Survey Design and Analysis: Current Issues

164 Pages·1978·8.725 MB·English

by  Duane F. Alwin

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SURVEY
DESIGN
AND ANALYSIS
Current Issues
Edited by
Duane Alwin
F.
$5hrs
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A SAGE CONTEMPORARY
SOCIAL SCIENCE ISSUE

SAGE CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL SCIENCE ISSUES 46
SURVEY DESIGN
AND ANALYSIS
Current Issues
Edited by
Duane Aiwin
F.
SAGE PUBLICATIONS Beverly Hills /London 1978
The material in this publication originally appeared as a special issue of
SOCIOLOGICAL METHODS & RESEARCH (Volume Number
6, 2,
November 1977). The Publisher would like to acknowledge the assistance
of the journal's editors, George W. Bohrnstedt and Edgar F. Borgatta, and
the special issue editor, Duane F. Alwin.
Copyright © 1977 by Sage Publications, Inc. This edition first published
Fall 1978.
All rights reserved. No part ofthis book may bereproduced or utilizedinany
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
For information address:
SAGE Publications, Inc. /^^\ SAGE Publications Ltd
^^
Beverly27H5iltSso,uCtahliBfeovrenrilay9D0r2i1v2e IV^r/] 2L8onBdaonnneErCS1trYee8tQE
Printed in the United States of America
International Standard Book Number 0-8039-1021-5
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 77-95433
SECOND PRINTING
CONTENTS
Making Errors in Surveys: An Overview
DUANE F. ALWIN 7
Question Wording as an Independent
Variable in Survey Analysis
HOWARD SCHUMAN
STANLEY PRESSER 27
Modest Expectations: The Effects of Interviewers'
Prior Expectations on Responses
SEYMOUR SUDMAN
NORMAN M. BRADBURN
ED BLAIR
CAROL STOCKING 47
The Impact of Informed Consent Regulations on
Response Rate and Response Bias
LLOYD LUEPTOW
SAMUEL A. MUELLER
RICHARD R. HAMMES
LAWRENCE S. MASTER 59
Analysis of Patterns of Response to
Mailed Questionnaries
GIDEON VIGDERHOUS 81
The Treatment of Missing Data in
Multivariate Analysis
JAE-ON KIM
JAMES CURRY 91
Response Error in Earnings Functions
for Nonblack Males
WILLIAM T. BIELBY
ROBERT M. HAUSER 117

SURVEY DESIGN
AND ANALYSIS

Thispaperintroduces thecollection ofpapersinthepresentissueo/Sociological
Methods and Researsh. A framework is developedfor considering issues in
surveymethodology, especiallythoseconcernedwith "errors insurveys,"andan
overview ofresearch in the area ispresented. Thepaper emphasizes both the
concern with improving the quality ofsurvey data in their collection and the
concern with improving the quality ofthe inferences madefrom survey data
intheiranalysis. Arangeoftopicsiscovered, includingdiscussionsofcompletion
rates, sample coverage, locating respondents in longitudinalresearch, response
rates, item nonresponse, weighting to adjustfor noncoverage andnonresponse
bias, interviewer variability, question structure and sequence, methods ofad-
ministration, andrespondenterrors. Thepapersincludedinthepresentcollection
focus on many ofthese issues and reflect the contemporary concerns ofsocial
scientists with theproblems ofmaking errors usingsurvey data.
MAKING ERRORS IN SURVEYS
An Overview
DUANE ALWIN
F.
Indiana University
C
^^^ ample surveys have become a majorsource ofdataforstudying
^^r
human social behavior. Sociologists have increasingly relied on
surveys as a data source for both theoretical and policy-oriented re-
search (see Sudman, 1976b: 108). Large-scale survey organizations,
both governmental and private, have not only become asource ofdata
for sociological analysis, but have also become models for much
sociological research ofsmaller scale. The Current Population Survey
conducted by the United States Bureau of the Census, the National
Health Survey carried out by theNational Center for Health Statistics,
surveys conducted by the National Opinion Research Center, and the
University of Michigan's Survey Research Center, among others, have
become exemplars for the design of sampling frames, the training and
management of interviewers, question and interview schedule design,
methods of improving completion rates, and procedures for handling
biases due to nonresponse.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The author wishes to thank Susan Stephens, J. Michael
Armer, and HowardSchumanfor helpfulcomments on an earlier draft ofthis
paper.
[7]
SURVEY DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
[8]
Historically, sociologists have shown a concern with making errors
in surveys, a concern shared with other social scientists, market re-
searchers, and pollsters. The large-scale survey organizations men-
tioned at the outset have led the way in devisingstrategies for minimiz-
ing errors which can occur in surveys, and a number ofearly reviews
oferrors in surveys by workers associated withthese organizations are
still useful (e.g., Deming, 1944; Hansen et al., 1951). The literature
on survey methods has since become voluminous (see U.S. Census
Bureau, 1974b).
Discussions of errors in surveys may focus on one (or both) of
two kinds oftasks which the survey researcher faces. Thefirst involves
reducing errors at the data collection stage. Here the concern is with
improving the quality of the data collected, either through improved
theoretical and conceptual formulations of the problem or through
improved methods of sampling, asking questions, interviewing, and
so forth. The second set oftasks involves theanalysisofalreadycollect-
ed survey data which is known to have imperfections. Here the issues
involve the possibilities of adjusting the data in some way in their
analysis so as to compensate for errors which have crept in during
their collection.
No matter how sophisticated one's analytic tools, the quality of
one's inferences is intimately tied to the quality of the data. Those
who have engaged in the collection of data through sample surveys
know that it is a costly and time-engaging enterprise. Decisions which
affect the ultimate quality of the survey data are often governed by
practical considerations ratherthantheoretical and/ormethodological
ones. Issues of cost and efficiency, goals which the researcher himself
may not wish to maximize (or minimize), influence the size of the
sample, the kind and number ofquestions which may be included, and
so on. In dealing with human populations, issues of ethics may also
influence the eventual quality of one's data (Frankel, 1975). The fact,
however, that practical considerations place limitations on the quality
ofthe datadoes not provide a refugetothose who would ignore poten-
tial errors once they have been made. // is untenable to confrontsurvey
data as if they were error-free. There is no substitute to the careful
approach to survey data, mending flaws where they are known and
examining possible models for errors where they are essentially un-
known.
This issue of Sociological Methods and Research reflects the con-
temporary concern of sociologists with the problems of errors in