Lecture 13 from a college level research methods in psychology course taught in the spring 2012 semester by Brian J. Piper, Ph.D. (psy391@gmail.com) at Linfield College.

1. Survey Research
Brian J. Piper, Ph.D., M.S.

2. Goals
• History
• Sampling
• Variations
• Creating Good (or Bad) Surveys

3. History
• Charles Darwin, in preparing Expression of
1809-1882 Emotions in Man & Animals (1872) sends
out survey:
– “Is contempt expressed by a slight protrusion of
the lips and by turning up the nose?” Grief

4. Sir Francis Galton
• Pioneer in behavioral genetics (eugenics)
• Interested in nature & nurture
• Leading Question:
– “How far do your scientific tastes appear innate?”

5. Research Question Determines
Sampling Strategy
• Convenience Sample: participants obtained
based on convenience of investigator
• Representative Sample: participants carefully
chosen so that they represent some larger
population

7. Areas that use convenient samples
• Social Psychology (Experimental)
• Jury Duty
• Brain Imaging
– fMRI: claustrophobia, metal artifacts
– PET: claustrophobia, radioactivity
• Taboo/Sensitive (Illegal) Behaviors
– Sex: incest, masturbation, homosexuality
– Suicide/Mental Health
– Drug Use

8. Areas that (aim to) use representative
samples
• Political Polling
• Neuropsychological Test Development
(Norms, e.g. BRIEF)

9. Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive
Function (BRIEF)
• Please rate whether the following behaviors are never,
sometimes, or often a problem (1-3 points):
– Emotional Control (EC) : overreacts to small problems
– Inhibit (INH): interrupts others
– Shift (SHI): becomes upset with new situations
– Working Memory (WM): when given three things to do, remembers only the first or last
– Initiate (INI): has trouble coming up with ideas for what to do in play time
– Plan/Organize (PO): gets caught up in details and misses the big picture
– Organization of Materials (OM): cannot find things in room
– Monitor (MON): does not check work for mistakes
– Behavioral Regulation Index + Metacognition Index =
Global Executive Composite
Norms: Mean= 50.0, SD = 10
Gioia GA, Isquith PK, Guy SC, et al. (2000). Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function: Professional Manual. Psychological Assessment Resources: Lutz.

10. “Clinically Significant” Behavioral Problems in Exposed Children
*** p < .0005, ** p < .005, * p
< .05 .
Piper et al. (2011) Pharmacology, Biochemistry, & Behavior .

11. Types of Sampling
• Random sampling: every member of a
population has an equal probability of being in
the sample
• Stratified sampling: sample is made to match
population on characteristic(s)
• Cluster sampling: obtain subset of
representative subset (cluster)

12. Pros & Cons of Surveys: Monitoring
the Future
• National survey, conducted annually by NIDA of
secondary school (8th, 10th, or 12th),
• Missing data (drop-outs = 15%, not attending) =
under-estimation
• Concern about labels (inadvertent marketing)
• Self-report
– Knowledge (e.g. steroids, diet pills, club drugs)
– Memory (e.g. How many drinks?)
– Taboo
http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/

14. Demographics
• Compares use by:
– Year (1975 – present)
– Sex
– Ethnicity
– Parental education
?
– Region
– College plans

15. Year & Grade
Illicit = Scheduled drugs including marijuana, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, LSD
Not Illicit: EtOH, cigarettes, inhalants, Ritalin for medical purposes

21. Monitoring the Future
• Advantage
– Cost effective
– Detailed
– Information not otherwise available
• Disadvantage
– Representative?
– Self-report (ideally verified)

22. Interviews
• Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956) founded the field of
sexology with extensive interviews with males
(1948, N=5,300!) and females (N=6,000!, 1953)
• Masturbation, hetero/homosexuality
• Studied groups
• Over-represented prisoners, under-
represented African-Americans
2 min clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkGzoBSG1cY

23. Phone Surveys
• Pros: flexible, cheaper than face to face
• Cons: caller-ID (over-representation of elderly?)

25. Electronic Surveys
• Pros: very inexpensive
• Cons:
– Brevity
– Confidentiality
– Uncontrolled environment

26. Cronbach’s Alpha
• A measure of the internal consistency of items
on a survey (0 to 1.00)
1916-2001

27. Paper versus Online
Piper & Corbett (2012). Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 14, 191-199.

28. Don’t know
• Pro: provides respondent an out
• Con: missing data

29. Conclusion
• Survey construction: use others (avoid leading
questions & double-barreling) & pilot
– Reliability
– Validity
• Sampling: plan

30. Options