The Practice of Survey Research
Theory and Applications
1st Edition
Published on 8. July 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
360 pages
978-1-4522-3527-1 (ISBN)
Description
Unique in its integration of theory and application, this comprehensive book explains survey design, implementation, data analysis, and continuing data management, including how to effectively incorporate the latest technology (e.g., SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics). Data management and analysis are demonstrated and explained through statistical software including SPSS, SAS, and STATA. In addition to helping students develop a complete understanding of survey research from start to finish, the authors also address the challenges and issues of specific disciplines.
Reviews / Votes
"Other survey research texts read as a dry report of what survey research is. This text reads as a personable text that walks the novice researcher through the survey research process, including all of the details considered by a seasoned survey researcher." -- Carol A. Angell, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse "[T]he book is organized in a very strategic and hands-on manner that will train students to think, plan, and implement a project like an experienced social scientific scholar using survey methods." -- Kenneth C. Yang, University of Texas at El Paso "The text is very well written, clear and easy to understand. It highlights main concerns throughout the survey research process." -- Silvia K. Bartolic, University of British Columbia "This textbook covers all of the important topics in survey research and does so at a level appropriate for advanced undergraduates." -- Richard E. Adams, Kent State UniversityMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Thousand Oaks
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 187 mm
Weight
649 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4522-3527-1 (9781452235271)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Erin Ruel is associate professor of sociology and director of graduate studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. She received her PhD in sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2003. In 2003, Erin took a postdoctoral position at the University of Wisconsin Madison in the Center for Demography of Health and Aging. While there, she continued to hone her survey research skills on the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. Soon after arriving in Atlanta to take an assistant professor position at Georgia State University (GSU) in 2005, she began the Urban Health Initiative, a longitudinal survey study of public housing residents facing involuntary relocation with GSU colleagues. Erin was principal investigator of the National Institutes of Health study on the health outcomes of relocated public housing residents and co-investigator on two National Science Foundation grants, examining social disorganization and social support for public housing residents. She employs quantitative and mixed methods to examine health disparities and the health consequences of racial residential segregation, neighborhood disadvantage, housing, and socioeconomic status. Ruel has published in numerous journals, including Demography, Social Forces, Social Science Research, Health and Place, Journal of Housing Studies, Cities, Sociology Compass, Journal of Adolescent Health, and Journal of Urban Health.
William E. Wagner, III, PhD, is Chair of the Department of Sociology at California State University, Dominguez Hills and Executive Director of the Social Science Research & Instructional Council of the CSU. He is co-author of Adventures in Social Research, 11th edition (SAGE, 2022), The Practice of Survey Research (SAGE, 2016), and A Guide to R for Social and Behavioral Sciences (SAGE, 2020) and author of Using IBM (R) SPSS (R) Statistics for Research Methods and Social Science Statistics, 7th edition (SAGE, 2019).
Brian Joseph Gillespie, Ph.D. is a researcher in the Faculty of Spatial Sciences at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He is the author of Household Mobility in America: Patterns, Processes, and Outcomes (Palgrave, 2017) and coauthor of The Practice of Survey Research: Theory and Applications (Sage, 2016) and Using and Interpreting Statistics in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences (Sage, 2018). He has also published research in a variety of social science journals on topics related to family, migration, the life course, and interpersonal relationships.
William E. Wagner, III, PhD, is Chair of the Department of Sociology at California State University, Dominguez Hills and Executive Director of the Social Science Research & Instructional Council of the CSU. He is co-author of Adventures in Social Research, 11th edition (SAGE, 2022), The Practice of Survey Research (SAGE, 2016), and A Guide to R for Social and Behavioral Sciences (SAGE, 2020) and author of Using IBM (R) SPSS (R) Statistics for Research Methods and Social Science Statistics, 7th edition (SAGE, 2019).
Brian Joseph Gillespie, Ph.D. is a researcher in the Faculty of Spatial Sciences at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He is the author of Household Mobility in America: Patterns, Processes, and Outcomes (Palgrave, 2017) and coauthor of The Practice of Survey Research: Theory and Applications (Sage, 2016) and Using and Interpreting Statistics in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences (Sage, 2018). He has also published research in a variety of social science journals on topics related to family, migration, the life course, and interpersonal relationships.
Content
Part I: Before the Survey
Chapter 1: Introduction to Survey Research
What is survey research?
How do you know if a survey is good?
Surveys about Teachers: Are They Good Teachers?
Applications of Survey Research
Technology and Survey Research
The Ethics of Survey Research
Key Decisions about Survey Research: What's Ahead
Part II: Questionnaire Design
Chapter 2: Types of Surveys
Omnibus Surveys
Administration
Importance of Proper Training of Interviewers
Types of Surveys
Chapter 3: The Survey Instrument
The Cover Letter
The Survey Instrument
Appearance, Formatting, and Design
Chapter 4: Survey Question Construction
Concept Measurement: Traits, Assessments, and Sentiments
Complex Concepts Question Development
Responses to Questions
Measurement Error
Chapter 5: Validity and Reliability
Reliability
Correlation
Types of Reliability and Estimation
Validity
Chapter 6: Pre-testing and Pilot Testing
Pre-testing
Pilot Testing
Pre-test and Pilot Test Limitations
Part III: Implementing a Survey
Chapter 7: Selecting a Sample: Probability Sampling
Sampling Terminology
Sampling Theory
Probability Sampling Techniques
Chapter 8: Non-Probability Sampling and Sampling Hard to Find Populations
Convenience Sampling
Quota Sampling
Purposive Sampling
Sampling Hard to Find Populations
Chapter 9: Improving Response Rates and Retention
Response Rates and Non-response Errors
Non-response Bias
Attrition in Panel Studies
Methods to Increase Participant Contact and Participant Cooperation
Chapter 10: Technologies to Develop and Implement Surveys
Mail Survey Administration
Computer-assisted Interviewing
Post-survey Data Entry and Data Cleaning Technology
Contracting with a Research Center to Conduct the Survey
Chapter 11: Data Collection
The Self-administered Cross-sectional Mailed Survey
The Self-administered Longitudinal Panel Mailed Survey
Interviewer-administered Surveys
Self-administered Web Surveys
Comparing Survey Types
Storage Needs
Part IV: Post-Survey Data Management and Analysis
Chapter 12: Data Entry
Data Entry
Documentation
Chapter 13: Data Cleaning
Simple Cross-sectional Data Cleaning
Cosmetic Cleaning
Skip Patterns
Multiple-response Questions, Other Specify and Open-ended Questions
Cleaning for Diagnostics
Interviewer Effects/Mode Effects
Cleaning Longitudinal Data
The Codebook
Chapter 14: Data Analysis for a Policy Report
Policy Reports
Descriptive Statistics
Analysis for a Policy Report
Summary
The Report Write-up
Chapter 15: More Advanced Data Analysis
Explanatory Research Questions
Journal Article Format
Regression Analysis
Addressing Missing Data
OLS Regressions of the Positive Relocation Scale
Creating Tables for the Journal Article and Writing-up the Results
Chapter 16: Data Archiving
Seeking External Funding for Your Survey Project
Archiving Original and Final Data
Data Format
Archiving and Making Data Publicly Available
Archives
Epilogue
Survey Administration checklist
Survey Design and Organization Checklist
Writing Good Questions Checklist
Piloting or Pre-Testing the Survey Checklist
Choosing a Sample Checklist
Improving Response Rates Checklist
Chapter 1: Introduction to Survey Research
What is survey research?
How do you know if a survey is good?
Surveys about Teachers: Are They Good Teachers?
Applications of Survey Research
Technology and Survey Research
The Ethics of Survey Research
Key Decisions about Survey Research: What's Ahead
Part II: Questionnaire Design
Chapter 2: Types of Surveys
Omnibus Surveys
Administration
Importance of Proper Training of Interviewers
Types of Surveys
Chapter 3: The Survey Instrument
The Cover Letter
The Survey Instrument
Appearance, Formatting, and Design
Chapter 4: Survey Question Construction
Concept Measurement: Traits, Assessments, and Sentiments
Complex Concepts Question Development
Responses to Questions
Measurement Error
Chapter 5: Validity and Reliability
Reliability
Correlation
Types of Reliability and Estimation
Validity
Chapter 6: Pre-testing and Pilot Testing
Pre-testing
Pilot Testing
Pre-test and Pilot Test Limitations
Part III: Implementing a Survey
Chapter 7: Selecting a Sample: Probability Sampling
Sampling Terminology
Sampling Theory
Probability Sampling Techniques
Chapter 8: Non-Probability Sampling and Sampling Hard to Find Populations
Convenience Sampling
Quota Sampling
Purposive Sampling
Sampling Hard to Find Populations
Chapter 9: Improving Response Rates and Retention
Response Rates and Non-response Errors
Non-response Bias
Attrition in Panel Studies
Methods to Increase Participant Contact and Participant Cooperation
Chapter 10: Technologies to Develop and Implement Surveys
Mail Survey Administration
Computer-assisted Interviewing
Post-survey Data Entry and Data Cleaning Technology
Contracting with a Research Center to Conduct the Survey
Chapter 11: Data Collection
The Self-administered Cross-sectional Mailed Survey
The Self-administered Longitudinal Panel Mailed Survey
Interviewer-administered Surveys
Self-administered Web Surveys
Comparing Survey Types
Storage Needs
Part IV: Post-Survey Data Management and Analysis
Chapter 12: Data Entry
Data Entry
Documentation
Chapter 13: Data Cleaning
Simple Cross-sectional Data Cleaning
Cosmetic Cleaning
Skip Patterns
Multiple-response Questions, Other Specify and Open-ended Questions
Cleaning for Diagnostics
Interviewer Effects/Mode Effects
Cleaning Longitudinal Data
The Codebook
Chapter 14: Data Analysis for a Policy Report
Policy Reports
Descriptive Statistics
Analysis for a Policy Report
Summary
The Report Write-up
Chapter 15: More Advanced Data Analysis
Explanatory Research Questions
Journal Article Format
Regression Analysis
Addressing Missing Data
OLS Regressions of the Positive Relocation Scale
Creating Tables for the Journal Article and Writing-up the Results
Chapter 16: Data Archiving
Seeking External Funding for Your Survey Project
Archiving Original and Final Data
Data Format
Archiving and Making Data Publicly Available
Archives
Epilogue
Survey Administration checklist
Survey Design and Organization Checklist
Writing Good Questions Checklist
Piloting or Pre-Testing the Survey Checklist
Choosing a Sample Checklist
Improving Response Rates Checklist