Running head: SURVEY RESEARCH 1

Survey Research, its weaknesses and possible ways to minimize them

Harshad Narayan Paradkar
Stratford University, Fall Church
SURVEY RESEARCH 2
Abstract
Research is a very complex activity and a whole lot of data needs to be dealt with. The
researcher needs to gather data from all kinds of sources. There are various ways in which the
researcher gathers data and Survey research is one of the methods of procuring the data. We
discuss in this paper what actually Survey research is, and what are its disadvantages. We will
also discuss what are the ways in which we can overcome the disadvantages.
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Survey Research, its weaknesses and possible ways to minimize them
The researcher will need to gather data from various sources. It can be from historical
data, analyzing facts and figures, etc. Sometimes the researcher himself/herself has to be the tool
or instrument of research, like in qualitative research. One other way to gather data is Survey
Research.
Survey Research
In a survey research, what the researcher actually does is that he/she creates a list of
questionnaire related to the research topic. The researcher may want to know the views of the
people, society, or a group of people. So, the researcher first explains what the research is about
and then presents them with the questionnaire. The questionnaire can contain one or more
questions which the people have to answer. When they have finished answering all of it, the
researcher saves this data and proceeds to another person for their response. How many people to
survey will depend upon the researcher. When the researcher is done with the survey process, the
researcher will analyze the data collected. Some pattern is emerged which will give an insight
upon the topic in terms of the peoples ideas about the topic. Survey research is a very complex
and tiresome process. The researcher has to contact each person and ask for their opinions. After
this, the researcher has to perform some complex calculations and derive results from it.
Weaknesses of Survey Research
There are many weaknesses related to survey research. Sometimes the weakness arises in
the first stage itself in the design of the survey questions. If proper questions are not asked, it will
not be able to capture what needs to be actually procured. Also, surveys are dependent on the
instant you carry out the survey. If you carry out a survey at some instance and again carry out
the same survey at some later instant of time, we may not get the same results from the same
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persons. Conditions change, and the opinions about a particular thing change. Hence, we cannot
carve out the results of surveys in history books, because as per the Greek philosopher
Heraclitus: There is nothing permanent but change. Another important thing to consider which
makes the surveys weak is that it is the peoples response that we are gathering. We are not
gathering data from some hard facts from books, or history. So, we cannot guarantee that the
person answering the questions will be truthful in their opinions. Sometimes, people also get
influenced and do not provide correct responses. If a person is presented with certain
objectionable question to answer, we are not guaranteed to have a 100% true response.
Furthermore, the questions may not be understood or may be misinterpreted by the
people answering the survey. Also, what if the respondent wants a particular option to be present,
but is not present in the survey? This will force the person to look for another option, which does
not reflect the true nature of the facts. For example, the only options available are Yes and No. If
the person answering wanted to answer like Sometimes, or maybe, he wont be able to do so.
Surveys are also very inflexible. Suppose we want to add, delete or edit a delete a
particular question. We wont be able to do so because the survey was already started and we
cannot backtrack.
Sometimes the researcher can inject bias into the survey by influencing the person giving
the survey. If the researcher is asking questions in a face to face manner, the researcher may
frighten and force the person to give a certain response. Also, the researcher can induce bias by
falsely conducting multiple copies of the same survey themselves, or hire people to give their
responses multiple times. The researcher can produce the result which he desires.
Also, sometimes if the survey is an online survey, we are not guaranteed to get a large
volume of responses. The people will try to ignore if they are presented an online survey. As per
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Groves, for a survey to succeed, it must minimize the risk of two types of error: poor
measurement of cases that are surveyed (errors of observation) and omission of cases that should
be surveyed (errors of non-observation).
Ways to overcome weaknesses
Build on Existing Instruments is one way by which we can eliminate some aspects of
weakness of a survey. What it means is that researchers sometimes create a questionnaire in
haste and send it out to conduct surveys. But before doing that, we should analyze if some expert
has given any suggestions on asking such type of questions on that particular topic. Look out for
questions which were previously asked and take cue from it.
Test your questions on a few people before you present it actually to the people. In the
testing phase see if people are able to understand what you are trying to ask. This will eliminate
the possibility where people misunderstand the question asked, and end up giving wrong
feedback.
One other problem faced was that people tend to ignore the online surveys. So, try to
make the survey more attractive so that people dont tend to ignore at the very first sight of it.
Try to gain attention of the people towards the survey. Try to explain the cause and the result that
will be obtained if they answer the survey.
Try to analyze what are the possible responses people can give to a question. Try to
accommodate most of the responses possible to a question. This will reflect the true facts and
what the people were actually feeling about the question asked.
Try to be as simple as possible. Do not try to confuse the people. Do not use complex
English phrases and sentences. The researcher should also avoid Double-Barreled Questions.
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What we mean by Double-Barreled Questions is that we ask two questions in a single sentence,
but expect a single answer to it. For example: Is Nokia and Samsung your favorite brand?
Do not infuse bias into your survey. Firstly, the researcher should conduct fair practices
while conducting the surveys and should also not influence the people participating in the survey
to produce a certain output.
Fence-sitters are some respondents who are not true to the facts and provide false
responses. There is a technique which we can use to fish out such respondents by infusing a
Fence sitting question to identify such people.
Also, sometimes people try to get away by being socially moral beings by showing
themselves to be ideal persons. If a questions is asked like this: Have you ever been to Jail for a
committing a crime? will most of the times not yield actual facts. So, try to reframe such
questions so that it does not look and feel insulting and abusive.
If you can give away the survey methods, you can choose to obtain responses from other
modes like: Mailed Surveys, where the respondents are mailed the questionnaires, and they fill
out their responses as they feel and what they feel. Group-Administered Surveys are another
alternatives to survey researches. For example, surveys conducted in schools.
Conclusion
Survey research is a great way to get responses of people. We can reach out to a wide
range of people, and also to people who are distantly located. Surveys can be conducted in
various ways. It can be done in traditional ways by individually interviewing each person and
obtaining their responses. It can also be conducted by contacting them on the Telephone. Printed
questionnaires can be mailed to people and then collected. More advanced alternative is the
online survey research systems. We can create online surveys which people can access online
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and submit it online itself. The result is sent to our account, and we can also have the data to
analyzed and presented in graphical form by the application. Although surveys have some
weaknesses, they can be overcome to a certain extent, or their alternatives can be chosen.
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References
SAGE Publications. Survey Research. Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-
data/43589_8.pdf
Leedy, Paul D. (2013). Practical research: planning and design / Paul D. Leedy, Jeanne Ellis
Ormrod.10th ed. Pearson Education, Inc., 189-191.
Wyse S. (2012, November 16). Advantages and Disadvantages of Surveys. Retrieved from
http://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/advantages-disadvantages-surveys/
Sincero S. Advantages and Disadvantages of Surveys. Retrieved from
https://explorable.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-surveys