Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

SURVEY RESEARCH

TABLE 4 Types of Surveys and Their Features

FEATURES TYPE OF SURVEY

Mail

Questionnaire

Telephone

Interview

Face-to-Face

Interview

Web

Survey

Administrative Issues
Cost Cheap Moderate Expensive Cheapest
Speed Slowest Fast Slow to moderate Fastest
Length (number of
questions)

Moderate Short Longest Moderate

Response rate Lowest Moderate Highest Moderate

Research Control
Probes possible No Yes Yes No
Specific respondent No Yes Yes No
Question sequence No Yes Yes Yes
Only one respondent No Yes Yes No
Visual observation No No Yes Yes

Success with Different Questions
Visual aids Limited None Yes Yes
Open-ended questions Limited Limited Yes Yes
Contingency questions Limited Yes Yes Yes
Complex questions Limited Limited Yes Yes
Sensitive questions Some Limited Limited Yes

Sources of Bias
Social desirability No Some Worse No
Interviewer bias No Some Worse No
Respondent’s reading
skill level

Ye s No No Some

we discuss here. Computer-assisted telephone

interviewing (CATI)systems are widely used.^51

When using CATI, the interviewer sits in front of a

computer, which makes the calls. Wearing a headset

and microphone, the interviewer reads the questions

from a computer screen for the specific respondent

called and then enters the answer via the computer

keyboard. The computer program will control which

question next appears and will allow for complex

contingency questions. CATI speeds the process and

reduces interviewer errors. It also eliminates the sep-

arate step of having the interviewer write responses

on paper and then having someone else enter infor-

mation into a computer, and speeds data collection.

Interactive voice response (IVR)includes sev-

eral computer-automated systems available through

phone technology and is widely used in marketing.

IVR has a respondent listen to questions and

response options over the telephone and indicate

responses by touch-tone entry or by voice (the com-

puter uses voice recognition software). IVR may

Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI)

Technique in which the interviewer sits before a com-

puter screen and keyboard, reads questions from the

screen, and enters answers directly into the computer.

Interactive voice response (IVR) A technique in

telephone interviewing in which respondents hear

computer-automated questions and indicate their

responses by touch-tone phone entry or voice-

activated software.