SURVEY STUDIES

Survey research designs are procedures in quantitative research in which investigators administer a survey to a sample or to the entire population of people to describe the attitudes, opinions, behaviors, or characteristics of the population. In this procedure, survey researchers collect quantitative, numbered data using questionnaires (e.g., mailed questionnaires) or interviews (e.g., one-on-one interviews) and statistically analyze the data to describe trends about responses to questions and to test research questions or hypotheses. They also interpret the meaning of the data by relating results of the statistical test back to past research studies.

Survey designs differ from experimental research in that they do not involve a treatment

given to participants by the researcher. Because survey researchers do not experimentally manipulate the conditions, they cannot explain cause and effect as well as experimental researchers can. Instead, survey studies describe trends in the data rather than offer rigorous explanations. Survey research has much in common with correlational designs. Survey researchers often correlate variables, but their focus is directed more toward learning about a population and less on relating variables or predicting outcomes, as is the focus in correlational research.

Types of Survey Design

A longitudinal survey design involves the survey procedure of collecting data about trends with the same population, changes in a cohort group or subpopulation, or changes in a panel group of the same individuals over time. Thus, in longitudinal designs, participants may be different or the same people. In a cross-sectional survey design, the researcher collects data at one point  in time.

Longitudinal

1.Trends Studies : Longitudinal survey designs that involve identifying a population and examining changes within that population overtime.

2.Cohort Studies : Longitudinal survey design in which a researcher identifies a subpopulation based on the specific characteristic and then studies that subpopulation over time.

3.Panel Studies : Longitudinal survey design in which the researcher examines the same people over time.

Sampling from a Population

1.      The Population is the group of individuals having one characteristic that distinguishes them from other groups.

2.      The Target Population or Sampling Frame is the actual list of sampling units from which the sample is selected.

3.      The Sample is the group of participants in a study selected from the target population from which the researcher generalizes to the target population.

Questionnaires and Interviews

A questionnaire is a form used in a survey design that participants in a study complete and return to the researcher. The participant chooses answers to questions and supplies basic personal or demographic information. An interview survey, is a form on which the researcher records answers supplied by the participant in the study.

In quantitative survey interviews, the investigator uses a structured or semi structured interview consisting of mostly closed-ended questions, provides response options to interviewees, and records their responses. In qualitative survey interviews, an interviewer asks open-ended questions without response options and listens to and records the comments of the interviewee.

Forms of Data Collection to Survey Research

1.      A mailed questionnaire is a form of data collection in survey research in which the investigator mails a questionnaire to members of the sample.

2.      A Web-based questionnaire is a survey instrument for collecting data that is available on the computer.

3.      One-on-one interviewing in survey research is a form of data collection in survey research in which the investigators conduct an interview with an individual in the sample and record responses to closed-ended questions.

4.      Focus group interviews in survey research is a form of data collection in survey research in which the researcher locates or develops a survey instrument, convenes a small group of people (typically a group of 4 to 6) who can answer the questions, and records their comments on the instrument.

5.      Telephone interview surveys is a form of data collection in survey research in which the researcher records the participants’ comments to questions on instruments over the telephone.

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