, survey research has provided prevalence
information about mental disorders in the United States. One such survey is The National
Comorbidity Survey: http://www.hcp.med.harvard.edu/ncs (https://www.google.com/url?
q=http://www.hcp.med.harvard.edu/ncs&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNHGgRvKIdEBbW5iqCRTVDJMgBDeaA) .
This large-scale mental health survey has gathered information about the prevalence of mental
disorders and how they are associated with important outcome variables. This type of study helps
inform policymakers, as well as mental health providers.
Constructing Surveys
When a respondent answers a survey question, there is a psychological process that he or she
goes through. One cognitive model of responding to a survey question involves first interpreting
the question, then retrieving information, forming a judgment, formatting a response, and lastly,
editing the response (Sudman, Bradburn, & Schwarz, 1996). The chapter provides an example of
this process using a survey question about alcohol use. First, respondents need to be able to
accurately interpret the question. This is why it is important for researchers to use language that
is free from jargon and easy to understand. Next, the respondent would need to retrieve
information from his or her memory regarding how much he or she drinks. Different factors might
influence how well the participant is able to retrieve information, such as cognitive ability and the
presence of a substance use disorder. Then, the respondent would use the information retrieved
to arrive at a judgment of how much he or she actually drinks. It is important to remember that this
is a judgment and therefore is subjective. The survey researcher has to trust that the respondent
is able to accurately judge their drinking behavior. After the participant is makes a judgment, he or
th
https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.hcp.med.harvard.edu/ncs&sa=D&usg=AFQjCNHGgRvKIdEBbW5iqCRTVDJMgBDeaA
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she would then format their responses to fit the answer choices made available to them. Lastly,
the respondent may edit their response based on the options available.
One important factor to consider when interpreting survey responses is context effects. Context
effects refer to how the context in which the question is presented, rather than the actual content,
influence responses. An example of a context effect is an item-order effect, where the order in
which the question is presented influences how participants respond. In other words, responses
are affected by earlier questions. Respondents may be psychologically primed or have certain
schema activated when one question is presented before another. Participants can also be
influenced by the order in which response options are presented, which is why counterbalancing
is an important technique. Counterbalancing involves randomizing the response options so the
findings are not unduly influenced by order effects.
There are different types of items that can be included in a survey. One type is an open-ended
item, where respondents are asked a question where they can provide their own unique answer.
One example provided in the text is “What is the most important thing to teach children to prepare
them for life?” This question is open-ended because the respondent has the freedom to provide
his or her own response. These types of items are useful when researchers are conducting
qualitative research or are at the early stages of research project development.
In contrast, closed-ended items involve presenting a question and a set of predetermined
responses for the participant to choose from. These types of items are useful for quantitative
research and are used when researchers are aware of what types of responses they should be
getting. Closed-ended items lend themselves well to quantitative research because they do not
need to be re-coded, as might an open-ended item. These types of items can be easily converted
onto a spreadsheet and statistically analyzed. When researchers use closed-ended items that
are quantitative in nature, a rating scale is often used. A rating scale provides an ordered set of
responses that the participant can choose from. One of the most popular types of rating scales is
a Likert Scale. The original Likert Scale was developed in the 1930s by a researcher named
Rensis Likert. A Likert Scale involves presenting the respondent with a question where he or she
can either agree or disagree and then measuring their response along a 5-point scale ranging
from Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree, andStrongly Disagree.
Effective survey items follow the BRUSO acronym. They are brief, relevant, unambiguous, and
objective. Questionnaire items should not be overly long, irrelevant to the research study, difficult
to interpret, or subjective. It is important to carefully edit and screen the items included in the
survey to ensure that the responses obtained are valid and reliable. The chapter provides some
examples of poor and effective items.
After the researcher has chosen the items to be included in the survey, he or she must format the
survey. Typically, a survey begins with an introduction where the researcher describes the
purpose of the study, acknowledges academic affiliations or sponsorships, and recognizes and
thanks the participant for taking part in the study. The researcher must obtain informed consent
from the participant and should provide information, such as how long the survey will take to
complete, the types of questions that will be asked, as well informing the participant that he or she
can withdraw from the study at any time.
Conducting Surveys
Once you have created your survey, the next step is to determine how you are going to conduct
it. First, you will have to find a sample of individuals who will take your survey. There are two
main forms of sampling. Probability sampling refers to when the researcher knows the
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probability that each member of the population is likely to be part of the sample. Some examples
of probability sampling are simple random sampling, stratified random sampling, and cluster
sampling. These forms of sampling are further discussed in the chapter.
The following video describes the types of probability sampling and how they are conducted:
4.2 Probability Sampling Techniques
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jauhoR7w1YM)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jauhoR7w1YM)
Non-probability sampling refers to when the researcher does not know the probability that each
member will be selected. One example of non-probability sampling is convenience sampling.
Convenience sampling is when the researcher gathers whichever participants are the easiest to
recruit.
This video from Pew Research discusses non-probability (online opt in) surveys – Methods 101:
What are non-probability surveys? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9dmq6Lwh24)
One important concept to consider is sampling bias. Sampling bias occurs when a sample is not
representative of the population. Sampling bias can create inaccurate results that cannot be
generalized. Probability sampling was created as a means of reducing sampling bias.
The most common form of sampling bias is non-response bias. This refers to when individuals
who do not take part in the survey differ in significant ways from the members of the population
who did take part in the survey. Some methods of reducing non-response bias are to provide
potential participants with reminders, notifying them ahead of time, incentivizing participation, and
creating surveys that are short and easy to complete.
How can you distribute your survey?
Lastly, the chapter summarizes the four main ways that surveys are distributed: through mail, over
the phone, online, and in-person. In-person surveys yield the highest response rates but are the
most expensive. Internet surveys and mail surveys are the least expensive, yet they have the
lowest response rates. Internet surveys are rapidly gaining popularity and are projected to be the
most commonly used way of obtaining survey data.
Below are some of the most commonly used websites to create and distribute online surveys:
http://www.qualtrics.com (http://www.qualtrics.com/)
http://www.surveymonkey.com (http://www.surveymonkey.com/)
https://requester.mturk.com/create/projects/new
(https://requester.mturk.com/create/projects/new)
http://www.qualtrics.com/
http://www.surveymonkey.com/
https://requester.mturk.com/create/projects/new
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