Social Sciences Index


Book Description




Advances in Telephone Survey Methodology


Book Description

A complete and comprehensive collaboration providing insight on future approaches to telephone survey methodology Over the past fifteen years, advances in technology have transformed the field of survey methodology, from how interviews are conducted to the management and analysis of compiled data. Advances in Telephone Survey Methodology is an all—encompassing and authoritative resource that presents a theoretical, methodological, and statistical treatment of current practices while also establishing a discussion on how state—of—the—art developments in telecommunications have and will continue to revolutionize the telephone survey process. Seventy—five prominent international researchers and practitioners from government, academic, and private sectors have collaborated on this pioneering volume to discuss basic survey techniques and introduce the future directions of the telephone survey. Concepts and findings are organized in four parts—sampling and estimation, data collection, operations, and nonresponse—equipping the reader with the needed practical applications to approach issues such as choice of target population, sample design, questionnaire construction, interviewing training, and measurement error. The book also introduces important topics that have been overlooked in previous literature, including: The impact of mobile telephones on telephone surveys and the rising presence of mobile—only households worldwide The design and construction of questionnaires using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) software The emerging use of wireless communication and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) versus the telephone Methods for measuring and improving interviewer performance and productivity Privacy, confidentiality, and respondent burden as main factors in telephone survey nonresponse Procedures for the adjustment of nonresponse in telephone surveys In—depth reviews of the literature presented along with a full bibliography, assembled from references throughout the world Advances in Telephone Survey Methodology is an indispensable reference for survey researchers and practitioners in almost any discipline involving research methods such as sociology, social psychology, survey methodology, and statistics. This book also serves as an excellent text for courses and seminars on survey methods at the undergraduate and graduate levels.




Handbook of Survey Research


Book Description

With chapters on: sampling; measurement; questionnaire construction and question writing; survey implementation and management; survey data analysis; special types of surveys; and integrating surveys with other data collection methods, this title includes topics such as measurement models, the role of cognitive psychology, and surveying networks.




Survey Research in the United States


Book Description

Hardly an American today escapes being polled or surveyed or sampled. In this illuminating history, Jean Converse shows how survey research came to be perhaps the single most important development in twentieth-century social science. Everyone interested in survey methods and public opinion, including social scientists in many fi elds, will find this volume a major resource.Converse traces the beginnings of survey research in the practical worlds of politics and business, where elite groups sought information so as to infl uence mass democratic publics and markets. During the Depression and World War II, the federal government played a major role in developing surveys on a national scale. In the 1940s certain key individuals with academic connections and experience in polling, business, or government research brought surveys into academic life. By the 1960s, what was initially viewed with suspicion had achieved a measure of scientific acceptance of survey research.The author draws upon a wealth of material in archives, interviews, and published work to trace the origins of the early organizations (the Bureau of Applied Social Research, the National Opinion Research Center, and the Survey Research Center of Michigan), and to capture the perspectives of front-line fi gures such as Paul Lazarsfeld, George Gallup, Elmo Roper, and Rensis Likert. She writes with sensitivity and style, revealing how academic survey research, along with its commercial and political cousins, came of age in the United States.




The Nonresponse Challenge to Surveys and Statistics


Book Description

Surveys are the principal source of data not only for social science, but for consumer research, political polling, and federal statistics. In response to social and technological trends, rates of survey nonresponse have risen markedly in recent years, prompting observers to worry about the continued validity of surveys as a tool for data gathering. Newspaper stories, magazine articles, radio programs, television broadcasts, and Internet blogs are filled with data derived from surveys of one sort or another. Reputable media outlets generally indicate whether a survey is representative, but much of the data routinely bandied about in the media and on the Internet are not based on representative samples and are of dubious use in making accurate statements about the populations they purport to represent. Surveys are social interactions, and like all interactions between people, they are embedded within social structures and guided by shared cultural understandings. This issue of The ANNALS examines the difficulties with finding willing respondents to these surveys and how the changing structure of society, whether it be the changing family structure, mass immigration, rising inequality, or the rise of technology, has presented new issues to conducting surveys. This volume will be of interest to faculty and students who specialize in sociological movements as well as economic and immigration movements and its effect on surveying.




Beyond the Horse Race


Book Description

Called a "timely read for the politically inclined" (Booklist), this book from one of America’s most prominent pollsters offers readers a master class in understanding what polls can reveal about public opinion. Americans are preoccupied with political polls. In this book, John Zogby, one of America’s most prominent pollsters, offers readers a master class in understanding what polls can reveal about public opinion. He argues that those who focus only on the horse race numbers—who is leading and who is trailing—miss the many ways that polls can help us understand the fundamentals of the electorate at any given time. Illustrating his arguments from key political races of the last 40 years, Zogby shares true stories about how polls have been misused and when they have been used well or badly. Beyond the Horse Race will appeal to campaign professionals and armchair political junkies who want to understand the art and science of accurately gauging public opinion.




Sampling of Populations


Book Description

A trusted classic on the key methods in population sampling—now in a modernized and expanded new edition Sampling of Populations, Fourth Edition continues to serve as an all-inclusive resource on the basic and most current practices in population sampling. Maintaining the clear and accessible style of the previous edition, this book outlines the essential statistical methodsfor survey design and analysis, while also exploring techniques that have developed over the past decade. The Fourth Edition successfully guides the reader through the basic concepts and procedures that accompany real-world sample surveys, such as sampling designs, problems of missing data, statistical analysis of multistage sampling data, and nonresponse and poststratification adjustment procedures. Rather than employ a heavily mathematical approach, the authors present illustrative examples that demonstrate the rationale behind common steps in the sampling process, from creating effective surveys to analyzing collected data. Along with established methods, modern topics are treated through the book's new features, which include: A new chapter on telephone sampling, with coverage of declining response rates, the creation of "do not call" lists, and the growing use of cellular phones A new chapter on sample weighting that focuses on adjustments to weight for nonresponse, frame deficiencies, and the effects of estimator instability An updated discussion of sample survey data analysis that includes analytic procedures for estimation and hypothesis testing A new section on Chromy's widely used method of taking probability proportional to size samples with minimum replacement of primary sampling units An expanded index with references on the latest research in the field All of the book's examples and exercises can be easily worked out using various software packages including SAS, STATA, and SUDAAN, and an extensive FTP site contains additional data sets. With its comprehensive presentation and wealth of relevant examples, Sampling of Populations, Fourth Edition is an ideal book for courses on survey sampling at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. It is also a valuable reference for practicing statisticians who would like to refresh their knowledge of sampling techniques.