Assignment 5

Developing Questions/Conducting a Structured Survey

This assignment has two parts: (1) the development of questions for a structured interview; and (2) the actual interviewing of a "sample" of respondents based on the questions. Formulate interview questions for your structured interviews, based on Chapters 9 and 14 in Babbie. The interview questions you choose will depend on the research question you want to answer.

As an alternative, students may develop a survey instrument with closed-ended items that would apply to a social artifact, rather than people (e.g., buildings, institutions, etc.). In this case, your survey instrument would consist of items about which you would make observations regarding the objects under consideration. See the instructions below for the alternative assignment.

Chose only one: people as units of observation or social artifacts as units of observation.

People as Units of Observation

Part I: Developing Interview Questions

1. Write out one or more research questions you would like your respondents to address. (One general research question is just as good as two or three specific ones.)
   
2. Develop a survey instrument by writing out a list of ten structured interview questions in the order and with the wording you would actually use in the application of a face-to-face interview with respondents. All of the questions must be closed-ended. Remember that interview questions must use terminology and perspectives understood by respondents, not the language of planners, administrators, social scientists, or analysts.
   
3. Identify the type of respondent (person on the street, policy maker, administrator, etc.) to whom you are going to apply the interview.
   
4. Write out the introduction at the beginning of the questionnaire that adheres to the requirements of the protection of human subjects . You should indicate what your purpose is, how many persons will be interviewed, how the respondent was chosen (randomly, they had specialized knowledge about the subject of interest, etc.), what provisions are in place to protect the respondent's confidentiality, etc. (These points are made in the sample informed consent form that appears in the Human Subjects section on the School of Urban Affairs & Public Policy web site: http://suapp.udel.edu/content/protect-human-subjects.

This part should occupy 1-2 pages.

Part II: Conducting the Interviews

Apply the questionnaire/survey instrument to an appropriate set of respondents (no fewer than 5 and no more than 10 persons). Remember, the respondents must be competent to answer your questions. That is, they must possess the information required to answer your questions.

Write up a report of the application of the questionnaire to the "sample" population. What to include in the writeup:

1. What were your research questions?
   
2. Provide information about the interview process and the "sample" of respondents to whom you applied the questionnaire. (1) The method of choosing the respondents (random?, stratified and random?, specialized knowledge? other?). (2) The number of potential respondents you had to approach before you acquired the required "sample" size. (3) What problems did you encounter in trying to acquire the "sample"? (4) In general, where did the interviews take place? (5) What were the basic demographic characteristics of your "sample"?
   
3. What did you learn from your interview about the issues in your research questions? What other relevant things did you learn that were not part of your research questions?
   
4. What problems arose during the interviews? What will you do differently next time (if anything)?

This part should occupy 1-2 pages.

Alternative Assignment: Social Artifacts as Units of Observation

Part I: Developing the Survey Instrument

1. Write out one or more research questions that you would like to apply to your units of observation. (One general research question is just as good as two or three specific ones.)
   
2. Develop a survey instrument by writing out a list of ten structured items in the order and with the wording you would actually use in the application of the survey instrument to your units of observation. All items must be closed-ended.
   
3. Identify the type of unit of observation (buildings, hotels, restaurants, etc.) to which you are going to apply the intstrument.

This part should occupy 1-2 pages.

Part II: Applying the Survey Instrument

Apply the survey instrument to an appropriate set of units of observation (no fewer than 5 and no more than 10). Remember, the units of observation must be appropriate to answer your research question (s).

Write up a report of the application of the instrument to the "sample" population. What to include in the writeup:

1. What were your research questions?
   
2. Provide information about the observation process and the "sample" of units of observation to which you applied the survey instrument. (1) The method of choosing the units of observation (random?, stratified and random?, specialized characteristics? other?). (2) The number of potential units of observation you had to examine before you acquired the required "sample" size. (3) What problems did you encounter in trying to acquire the "sample"?
   
3. What did you learn from your application of the survey instrument about the issues in your research questions? What other relevant things did you learn that were not part of your research questions?
   
4. What problems arose during the application of the survey instrument? What will you do differently next time (if anything)?

As we grade these assignments, we will ask ourselves the following:

1. Were the research questions reasonable?
2. Do the interview questions or items on the survey instrument match the research question(s)?
3. Were the interview questions properly constructed? Or was the survey instrument properly administered?
4. Has there been some reflection on problems in the interview or in the application of the survey instrument or possible improvements for the next survey?

Note: We are not concerned with your findings. Rather, we are concerned with the specific methodological integrity of the assignment.

This part should occupy 1-2 pages.