Assigned Readings

Bryman Ch. 6-7

Collins, D. (2003) Pretesting survey instruments: an overview of cognitive methods. Quality of Life Research 12, 229-238.

Matthews, B.A., Baker, F. & Spillers, R.L. (2003) How true is true? Assessing socially desirable response bias. Quality & Quantity 37, 327-335.

Schuman, H. (2002) Sense and nonsense about surveys. Contexts 1(2), 40-47.

Sue, V.M. & Ritter, L.A. (2007) Conducting on-line surveys. Sage, Thousand Oaks, pp. 88-98. e-reserve

Fowler, F.J., Jr. (1995) Improving survey questions. Design and evaluation. Sage, Thousand Oaks, pp. 156-165 (Appendix A). e-reserve.

Willis, G.B. (2005) Cognitive interviewing: A tool for improving questionnaire design. Sage, Thousand Oaks, pp. 273-298 (Appendices). e-reserve

Class Preparation

Examples of Questions You do not need to look at this prior to class, but bring this to class with you.

See "Instructions for Preparation of Reviews for Class Discussion." Submit the electronic summary by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, January 25.

Blumenthal, M.M. (2005). Toward an open-source methodology. What we can learn from the blogosphere. Public Opinion Quarterly 69(5), 655-669.

Galesic, M., Tourangeau, R. & Couper, M. (2006). Complementing random-digit-dial telephone surveys with other approaches to collecting sensitive data. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 31(5), 437-443.

Green, R.G., Murphy, K.D. & Snyder, S.M. (2000). Should demographics be placed at the end or at the beginning of mailed questionnaires? An empirical answer to a persistent methodological question. Social Work Research 24(4), 237-240.

Heath, A., Fisher, S. & Smith, S. (2005). The globalization of public opinion research. Annual Review of Political Science 8(1), 297-333.

Jobe, J.B. (2003). Cognitive psychology and self-reports: models and methods. Quality of Life Research 12, 219-227.

Schwarz, N. (1999). Self-reports. American Psychologist 54(2), 93-105.

Smith, D.M. (2006). Why are you calling me? How study introductions change response patterns. Quality of Life Research 15(4), 621-630.

Tourangeau, R. & Smith, T.W. (1996). Asking sensitive questions: The impact of data collection mode, question format and question context. Public Opinion Quarterly 60, 275-304.

Wlezien, C. (2005). On the salience of political issues: the problem with the "most important problem." Electoral Studies 24(4), 555-579.

Due

Class Project 2

Additional Resources

Appelbaum, L.D., Lennon, M.C. & Aber, Lawrence. When effort is threatening: the influence of the belief in a just world on Americans' attitudes toward antipoverty policy. Political Psychology 27(3), 387-402.

Casady, R. & Lepkowski, J. (1993) Stratified telephone survey designs. Survey Methodology 19(1), 103-113.

Czaja, R. & Blair, J. (2005) Designing Surveys. A Guide to Decisions and Procedures. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, CA. Read pp. 59-123.

Curtin, R., Presser, S. & Singer, E. (2005). Changes in telephone survey nonresponse over the past quarter century. Public Opinion Quarterly 69, 87-98.

Fowler, F.J., Jr. (1995) Improving Survey Questions. Design and Evaluation. Sage, Thousand Oaks.

Gaskell, G.D., O'Muircheartaigh, C.A. & Wright, D.B. (1994). Survey questions about the frequency of vaguely defined events: the effects of response alternatives. Public Opinion Quarterly 58, 241-254.

Guymer, E.C., Mellor, D., Luk, E.S.L. & Pearse, V. (2001) The development of a screening questionnaire for childhood cruelty to animals. Journal of Child Psychology 42(8), 1057-1063.

Hart, B., Rennison, C. & Gibson, C. (2005) Revisiting respondent "fatigue bias" in the National Crime Victimization Survey. Journal of Quantitative Criminology 21(3), 345-363.

Kimball, D.C. & Kropf, M. (2005) Ballot design and unrecorded votes on paper-based ballots. Public Opinion Quarterly 69(4), 508-529.

Link, M.W. (2006) Predicting the persistence and performance of newly recruited telephone interviewers. Field Methods 18(3), 305-320.

Martin, E. (2002) The effects of questionnaire design on reporting of detailed Hispanic origin in census 2000 mail questionnaires. Public Opinion Quarterly 66, 582-593.

Pandani, J.A., Banks, S.M. & Mongeon, J.A. (2006) Criminal justice involvement in survey respondents and nonrespondents among mental health service recipients. Best Practice in Mental Health 2(2), 23-30.

Pridemore, W.A., Damphousse, K.R. & Moore, R.K. (2005) Obtaining sensitive information from a wary population: A comparison of telephone and face-to-face surveys of welfare recipients in the United States. Social Science & Medicine 61, 976-984.

Willis, G.B. (2005). Cognitive interviewing. A tool for improving questionnaire design. Sage, Thousand Oaks. See especially Ch. 2 (pp. 12-30) and Ch. 4 (pp. 42-62).

Examples of Research Reports Using Questionnaires

Brown, S.A., Anderson, K.G., Schulte, M.T., et al. (2005) Facilitating youth self-change through school-based intervention. Addictive Behaviors 30(9), 1797-1810.

Cohen, M.M., Forte, T., duMont, J., Hyman, I. & Romans, S. (2005) Intimate partner violence among Canadian women with activity limitations. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 59(10), 834-839.

Faramazi, M., Esmailzadeh, S. & Mosavi, S. (2005) A comparison of abused and non-abused women's definitions of domestic violence and attitudes to acceptance of male dominance. European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology 122(2), 225-231.

Ponnet, K., Vermeiren, R., Jespers, I. et al. (2005) Suicidal behaviour in adolescents: associations with parental marital status and perceived parent-adolescent relationship. Journal of Affective Disorders 59(1-3), 107-113.

Routhe, A.S., Jones, R.E. & Feldman, D.L. (2005) Using theory to understand public support for collective actions that impact the environment: alleviating water supply problems in a nonarid biome. Social Science Quarterly 86(4), 874-897.

Sargent, J.D., Beach, M.L., Adachi-Mejia, A.M. et al. (2005) Exposure to movie smoking: its relation to smoking initiation among US adolescents. Pediatrics 116(5), 1183-1191.

Shi, Z., Lien, N., Kumar, B.N. & Holmboe-Ottesen, G. (2005) Socio-demographic differences in food habits and preferences of school adolescents in Jiangsu Province, China. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 59(12), 1439-1448.

Weitzman, E.R., Chen, Y. & Subramanian, S.V. (2005) Youth smoking risk and community patterns of alcohol availability and control: a national multilevel study. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 59(10), 1065-1071.