A Practical Introduction to Survey Design: A Beginner's Guide
Student Resources
2. Types of Surveys
What are main types of survey and what are their uses?
Social Survey (general social data and data about social issues), Evaluation (to evaluate a policy or program), Poll (sort form survey about a key social or political issue), Census (whole of population survey measuring a series of economic, demographic and social attributes), Plebiscite or Referendum (one or two question ballot to determine whether a major legislative change should occur).
What are the key components of survey design?
Research questions, Concepts, Dimensions and Sub-Dimensions, Indicators, Conceptual Model, Survey Administration, and Analysis
What is meant by the term ‘survey design process’?
The staged progression of the design of a survey appropriate for research where all stages are related to each other to produce a survey that collects valid and reliable data
What is one of the great advantages of survey research?
That it can collect accurate data for many people at one time or at many times and be representative of a population.
What are the main limitations of survey research?
Unsuitable for some research questions. Survey research does not provide depth about an individual’s or a group’s meaning, feeling, or experience of a phenomena. Self-reported data can be misleading and some data can be under-reported.
What are ethics, and why are ethics important in survey research?
Ethics in survey research are principles designed to ensure the research is not harmful, coerced, or compromising of individuals. Ethics aim to ensure a naturalistic research environment and ethics also aim to ensure that respondents representative of sometimes vulnerable or powerless groups are represented fairly.
What are the main aspects of the total survey error framework?
Survey design experiences various kinds of error or mismatching between what is intended to be measured and for whom, and what is actually measured for who. The total survey error framework divides errors into two broad camps: measurement error and representative error. Measurement error is associated with concepts, question construction, and how respondents interpret questions. Representative errors are associated with sampling.