POLS 3180 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Discourse Analysis, Content Analysis, Data Analysis
11 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Survey: method of data collection that consists of asking the same questions to a large number of subjects. Questionnaire: list of questions in a survey. Response rate: portion of contacted respondents who participate in the survey. When response rate is low, we can no longer assume our sample is random. Main advantage: best method to gauge opinions and perceptions of a large population. Design of survey has large impact on results. Social desirability bias (tendency of respondents to answer what they think is. Confirmation bias (tendency of respondents to favour agree" over disagree") Non-attitudes(respondents have been found to report views even if they have none) Surveys can be so standardized that they become artificial. How we order our questions and how we formulate them have large consequences for response patterns. Question ordering: move from general to specific. Question formulation: avoiding random measurement error, keep questions short and simple, be precise, avoid double-barreled questions.
