Exam 8: Survey and Interview Methods

Large-scale surveys have open-ended questions because they are quicker and easier for both respondents and researchers.

Questions such as: what would you estimate the overall addiction rate is for crack cocaine use and is there a "crack house" in your neighborhood are designed to measure ______________________.

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)is a massive ongoing crime survey program in which,as we've discussed before,a representative sample of people are asked a multitude of questions about their family's direct experiences with crime.

Studies show that survey formats that permit greater respondent anonymity,such as a self-administered questionnaire or Internet-based survey,decrease the likelihood of honest responses over formats that involve interacting with another person,such as in a face-to-face or telephone interview.

In surveys,researchers place people in groups,test one or two hypotheses with a few variables,control the timing of the treatment,note associations between the treatment and the dependent variable,and control for alternative explanations.

Survey research telephone interviewing in which the interviewer sits before a computer screen and keyboard,reads from the screen questions,and enters answers directly into the computer.

A __________________ (structured,fixed response)both asks a question and gives the respondent fixed responses from which to choose.

Because people always complete and return questionnaires,the best thing about mail questionnaires is a low response rate.

Questions such as: have you used cocaine one or more times in the last thirty days,have you carried a weapon (e.g. ,gun,knife,or club)on one or more of the thirty days preceding the survey,and while on duty as a police officer,have you ever used an illegal drug are designed to measure ______________.

Good survey questions yield valid and reliable measures of their constructs,and help respondents feel that they understand the question and that their answers are meaningful.

A _____________ is the letter that accompanies a mail-out survey and that provides the respondent all necessary information about the survey itself.

Questions such as: what country were you born in,what is the highest level of education that you completed,and how many probation officers are currently employed in your department?

A survey question that contains more than one issue and can create respondent confusion or ambiguous answers is know as ________________.

A _______________ is a question that leads the respondent to choose one response over another by its wording.

______________ often examines which independent variables best correlate with a dependent variable and rely on control variables to approximate the rigorous test for causality that experimenters achieve with their physical control over temporal order and alternative explanations.

Questions like "Does your prosecutor's office involve itself in the practice of civil asset forfeiture" and "Do you have a specific set of policies that regulates how forfeited dollars are spent in your office are designed to examine __________________.

What should you avoid when writing survey questions?

___________ is a problem in survey research question writing that occurs when a highly respected group or individual is associated with an answer choice.

Explain the naïve assumption model of survey interviews.

An ________________(unstructured,free response)simply asks a question to which respondents can give any answer (e.g. ,"What is the most serious factor affecting morale in this agency?").