Overview of Survey Methodology
The Profession
Since the 19th century, survey research has been used as a tool to learn how individuals behave, think, and live their lives. Throughout the world today, there are specialists in survey methods found in academia, government, and commerce. Survey researchers in the academic sector investigate discipline-based questions in fields such as sociology, psychology, political science, public health, communication studies, criminology, economics, and gerontology. U.S. government agencies on health, education, justice, transportation, and labor statistics, as well as the Bureau of the Census, collect and disseminate government survey information. The private sector includes research firms devoted to the measurement of media audiences, political and other opinion research, market and product research, and customer satisfaction.
The Discipline
Survey methodology is the study of sources of error in surveys--the bias and variability that affect the quality of survey data. As a field of knowledge, a profession, and a science, survey methodology seeks to link the principles of design, collection, processing, and analysis of surveys to an understanding of error.
Achieving high quality survey results within the scientific aspects of surveys requires applying principles from traditional academic disciplines such as statistics and the social sciences. For example, statistics provides a quantitative foundation to examine sources of error and to summarize their effects. Social and cognitive psychology provide the framework for understanding how human behavior affects accuracy in survey responses. Sociology and anthropology offer theories of social stratification and cultural diversity. Computer science provides principles of database design and human-computer interaction. Because these disciplines all contribute to the foundation of survey methodology, it is an inherently multidisciplinary, dynamic field of study.
The Challenge
Every survey involves a number of decisions about its design and implementation, and each decision has the potential to affect the quality and validity of the results. How will the sample be chosen? What mode will be used to pose questions and collect answers from respondents? All surveys involve compromises, and the challenge for the researcher is to determine how best to use the available resources to produce, on balance, the best results. The Program in Survey Methodology prepares students to meet this challenge.