Surveys

Survey Components

• What do you want to know? The research question

• What/who/where do you want to survey? The sample

• What type (or mode) of survey? How much energy and time will it take (to administer and to analyse) and how much will it cost? Survey Planning

Type or Mode of survey

• Observational – eg traffic patterns, public transport use, gender

difference in mall behaviour• Surveys– Interviews (structured, unstructured)

Individual, group– Questionnaires

Individual, group, mailed, household dropoff, computerized ...

– Systematic sampling, convenience sampling, snowball sampling, selected respondents

Questionnaire Design

• Only ask questions that you really want the answer to

• Start with dot points about the broad question areas then compose your specific questions. Make them flow in a logical order

• Pilot (trial) the survey with a few people of the group(s) your survey will be aimed at

• Your response rate (how many people complete the survey) will probably be less than the number of surveys you distribute

Questionnaire Design

• All questions must be checked for bias (you need someone else to check this for you) – don’t ask questions in a way that forces an answer or creates an opinion

• All questions must meet ethical requirements (refer to SACE Code of Conduct for Ethical research)

• It is usual for a written questionnaire to be accompanied by a letter explaining the purpose of the survey; an authorization letter should be obtained from the school or research coordinator

Questionnaire Design

• Open ended questions5. Do you have any comments you would like to

make about the new shopping centre?

• Closed questions – visual analogue scale5. How do you rate the impact of the new

shopping centre overall? Please place a mark on the line

Extremely negative Extremely positive

Questionnaire Design

• Closed questions – Likert Scale5. How do you rate the impact of the new

shopping centre overall? Please circle one answer only

Excellent Good Average Poor Very Poor

Questionnaire Design

• Multiple response questions5. What are the best features of the new

shopping centre? Tick all that apply Location Parking availability Range of stores Decor Girls that hangout there

Questionnaire Design

• Ranking questions5. What are the best features of the new

shopping centre? Number in order. 1 = best Location Parking availability Range of stores Decor Girls that hangout there

Questionnaire Analysis

• Open ended questions– coding categories, shaping (patterns and themes)– Explaining – Too time consuming if you want to survey a lot of

people• Multiple response questions (or ranking

questions), Likert scale questions– frequency distributions

Questionnaire Analysis

• Visual analogue scale– Easiest to treat by deciding how many sections

you want to divide the line into eg quintiles 5– Do this “grouping” for other types of continuous

statistics (eg lead levels in blood)– Frequency distributions: histograms (continuous

variables, no gaps between columns), bar diagrams (discrete variables – gaps between bars)

Questionnaire Analysis

• A good report will include– Total sample size– Response rate– Mode of sampling or selection

Questionnaires

• Self completed questionnaires– Cheap– Usually quick and convenient for respondents– Anonymous– Stable, consistent and uniform measure– Wide coverage– But unless filled in on the spot, response rate will

be low

Questionnaires

www.surveymonkey.comFor online survey and analysis

Use with intelligence – it can make a monkey out of you

Existing data sets

http://www.abs.gov.au/ The obvious one. All kinds of statistics about all

kinds of things Australian. And from the ABS site, links to many other

relevant sites via the “Links” in the header (for example, http://hccda.anu.edu.au/ the website of Australian archival statistics),

or “International statistics” in the left hand column.

Existing data sets

Health (my area)http://www.publichealth.gov.au/ Social health atlas 2010This on-line publication looks at social determinants of health in

Australia. Do you want to know the pattern of respiratory disease in the suburbs of Adelaide? This is the appropriate source.

http://www.gapminder.org/ Wonderful interactive website with WHO statistics. Great for

comparing countries on various measures of health over time. http://www.health.gov.au/ As with all websites, you need to know where to look, but you can find

things like Disease Surveillance statistics, immunization statistics etc.

Articles on quantitative health research www.bmj.com – and click on the banner heading that says Research

Resources on surveysA Google search will find you plenty. Here are some I like:http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/research/survey/pop2b.cfm www.utexas.edu/.../diia/.../survey/survey_tables_questiontypes.pdf http://www.greatbrook.com/survey_question.htm

SACE resources

•IDENTIFYING A RESEARCH QUESTION, GUIDING QUESTION, FOCUS QUESTION, OR HYPOTHESIS

•EVALUATING RESEARCH SOURCES

•HOW TO CONDUCT A CASE STUDY

Free