The Survey Method

How Will the Data Be Analyzed?

What are you interested in? What relationships are you looking for?

In our study, we were interested in the actual proportions for each question.

We were also interested in the relationship between "Gender, Political Views and Being A Crime Victim" versus the "gun ownership, gun ban and usage questions". While quite sophisticated statistical methods can be employed, you can get quite a lot of mileage from easy to understand techniques like Chi-Square and Pearson's Correlation Coefficient.

How Will the Data Be Collected?

Face to Face Interviews:

Pro: Can establish rapport
Con: Easily can be biased by interviewer

Written Responses:

Pro: Easy and cheap for large groups
Con: Response rate may be low for mailed surveys, illiterate subjects, can't clarify items.

Computer Administration:

Pro: Consistent, easy conditional branching, saves on personnel costs
Con: May under-represent computer phobic and illiterate. Survey firms may need new personnel, as old timers can't hack it.

The Future: Selection of subjects and interviews via the Internet. Qualified subjects are offered rewards and prizes for completing surveys. Won't work though for some populations.

Telephone Administration

Pro: Cheap, less effort to reach random samples. Rapid to administer from a central location.
Con: Bias and lack of rapport. See Below:
THE DARK SIDE OF INTERVIEWING AND PHONE SOLICITATION: Survey research is incredibly dependent on credible samples. We have discussed various sampling methods, methods of gathering and bias inducing questions. However, you may not have thought about this. Ask how the interviewers (face to face, telephone) are paid. Many firms hire young people, folks on the edge of society or people or who are broke. They are paid minimum wage plus a commission if they complete an interview. Thus, they are under tremendous pressure to complete a survey. The wrong answer on a qualifying question for the sample will cause them not to get paid more than about $5.50 per hour versus receiving $15.00 for a completed interview. What do you think happens? If the interviewers are not professional and there is high turnover - Watch Out!!