Comparative Methods in Social Sciences, III

Kazimierz M. Slomczynski

Irina Tomescu-Dubrow

Survey research in social sciences

 (a) Definition• Key words: sampling and questionnaire

Modes of questioning: • - face-to-face, FTF (use of laptop computers, CAPI

(Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing)• - telephone interviewing, CATI - Computer-Assisted

Telephones Interviewing (Japanese experience with Fax machines)

• - mail questionnaires, MQ • - internet contacts, ICI

(b) History

Literary Digest, 1916 - predicting Woodrow Wilson’s election as president.

In 1936 the Digest, on the basis of 2.3 million “votes” from its readers reported that Alf Landon was far more popular than Franklin D. Roosevelt.

 

The 1930s and George Gallup. His success in correctly predicting Roosevelt’s victory.

(c) Academic vs. non-academic surveys

• - Statistical-offices surveys (eg., Current PopulationSurvey, CPS; Labor Force Survey, LFS)

• - Marketing surveys (eg., in segmentation research to determine the demographic, psychographic, and behavioural characteristics of potential buyers)

• - Political opinion polls (eg., TV stations & newspapers organize polls, or use specilized firms to conduct public opinion research).

Ideal strategy for survey research

 • - a representative sample

 • - face-to-face interviewing.

 

Cost of surveys.

History of cross-cultural survey research

Professionalization of survey research since the 1930s.

Hadley Cantril’s study(1948-1949) (William Buchanan and Hadley Cantril, How Nations See Each Other, 1953). Six West European countries (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway), plus Australia, Mexico, and United States

 Classical study Almond and Verba (Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture, 1963). States, West Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, and Mexico

Information on cross-national surveys

• Index to International Public Opinion. Annual. 1978/79 - present. New York: Greenwood Press. Includes data from single-nation surveys by subject, multinational surveys by region, and world surveys by subject. Up to date.

• World Opinion Update: A Monthly Summary of Opinion on Issues of International Importance. 1977- present. Williamstown, MA: Survey Research Consultants International. Monthly issues average about 10-12 pages and include selected questions, responses, and source information. Up to date.

Main cross-national surveys

European Social Survey

International Social Survey Program

World Value System

***

Eurobarometer and its extensions

EUROPEAN SOCIAL SURVEY (ESS)

Detailed description:

www.europeansocialsurvey.org

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SURVEY PROGRAM (ISSP) • The ISSP was founded in 1983 as a platform for

close collaboration between four existing surveys: • - the General Social Survey (GSS, USA), the

Allgemeine Bevölkerungsumfrage der Sozialwissenschaften (ALLBUS, Germany), the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA, GB), and the National Social Science Survey (NSSS, Australia).

• In subsequent years other countries have joined the program. In 1987-1988 there were 8 participating countries, in 1990 – 11 countries, 1992 – 18 countries, 1994 - 23 countries, 1996 - 24 countries, 1998 – 32 countriess. Currently more than 40.

WORLD VALUES SURVEYS and EUROPEAN VALUES SURVEYS

WVS, 1981-1984, 1990-1993, and 1995-1997, 2000, 2005, and later yearsPrincipal investigator:  Ronald Inglehart- Over 60 surveys participated in the 1995-1997 study. More countries in later years

Data Archives

Two general organizations• 1. The International Federation of Data Organizations

for the Social Sciences, IFDOSS• 2. Council of European Social Science Data Archives

 • Main main data archives:

ICPSR, the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex, and the German Data Archive in Koln (Cologne) - GESIS, Polish ADS