AS Social Surveys

1. Topic 4: Social SurveysTopic 4: Social Surveys
Preparing to Conduct a Survey

2. Social Surveys…Social Surveys…
Take two forms:
◦Written Questionnaire
filled in and returned by email or post.
◦Interviews
Face-to-face or over phone.

3. Types of Questions…Types of Questions…
There are TWO types of Questions:
◦Open-Ended Questions
 respondent is free to answer as they want, in
their own words, without pre-selected choices by
the researcher.
◦Closed-Ended Questions
Limited range of answers like ‘yes’ or ‘no’
questions or multiple choice questions.

4. Choosing a Topic…Choosing a Topic…
This is the first stage.
Sociologists tend to use surveys to study
issues but this is not suitable for ALL
subjects:
◦For example, Historical topics cannot be
investigated unless there are survivors.
◦Specific example…
Sociologist wants to study some aspect of WWI--
there are so few survivors of WWI that this I
nearly impossible now.

5. Forming an AimForming an Aim
Most survey have at least a general aim.
◦Aim:
Is a statement that tells us what the sociologist
intends to study & what they hope to achieve in
doing the research.
What/Why? Often just about collecting data: like
leisure patterns, religious beliefs or attitudes
about cohabitation.
How? Typically thru government census about
every 10 years, which surveys all sorts of
lifestyle/opinion info from the British public.

6. Or Forming a Hypothesis Or Forming a Hypothesis
Or… they want to test a specific hypothesis.
◦A Hypothesis is…
more specific than an aim &;
Research is done by collecting evidence that prove it
true or false.
Example Educational Achievement.
◦May think it is affected by family size.
◦Form a hypothesis such as ‘differences in educational
achievement is due to differences in family size’.
◦Then we collect data to see if the statement is true or not.
Advantage? It gives the researcher a direction or
focus to their investigation.

7. Operationalising ConceptsOperationalising Concepts
Is a working or ‘operational’ definition of a concept
that a sociologists wants to measure.
Here’s how you do it: Start with a…
Hypothesis: working-class pupils achieve lower
qualifications than middle-class pupils due to lower
parental income.
Social class is an abstract concept (we know it exists, but
we cannot literally see it)– but most Sociologist would
probably use the parents occupation as an indicator of
social class to measure their hypothesis.
Once we have that all sussed, then we would begin writing
appropriate questions that measure this, like asking the
pupils’ parents: ‘what is your job title?’
Then we’d correlate the parents info with students
qualifications to see if our hypothesis was in fact correct.

8. Operationalising: Straight-Operationalising: Straight-
forward or Problematic?forward or Problematic?
Many think that operationalising a concept
is easy, but then it can run into serious
problem, such as:
It is not always obvious what type of job
fits into what category of social class.
Example:
◦Typical office worker–
are they working-class (lower) or middle-class?
Disagreements such as this can make it hard to
compare findings of different bits of research.

9. Operationalising Activity (15 Operationalising Activity (15
minutes)minutes)
Get into small groups and discuss how
you might operationalise the following
concepts:
◦Poverty (5 min)
◦Disability (5 min)
◦Educational achievement (5 min)
Record your answers and any problems
you incur during your work.

10. Pilot Study: What is it & Why Do Pilot Study: What is it & Why Do
We Use it?We Use it?
It is a trial run of the test questionnaire or
interview questions you formulated based
upon your hypothesis.
We use pilot studies to iron out any problems
such as confusing or vague language, to add
clarity & to give interviewer practice so they
‘real’ survey goes to plan.
After a pilot study, most of the time it is
possible to settle on a set of questions, or an
interview schedule.

11. What is the Purpose of the What is the Purpose of the
Research According to the Research According to the
Researcher?Researcher?
Often it is the aim of the Sociologist to
produce generalisable statements
based off their research.

12. SamplingSampling
◦Example: Educational Achievement
If we are studying educational achievement, we
would want our study to explain the achievement
levels of ALL pupils, not just the ones who were in
our study.
◦Since Practical Matters such as Time & Money are
of concern, we cannot include every pupils in
Britain, so…
◦we must choose a random sample (also known as
research population) of pupils, ensuring to the
best of our ability that they are representative, or
generalisable to the wider pupil population.