Survey Research Methodology

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how social research most often begins with a need to answer or understand a question or phenomena regarding human interactions and tendencies and how for the most part this research is conducted in various forms of surveys applied to a section or group to be studied. It looks at how the methodology by which these surveys are conducted can also vary greatly across several variables, the particular information needed and how, while for the most part these surveys are conducted under the strict conditions of scientific inquiry and generally yield useful information, there are some areas that need to be specifically monitored in order not to skew the results of the research. This paper analyzes the pros and cons of this methodology.

From the Paper:

"Surveys help the social researcher to organize data into meaningful components that can assist in understanding the human condition on many levels. By necessity surveys are tools of generalizations and the researcher will form certain ideas or see certain patterns in the result of these assumptions created by the data. In a sense it is a shorthand method of gaining information from a subset of the entire group studied. You could not realistically survey the entire population of the United States, but you could take a sampling of data across the region. There are however several shortfalls in this particular methodology. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Babbie, Earl R. (2005) The Basics of Social Research. (Rev. Ed.) New York: Thompson Wadsworth Publishing Company
• Cross, G. A., David, C. S., Graham, M. B., & Thralls, C. (1996). Thinking and Rethinking Research Methodology. Business Communication Quarterly, 59(3), 105-110
• Newman, I., & Benz, C. R. (1998). Qualitative-Quantitative Research Methodology: Exploring the Interactive Continuum. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
• Olsen, R. J. (2005). The Problem of Respondent Attrition: Survey Methodology Is Key; Longitudinal Surveys Will Suffer from Attrition and Nothing Will Change That; However, Years of Lessons Learned in the Field Show That Straightforward Survey Methodology Can Minimize the Impact of Losing Respondents. Monthly Labor Review, 128(2), 63-75
• Wattleton, F., Colasanto, D., & Pollitt, K. (2003, September 22). Women: Polls or Polemic?. The Nation, 277,

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