Advance Research Methods

Descriptive Methods
ZAFAR AHMAD
Content

 Survey Research
 Types of Survey Research: Interviews and Questionnaires
 Types of Interviews: Structured, Unstructured, Semi-structured Interviews
 Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Types of Interviews
 Steps involved in constructing a Questionnaire
 Advantages and Disadvantages of using Questionnaires
 Survey Research Designs: Cross-sectional, Longitudinal, Successive Independent Samples Design
 Characteristics of Surveys
 Sampling in Survey Research
Survey

 Survey research is used to assess people’s thoughts, opinions and

feelings
 Survey can be specific and limited in scope or more global in their goals
 The scope and purpose of surveys can be limited and specific, or they
can be more global.
Characteristic of Surveys

 Survey research involves selecting a sample and using a

predetermined set of questions.

 First, surveys generally involve sampling, which is a characteristic

of nearly all behavioural research.
 Surveys are also characterized by their use of a set of

predetermined questions for all respondents. Oral and written

responses to these questions constitute the principal data obtained

in survey.
 When a representative sample of people is asked the same set of
questions, we can describe the attitudes of the population from
which the sample drawn.
Basic terms of Sampling

 Population

 Sampling frame

 Sample

 Element
Sampling in Survey Research

 Careful selection of a survey sample allows researchers to

generalize findings from the sample to the population.
 We need to develop a
specific list of the The subset of the
members of the population actually
Population: is the set population in order to drawn from the
of all cases of interest. select a subset of that sampling frame is
population. This called the sample
specific list is called a
sampling frame.

Each member of the

population is called
element. The
identification and
selection of elements
that will make up the
sample are the heart of
all sampling techniques
 The ability to generalize from a sample to the population depends
critically on the representativeness of the sample.

A sample is representative of the

population to the extent that it
exhibits the same distribution of
characteristic as the population.
Approaches to Sampling

Approaches

Nonprobability Sampling Probability Sampling

Nonprobability Sampling

 The most common type of nonprobability sampling is convenience

sampling. Convenience sampling involves selecting respondents on
the basis of their availability and willingness to respond

Newspaper interviews
Probability Sampling

 The distinguishing characteristic of probability sampling is that the

researcher can specify, for each element of the population. The
probability that it will be included in the sample.
 Probability Sampling

Simple Random Sampling Stratified Random Sampling

Simple Random Sampling

 Every element has an equal chance of being included in the sample.

Stratified Random Sampling

 The population is divided into subpopulation called strata and

random samples are drawn from each of these strata.
Survey Methods

 Mail surveys

 Personal interviews

 Telephone interviews

 Internet surveys
Survey Research Designs

 Cross Sectional Design

 Successive independent Sample Design
 Longitudinal Design
Cross Sectional Design

 In cross sectional design one or more samples are drawn from the
population at one point in time.
 Cross sectional designs allow researchers to describe the
characteristics of a population or the differences between two or
more populations, and correlational findings from cross sectional
designs allow researchers to make predictions.
Research Study

 The purpose of their study to determine if youths who receive

outpatient mental health services for their disorder differ in Cross
sectional
systematic ways from the larger population of children and design , 9-
17 years
adolescents with mental disorders. old
Research Findings

Parent Youth Pair 1285

No mental disorder 747

Received mental health services 25

Some type of mental disorder 535

Received outpatient mental health services 69

 How did the children and adolescents with mental disorders who
received treatment differ from those who did not ?
 He concluded that research samples of youths who receive treatment are not
representative of all youths who have a mental disorder.
 Cross sectional designs are ideally suited for the descriptive and predictive goals of
survey research.
Successive Independent Sample Design

 In successive independent sample design, different samples of respondents from the

population complete the survey over a time period.
 The successive independent sample design allows researchers to study changes in a
population over time.
 The successive independent samples design does not allow researchers to infer how
individual respondents have changed over time.
 A problem with the successive independent samples design occurs when the samples
drawn from the population are not comparable---that is , not equally representative of the
population.
 In successive independent samples design, a series of cross
sectional surveys are conducted over time(successively). The
samples are independent because a different sample of respondents
complete the survey at each point in time.
 2 Key Ingredients

Same set of questions The different samples

should be asked of each should be drawn from the
sample of respondents same population
 If these two conditions are met researchers can legitimately
compare survey responses over time.

 This design is most appropriate when major goal of the study is to

describe changes in the attitudes or behaviours within a population
over time.
Example

 Public opinion researchers frequently ask independent samples of

Americans the extent to which they approve of the U.S president
(approval ratings). Changes in approval ratings over time are used
to characterize Americans’ opinion of the president’s action.
Limitations

 The successive independent sample design is not very helpful in

ferreting out reasons for observed changes.

 Successive sample is not representative of the same population.

 (Non-comparable successive samples)

Longitudinal Design

 In longitudinal design, the same respondents are surveyed over time in order to examine
changes in individual respondents

 Because of the correlational nature of survey data, it is difficult to identify the causes of
individuals’ changes over time

 As people drop out of the study over time (attrition), the final sample may no longer be
comparable to the original sample or represent the population
Advantages

 The investigator can determine the direction and extent of change for individual
respondents. It easier to investigate reasons for attitude or behaviour changes.

 The longitudinal design is the best survey design when a researcher wishes to assess the
effects of some naturally occurring event