Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Survey Research
Survey Research
Survey research can be classified as field studies with a quantitative orientation. Some consider it a variation of the correlational research design. This chapter concentrates on the use of survey research in scientific research and neglects so-called status surveys. Status surveys have a goal different from survey research. Its aim is to learn the status quo rather than to survey the relations among variables; to examine the current status of some population characteristic.
Survey Research
Only rarely, however, do survey researchers study whole populations; they study samples drawn from populations. From these samples they infer the characteristics of the defined population or universe. Sample surveys attempt to determine the incidence, distribution, and interrelations among sociological and psychological variables, and in so doing, usually focus on people, the vital facts of people, and their beliefs, opinions, and attitudes.
Survey Research
The social scientific nature of survey research is revealed by the nature of its variables, which can be classified as sociological facts, opinions, and attitudes. Sociological facts are attributes of individuals that spring from their membership in social groups: sex, income, political and religious affiliation, socioeconomic status, education, age, living expenses, occupation, race, and so on.
Survey Research
The second type of variable is psychological and includes opinions and attitudes on the one hand, and behavior on the other. Survey researchers are interested not only in relations among sociological variables; they are more likely to be interested in what people think and do, and the relations between sociological and psychological variables.
Types of Surveys
Surveys can be conveniently classified by the following methods of obtaining information: personal interview, mail questionnaire, panel, and telephone. Of course, the personal interview far overshadows the others as perhaps the most powerful and useful tool of social scientific survey research.
Three Studies
Verba and Nie (1972): Political Participation in America. They interviewed more than 2,500 residents of the United States in 200 locales in 1967, selected by an area probability sampling procedure. (Their census-sample comparisons showed generally high agreement.) Docter and Prince (1997): A Survey of Male CrossDressers. They document the differences in the sampling method between the two samples and note the shortcomings of the more recent sample when compared to the earlier sample. Certain things change over time that make it difficult to obtain the exact same research environment from one time period to another.
Three Studies
Sue, Fujino, Hu, Takeuchi, and Zane (1991): Community Health Services for Ethnic Minorities. This study may not exactly fit what some would term as survey research. These researchers did not design the survey for the study , neither did they collect the data for the study. Instead, they used the data supplied from the Automated Information System (AIS) maintained by the Los Angeles.
Meta-Analysis
One might say that it is a kind of survey of the literature. Meta-analysis is quantitative and nonexperimental in nature. Meta-analysis involves taking all of these studies collectively to determine if a similar finding is found again and again under differing situations. Meta-analysis uses the individual studies themselves as the unit of measurement. The results of these individual studies are summarized using measures of effect size, called a d-statistic.
Meta-Analysis
Meta-analysis should not be confused with two other similar approaches: replication and analysis with different models or methods. Meta-analysis essentially combines these two, looking at different methods and different data. The objective with meta-analysis is to generalize the results to new situations.
Meta-Analysis
Meta-analysis is a method that can summarize the results of many studies conducted on the same or similar topic area. It does not require that studies be exactly replicated. Additionally, it has the support of at least one quantitative indexaverage effect sizeto help in the evaluation. Plus, effect size indices can also be compared to each other statistically. There is, however, at least one problem that has been associated with meta-analysisthe file drawer problem.