Survey Research

Book excerpt: Survey Research can be used as an independent guide or as a workbook to accompany Keith F Punch′s bestselling Introduction to Social Research (SAGE, 1998). It represents a short, practical `how-to′ book on a central methodology technique aimed at the beginning researcher. The focus of this book is on small-scale quantitative surveys studying the relationships between variables. After showing the central place of the quantitative survey in social science research methodology, it then takes a simple model of the survey, describes its elements and gives a set of steps and guidelines for implementing each element. The book then shows how the simple model of the quantitative survey generalizes easily to more complex models. It includes a detailed example of both simple and complex models, which readers should find very helpful. It is directed primarily at beginning researchers - upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in any area of social science, who often have to do small scale surveys in projects and dissertations. Beyond this, it will be of interest to anybody interested in learning about survey research. It is written in non-technical language, aiming to be as accessible as possible to a wide audience.