Survey research / Roger Sapsford.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 266-270) and index.

Introduction -- What is survey research? -- What is a survey? -- Quantification -- Sampling -- Comparison -- Is a survey appropriate? -- Summary -- Further reading -- What's the problem? Developing ideas -- The final product -- Validating evidence -- Defining the problem -- Case studies -- Travelling for heart surgery -- Care for older people in the community -- Causes and effects of alcohol consumption -- Practicalities -- Problem definition -- Doing acceptable research -- Using the library and initial exploration -- The research proposal -- Summary -- Further reading -- The Size of the Problem -- The theory of sampling -- Some statistical techniques -- Simple descriptive statistics: tables andaverages -- More complicated statistics: the standard deviation -- Calculating error -- Random sampling -- Estimating and minimizing error -- Comparing groups -- Hypothesis testing and comparison -- Matched samples -- Summary -- Further reading -- Answers to exercises -- Making do: sampling in the real world -- Sampling over time -- Cluster sampling -- Non-probability samples -- Quota and haphazard samples -- Using statistics with non-probability samples -- Improving performance in sampling -- Sample size and non-sampling error -- Non-response and lost cases -- Practicalities: selecting samples -- Summary -- Further reading -- Opinions and Facts -- Measurement: principles -- Systematic observation -- Asking questions -- Facts and attitudes -- Direct and indirect questions -- The validation of measures -- Summary -- Further reading -- Putting it into practice -- Varieties of data-collection method -- A practical example: the People in Society schedule -- Direct measures -- Indirect measures and attitude /personality scales -- Designing the instrument -- Interview schedules and self-administered questionnaires -- Observation schedules, and counting in text -- Training and briefing -- The conduct of interviews -- Coding the answers -- Precoded answers -- Office coding -- Summary -- Further reading -- Complex concepts -- Attainment and ability -- Personality -- Attitudes -- Social factors -- Complexity and reality -- Summary -- Further reading -- What does it all mean? -- Sampling error -- Non-sampling error -- Sampling -- Measurement -- Collection -- Codification -- The politics of measurement -- The political uses of description -- The politics of survey research -- Summary -- Further reading -- Exploring Data -- Keeping it simple: tabular analysis -- Significant association in tables -- Three-way analysis and statistical control -- Advantages and weaknesses of tabular analysis -- Summary -- Further reading -- Relationships and differences -- Correlation -- Multiple and partial correlation -- Regression -- Multiple regression -- Stepwise regression and testing effects -- Discriminant function analysis -- Analysis of variance -- Univariate analysis -- Bivariate and multivariate analysis -- Restrictions on the use of analysis of variance -- Loglinear analysis -- Logistic regression -- Loglinear modelling -- Residuals and the analysis of change -- Summary -- Further reading -- Constructing scales -- Measurement scales for survey work -- Item selection and test construction -- A detour: factor analysis -- Back to the survey: scale construction -- Summary -- Further reading -- Finishing Up -- Did you need to do your own survey? -- Existing sources -- Demonstrating validity -- Sampling -- Measurement and interpretation -- Summary -- Further reading -- Reporting the results -- What was the problem? -- Methods -- The sample -- The collection schedule -- Procedures -- Results and discussion /conclusions -- The audience and the author.

"This much-anticipated Second Edition presents an informative and accessible account of survey research. It guides the reader through the main theoretical and practical aspects of the subject and illustrates the application of survey methods through examples. ; ; Thoroughly revised and updated, it presents: ; - concise and analytic coverage of multivariate analysis techniques ; - a brand new chapter giving theoretical and practical advice on the stages involved in constructing scales to measure attitude or personality ; - an up-to-date account of using materials on the internet ; - addition of concise introductions and summaries to all chapters ; This book will prove to be equally useful for students conducting small research projects in the social sciences or related professional/applied areas, researchers planning systematic data collection for applied purposes and policy makers who want to understand and analyse the research with whose conclusions they are presented."--Publisher description.

Machine converted from AACR2 source record.