Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

SURVEY RESEARCH

Satisficing Avoiding exerting cognitive effort when

answering survey questions and giving the least

demanding answer that will satisfy the minimal require-

ments of a survey question or interview situation.

Closed-ended questions require us to make
many decisions. How many response choices do we
provide? Should we offer a middle or neutral
choice? What should be the order of responses?
What types of response choices should be included?
Answers to these questions are not easy. For exam-
ple, two response choices are too few, but more than
seven are rarely a benefit. We want to measure
meaningful distinctions, not collapse them. More
specific answer choices yield more information, but
too many specifics create respondent confusion. For
example, rephrasing the question “Are you satisfied
with your dentist?” (which has a yes/no answer) to
“How satisfied are you with your dentist: very sat-
isfied, somewhat satisfied, somewhat dissatisfied,
or not satisfied at all?” gives us more information
and a respondent more choices.

Neutral Positions, Floaters, and Selective
Refusals

Failing to get valid responses from each respondent
weakens a survey. Respondents may answer three
ways that yield invalid responses.

1. Swayed opinion.This involves falsely over-
   stating a position as with the social desirability
   bias, or falsely understating or withholding a
   position as with sensitive topics.
   2.False positive. This results from selecting an
   attitude position but lacking any knowledge on

an issue and really having no true opinion or

view on it.

3. False negative.Caused when a respondent
   refuses to answer some questions or withholds
   an answer when he or she actually has infor-
   mation or really holds an opinion.

The three types of responses overlap. The first

involves an inaccurate direction of a response toward

a normative position, the second substitutes wild

guesses for a serious response, and the last type is the

partial and selective nonresponse to the survey.^28

Neutral Positions.Survey researchers debate

whether they should offer respondents who lack

knowledge or have no position a neutral position

and a “no opinion” choice.^29

Some argue against offering a neutral or middle

position and the no opinion option and favor pres-

suring respondents to give a response.^30 This per-

spective holds that respondents engage in satisficing;

that is, they pick no opinion or a neutral response to

avoid the cognitive effort of answering. Those with

this position maintain that the least educated respon-

dents may pick a no opinion option when they actu-

ally have one they believe that pressuring respondents

for an answer does not lower data quality.

Others argue that it is best to offer a neutral (“no

opinion”) choice because people often answer ques-

tions to please others or not to appear ignorant.

Respondents may give opinions on fictitious issues,

objects, and events. By offering a nonattitude (mid-

dle or no opinion) choice, we can identify respon-

dents without an opinion and separate them from

respondents who really have one.

Floaters.Survey questions address the issue of

nonattitudes with three types of attitude questions:

standard-format, quasi-filter, and full-filter ques-

tions (see Expansion Box 6, Standard-Format,

Quasi-Filter, and Full-Filter Questions). The

standard-format questiondoes not offer a “don’t

know” choice; a respondent must volunteer it.

Aquasi-filter questionoffers a “don’t know”

alternative. A full-filter questionis a special type

of contingency question. It first asks whether

respondents have an opinion, and then asks for the

opinion of those who state that they do have one.

Quasi-filter question A survey research inquiry that

includes the answer choice “no opinion,” “unsure,” or

“don’t know.”

Full-filter question A survey research inquiry that

first asks respondents whether they have an opinion

or know about a topic; then only those with an opin-

ion or knowledge are asked specifically about the

topic.

Standard-format question A survey research inquiry

for which the answer categories do not include a “no

opinion” or “don’t know” option.