Chapter 17: Survey Research

Activity 17.1: Survey Research Questions

Activity 17.2: Types of Surveys

Activity 17.3: Open- vs. Closed-Ended Questions

Activity 17.4: Conduct a Survey

Activity 17.1:

Survey Research Questions

Which of the following questions would lend themselves well to survey research?

  1. How do sophomore students feel about the new counseling program?
  1. In what ways were delinquent and non-delinquent boys similar and different during the 1930s?
  1. Is inquiry teaching more effective than lectures in the teaching of sociology?
  1. How much college tuition are parents able and willing to pay?
  1. How many single mothers were on welfare in ContraCostaCounty during the past nine months?
  1. Do professors think it is ethical to require graduate students to participate in a professor’s research project?
  1. What does a high school principal do each day?

Activity 17.2:

Types of Surveys

Match the concept from Column A with the correct statement from Column B

Column A / Column B
  1. Longitudinal survey
  1. Cross-sectional survey
  1. Trend study
  1. Cohort study
  1. Panel study
  1. Census
  1. Mail survey
  1. Personal interview
/
  1. The researcher surveys the same sample of individuals at different times during the course of a study
  1. An advantage of this type of survey is that it gives the researcher access to a sample that might be otherwise hard to reach
  1. Used whenever a researcher has access to all (or most) of the members of a particular group in one place
  1. Researcher collects information at different points in time in order to study changes over time
  1. Probably the most effective way to enlist the cooperation of the respondents in a survey
  1. Researcher obtains different samples of a particular population whose members do not change over the course of the study
  1. Researcher samples a population whose members may change over time
  1. Major purpose is to describe the characteristics of an invited sample
  1. Researcher collects information from a sample that has been drawn from a predetermined population
  1. An entire population is surveyed

Activity 17.3:

Open- vs. Closed-Ended Questions

In the space below each of the following open-ended question, see if you can change them to closed-ended questions.

  1. What was your favorite subject when you were in elementary school?
  1. What makes a good teacher?
  1. What factors contributed to the election of George W. Bush in 2000?
  1. Why is it that many poor people in the United States today cannot improve their status?

Activity 17.4:

Conduct a Survey

How do the grades that students expect to get correspond to the quality of their work in class? In this exercise, you are asked to conduct a survey to find out how other students feel about this question. Contact a sample of at least 25 students in two different courses (a total of 50) and ask them to rate the quality of their work in one of their courses and tell you the grade they expect to get in that course. Use an expanded copy of the form below.

RATING SCALE

A = Distinguished

B = Superior

C = Average

D = Below Average

F = Failure

COURSE #1

FIRST NAME OF STUDENT RATING OF WORK IN CLASS EXPECTED GRADE

______

______

______

COURSE #2

FIRST NAME OF STUDENT RATING OF WORK IN CLASS EXPECTED GRADE

______

______

______

Use the table below to record the number and percent of the total for each grade. How do the ratings compare? What conclusions can you draw?

COURSE #1

FIRST NAME OF STUDENT RATING OF WORK IN CLASS EXPECTED GRADE

A

______

B

______

C

______

D

______

F

COURSE #2

FIRST NAME OF STUDENT RATING OF WORK IN CLASS EXPECTED GRADE

A

______

B

______

C

______

D

______

F