# Overview > [!quote] > "Survey methodology seeks to identify principles about the design, collection, processing, and analysis of surveys that are linked to the cost and quality of survey estimates." > > (Groves et al., 2009, p. 30) *Survey research methodology* refers to the overarching framework and theoretical foundation that guides the design, execution, and analysis of empirical research that requires the collection of observed data. It includes the rationale for why survey methods are appropriate for a particular research question, the philosophical assumptions underlying the survey approach, and the overall procedures and practical considerations for how data collection will be implemented. Key components of survey research methodology include: - **Theoretical justification**: The reasons for choosing a survey as the method for data collection, often based on the research questions, objectives, and the nature of the information sought. - **Research Design**: The overall plan for the research, including the type of design, the sampling strategy, and the operationalization of constructs into measurable variables. - **Rigor and trustworthyness**: The approach to ensuring that the data-collection method employed accurately measures what it is intended to measure (validity) and that the results are consistent over time and across different contexts (reliability). - For quantitative approaches, this includes validity and reliability. - For qualitative approaches, this includes credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. - **Data analysis and interpretation framework**: The methodology includes the approach to interpreting survey results within the context of the research's theoretical framework. - **Data stewardship**: This is the set of issues relevant to the lifecycle of the data (storage, security, coding, and disposal). - **Ethical considerations**: The ethical framework guiding the protection of participants, informed consent, privacy, and data security. Where survey research methodology provides the blueprint for the entire research process, establishing the theoretical and strategic basis for why and how the survey is conducted, *survey research methods* are the specific tools, techniques, and procedures used to collect and analyze empirical data. In practice, the methodology informs the selection and application of methods. These methods are the practical steps taken to gather information from respondents and might include: - Questionnaire Design: Crafting questions and response options that accurately capture the information needed. - Sampling: Selecting the participants from whom data will be collected, which could involve random sampling, stratified sampling, etc. - Data Collection: The process of administering the survey, which could be done via mail, online, in-person interviews, or telephone surveys. - Data Analysis: The techniques used to process and analyze the survey data, such as descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, or other statistical modeling techniques. # General Procedures The following are the general steps and considerations for conducting research using survey methods: %%source?%% 1. **Planning** 2. **Sampling** - Target population - Sampling frame - Sampling methods 3. **Data collection** - Mode of collection - Instrument selection/development - Nonresponse 4. **Data processing** - Cleaning, coding, scoring - Data dictionary/codebook - Survey weights 1. **Analysis** 2. **Reporting** Survey research methods can involve the collection of quantitative data, qualitative data, or both. Special "transcendental" topics - Total survey error - Cognitive aspects of survey methodology (CASM) - Implications of qualitative versus quantitative approaches - Data stewardship - Ethics, IRB # Terminology **Proper usage of the term *survey*** - *Survey* is broadly a type of empirical research methodology. A survey is not the apparatus, form, or tool used to collect data. - An *instrument* is a tool, form, apparatus, or device used to observe/measure data. Instruments include questionnaires, tests, inventories/checklists, and interview scripts/protocols. Terms such as *survey methodology*, *survey methods*, and *survey research* are used very inconsistently and ambiguously throughout the literature in psychology, education, and other disciplines. %% Some use the term survey to refer to the methodological features and issues involved with the type of empirical research designs collectively known. Others have used these terms to refer more specifically to empirical data-collection methods. %% For this course, we will use the term *survey* to refer to the research methodology. - Sampling methods - Data collection methods - Instrument development ___ **Observational entities** - In survey research, the terms *observational units*, *respondents*, and *participants* are commonly used to refer to the individual entities being observed. Most often, these are individual people. - The term *subject* has been used, but technically that is the term for observational units in experimental studies. - The term *element* is sometimes used, but this is better left as a special term used in the context of sampling methods. ___ **Collections of things** - A *population* is the collection of all elements (observational units) of interest. Although populations can be quite large, they are still finite. - A *sample* is a subset of a population. This is the portion of the population that is actually observed by the researcher. Research studies which employ survey methods typically scan a population of entities or “things” (people, institutions, policies, artifacts, geographical structures, words/phrases, books, etc.) in order to measure or describe any generalized features, properties, or conditions (behavior, attitude, belief, trait, etc.).