Invitation to Psychology

22 Chapter 1 What Is Psychology?

And again, technology can help, because many

people feel more anonymous when they interact

with a computer than when they fill out a paper-

and-pencil questionnaire, and so are less likely to

lie (Turner et al., 1998). If the survey is filled out

online, however, it may be hard to know whether

participants have understood the questions and

have taken them seriously.

When you hear about the results of a survey

or opinion poll, you also need to consider which

questions were (and were not) asked, and how

the questions were phrased. These aspects of a

survey’s design may nudge responses in a par-

ticular direction, as political pollsters well know

(“Do you favor raising your property tax to spend

millions of dollars to repair your local schools?”

is more likely to evoke a no than “Do you favor

rebuilding schools that are decaying, lack heat,

and are infested with rats?”). Many years ago,

the famed sex researcher Alfred Kinsey made it

his practice always to ask, “How many times have

you (masturbated, had nonmarital sex, etc.)?”

rather than “Have you ever (masturbated, had

nonmarital sex, etc.)?” The first way of phras-

ing the question tended to elicit more truthful

responses than the second because it removed

the respondent’s self-consciousness about hav-

ing done any of those things. The second way

of phrasing the question would have permitted

embarrassed respondents to reply with a simple

but dishonest “No.”

As you can see, although surveys can be ex-

tremely informative, they must be conducted and

interpreted carefully.

newspapers and on the Internet usually have not

been evaluated for either validity or reliability.

These questionnaires often have inviting head-

lines such as “What Breed of Dog Do You Most

Resemble?” or “What’s Your Love Profile?” but

they are merely lists of questions that someone

thought sounded good.

Surveys LO 1.12

Psychological tests usually generate information

about people indirectly. In contrast, surveys are

questionnaires and interviews that gather infor-

mation by asking people directly about their ex-

periences, attitudes, or opinions about everything

from political preferences to sexual preferences.

Most of us are familiar with national opinion sur-

veys, such as the Gallup and Roper polls. And if

you eat at a restaurant, get your car serviced, stay

at a hotel, or order something online, you’re apt

to get a satisfaction survey five minutes later. How

reliable are all these surveys?

Surveys produce bushels of data, but they are

not easy to do well. Sampling problems are often

an issue. When a talk-radio host or TV personal-

ity invites people to

post comments on

the Internet about a

political matter, the

results are unlikely to

generalize to the pop-

ulation as a whole,

even if thousands of

people respond. Why? As a group, people who listen

to someone like Rush Limbaugh are more conser-

vative than fans of someone like Jon Stewart.

Popular polls and surveys also frequently suf-

fer from a volunteer bias: People who are willing

to volunteer their opinions may differ from those

who decline to take part. When you read about a

survey, or any other kind of study, always ask who

participated. A nonrepresentative sample does not

necessarily mean that a survey is worthless or un-

interesting, but it does mean that the results may

not hold true for other groups.

Yet another problem with surveys, as with

self-reports in general, is that people sometimes

lie, especially when the survey is about a touchy

or embarrassing topic (“I would never do that

disgusting/dishonest/fattening thing!”) or asks

about an illegal act, such as using banned drugs

(Tourangeau & Yan, 2007). The likelihood of ly-

ing is reduced when respondents are guaranteed

anonymity and allowed to respond in private.

Researchers can also check for lying by asking the

same question several times with different word-

ing to see whether the answers are consistent.

Surveys

and interviews that ask
people directly about
their experiences, atti-
tudes, or opinions.

About Opinion Polls

and Surveys

volunteer bias A
shortcoming of findings
derived from a sample
of volunteers instead of
a representative sample;
the volunteers may differ
from those who did not
volunteer.

Thinking

CriTiCally

©The New Yorker Collection 1970 Henry Martin from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.

“Are you (a) contented, (b) happy, (c) very happy,

(d) wildly happy, (e) deliriously happy?”