Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A survey using a Likert style response set. This is one example of a type of survey that can be highly vulnerable to the effects of response bias. Response bias is a general term for a wide range of tendencies for participants to respond inaccurately or falsely to questions.
The types of questions (e.g.: closed, multiple-choice, open) should fit the data analysis techniques available and the goals of the survey. The manner (random or not) and location (sampling frame) for selecting respondents will determine whether the findings will be representative of the larger population .
It is often argued that open-ended questions (i.e. questions that elicit more than a yes/no answers) are preferable because they open up discussion and enquiry. Peter Worley argues that this is a false assumption. This is based on Worley's central arguments that there are two different kinds of open and closed questions: grammatical and conceptual.
Argumentative Questions can also impact the outcome of a survey. These types of questions, depending on their nature, either positive or negative, influence respondents' answers to reflect the tone of the question(s) and generate a certain response or reaction, rather than gauge sentiment in an unbiased manner. [25]
In e-mail surveys those who didn't answer can also systematically be phoned and a small number of survey questions can be asked. If their answers don't differ significantly from those who answered the survey, there might be no non-response bias. This technique is sometimes called non-response follow-up.
Pollsters have learned at great cost that gathering good survey data for statistical analysis is difficult. The selective effect of cellular telephones on data collection (discussed in the Overgeneralization section) is one potential example; If young people with traditional telephones are not representative, the sample can be biased.
In social science research social-desirability bias is a type of response bias that is the tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others. [1] It can take the form of over-reporting "good behavior" or under-reporting "bad" or undesirable behavior.
In linguistics, a yes–no question, also known as a binary question, a polar question, or a general question, [1] or closed-ended question is a question whose expected answer is one of two choices, one that provides an affirmative answer to the question versus one that provides a negative answer to the question.