Discriptive Survey

DESCRIPTIVE SURVEY : DESCRIPTIVE SURVEY

Purpose: : Purpose: To describe systematically a situation or area of interest factually and accurately. (Examples: Population census studies, public opinion surveys, fact- finding surveys, status studies, task analysis studies, questionnaire and interview studies, observation studies, job descriptions, surveys of literature, documentary analyses, anecdotal record, critical incident reports, test score analyses, and normative data.)

Types of research that can be categorized as "descriptive" : : Types of research that can be categorized as "descriptive" : Surveys (questionnaires, Delphi method, interviews, normative) Case Studies Job Analyses Documentary Analysis Developmental Studies Correlational Studies

Slide 4 : The survey is a non-experimental, descriptive research method. Surveys can be useful when a researcher wants to collect data on phenomena that cannot be directly observed (such as opinions on library services). Surveys are used extensively in library and information science to assess attitudes and characteristics of a wide range of subjects, from the quality of user-system interfaces to library user reading habits.

Types of Surveys : Types of Surveys Data are usually collected through the use of questionnaires, although sometimes researchers directly interview subjects. Surveys can use qualitative (e.g. ask open-ended questions) or quantitative (e.g. use forced-choice questions) measures. There are two basic types of surveys: cross-sectional surveys and longitudinal surveys.

Cross-sectional surveys are used to gather information on a population at a single point in time. : Cross-sectional surveys are used to gather information on a population at a single point in time. Ex. A questionaire that collects data on how parents feel about Internet filtering. A different cross-sectional survey questionnaire might try to determine the relationship between two factors, like religiousness of parents and views on Internet filtering.

Longitudinal surveys gather data over a period of time. The researcher may then analyze changes in the population and attempt to describe and/or explain them. : Longitudinal surveys gather data over a period of time. The researcher may then analyze changes in the population and attempt to describe and/or explain them. 3 Main Types: Trend studies Cohort studies Panel studies

Trend studies : Trend studies These focus on a particular population, which is sampled and scrutinized repeatedly. While samples are of the same population, they are typically not composed of the same people. Trend studies, since they may be conducted over a long period of time, do not have to be conducted by just one researcher or research project. A researcher may combine data from several studies of the same population in order to show a trend. (An example of a trend study would be a yearly survey of librarians asking about the percentage of reference questions answered using the Internet.)

Cohort studies : Cohort studies These also focus on a particular population, sampled and studied more than once. But cohort studies have a different focus.( For example, a sample of 1999 graduates of GSLIS at the University of Texas could be questioned regarding their attitudes toward paraprofessionals in libraries. Five years later, the researcher could question another sample of 1999 graduates, and study any changes in attitude. A cohort study would sample the same class, every time. If the researcher studied the class of 2004 five years later, it would be a trend study, not a cohort study. )

Panel studies : Panel studies These allow the researcher to find out why changes in the population are occurring, since they use the same sample of people every time. That sample is called a panel. A researcher could, for example, select a sample of UT graduate students, and ask them questions on their library usage. Every year thereafter, the researcher would contact the same people, and ask them similar questions, and ask them the reasons for any changes in their habits. Panel studies, while they can yield extremely specific and useful explanations, can be difficult to conduct. They tend to be expensive, they take a lot of time, and they suffer from high attrition rates. Attrition is what occurs when people drop out of the study.

Instrument Design : Instrument Design Meyer (1998) has identified five preliminary steps that should be taken when embarking upon any research project: 1) choose a topic, 2) review the literature, 3) determine the research question, 4) develop a hypothesis, and 5) operationalization (i.e., figure out how to accurately measure the factors you wish to measure).

2 Additional Considerations:representative sampling and question design. : 2 Additional Considerations:representative sampling and question design. A sample is representative when it is an accurate proportional representation of the population under study. If you want to study the attitudes of UT students regarding library services, it would not be enough to interview every 100th person who walked into the library. That technique would only measure the attitudes of UT students who use the library, not those who do not. In addition, it would only measure the attitudes of UT students who happened to use the library during the time you were collecting data. Therefore, the sample would not be very representative of UT students in general. In order to be a truly representative sample, every student at UT would have to have had an equal chance of being chosen to participate in the survey. This is called randomization.

In order to further ensure that the sample is truly representative of the population, you might want to use a sampling technique called stratification. : In order to further ensure that the sample is truly representative of the population, you might want to use a sampling technique called stratification. In order to stratify a population, you need to decide what sub-categories of the population might be statistically significant. For instance, graduate students as a group probably have different opinions than undergraduates regarding library usage, so they should be recognized as separate strata of the population. Once you have a list of the different strata, along with their respective percentages, you could instruct the computer to again randomly select students, this time taking care that a certain percentage are graduate students, a certain percentage are honors students, and a certain percentage are seniors. You would then come up with a more truly representative sample.

Slide 14 : Question Design There are many factors to consider in designing questions. Babbie gives the following pointers: Make items clear (don't assume the person you are questioning knows the terms you are using). Avoid double-barreled questions (make sure the question asks only one clear thing). Respondent must be competent to answer (don't ask questions that the respondent won't accurately be able to answer). Questions should be relevant (don't ask questions on topics that respondents don't care about or haven't thought about). Short items are best (so that they may be read, understood, and answered quickly). Avoid negative items (if you ask whether librarians should not be paid more, it will confuse respondents). Avoid biased items and terms (be sensitive to the effect of your wording on respondents).

Busha and Harter provide the following list of 10 hints: : Busha and Harter provide the following list of 10 hints: Unless the nature of a survey definitely warrants their usage, avoid slang, jargon, and technical terms. Whenever possible, develop consistent response methods. Make questions as impersonal as possible. Do not bias later responses by the wording used in earlier questions. As an ordinary rule, sequence questions from the general to the specific. If closed questions are employed, try to develop exhaustive and mutually exclusive response alternatives. Insofar as possible, place questions with similar content together in the survey instrument. Make the questions as easy to answer as possible. When unique and unusual terms need to be defined in questionnaire items, use very clear definitions. Use an attractive questionnaire format that conveys a professional image.

Designing good questions is much more difficult than it seems. One effective way of making sure that questions measure what they are supposed to measure is to test them out first, using small focus groups. : Designing good questions is much more difficult than it seems. One effective way of making sure that questions measure what they are supposed to measure is to test them out first, using small focus groups. exploration, Survey research can be used for: description, or explanation purposes.

The purpose of survey research in exploration is to become more familiar with a topic and to try out preliminary concepts about it. : The purpose of survey research in exploration is to become more familiar with a topic and to try out preliminary concepts about it. is used to discover the range of responses likely to occur in some population of interest and to refine the measurement of concepts. It focuses on determining what concepts to measure and how to measure them best.

These surveys should be used as the basis for developing concepts and methods for more detailed, systematic descriptive or explanatory surveys. In short, the whole purpose of an exploratory survey is to elicit a wide variety of responses from individuals with varying viewpoints in a loosely structured manner as the basis for design of a more careful survey. : These surveys should be used as the basis for developing concepts and methods for more detailed, systematic descriptive or explanatory surveys. In short, the whole purpose of an exploratory survey is to elicit a wide variety of responses from individuals with varying viewpoints in a loosely structured manner as the basis for design of a more careful survey. The purpose of survey research in description is to find out what situations, events, attitudes or opinions are occurring in a population.

Slide 19 : Survey research aimed at description asks simply about the distribution of some phenomena in a population or among subgroups of a population. The researcher's concern is simply to describe a distribution or to make comparisons between distributions. Analysis stimulated by descriptive questions is meant to ascertain facts, not to test theory. The hypothesis is not causal, but simply that common perceptions of the facts are or are not at odds with reality. (For example, it might examine what kind of people use computers in an organization, or what kind of people work at home, or what kinds of applications people use at work.)

The purpose of survey research in explanation is to test theory and causal relations. : The purpose of survey research in explanation is to test theory and causal relations. Survey research aimed at explanation asks about the relationships between variables. It does so from theoretically grounded expectations about how and why the variables ought to be related. The theory includes an element of cause and effect. It does not only assume that relations existing between the variables, but assumes directionality (e.g., that the relationship is positive or negative, or that variable A influences variable B).

Research Design : Research Design A research design is the strategy for answering the questions or testing the hypotheses that stimulated the research in the first place.

Survey designs may be distinguished as cross sectional or longitudinal, depending upon whether they exclude or include explicit attention to the time dimension. : Survey designs may be distinguished as cross sectional or longitudinal, depending upon whether they exclude or include explicit attention to the time dimension. The classic cross-sectional design collects data at one point in time from a sample selected to represent the population of interest at that time. One can generalize safely the findings from the sample to the population at the point in time the survey was conducted. Cross-sectional designs limit causal inferences because the study is conducted at one point in time and temporal priority is difficult to establish.

Slide 23 : The classic longitudinal design collects data for at least two points in time. The underlying principle of longitudinal designs, like that of the "one-group pretest-postest design" described by Campbell and Stanley, is to measure some dimensions of interest of a given entity before and after an intervening phenomenon to determine whether or not the phenomenon has some effects.