Learning Objectives for Chapter Seven – Survey Research

 

Pages 180-186

 

 

1.            Discuss² three objectives you  must meet to conduct a successful survey design. Then, provide³ examples of how a survey might fail to meet these objectives.

2.            List¹ five questions researchers should ask before doing survey research.

3.            Generate⁵ a rationale for the following statement, “good research starts with a good hypothesis.” Describe² two steps you can take to increase the chances that your questions relate to your hypothesis.

4.            Provide³ a rationale for the statement: “If you want to know why people do what they do or think what they think, do not use a survey design.

5.            There are four general categories of reasons why people’s self-reports may be inaccurate.

a.   Outline³ each of these categories of reasons.

b.   Produce⁵ an example of a question that falls into each category.

6.            Examine⁴ each of the following as they relate to the question, “if participants know, will they tell?”

a.   social desirability bias

b.   observing demand characteristics

c.    following response sets.

7.            Explain² how nonresponse bias can hurt the external validity of survey research.

 

Pages 187-192

 

8.            Produce⁵ at least one advantage and one disadvantage of each of the following types of questionnaires:

a.   self-administered questionnaire

b.   investigator-administered questionnaire

c.    psychological tests.

9.            List¹ three advantages and three disadvantages of conducting a telephone survey.

10.        Generate⁵ a sample script (at least 5 questions) for a telephone survey asking about concerns about terrorism and amount of television watched.

11.        For the set of questions you devised in the previous objective (or for any other questionnaire you have devised), propose⁵ —using at least three of the six tips listed on pages 188-189—a way to make your survey instrument more valid by making it more like a psychological test.

 

 

Pages 192-202

 

 

12.        Explain² what is meant by a fixed-alternative question. 

13.        Assume that you want to ask a question about political party affiliation.  Create⁵ a question about political party affiliation for each of the following formats:

a.   nominal-dichotomous

b.   Likert-type.

14.        Describe² what is meant by open-ended question.

a.   Describe² the main advantages of open-ended questions

b.   Describe² the main disadvantages of open-ended questions.

15.        Discriminate⁴ between structured, semistructured, and unstructured interviews.

16.        Generate⁵ a list of nine mistakes people make when writing interview questions.

a.   Choose¹ any four of these mistakes and construct³ an example question that makes each mistake.

b.   Modify³ each question you wrote so that it no longer makes the mistake.

17.        Explain² why sequencing of questions matters.

a.   List⁵ five rules for sequencing questions

b.   Compose⁵ a list of five questions and prioritize⁶ them (i.e. put them in the order they should be asked) according to the five rules you listed in 17a.

 

Pages 202-206

 

18.        Define¹ random sampling. Explain² why researchers like to use random sampling.

19.        Suppose that your population is a school of 10,000 students and that you can obtain a random sample of that population. You want to know what percentage of students at that school smoke. Use³ Table 7-2 (page 204) to determine how large your sample would need to be if you wanted to be 95% confident that the percentage of people in your sample who claimed to smoke would be within 3% of the percentage of people who would claim to smoke if you surveyed all 10,000 students.

20.        Use Table 7-2 to decide⁶ how large your population would have to be before you would use random sampling rather than surveying the entire population. Using Table 7-2, justify⁶ your decision.

21.        Contrast⁴ each of the following sampling methods with random sampling.

a.   stratified random sampling

b.   convenience sampling

c.    quota sampling

22.        Rank⁶ the four sampling methods discussed in text (random sampling, proportionate stratified random sampling, convenience sampling, and quota sampling) in terms of their ability to yield a representative sample. Justify⁶ your rankings.

23.        Discuss² how ethical issues should affect how you should plan and conduct survey research.

 

Pages 207-213

 

24.        Explain² the difference between interval and nominal data.

25.        Imagine that your data consists of participants’ answers to the following three questions:

Are you male or female?

How many hours do you study per week?

Do you like college?

Explain² which of those three questions is/are interval and which is/are nominal.

26.        Explain² why you should not calculate a mean on either nominal or ordinal data.

27.        Imagine that you asked a sample of 10 people to answer the questions listed in objective 25.  Their responses are listed below.

Gender	Hours studied	Like college
male	18	no
female	21	no
male	30	yes
female	14	yes
female	29	yes
male	16	yes
male	14	no
female	14	no
male	22	no
female	27	yes

 

a.   Produce⁵ a table comparing the mean number of hours men study to the mean number of hours women study.

b.   Compose⁵ a table that displays the relationship between two predictors—gender and liking of college—on hours studied. 

28.        Using the concepts sample and population, explain² the difference between descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.

29.        Describe² two main reasons for using inferential statistics.

30.        Using the table in objective 27, we calculated that the men in the sample claimed to study an average of 20 hours and that the standard error of the mean for men’s studying was approximately 2.24. Construct³ a 95% confidence interval for the mean number of hours that men study. Explain² what this 95% confidence interval means.

31.        Referring to the survey described in objective 25 (results from that survey are displayed in objective 27),

a.   Name¹ the statistical test you would use to determine whether women studied more than men. Defend⁴ your use of that test.

b.   Name¹ the statistical test you would use to examine the relationship between gender, liking college, and hours studied. Defend⁴ your use of that test.

c.    Finally, name¹ the test you would use to determine whether women liked college more than men. Defend⁴ your use of that test.

32.        Explain² why survey results may be susceptible to Type I errors (“false alarms”). Discuss² one step you could take to reduce your false alarm risk.