What type of study design is a survey

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Actions Shares. No notes for slide. Survey research designs are procedures in quantitative research in which investigators administer a survey to a sample or to the entire population of people to describe the attitudes, opinions, behaviors, or characteristics of the population. In this procedure, survey researchers collect quantitative, numbered data using questionnaires e. They may be used to follow up with graduates 5, 10, or 15 years after college to learn about their present careers.

Cross-Sectional Survey Designs In a cross-sectional survey design, the researcher collects data at one point in time. For example, when middle school children complete a survey about teasing, they are recording data about their present views. This design has the advantage of measuring current attitudes or practices. It also provides information in a short amount of time, such as the time required for administering the survey and collecting the information.

Cross-sectional designs are of several types. A cross-sectional study can examine current attitudes, beliefs, opinions, or practices. Attitudes, beliefs, and opinions are ways in which individuals think about issues, whereas practices are their actual behaviors. Another cross-sectional design compares two or more educational groups in terms of attitudes, beliefs, opinions, or practices.

These group comparisons may compare students with students, students with teachers, students with parents, or they may compare other groups within educational and school settings.

A cross-sectional design can measure community needs of educational services as they relate to programs, courses, school facilities projects, or involvement in the schools or in community planning.

Some cross-sectional designs evaluate a program, such as a survey that provides useful information to decision makers. A final type of cross-sectional design is a large-scale assessment of students or teachers, such as a statewide study or a national survey involving thousands of participants. Longitudinal Survey Designs An alternative to using a cross-sectional design is to collect data over time using a longitudinal survey design.

A longitudinal survey design involves the survey procedure of collecting data about trends with the same population, changes in a cohort group or subpopulation, or changes in a panel group of the same individuals over time.

Thus, in longitudinal designs, the participants 3. Trend Studies In some surveys, researchers aim to study changes within some general population over a period of time Babbie, This form of longitudinal research is called a trend study. Trend studies are longitudinal survey designs that involve identifying a population and examining changes within that population over time. A popular example of this design is the Gallup Poll, which is used during elections to monitor trends in the population of voters from the primary to the final election.

Cohort Studies A cohort study is a longitudinal survey design in which a researcher identifies a subpopulation based on some specific characteristic and then studies that sub population over time. For example, a cohort group of year-olds is studied in the year Five years later in , a group of year-olds is studied.

They may or may not be the same individuals studied in Five years after that in , a group of year-olds is studied. While the individuals studied each time might be different, they must have been 18 years old in the year to qualify as representatives of the cohort group. Panel Studies A panel study is a longitudinal survey design in which the researcher examines the same people over time.

The high school seniors studied in will be the same people studied in , 1 year after graduation, and again in , 2 years after graduation. One disadvantage of a panel design is that individuals may be difficult to locate, especially 2 years after graduating from high school. The advantage to this type of study, however, is that the individuals studied will be the same each time, allowing the researcher to determine actual changes in specific individuals.

Sampling from a Population Survey researchers typically select and study a sample from a population and generalize results from the sample to the population. We need to first define three terms: the population, the target population or sampling frame, and the sample. Determine whether responses can be interpreted in terms of the objectives of the study.

Determine whether the questionnaire is culturally acceptable to study participants. Maximising response rates Notify participants in advance with a letter of introduction that outlines the purpose and importance of the study.

Include clear instructions of how to complete the questionnaire. Clear and simple layout. Questions should be clear and concise and avoid the use of technical jargon and long, leading or negative questions. Inclusion of a stamped, addressed envelope if conducting a postal survey. Ensure anonymity where possible. Highlight the public health importance. Follow-up of non-responders by telephone or letter.

Use of a researcher who is available to answer questions. Collection of questionnaires where feasible by the researcher.

Navigation Measures of disease frequency and disease burden Measuring health and disease Errors in epidemiological measurements Introduction to study designs - geographical studies Introduction to study designs - cross-sectional studies Introduction to study designs - case-control studies Introduction to study designs - cohort studies Introduction to study designs - intervention studies and randomised controlled trials Introduction to study designs - developing a questionnaire Causation in epidemiology: association and causation Role of chance, bias and confounding in epidemiological studies.

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Section 1: The theoretical perspectives and methods of enquiry of the sciences concerned with human behaviour. Approach excels at bringing us to an understanding of a complex issue through detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and their relationships. A researcher using a case study design can apply a vaiety of methodologies and rely on a variety of sources to investigate a research problem.

Design can extend experience or add strength to what is already known through previous research. Social scientists, in particular, make wide use of this research design to examine contemporary real-life situations and provide the basis for the application of concepts and theories and extension of methods. The design can provide detailed descriptions of specific and rare cases. A single or small number of cases offers little basis for establishing reliability or to generalize the findings to a wider population of people, places, or things.

The intense exposure to study of the case may bias a researcher's interpretation of the findings. Design does not facilitate assessment of cause and effect relationships. Vital information may be missing, making the case hard to interpret. The case may not be representative or typical of the larger problem being investigated.

If the criteria for selecting a case is because it represents a very unusual or unique phenomenon or problem for study, then your intepretation of the findings can only apply to that particular case. Conditions necessary for determining causality: Empirical association--a valid conclusion is based on finding an association between the independent variable and the dependent variable. Appropriate time order--to conclude that causation was involved, one must see that cases were exposed to variation in the independent variable before variation in the dependent variable.

Nonspuriousness--a relationship between two variables that is not due to variation in a third variable. Causality research designs helps researchers understand why the world works the way it does through the process of proving a causal link between variables and eliminating other possibilities.

Replication is possible. There is greater confidence the study has internal validity due to the systematic subject selection and equity of groups being compared. Not all relationships are casual! The possibility always exists that, by sheer coincidence, two unrelated events appear to be related [e.

Conclusions about causal relationships are difficult to determine due to a variety of extraneous and confounding variables that exist in a social environment. This means causality can only be inferred, never proven. If two variables are correlated, the cause must come before the effect. However, even though two variables might be causally related, it can sometimes be difficult to determine which variable comes first and therefore to establish which variable is the actual cause and which is the actual effect.

Cohort Design Definition and Purpose Often used in the medical sciences, but also found in the applied social sciences, a cohort study generally refers to a study conducted over a period of time involving members of a population which the subject or representative member comes from, and who are united by some commonality or similarity. Date of entry and exit from the study is individually defined, therefore, the size of the study population is not constant.

In open cohort studies, researchers can only calculate rate based data, such as, incidence rates and variants thereof. Closed Cohort Studies [static populations, such as patients entered into a clinical trial] involve participants who enter into the study at one defining point in time and where it is presumed that no new participants can enter the cohort.

Given this, the number of study participants remains constant or can only decrease. The use of cohorts is often mandatory because a randomized control study may be unethical. For example, you cannot deliberately expose people to asbestos, you can only study its effects on those who have already been exposed.

Research that measures risk factors often relies on cohort designs. Cohort analysis is highly flexible and can provide insight into effects over time and related to a variety of different types of changes [e. Either original data or secondary data can be used in this design. In cases where a comparative analysis of two cohorts is made [e. These factors are known as confounding variables.

Cohort studies can end up taking a long time to complete if the researcher must wait for the conditions of interest to develop within the group. This also increases the chance that key variables change during the course of the study, potentially impacting the validity of the findings. Because of the lack of randominization in the cohort design, its external validity is lower than that of study designs where the researcher randomly assigns participants.

Cross-Sectional Design Definition and Purpose Cross-sectional research designs have three distinctive features: no time dimension, a reliance on existing differences rather than change following intervention; and, groups are selected based on existing differences rather than random allocation.

Cross-sectional studies provide a 'snapshot' of the outcome and the characteristics associated with it, at a specific point in time. Unlike the experimental design where there is an active intervention by the researcher to produce and measure change or to create differences, cross-sectional designs focus on studying and drawing inferences from existing differences between people, subjects, or phenomena.

Entails collecting data at and concerning one point in time. While longitudinal studies involve taking multiple measures over an extended period of time, cross-sectional research is focused on finding relationships between variables at one moment in time.

Groups identified for study are purposely selected based upon existing differences in the sample rather than seeking random sampling. Cross-section studies are capable of using data from a large number of subjects and, unlike observational studies, is not geographically bound. Can estimate prevalence of an outcome of interest because the sample is usually taken from the whole population. Because cross-sectional designs generally use survey techniques to gather data, they are relatively inexpensive and take up little time to conduct.

Finding people, subjects, or phenomena to study that are very similar except in one specific variable can be difficult. Results are static and time bound and, therefore, give no indication of a sequence of events or reveal historical contexts. Studies cannot be utilized to establish cause and effect relationships.

Provide only a snapshot of analysis so there is always the possibility that a study could have differing results if another time-frame had been chosen. There is no follow up to the findings. Descriptive Design Definition and Purpose Descriptive research designs help provide answers to the questions of who, what, when, where, and how associated with a particular research problem; a descriptive study cannot conclusively ascertain answers to why. The subject is being observed in a completely natural and unchanged natural environment.

True experiments, whilst giving analyzable data, often adversely influence the normal behavior of the subject. Descriptive research is often used as a pre-cursor to more quantitatively research designs, the general overview giving some valuable pointers as to what variables are worth testing quantitatively. If the limitations are understood, they can be a useful tool in developing a more focused study.

Descriptive studies can yield rich data that lead to important recommendations. Appoach collects a large amount of data for detailed analysis. The results from a descriptive research can not be used to discover a definitive answer or to disprove a hypothesis.

Because descriptive designs often utilize observational methods [as opposed to quantitative methods], the results cannot be replicated. The descriptive function of research is heavily dependent on instrumentation for measurement and observation. Experimental Design Definition and Purpose A blueprint of the procedure that enables the researcher to maintain control over all factors that may affect the result of an experiment. Experimental research allows the researcher to control the situation.

Experimental research designs support the ability to limit alternative explanations and to infer direct causal relationships in the study. Approach provides the highest level of evidence for single studies.

The design is artificial, and results may not generalize well to the real world. The artificial settings of experiments may alter subject behaviors or responses. Experimental designs can be costly if special equipment or facilities are needed. Some research problems cannot be studied using an experiment because of ethical or technical reasons. Difficult to apply ethnographic and other qualitative methods to experimental designed research studies.

Exploratory Design Definition and Purpose An exploratory design is conducted about a research problem when there are few or no earlier studies to refer to. The goals of exploratory research are intended to produce the following possible insights: Familiarity with basic details, settings and concerns.

Well grounded picture of the situation being developed. Generation of new ideas and assumption, development of tentative theories or hypotheses. Determination about whether a study is feasible in the future. Issues get refined for more systematic investigation and formulation of new research questions. Direction for future research and techniques get developed. Design is a useful approach for gaining background information on a particular topic.

Exploratory research is flexible and can address research questions of all types what, why, how. Provides an opportunity to define new terms and clarify existing concepts. Exploratory research is often used to generate formal hypotheses and develop more precise research problems.

Exploratory studies help establish research priorities. Exploratory research generally utilizes small sample sizes and, thus, findings are typically not generalizable to the population at large. The exploratory nature of the research inhibits an ability to make definitive conclusions about the findings.

The research process underpinning exploratory studies is flexible but often unstructured, leading to only tentative results that have limited value in decision-making. Design lacks rigorous standards applied to methods of data gathering and analysis because one of the areas for exploration could be to determine what method or methodologies could best fit the research problem. Historical Design Definition and Purpose The purpose of a historical research design is to collect, verify, and synthesize evidence from the past to establish facts that defend or refute your hypothesis.

The historical research design is unobtrusive; the act of research does not affect the results of the study. The historical approach is well suited for trend analysis. Historical records can add important contextual background required to more fully understand and interpret a research problem. There is no possibility of researcher-subject interaction that could affect the findings.