Research Methodology-

Survey Method
MCJ II year, Sem III
How common is a survey in our daily lives?
• Cooking rice?
• Feedback forms in supermarkets
• Facebook surveys and app ratings

• The infamous 1936 presidential poll by Literary Digest: Alfred Landon

vs. Franklin Roosevelt
What is a survey?
• The survey is a research technique in which data are gathered by asking questions of respondents.

• Survey research uses a written questionnaire or formal interview to gather information on the backgrounds,
behaviors, beliefs, or attitudes of a large number of people(usually called respondents).
• Survey research is one of the most important areas of measurement in applied social research.

• The broad area of survey research encompasses any measurement procedures that involve
asking questions of respondents.

A "survey" can be anything form a short paper-and-pencil feedback form to an intensive one-on-one
in-depth interview.
• Audience and consumer surveys are commonplace in all areas of life.
• Decision makers in businesses, consumer and activist groups, politics, and the media use survey
results as part of their daily routine.

• Fortunately, the increased use of surveys has created changes in the way many of the studies are
conducted and reported.

• More attention (although not enough) is given to sample selection, questionnaire design, and error
rates.

• Survey research, including online surveys, requires careful planning and execution, and the
research must take into account a wide variety of decisions and problems.
• Unlike an experiment, we do not manipulate a situation or condition to see how people react; we only
carefully record answers from many people who have been asked the same questions.
• Often we select the people for a survey using a random sampling technique.
• This allows us to generalize information legitimately from a few people (e.g., 1,000) to many more (e.g.,
several million).
• We usually present survey data in charts, graphs, or tables and analyze them with statistics.
• Most frequently, we use surveys in descriptive research, sometimes in explanatory research, and only rarely
in exploratory research.

• Thus, Survey research can be defined as Quantitative research in which the researcher systematically asks a
large number of people the same questions and then records their answers.
Types of Surveys

• Surveys can be divided into two broad categories: the questionnaire and the interview.

• Questionnaires are usually paper-and-pencil instruments that the respondent completes.

• Interviews are completed by the interviewer based on the respondent says.

• Sometimes, it's hard to tell the difference between a questionnaire and an interview. For instance,
some people think that questionnaires always ask short closed-ended questions while interviews
always ask broad open-ended ones.

• But you will see questionnaires with open-ended questions (although they do tend to be shorter
than in interviews) and there will often be a series of closed-ended questions asked in an interview.
Census and Sample Survey
• All items in any field of inquiry constitute a ‘Universe’ or ‘Population.’
• A complete enumeration of all items in the ‘population’ is known as a census inquiry. It can be presumed that
in such an inquiry, when all items are covered, no element of chance is left and highest accuracy is obtained.
But in practice this may not be true.
• Even the slightest element of bias in such an inquiry will get larger and larger as the number of observation
increases. Besides, this type of inquiry involves a great deal of time, money and energy.
• Therefore, when the field of inquiry is large, this method becomes difficult to adopt because of the resources
involved. At times, this method is practically beyond the reach of ordinary researchers.
• The government is probably the only institution which can get the complete enumeration carried out. Even
the government adopts this in very rare cases such as population census conducted once in a decade.
• Further, many a time it is not possible to examine every item in the population, and sometimes it is possible
to obtain sufficiently accurate results by studying only a part of total population. In such cases there is no
utility of census surveys.
But if the universe is a small one, it is no use resorting to a sample survey.

When field studies are undertaken in practical life, considerations of time and cost almost invariably lead to a
selection of respondents i.e., selection of only a few items.
The respondents selected should be as representative of the total population as possible in order to produce a
miniature cross-section.

The selected respondents constitute what is technically called a ‘sample’ and the selection process is called
‘sampling technique.’ The survey so conducted is known as ‘sample survey’.

• Data Collection: When we do research of the descriptive type and perform surveys, whether sample surveys or
census surveys, then we can obtain primary data either through observation or through direct communication
with respondents in one form or another or through personal interviews. This, in other words, means that there
are several methods of collecting primary data, particularly in surveys and descriptive researches.
• Important ones are: (i) observation method, (ii) interview method, (iii) through questionnaires, (iv) through
schedules, and (v) other methods which include (a) warranty cards; (b) distributor audits; (c) pantry audits; (d)
consumer panels; (e) using mechanical devices; (f) through projectivetechniques; (g) depth interviews, and (h)
content analysis.
Points to note
• Surveys are majorly conducted in case of descriptive research studies.
• Survey-type research studies usually have larger samples because the percentage of responses generally
happens to be low, as low as 20 to 30%, especially in mailed questionnaire studies. Thus, the survey method
gathers data from a relatively large number of cases at a particular time; it is essentially cross-sectional.
• Surveys are concerned with describing, recording, analysing and interpreting conditions that either exist or
existed.
• The researcher does not manipulate the variable or arrange for events to happen. Surveys are only concerned
with conditions or relationships that exist, opinions that are held, processes that are going on, effects that are
evident or trends that are developing.
• They are primarily concerned with the present but at times do consider past events and influences as they
relate to current conditions. Thus, in surveys, variables that exist or have already occurred are selected and
observed.
• Surveys are usually appropriate in case of social and behavioural sciences (because many types of behaviour
that interest the researcher cannot be arranged in a realistic setting). surveys are appropriate when we want to
learn about self-reported beliefs or behaviors. Most surveys ask many questions at once, thereby measuring
many variables. This allows us to gather descriptive information and test multiple hypotheses in a single survey.

• Surveys are concerned with hypothesis formulation and testing the analysis of the relationship between non-
manipulated variables.

• Surveys may either be census or sample surveys. They may also be classified as social surveys, economic
surveys or public opinion surveys. Whatever be their type, the method of data collection happens to be either
observation, or interview or questionnaire/opinionnaire or some projective technique(s). Case study method can
as well be used.

• In case of surveys, research design must be rigid, must make enough provision for protection against bias.

• In most social and business surveys our interest lies in understanding and controlling relationships between
variables and as such correlation analysis is relatively more important in surveys.
• Pilot Survey

• Experience Survey
Selecting the Survey Method

• Selecting the type of survey you are going to use is one of the most critical decisions in many social
research contexts. You'll have to use your judgment to balance the advantages and disadvantages
of different survey types.

• Population Issues
• Can the population be enumerated?
• For some populations, you have a complete listing of the units that will be sampled. For others,
such a list is difficult or impossible to compile. For instance, there are complete listings of registered
voters or person with active drivers licenses. But no one keeps a complete list of homeless people. If
you are doing a study that requires input from homeless persons, you are very likely going to need
to go and find the respondents personally. In such contexts, you can pretty much rule out the idea
of mail surveys or telephone interviews.
• Is the population literate?
• Questionnaires require that your respondents can read. While this might seem initially like a
reasonable assumption for many adult populations, we know from recent research that the instance
of adult illiteracy is alarmingly high. And, even if your respondents can read to some degree, your
questionnaire may contain difficult or technical vocabulary. Clearly, there are some populations
that you would expect to be illiterate. Young children would not be good targets for questionnaires.

• Are there language issues?

• We live in a multilingual world. Virtually every society has members who speak other than the
predominant language. Some countries (like Canada) are officially multilingual. And, our
increasingly global economy requires us to do research that spans countries and language groups.
Can you produce multiple versions of your questionnaire? For mail instruments, can you know in
advance the language your respondent speaks, or do you send multiple translations of your
instrument? Can you be confident that important connotations in your instrument are not
culturally specific? Could some of the important nuances get lost in the process of translating your
questions?
• Will the population cooperate?
• People who do research on immigration issues have a difficult methodological problem. They often
need to speak with undocumented immigrants or people who may be able to identify others who
are. Why would we expect those respondents to cooperate? Although the researcher may mean no
harm, the respondents are at considerable risk legally if information they divulge should get into
the hand of the authorities. The same can be said for any target group that is engaging in illegal or
unpopular activities.

• What are the geographic restrictions?

• Is your population of interest dispersed over too broad a geographic range for you to study feasibly
with a personal interview? It may be possible for you to send a mail instrument to a nationwide
sample. You may be able to conduct phone interviews with them. But it will almost certainly be less
feasible to do research that requires interviewers to visit directly with respondents if they are
widely dispersed.
• Sampling Issues
• The sample is the actual group you will have to contact in some way. There are several important sampling
issues you need to consider when doing survey research.

• What data is available?: What information do you have about your sample? Do you know their current
addresses? Their current phone numbers? Are your contact lists up to date?

• Can respondents be found?: Can your respondents be located? Some people are very busy. Some travel a
lot. Some work the night shift. Even if you have an accurate phone or address, you may not be able to locate
or make contact with your sample.

• Who is the respondent?: Who is the respondent in your study? Let's say you draw a sample of households
in a small city. A household is not a respondent. Do you want to interview a specific individual? Do you
want to talk only to the "head of household" (and how is that person defined)? Are you willing to talk to
any member of the household? Do you state that you will speak to the first adult member of the household
who opens the door? What if that person is unwilling to be interviewed but someone else in the house is
willing? How do you deal with multi-family households? Similar problems arise when you sample groups,
agencies, or companies. Can you survey any member of the organization? Or, do you only want to speak to
the Director of Human Resources? What if the person you would like to interview is unwilling or unable to
participate? Do you use another member of the organization?
• Can all members of population be sampled?: If you have an incomplete list of the population (i.e.,
sampling frame) you may not be able to sample every member of the population. Lists of various
groups are extremely hard to keep up to date. People move or change their names. Even though
they are on your sampling frame listing, you may not be able to get to them. And, it's possible they
are not even on the list.

• Are response rates likely to be a problem?: Even if you are able to solve all of the other population
and sampling problems, you still have to deal with the issue of response rates. Some members of
your sample will simply refuse to respond. Others have the best of intentions, but can't seem to find
the time to send in your questionnaire by the due date. Still others misplace the instrument or
forget about the appointment for an interview. Low response rates are among the most difficult of
problems in survey research. They can ruin an otherwise well-designed survey effort.

• Question Issues
• What types of questions can be asked?
• Are you going to be asking personal questions? Are you going to need to get lots of detail in the
responses? Can you anticipate the most frequent or important types of responses and develop
reasonable closed-ended questions?
• How complex will the questions be?
• Sometimes you are dealing with a complex subject or topic. The questions you want to ask are
going to have multiple parts. You may need to branch to sub-questions.

• Will screening questions be needed?

• A screening question may be needed to determine whether the respondent is qualified to answer
your question of interest. For instance, you wouldn't want to ask someone their opinions about a
specific computer program without first "screening" them to find out whether they have any
experience using the program. Sometimes you have to screen on several variables (e.g., age, gender,
experience). The more complicated the screening, the less likely it is that you can rely on paper-
and-pencil instruments without confusing the respondent.

• Can question sequence be controlled?

• Is your survey one where you can construct in advance a reasonable sequence of questions? Or, are
you doing an initial exploratory study where you may need to ask lots of followup questions that
you can't easily anticipate?
• Will lengthy questions be asked?
• If your subject matter is complicated, you may need to give the respondent some detailed background
for a question. Can you reasonably expect your respondent to sit still long enough in a phone interview
to ask your question?

• Will long response scales be used?

• If you are asking people about the different computer equipment they use, you may have to have a
lengthy response list (CD-ROM drive, floppy drive, mouse, touch pad, modem, network connection,
external speakers, etc.). Clearly, it may be difficult to ask about each of these in a short phone interview.

• Content Issues
• Can the respondents be expected to know about the issue?
• If the respondent does not keep up with the news (e.g., by reading the newspaper, watching television
news, or talking with others), they may not even know about the news issue you want to ask them
about. Or, if you want to do a study of family finances and you are talking to the spouse who doesn't
pay the bills on a regular basis, they may not have the information to answer your questions.
• Will respondent need to consult records?
• Even if the respondent understands what you're asking about, you may need to allow them to
consult their records in order to get an accurate answer. For instance, if you ask them how much
money they spent on food in the past month, they may need to look up their personal check and
credit card records. In this case, you don't want to be involved in an interview where they would
have to go look things up while they keep you waiting (they wouldn't be comfortable with that).

• Bias Issues
• Can social desirability be avoided?
• Respondents generally want to "look good" in the eyes of others. None of us likes to look like we
don't know an answer. We don't want to say anything that would be embarrassing. If you ask
people about information that may put them in this kind of position, they may not tell you the
truth, or they may "spin" the response so that it makes them look better. This may be more of a
problem in an interview situation where they are face-to face or on the phone with a live
interviewer.
• Can interviewer distortion and subversion be controlled?
• Interviewers may distort an interview as well. They may not ask questions that make them
uncomfortable. They may not listen carefully to respondents on topics for which they have strong
opinions. They may make the judgment that they already know what the respondent would say to
a question based on their prior responses, even though that may not be true.

• Can false respondents be avoided?

• With mail surveys it may be difficult to know who actually responded. Did the head of household
complete the survey or someone else? Did the CEO actually give the responses or instead pass the
task off to a subordinate? Is the person you're speaking with on the phone actually who they say
they are? At least with personal interviews, you have a reasonable chance of knowing who you are
speaking with. In mail surveys or phone interviews, this may not be the case.

• Administrative Issues
• Costs: Cost is often the major determining factor in selecting survey type. You might prefer to do
personal interviews, but can't justify the high cost of training and paying for the interviewers. You
may prefer to send out an extensive mailing but can't afford the postage to do so.
• Facilities: Do you have the facilities (or access to them) to process and manage your study? In
phone interviews, do you have well-equipped phone surveying facilities? For focus groups, do you
have a comfortable and accessible room to host the group? Do you have the equipment needed to
record and transcribe responses?

• Time: Some types of surveys take longer than others. Do you need responses immediately (as in an
overnight public opinion poll)? Have you budgeted enough time for your study to send out mail
surveys and follow-up reminders, and to get the responses back by mail? Have you allowed for
enough time to get enough personal interviews to justify that approach?

• Personnel: Different types of surveys make different demands of personnel. Interviews require
interviewers who are motivated and well-trained. Group administered surveys require people who
are trained in group facilitation. Some studies may be in a technical area that requires some degree
of expertise in the interviewer.
Advantages
• Survey methods have wide scope. In other words through survey method a great deal of information can be
obtained by studying the larger population
• It is more accurate. As Kerlinger (1986) has put it.” The accuracy of properly drawn samples is frequently
surprising, even to experts in the field. A sample of 600 to 700 individuals or families can give a remarkably
accurate portrait of a community its values attitudes and beliefs.
• Survey methods has been frequently used in almost all the social sciences. Hence the method has inter-
disciplinary value. In fact such researches provide raw materials for a vast increasing “ gross disciplinary
research” (Cambell & Katona,1953).

• Survey method is considered a very important and indispensable tool for studying social attitudes, beliefs,
values etc. with accuracy at the economic rate.
Disadvantages
• Survey methods remains at the surface and it does not penetrate into the depth of the problem being
investigated.

• Survey method are time consuming, and demand a good amount of expenditure.

• Although it is true that survey research is accurate, it is still subject to sampling errors. In survey research
there is always the probability of one chances in a twenty or hundred with an error, more serious than minor
fluctuation of a chance, may occur and distort the validity of the result obtained.

• Survey method demands expertise, research knowledge and sophistication on the part of the researcher. In
other words the researcher must know the techniques of sampling, questionnaire construction, interviewing
and analysis of data.