Surveys
Dec 26, 2015
Survey Components
• What do you want to know? The research question
• What/who/where do you want to survey? The sample
• What type (or mode) of survey? How much energy and time will it take (to administer and to analyse) and how much will it cost? Survey Planning
Type or Mode of survey
• Observational – eg traffic patterns, public transport use, gender
difference in mall behaviour• Surveys– Interviews (structured, unstructured)
Individual, group– Questionnaires
Individual, group, mailed, household dropoff, computerized ...
– Systematic sampling, convenience sampling, snowball sampling, selected respondents
Questionnaire Design
• Only ask questions that you really want the answer to
• Start with dot points about the broad question areas then compose your specific questions. Make them flow in a logical order
• Pilot (trial) the survey with a few people of the group(s) your survey will be aimed at
• Your response rate (how many people complete the survey) will probably be less than the number of surveys you distribute
Questionnaire Design
• All questions must be checked for bias (you need someone else to check this for you) – don’t ask questions in a way that forces an answer or creates an opinion
• All questions must meet ethical requirements (refer to SACE Code of Conduct for Ethical research)
• It is usual for a written questionnaire to be accompanied by a letter explaining the purpose of the survey; an authorization letter should be obtained from the school or research coordinator
Questionnaire Design
• Open ended questions5. Do you have any comments you would like to
make about the new shopping centre?
• Closed questions – visual analogue scale5. How do you rate the impact of the new
shopping centre overall? Please place a mark on the line
Extremely negative Extremely positive
Questionnaire Design
• Closed questions – Likert Scale5. How do you rate the impact of the new
shopping centre overall? Please circle one answer only
Excellent Good Average Poor Very Poor
Questionnaire Design
• Multiple response questions5. What are the best features of the new
shopping centre? Tick all that apply Location Parking availability Range of stores Decor Girls that hangout there
Questionnaire Design
• Ranking questions5. What are the best features of the new
shopping centre? Number in order. 1 = best Location Parking availability Range of stores Decor Girls that hangout there
Questionnaire Analysis
• Open ended questions– coding categories, shaping (patterns and themes)– Explaining – Too time consuming if you want to survey a lot of
people• Multiple response questions (or ranking
questions), Likert scale questions– frequency distributions
Questionnaire Analysis
• Visual analogue scale– Easiest to treat by deciding how many sections
you want to divide the line into eg quintiles 5– Do this “grouping” for other types of continuous
statistics (eg lead levels in blood)– Frequency distributions: histograms (continuous
variables, no gaps between columns), bar diagrams (discrete variables – gaps between bars)
Questionnaire Analysis
• A good report will include– Total sample size– Response rate– Mode of sampling or selection
Questionnaires
• Self completed questionnaires– Cheap– Usually quick and convenient for respondents– Anonymous– Stable, consistent and uniform measure– Wide coverage– But unless filled in on the spot, response rate will
be low
Questionnaires
www.surveymonkey.comFor online survey and analysis
Use with intelligence – it can make a monkey out of you
Existing data sets
http://www.abs.gov.au/ The obvious one. All kinds of statistics about all
kinds of things Australian. And from the ABS site, links to many other
relevant sites via the “Links” in the header (for example, http://hccda.anu.edu.au/ the website of Australian archival statistics),
or “International statistics” in the left hand column.
Existing data sets
Health (my area)http://www.publichealth.gov.au/ Social health atlas 2010This on-line publication looks at social determinants of health in
Australia. Do you want to know the pattern of respiratory disease in the suburbs of Adelaide? This is the appropriate source.
http://www.gapminder.org/ Wonderful interactive website with WHO statistics. Great for
comparing countries on various measures of health over time. http://www.health.gov.au/ As with all websites, you need to know where to look, but you can find
things like Disease Surveillance statistics, immunization statistics etc.
Articles on quantitative health research www.bmj.com – and click on the banner heading that says Research
Resources on surveysA Google search will find you plenty. Here are some I like:http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/research/survey/pop2b.cfm www.utexas.edu/.../diia/.../survey/survey_tables_questiontypes.pdf http://www.greatbrook.com/survey_question.htm
SACE resources
•IDENTIFYING A RESEARCH QUESTION, GUIDING QUESTION, FOCUS QUESTION, OR HYPOTHESIS
•EVALUATING RESEARCH SOURCES
•HOW TO CONDUCT A CASE STUDY
Free