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SURVEY RESEARCH:CHOOSING A COMMUNICATION MEDIA

<< RESEARCH DESIGN:Purpose of the Study, Steps in Conducting a Survey
INTERCEPT INTERVIEWS IN MALLS AND OTHER HIGH-TRAFFIC AREAS >>
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Research Methods ­STA630
VU
Lesson 20
SURVEY RESEARCH
Research Design can be classified by the approach used to gather primary data. There are really two
alternatives.  We can observe conditions, behavior, events, people, or processes.  Or we can
communicate with people about various topics, including participants' attitudes, motivations, intentions,
and expectations.
The communication approach involves surveying people and recording their responses for analysis.
The great strength of the survey as a primary data collecting approach is its versatility. What media do
we use for communicating with people? The traditional face to face communication (interview) for
conducting surveys is still in vogue. Nevertheless, the digital technology is having a profound impact
on the society as well as on research.  Its greatest impact is on the creation of new forms of
communication media.
Human Interactive Media and Electronic Interactive Media
When two people engage in conversation, human interaction takes place. Human interactive media
are personal forms of communication. One human being directs a message to and interacts with another
individual (or a small group). When they think of interviewing, most people envision this type of face-
to-face dialogue or a conversation on telephone.
Electronic interactive media allows researchers to reach a large audience, to personalize individual
messages, and to interact with members of the audience using digital technology. To a large extent
electronic interactive media users are controlled by the users themselves. In the context of surveys,
respondents are not passive audience members.  They are actively involved in a two-way
communication when electronic interactive media are utilized.
The Internet, the medium that is radically altering many organizations' research strategies, provides a
prominent example of the new electronic interactive media.
Non-Interactive Media
The traditional questionnaire received by mail and completed by the respondent does not allow a
dialogue or exchange of information for immediate feedback. Self-administered questionnaires printed
on paper are also non-interactive.
CHOOSING A COMMUNICATION MEDIA
Once the researcher has determined that surveying is the appropriate data collection approach, various
means may be used to secure information from individual. A research can conduct a survey by personal
interview, telephone, mail, computer, or a combination of these media.
Personal Interviewing
A personal interview (i.e. face to face communication) is a two way conversation initiated by an
interviewer to obtain information from a respondent. The differences in the roles of the interviewer and
the respondent are pronounced. They are typically strangers, and the interviewer generally controls the
topics and patterns of discussion. The consequences of the event are usually insignificant for the
respondent. The respondent is asked to provide information and has little hope of receiving any
immediate or direct benefit from this cooperation.
Personal interviews may take place in a factory, in a homeowner's doorway, in an executive's office, in
a shopping mall, or in other settings.
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Advantages of Personal Interviewing:
The face-to-face interaction between interviewer and respondent has several characteristics that help
researchers obtain complete and precise information. Personal interviews offer many advantages.
1. The Opportunity for Feedback
Personal interviews allow for feedback. For example, an employee who is reluctant to provide sensitive
information about his workplace may be reassured by the interviewer that his answers will be strictly
confidential. The interviewer may also provide feedback in clarifying any questions an employee or any
other respondent has about the instructions or questions.  Circumstances may dictate that at the
conclusion of the interview, the respondent be given additional information concerning the purpose of
the study (part of debriefing). This is easily accomplished in personal interview.
2. Probing Complex Questions
An important characteristic of personal interview is the opportunity to follow up, by probing. If a
respondent's answer is brief or unclear, the researcher may ask for a clearer or more comprehensive
explanation. Probing implies the verbal prompts made by the interviewer when the respondent must be
motivated to communicate his or her answer more fully. Probing encourages respondents to enlarge on,
clarify, or explain answers. Probing becomes all the more important when the questions don't have
structured response categories. The complex question that cannot easily be asked in telephone or mail
surveys can be handled by skillful interviewers.
3. Length of Interview
If the research objective requires an extremely lengthy questionnaire, personal interviews may be the
only alternative. Generally, telephone interviews last fewer than 10 minutes, whereas a personal
interview can be much longer, perhaps more than an hour. A rule of thumb for mail questionnaire is
that it should not be more than six pages.
4. High Completion Rate
The social interaction between a well-trained interviewer and a respondent in personal interview
increases the likelihood that the respondent will answer all items on the questionnaire. The respondent
who grows bored with a telephone interview may terminate the interview at his or her discretion simply
by hanging up the phone. A respondent's self administration of a mail questionnaire requires more
effort. Rather than writing a long explanation, the respondent may fail to complete some of the
questions on the self administered questionnaire. This will be an item non-response ­ that is, failure to
provide an answer to a question. It is less likely to happen with an experienced interviewer and in a face
to face situation.
5. Props and Visual Aids
Interviewing respondents face to face allows an investigator to show them a new product sample, a
sketch of proposed office, or some other visual aid. The respondents can even taste samples of different
products and can give their evaluations. Such an evaluation cannot be done in telephone interview or
mail survey.
6. High Participation Rate
While some people are reluctant to participate in a survey, the presence of an interviewer generally
increases the percentages of people willing to complete the interview. Respondents are not required to
do any reading or writing ­ all they have to do is to talk. Most people enjoy sharing information and
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insights with friendly and sympathetic interviewers. Certainly, in personal interviews there is a higher
rate of participation rate of the respondents compared with mail surveys and telephone interviews.
7. Observation of the Non-Verbal Behavior
In a personal interview, the interviewer can catch the facial expressions, body movements, and,
depending upon the goals of the study, the environment of the respondent. Such observations may
supplement the verbal information.
8. Non-Literates can participate in Study
Since the respondent has neither to read nor to write, therefore, an illiterate or a functionally illiterate
person can also take part in the survey study.
9. Interviewer can Prescreen Respondent
In order to ensure that the respondent fits the sampling criteria, the interviewer can do some
prescreening of the respondent. In personal interview the interviewer makes it sure that only the relevant
respondent provides the information. In case of mail survey we are not sure who actually filled out the
questionnaire, but in personal interview, the interview may be able to have some control over the
environment of the information providers. In case there are other people around, he may make an
excuse from other because he is interested in the true opinion of the sampled person.
10. CAPI ­ Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing
With the use of such modern technology the responses of the respondents can be entered into a portable
microcomputer to reduce error and cost.
Disadvantages of Personal Interviewing:
1. High Cost
Personal interviews are generally more expensive than mail, internet, and telephone surveys. The
geographic proximity of respondents, the length of the questionnaire, and the number of people who are
non-respondents because they could not be contacted all influence the cost of the personal interviews.
The training of the field interviewers, supervision, and other logistical support cost may add up the total
cost of the study. People usually estimate the cost of personal interviews is usually 15 times higher than
the mail survey
2. Scarcity of Highly Trained Interviewers
In case of a big study (especially a sponsored study) there shall be a need of highly trained interviewers,
who are not easily available. Using unqualified and untrained interviewers are likely to have a negative
effect on the quality of the data and the subsequent generalizations.
3. Lack of Anonymity of Respondent
Because the respondent in a personal interview is not anonymous therefore he/she may be reluctant to
provide confidential information to another person. Though the interviewer provides all the assurance
for the confidentiality of the information (by not asking the name or address) but the mere fact the
respondent has been located, therefore he/she may not trust.
4. Callbacks ­ a Labor Intensive Work
When the person selected to be in the sample cannot be contacted on the first visit, a systematic
procedure is normally initiated to call back at another time. Callbacks or attempts to re-contact
individuals selected for the sample are the major means to reducing non-response error. It is a labor
intensive work and definitely increases the cost.
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5. Interviewer Influence
There is some evidence that the demographic characteristics of the interviewer influence respondents'
answers. Respondent's sex, age, and physical appearance can have an effect on the responses of the
respondent.
6. Interviewer Bias
Interviewer's personal likings and dis-likings, the environment, and cultural biases can affect the
understanding of the responses, its recording, and its interpretation.
7. No Opportunity to Consult
The interview may take place anywhere ­ place of work, in the shopping mall, at home ­ the respondent
may be unable to consult record, incase he/she has to do so for any specific question.
8. Less Standardized Wording
Despite the fact that the questions have been printed and have a specified order, these questions are read
by the interviewer.  The interviewers intentionally or unintentionally may not be able to use the
standardized wording which may bias the data. Similarly the order of the questions may be altered.
9. Limitations in Respondents' Availability and Accessibility
Some executive officers or VIPs may not be available or accessible to interviewers. Some of them may
not be willing to talk to strangers for security reasons.
10. Some Neighborhoods are Difficult to Visit
Just for security reasons some neighborhoods may not allow outsiders to enter the premises. Even the
formal permission may be denied because thee residents don't want to contact any strangers.
Door to Door Interviews
These are the personal interviews conducted at respondent's home or place of work. It is likely to
provide more representative sample of the population than mail questionnaire. Some people may prefer
to give a verbal response rather than in writing. People who do not have telephones, who have unlisted
numbers, or who are otherwise difficult to contact may be reached through door to door interviews.
Door to door interview may exclude individuals living in multiple dwelling units with security systems,
such as high rise apartment dwellers, or executives who are too busy to grant a personal interview
during business hours.
People, who are at home and willing to participate, especially if interviews are conducted in the day
time, are somewhat more likely to be stay-at-home "moms" or retired people. These and other variables
related to respondents' tendencies to stay at home may affect participation.
Intercept Interviews in Malls and Other High-Traffic Areas
Personal interviews conducted in shopping malls are referred to as mall intercept interviews.
Interviewers generally stop and attempt to question shoppers at a central point within the mall or at the
entrance. These are low cost. No travel is required to the respondent's home ­ instead the respondent
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comes to the interviewer, and thus many interviews can be conducted quickly. The incidence of refusal
is high, however, because individuals may be in a hurry.
In mall intercept interviews the researcher must recognize that he or she should not be looking for
representative sample of the total population. Each mall will have its own customer characteristics of
customers.
Personal interviews in the shopping mall may be appropriate when demographic factors are not likely to
influence the survey's findings or when target group is a special population segment, such as the parents
of children of bike-riding age.
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Table of Contents:
  1. INTRODUCTION, DEFINITION & VALUE OF RESEARCH
  2. SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF RESEARCH & ITS SPECIAL FEATURES
  3. CLASSIFICATION OF RESEARCH:Goals of Exploratory Research
  4. THEORY AND RESEARCH:Concepts, Propositions, Role of Theory
  5. CONCEPTS:Concepts are an Abstraction of Reality, Sources of Concepts
  6. VARIABLES AND TYPES OF VARIABLES:Moderating Variables
  7. HYPOTHESIS TESTING & CHARACTERISTICS:Correlational hypotheses
  8. REVIEW OF LITERATURE:Where to find the Research Literature
  9. CONDUCTING A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW:Write the Review
  10. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:Make an inventory of variables
  11. PROBLEM DEFINITION AND RESEARCH PROPOSAL:Problem Definition
  12. THE RESEARCH PROCESS:Broad Problem Area, Theoretical Framework
  13. ETHICAL ISSUES IN RESEARCH:Ethical Treatment of Participants
  14. ETHICAL ISSUES IN RESEARCH (Cont):Debriefing, Rights to Privacy
  15. MEASUREMENT OF CONCEPTS:Conceptualization
  16. MEASUREMENT OF CONCEPTS (CONTINUED):Operationalization
  17. MEASUREMENT OF CONCEPTS (CONTINUED):Scales and Indexes
  18. CRITERIA FOR GOOD MEASUREMENT:Convergent Validity
  19. RESEARCH DESIGN:Purpose of the Study, Steps in Conducting a Survey
  20. SURVEY RESEARCH:CHOOSING A COMMUNICATION MEDIA
  21. INTERCEPT INTERVIEWS IN MALLS AND OTHER HIGH-TRAFFIC AREAS
  22. SELF ADMINISTERED QUESTIONNAIRES (CONTINUED):Interesting Questions
  23. TOOLS FOR DATA COLLECTION:Guidelines for Questionnaire Design
  24. PILOT TESTING OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE:Discovering errors in the instrument
  25. INTERVIEWING:The Role of the Interviewer, Terminating the Interview
  26. SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TERMINOLOGY:Saves Cost, Labor, and Time
  27. PROBABILITY AND NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLING:Convenience Sampling
  28. TYPES OF PROBABILITY SAMPLING:Systematic Random Sample
  29. DATA ANALYSIS:Information, Editing, Editing for Consistency
  30. DATA TRANSFROMATION:Indexes and Scales, Scoring and Score Index
  31. DATA PRESENTATION:Bivariate Tables, Constructing Percentage Tables
  32. THE PARTS OF THE TABLE:Reading a percentage Table
  33. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH:The Language of Experiments
  34. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH (Cont.):True Experimental Designs
  35. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH (Cont.):Validity in Experiments
  36. NON-REACTIVE RESEARCH:Recording and Documentation
  37. USE OF SECONDARY DATA:Advantages, Disadvantages, Secondary Survey Data
  38. OBSERVATION STUDIES/FIELD RESEARCH:Logic of Field Research
  39. OBSERVATION STUDIES (Contd.):Ethical Dilemmas of Field research
  40. HISTORICAL COMPARATIVE RESEARCH:Similarities to Field Research
  41. HISTORICAL-COMPARATIVE RESEARCH (Contd.):Locating Evidence
  42. FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION:The Purpose of FGD, Formal Focus Groups
  43. FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION (Contd.):Uses of Focus Group Discussions
  44. REPORT WRITING:Conclusions and recommendations, Appended Parts
  45. REFERENCING:Book by a single author, Edited book, Doctoral Dissertation