Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

A History of Survey Research

The Logic of Survey Research

Construction of the Questionnaire

Types of Surveys: Advantages and

Disadvantages

Survey Interviewing

The Ethical Survey

Conclusion

Survey Research

Every method of data collection, including the survey, is only an approximation

to knowledge. Each provides a different glimpse of reality, and all have limitations

when used alone. Before undertaking a survey the researcher would do well to ask if

this is the most appropriate and fruitful method for the problem at hand. The survey

is highly valuable for studying some problems, such as public opinion,

and worthless for others.

—Donald P. Warwick and Charles A. Lininger,The Sample Survey,pp. 5–6

The survey is the most widely used social science
data-gathering technique. Surveys have many uses
and take many forms—phone interviews, Internet
opinion polls, and various types of questionnaires.

All rely on the principles of the professional social

research survey. Many people say that they will do a

survey to get information when they should say that

they need the most appropriate way to get good data.

In public opinion polls, most Americans say they would vote for a qualified female

presidential candidate. Support for a qualified female candidate has steadily risen from

33 percent in 1937 to more than 92 percent in 2005. However, when survey researchers

ask about controversial issues, they know that social desirability effects are a possibility

(i.e., people give a false opinion so they will conform to general social norms). Streb

et al. (2008) hypothesized that many Americans were being untruthful about this issue on

surveys. Testing such a hypothesis required creativity. They created a list of four issues

(e.g., gasoline prices rising, being required to wear seat belts) and asked how many

“make you angry or upset.” They created a second identical list with the same questions,

but including a fifth issue, “A woman serving as president.” They randomly selected

more than 1,000 people for each list and conducted telephone interviews. The authors

learned that when the woman as president item was on the list, the number of items that

make people angry or upset was 26 percent higher. This suggests that about one in four

people are giving a false, socially desirable answer on opinion polls and actually oppose

a female presidential candidate.