Research Design and

UNIT 3 SURVEY Sampling

Nilima Srivastava and Kiran Prasad

Structure

3.1 Introduction
3.2 Objectives
3.3 Survey Research
3.3.1 Types of Surveys
3.3.2 Phases in Survey Research
3.3.3 Advantages and Limitations

3.4 Tools of Data Collection

3.4.1 Structured Observation
3.4.2 Interview
3.4.3 Questionnaire

3.5 Reliability and Validity of Tools of Data Collection

3.6 Let Us Sum Up
3.7 Glossary
3.8 Unit End Questions
3.9 References
3.10 Suggested Readings

3.1 INTRODUCTION
We have studied how quantitative research can be used to study research
questions in gender studies in Unit 1. In the earlier unit you read about
research design and how it is widely used in social sciences such as sociology,
anthropology, political science, and gender studies.

In this unit we will study about survey research. Survey research is one of
the most important method in quantitative social research. The broad area
of survey research encompasses any measurement procedures that involve
asking questions to respondents. A survey can be anything from a short
paper-and-pencil feedback form to an intensive one-on-one in-depth
interview.

In this unit we will look at various types, phases , advantages and limitations
of survey research. In the next section of this unit you will read about types
and construction of instruments that are employed in data collection in
survey research. The last section deals with how to ensure reliability and
validity of survey tools. Let us now look at the objectives of reading this
unit.

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Quantitative Research
3.2 OBJECTIVES
On successful reading of this unit, you are expected to be able to:
• Describe nuances of a survey design;
• Discuss tools of data collection in survey research ; and
• Undertake a small research activity.

3.3 SURVEY RESEARCH

Surveys are used in almost all areas of life. We can see consumer groups,
advertisers, businesses and political parties using surveys to make decisions
in their activities. For example, advertisers survey consumers to find out
their preferences related to various products. Political parties often survey
electors to find out their opinions on candidates and their performance
during elections. The importance of survey research lies in the fact that the
media frequently report the results of various surveys to the public.

There are different types of survey designs based on the purpose of the
study. We will look at how to select the survey design that is best suited
to study a research question.

Different types of surveys are possible in gender studies. These are broadly
divided into two types: Descriptive and Analytical. That is to say that
surveys can be used either to describe phenomena or to explain them.

A descriptive survey attempts to present a picture or document the current

conditions or attitudes that exist at a particular moment. For example, a
descriptive survey on the working conditions of women in the unorganized
sector, describes the problems faced by women in various areas such as
their access to credit, safety, regular income and health concerns. In
descriptive surveys, researchers are interested in finding out the lifestyles
of people, their attitudes, values, and behaviour in a given area.

Analytical surveys attempt to explain why certain conditions exist. In this

research approach, large amounts of data are collected to analyse two or
more variables and their effect on a dependent variable. For example, the
study of the lifestyles of women can be used to predict the sales of certain
consumer goods like washing machines. Analytical surveys also study the
interrelationships between variables to draw conclusions for the study. For
example, an analytical study of the access of women to health care will
analyse data on their place of residence (urban/rural), age, education,
income and contact with health workers to draw conclusions on their health-
seeking behaviour.

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Surveys are used in gender studies to provide reliable evidence about the Survey

life experiences of women and explain the social, cultural, economic and
political context in which they live. Survey research aims to highlight the
need for various policies to improve the lives of women. For example,
results of surveys are often used by government agencies, non-governmental
organizations and policy makers to develop welfare measures and policies
to benefit various sections of women. The results of clinical surveys provided
evidence of the extensive iron deficiency and anaemia among women. This
evidence resulted in public health campaigns and the distribution of iron
supplements among teenage girls and pregnant women.

Surveys also help to identify the changing conditions of women’s lives such
as the increasing number of female-headed households, migration of women,
the impact of gender-sensitive budgets and various forms of violence against
women. Spalter-Roth and Hartmann (1999) emphasize that research questions
and policy goals often grow out of their own interactions with policy-
oriented and grass-roots women’s groups. Several research questions are
studied through surveys and contribute to the improvement of women’s
lives. The evidence from surveys that women lack access to credit facilities
led to the formulation of micro-finance and the self-help group movement.

Box No. 3.1

Some Early Surveys

The first systematic survey was supposedly carried our by Henry Mayhew,
a Scottish philosopher and social reformer, who wanted to find out
about the living conditions in Edinburgh in the early 19th century and
asked ordinary people to report on their situation.

With reformist zeal, Charles Booth initiated a survey on Labour and

Life of the People of London in 1886.

Around the same time several other surveys were carried out , mostly
in Great Britain and elsewhere in western world, focusing primarily on
measurement of poverty.
Sources: IGNOU, MSO 002, Book 2, p.100

Let us now read about types of surveys that are employed in quantitative
research.

3.3.1 Types of Surveys

There are survey designs based on the methods of data collection. We shall
discuss the popular types of survey research: mail surveys, telephone surveys,
personal ( face to face) interviews and group administration. We shall now
study each of these survey research designs in detail.

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Quantitative Research Personal interviews involve a face-to-face meeting with the respondent.
An interview requires at least two persons: interviewer who asks questions
and interviewee, who responds to the questions.

There are two basic types of personal interviews: structured and

unstructured. In a structured interview, the interviewer asks a set of
prepared questions in a pre-decided order and the questions provide the
respondent with a range of possible answers. In an unstructured interview,
the interviewer asks questions based on the answers given by the respondent.
The respondent is given a degree of freedom to answer the questions asked
by the interviewer in an unstructured interview. The data gathered in a
structured interview are easier to analyse than data from unstructured
interviews which contain more details and need more time to analyse. The
general steps to conduct an interview are:

1) Select a sample of respondents.

2) Construct a interview guide or schedule for the study.

3) Prepare a list of respondents.

4) Train the interviewers.

5) Collect the data by calling upon the respondents.

6) Tabulate and analyse the survey data.

The advantage of personal interview is that it gathers data in a face-to-face

situation and interviewers can collect additional information through
observation. For example, when an interviewer interviews a sample of slum
women he/she can observe the surrounding conditions of the area and
record the facilities such as water taps, electricity, road, presence of sanitation,
etc. in the slum. Personal interviews are the best method of data collection
among illiterate respondents. Questionnaires can be given only to respondents
who can read and write. The biggest disadvantage of the personal interview
is its cost; it involves considerable transportation and labour cost and many
interviewers are needed to interview a large sample.

Self administered questionnaire, as the name indicates is completed by

the respondent herself/himself. It can be completed by giving out the
questionnaire in person to the respondent, mailed or sent through email .
The respondents independently read the questions and answer them as per
their understanding. The main advantage of self administered questionnaire
is low cost associated in administering this method. Also, respondents can
fill it up at convenience, can ponder over their responses, give frank opinion
on issues that would have warranted socially acceptable responses. But,
there are evident disadvantages of this method . Low rate of response,
somebody else filling up the questionnaire for the respondent, gathering
data with respondents with low literacy, are some of the major disadvantages.
Incomplete responses may be other serious limitation.
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Mail surveys involve mailing a self-administrable questionnaire to a sample Survey

of respondents. Mail surveys are also called postal surveys. They can cover
a wide geographic area at a fairly low cost. Stamped reply paid envelopes are
enclosed to encourage the respondents to mail the completed questionnaires
back to the researcher. Mail surveys can be used to gather a lot of data with
minimum expenditure of time and cost. The general steps of conducting a mail
survey are given below. Some steps can be done simultaneously also.

1) Select a sample of respondents.

2) Construct the questionnaire for the study.

3) Write a covering letter requesting the respondents to answer the

questionnaire.

4) Assemble the covering letter, questionnaire and stamped reply envelopes

into a package.

5) Mail the surveys.

6) Monitor the return of the questionnaires.

7) Send reminders and follow-up letters to those who failed to answer.

8) Tabulate and analyse the survey data.

The advantage of mail survey lies in its ability to cover a wide geographic
area at a reasonable cost. They can reach respondents in remote places
which would be difficult and expensive to reach. Respondents can answer
without being present before the researcher and in a setting that is
comfortable to them. But mail surveys have some disadvantages also. They
are the slowest form of data collection. Researchers may also never know
who exactly answered their questionnaire. It may be completed by one
person or by more than one person. For instance, a busy official may pass
the questionnaire to the secretary for completing the survey.

Telephone surveys are carried out by telephoning the respondents. Telephone

surveys and personal interviews need trained members in a research team.
Usually telephone surveys are conducted with people who may not respond
to mail surveys and are difficult to interview personally such as politicians,
diplomats, business heads and policy makers. In phone interviews, the
researcher must have well-equipped phone surveying facilities and the
equipment needed to record and transcribe responses. They are faster than
mail surveys but are more costly than mail surveys. Data collection is
immediate but the duration of the interview must be kept short. The
general steps of conducting a telephone survey are given below.

1) Select a sample of respondents.

2) Construct the questionnaire for the study.

3) Prepare a list of numbers to call.

4) Train the interviewers.

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Quantitative Research 5) Collect the data by telephoning the respondents.

6) Call back if necessary.

7) Tabulate and analyse the survey data.

The advantage of telephone surveys is that it is a relatively faster method

of data collection at a reasonable cost. Interviewers can also clarify the
doubts of respondents which is not possible in mail surveys. One of the
main disadvantages of telephone survey is that not everyone has a phone,
many may have numbers that are not listed in the telephone directory and
some numbers may be listed wrongly.

On line social surveys have become a common way of collecting data in

the last couple of decades. When the respondents are not large in number
and homogeneous on line user groups, a survey can be administered through
email, which is called e mail survey. It is the cheapest method, both in
terms of time and money. The questionnaire can be sent as embedded text
as the main body of the mail or sent as an attachment. The attachment
questionnaire can be only written text or interactive in nature. When
there is a large group of on line users, ‘web survey’ is carried out. Here,
the respondent is directed to a website in order to answer a questionnaire
that can be completed on line.

Group administration is another survey method that combines the features

of mail survey and personal interview. In a group administered survey, the
respondents are gathered together in a convenient location. They are then
requested to fill the questionnaire in the presence of the researcher within
the specified time. The filled-in questionnaires are then collected by the
researcher for analysis. For example, we can collect data from girl students
studying engineering by gathering them in the college premises.

The group administration method has the advantages of lower costs as in

a mail survey and increasing the response rate as in an interview. It also
has the advantage of being a face-to-face approach where interviewers can
clarify the doubts of the respondents. A single disadvantage of the group
administered survey is that not all respondents can be gathered together
at one location.

The researcher can select a single survey method of data collection or use
a combination of methods according to the money, time and resources
available.

There may not be one approach which is the best. The researcher must use
his/her judgement to select methods that can complement one another. For
example, half the questionnaires can be collected through group
administration while some can be posted and collected through mail surveys.
While both methods are relatively in expensive, group administration is
faster and has a higher response rate than mail surveys. Group administration
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is popular for data collection among literate respondents while interviewing Survey

is preferred for collecting data among rural and illiterate respondents.

3.3.2 Phases in Survey Research

Survey entails a systematic collection of information (data) regarding

attitudes, beliefs, behaviour of the targeted population. There are three
important concerns that have to be kept in mind while deciding to go for
survey method of research. These are

• Purpose of Enquiry

• Targeted population

• Availability of Resources with the Researcher

It should be very clear to the researcher and her/his team that, what is the
purpose of carrying out the research and what are the objectives or research
questions. It is also important to know the characteristics of the targeted
population. This will help in (1) developing a suitable design for the survey,
(2) how to draw a sample and (3) draw a time line of the Study.

Another important consideration for survey research is availability of

resources- time, funds and human resources. Survey research is a resource
intensive exercise as it includes interviewing time, travel time, cost of
travel, remuneration to interviewers, training and supervision of the
interviewers, construction and printing of tools of data collection, pilot
testing, and data entry and cost software for data analysis. Thus, a researcher
must make a realistic estimation of available resources before undertaking
survey method of research.

Read the following table to understand steps in different phases of survey

research.

Table No. 3.1: Phases and Steps in Survey Research

Designing and Planning Phase Data Collection Phase Data Analysis and
Reporting

1. Research question formulation 1. Locating the 1. Editing

2. Decide survey design respondents 2. Coding
3. Draw the sample 2. Accessing the 3. Tabulation and
4. Data collecting techniques respondents and analysis
5. Construction data collection field setting
4. Writing up the
tools 3. Supervision and report.
6. Pilot study monitoring of data
7. Finalising instruments of data collection
collection
8. Training of Investigators

Adopted from IGNOU, MSO 002, Book 2, p. 107

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Quantitative Research After reading what is understood by survey research, its various types and
phases of survey, in the following section you will read about advantages
and limitation of survey research.

3.3.3 Advantages and Limitations

Survey research has following advantages:

1) Self administered, internet surveys are cost effective.

2) It can be administered in geographically distant and diverse locations.

3) Very large samples can be accommodated making the results statistically

significant.

4) Different modes for administering a questionnaire is available with the

researcher. Best suited option can be exercised.

5) Instruments of data collection are standardized implying more reliability

and validity.

Survey design is a useful research method but it has several limitations.

1) Respondents may not recall answers to questions accurately or they

may not understand questions which seem simple to researchers.

2) Some respondents may purposely give biased responses to impress the

researcher.

3) Surveys depend on the careful framing of questions for collection of

data. Researchers need to ensure that the questions are valid and
reliable.

4) Surveys are increasingly using online methods and computer-assisted

techniques which people might skip answering.

In Block 2, Unit 3 of this Course you read about tools that are employed
in collection of data in qualitative research. Here, we will discuss tools that
are commonly used in carrying out survey research. But, before reading
further, attempt the following exercise.

Check Your Progress:

i) Name different type of surveys in social science research?

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 Survey
ii) Write two advantages and disadvantages of survey research.

iii) Write a note on phases in survey research.

In the following section you will read about commonly used tools of data
collection in survey research.

3.4 TOOLS OF DATA COLLECTION

While carrying out survey research, we collect primary data either through
observation or through direct communication with the respondents. Direct
communication can be sought through questionnaires or in face to face
situation through interview schedules . The most commonly used instruments
or tools of data collection in survey are: (1) observation (2) interview (3)
questionnaire

Let us discuss each one of them in detail.

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Quantitative Research 1) Observation: We have read in Unit 3 of Block 2 about simple and
participant observation in qualitative research. Here we will read how
observation can be an instrument in collecting data in quantitative
research. Here, information is gathered by way of researcher’s own
observations in the field. Kothari ( 2008) writes that observation becomes
a scientific tool for data collection for a researcher, when it serves a
formulated research purpose. It has to be systematically planned ,
recorded and subjected to checks and controls on validity and reliability.

Apart from simple and participant observation (you have already read
about the two in the last Block) observation can be structured, also
referred to as systematic observation, where researcher employs explicitly
formulated rules for the observation and recording of behaviour. These
rules are laid out in observation notes part of the schedule to be
administered in the field. Unstructured observation doesn’t require the
provision of space for observation notes for recording of behaviour or it
can be any other noticeable information to make the data rich.

The main advantage of observation is that it is independent of

respondent’s spoken or conveyed response. It also provides information
about what is happening at the time of data collection and not
complicated by past behaviour or future intensions. But, the limitation
of this method is that the information collected is very limited and
biased if the person collecting the data is not well trained.

2) Interview: Here data is collected through presentation of oral-verbal

stimuli and the response is also through the same mode of oral-verbal
communication. The interviewer is physically present at the spot of
data collection, asking questions in a face to face situation . The
interviewee, who is the primary source of information, responds to the
questions posed to him or her by the interviewer. This is known as
‘direct personal investigation’. It can also be through ‘indirect oral
examination’ where the interviewer has to cross examine persons who
supposedly have information about the issue under research . For
example, as in case of enquires by government appointed Committees
and Commissions, where the interviewee may not be directly involved
in the case under investigation but may possess crucial information
that may be helpful in leading to a fair inquiry.

An interview is conducted in following stages:

• Introduction: Here the interviewer introduces himself/herself. Inform

about the organisation that is conducting a research, share how and
why the respondent has been chosen and how much time will be
required to complete the process. It is important to inform the
respondent about the confidentiality of the information given for the
research.
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• Asking questions and recording responses: This is the main component Survey

of an interview where the interviewer asks appropriate questions listed

with him/her. It is important to maintain a comfortable pace and show
interest in the process so that the respondent feel motivated to share
his/her views. A skilled interviewer would know how and when to
probe the respondent to obtain a complete and relevant response.
Another skill on the part of the interviewer is to recognise irrelevant
and inaccurate answers and bring the interview process on the desired
track.

• The exit stage: It is very crucial to terminate the interview on a

positive note. This will make the respondent feel good about his/her
contribution towards the research and also motivate him/her to be
pro-active if another occasion of the same type arises in future. Also,
it is important not to forget common courtesies like thanking respondents
for giving up their time and providing valuable information.

Interview can follow ‘structured’ or ‘unstructured’ format. In structured

interviews, an interviewer uses a set of predetermined questions to gather
data and the responses are recorded using highly standardized techniques.
This is a useful tool to collect data for descriptive studies. The interview
is conducted using a pre-designed format which is called interview schedule,
a proforma containing a set of questions .

An interview schedule consists of questions that are completed by the

interviewer based on what the respondent says. Surveys can consist of two
basic types of questions: open-ended and close-ended questions. Open-
ended questions enable the researcher to gather elaborate information on
questions posed to the respondent. It can also document feelings of the
respondents and motives behind their answers. For example:

What are the three important problems faced by women in India?

__________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

The answers to this open-ended question can suggest answers that the
researchers may not have foreseen and express possible relationships with
other variables. Now look at another way of posing a question.

Do you read a newspaper?

a) Yes b) No

This closed-ended question doesn’t give much information about news paper
reading habit of the respondents but enables researchers to quickly
understand the number of newspaper readers among the respondents.

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Quantitative Research At times, researcher use a semi-structured interview schedule that contains
both closed and open ended question depending on the trend or depth of
information required.

Bryman (2008) has outlined following rules that can be kept in mind while
designing an interview schedule.

1) Seek information about background variables to put the respondent at

ease and set the pace for gathering research related information.

2) In an interview schedule questions should be grouped into sections to

have a better flow of thoughts for the respondent. Within each section,
general questions should come before asking specific ones.

3) Research questions directly related to the topic of research should be

posed in the early part of the interview so that in case the respondent
develops lack of interest in participating, crucial information has already
been captured.

4) It is also recommended that questions dealing with opinion and attitudes

should be asked before posing questions related to behaviour and
knowledge. It is believed that behaviour and knowledge questions are
less affected by question order than questions that tap opinion and
attitudes.

5) If there is a long list of possible answers, reading it out may be tedious

for the interviewer. Also, it will be difficult for the respondent to
concentrate on all the possible choices. So, if the respondents are
literate, it is to hand out a list of options available.

On the other hand, when data is collected using unstructured interviews,

the interviewer let the interviewee respond to a question in a manner of
free flow of his/her thoughts and expression. This type of interview provide
greater flexibility to the interviewer in changing the sequence of questions
to be asked and to ask supplementary questions . But, there certainly are
some disadvantages too. The data gathered may become too vast and
difficult to manage. It may generate wide variety of responses that can’t
be clubbed together, resulting in lack of comparability of one interview
with others. Thus, making analysis difficult and time consuming. Unstructured
interviews are more useful for studies that are exploratory in nature.

Let us have a quick look at the advantages of interview as a tool of data

collection.

• In depth information can be collected through unstructured interviews

or open ended interview schedule.

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• Flexibility to restructure questions, simplify language or explain the Survey

context of the question to make it easy for the respondent to answer.

• Information about respondent’s personal characteristics and environment

can be valuable source to enrich data analysis and interpretation.

There are certain limitations of using interview as a tool of collecting data.

• Interview is expensive by way of cost, time and human resources required

to collect data.

• There are chances of human bias on the part of both the interviewer
and the respondent.

• Interview needs a good working understanding between the interviewer

and the respondent which becomes difficult in survey research as a
good number of interviews need to conducted in a given time frame.

Role Of Interviewer: Interviews take place in different settings but the aim
remains same. That is, to collect accurate information available with the
interviewee. It is seen that in social research, disparity in characteristics
( such as race, caste, class or sex) of the researcher and the respondents
would affect the responses garnered from the interview. Thus, it becomes
important for the researcher to reduce such disparity to facilitate rapport
formation with ease.

It is also important for the interviewer to know what is his/her role and
that of the interviewee. The role of interviewer starts with building rapport
with the respondent without being emotional or biased. Interviewer should
work towards reducing anxiety, embarrassment or suspicion of the
respondents so that the interview can yield the desired information. S/he
should have non judgemental attitude and the keep an eye on the pace and
direction of information generation process. Here, a word of caution is to
guard non verbal communication ( for example, showing signs of happiness,
surprise or shock)

Box No.3.2

An interviewer helps define the situation and ensures that respondents

have the information sought, understand what is expected, give relevant
and serious answers and are motivated to cooperate. Therefore,
interview is a social interaction in which the behaviour of both the
interviewer and respondent stem from their attitudes, motives and
perceptions.
Source: IGNOU, MSO 002, Book 2, p.130)

In the following section you will read about to design questionnaire as a

tool of data collection in survey research.

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Quantitative Research 3) Questionnaire: It is a self administered tool of data collection in survey
research where the respondent receives the questionnaire either through
post, e mail or left with the respondent by the research team and
collected later. Here, the onus of returning the filled in questionnaire
rest on the respondents. Questionnaires are used when the respondents
are very well educated, geographically spread out or high profile with
busy schedule. Like an interview schedule, questionnaire can also contain
open or closed ended questions.

Questionnaires consist of written set of questions which are usually

paper-and-pencil instruments that the respondent completes. Surveys
gather data using questionnaires through mail (post), telephone interview
and group administration.

After developing the questionnaire, the next step is to gather data from
respondents. This is done using the four basic survey research methods
that you have read in the earlier part of this unit (the mail survey, the
telephone survey, the personal interview and group administration).
Researchers can use a single method or a combination of methods to
gather data for survey research.

Box No.3.3

Each of the survey methods has advantages and disadvantages which

must be considered before the researcher chooses a tool for collecting
data . (Kothari, 2004; Bhattacharya, 2003).

Requisites for a good questionnaire are :

• Questionnaire should be short and simple.

• Questions should proceed in logical sequence from easy to answer to

that requiring thinking and analysis.

• Personal and intimate questions should be placed at the end .

• Technical terms, abbreviations or unambiguous terms that can be

differently interpreted should be avoided .

• It is crucial for the quality of data collection with the help of questionnaire
that respondents should be able to understand the meaning of each
question.

• Cross- checking questions ( different ways of asking questions on one

aspect of research) help in assessing if the respondent is consistent in
his/her responses. It further allows for an appraisal of the validity of
the tool.

• It is important to determine whether structured or unstructured questions

are best suited for the research objectives.
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• There should be adequate space to answer each question. Too long Survey

spaces for answer also should not be there as the questionnaire may
look very long and may put off the respondent.

3.5 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF TOOLS

A reliable survey tool is one that is relatively free from ‘measurement
errors.’ Errors may occur when (1) construction of tools is faulty, (2) it is
poorly administered or (3) data entry is wrong.

Four types of reliability are discussed in the following paragraphs. ( IGNOU,

MSO 002, 2008, p. 139).

• Stability: It is also sometimes called ‘test-retest’ reliability. A measure

is stable if the correlation between the scores from one time to another
is high.

• Equivalence: Also called ‘alternate form’ reliability means , two items

measure the same concepts at the same level of difficulty.

• Homogeneity: It refers to extent to which all the items or questions

assess the same skill, characteristics or quality. This type of reliability
is also referred to as ‘internal consistency’.

• Inter – rater and intra-rater reliability: The former refers to the extent
to which two or more individuals agree. The latter refers to a single
individual’s consistency of measurement.

Let us now look at what is understood by validity of a tool in survey

research.

Validity refers to the degree to which a tool of data collection in survey

assesses claims to measure. Validity can be based on content, face, criterion
and construct. (IGNOU, 2008, MSO 002, Book 2, p. 140).

Content: It refers to the extent to which a measure thoroughly and

appropriately assesses the skills or characteristics it is intended to measure.

Face: Face validity refers to how a measure appears on the surface, i.e,
does it covers all the needed questions, use the appropriate language
required?

Criterion: Here, responses to future performances or to those from other,

more established surveys are compared.

Construct: It is established experimentally to demonstrate that a survey

distinguishes between people who do and do not have certain characteristics.

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Quantitative Research
3.6 LET US SUM UP
This unit begins with describing use of survey design in research. Survey is
a widely used research design in the social sciences including gender studies.

Survey research is the method of gathering data from respondents through

a questionnaire or interview schedule. We have studied that a survey can
range from a short paper-and-pencil feedback form to an intensive one-on-
one in-depth interview. There are broadly two types of surveys: Descriptive
and Analytical. Surveys used to describe phenomena are referred to as
descriptive surveys. Surveys used to explain why these phenomena occur
are referred to as analytical surveys.

There are four popular survey designs based on the methods of data
collection. They are internet based web surveys, telephone surveys, personal
interviews and group administration. A researcher can select any one of
these types or use a combination of them in a research study. Each of the
survey approaches has advantages and disadvantages. Researchers must
carefully select the type of surveys that can best overcome disadvantages.

Survey is a useful research method but it has several limitations. In a

survey, respondents may not readily recall answers to questions or they may
not answer accurately questions which seem simple to researchers. Some
respondents may purposely give responses to impress the researcher even
though it may not be correct. The success in collecting data for surveys
depends on the careful framing of questions and the interviewing skills of
researchers. Surveys are now increasingly using the internet and online
methods.

Data for the survey is collected with the help of tools like structured
observation, interview and questionnaire. Interview can be structured with
open or closed ended questions or unstructured to get respondent’s in
depth understanding of issue of research. Issues of validity are reliability
is also important to bear in mind while finalising tools for collection of
data.

This unit also shows the usefulness of quantitative research and survey
designs in generating data that can highlight the living conditions of women
and urge social change for improving the lives of women. The information
that results from surveys is often used in planning and implementing policies
that promote new initiatives for women.

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 Survey
3.7 GLOSSARY
Survey Research : Research designed to collect descriptions of
existing phenomena in order to describe or
explain why they occur.

Descriptive Survey : Surveys that describes current conditions or

attitudes.

Analytical Surveys : Surveys which explain why certain conditions

exist.

Open-ended Questions : Questions in which choices or answers to

questions are provided.

Close-ended Questions : Questions in which respondents can freely

express their opinions, feelings or reasons.

Structured Interview : The interview in which data is collected using

a set of prepared questions in a pre-decided
order.

Unstructured Interview : The interview that has questions based on the

answers given by the respondent.

3.8 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Discuss the different types of surveys in quantitative research. Give
examples where these different types are best suited for research.

2) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different types of surveys.

3) Design a survey to collect data on a topic of your choice.

3.9 REFERENCES
Babbie, Earl (1986). The Practice of Social Research. California, Belmont:
Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Bhattacharya, D.K. (2003). Research Methodology. New Delhi: Excel Books.

Bryman, Alan. (2008). Social Research Methods. New York: Oxford University
Press.

IGNOU (2008). Research Methodologies and Methods, MSO-002, Block 2.

New Delhi: IGNOU

Kerlinger, F. (1973). Foundations of Behavioural Research (2nd edition). New

York: Holt, Reinhart and Winston.

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Quantitative Research Kothari, C.R. (2004). Research Methodology Methods and Techniques 2nd
Edition. New Delhi: New Age International (P) Limited.

Spalter-Roth, Roberta and Heidi Hartmann (1999). Small Happiness: The

Feminist Struggle to Integrate Social Research with Social Activism, In
Sharlene Hesse-Biber, Christina Gilmartin and Robin Lydenberg (eds.) (1999).
Feminist Approaches to Theory and Methodology: An Interdisciplinary Reader.
New York: Oxford University Press.

Wimmer, Roger. D. and Joseph R. Dominick (1983). Mass Media Research:

An Introduction (2nd edition). California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

3.10 SUGGESTED READINGS

Bryman, Alan. (2008). Social Research Methods. New York: Oxford University
Press.

IGNOU (2008). Research Methodologies and Methods, MSO 002, Book 2.

New Delhi: IGNOU

Kothari, C.R. (2004). Research Methodology Methods and Techniques 2nd

Edition. New Delhi: New Age International (P) Limited.

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