Research methods


Part one

  • What are the steps in conducting a survey?
  • Considering “How we undercounted evictions …,” why should triangulation and mixed methods become an essential step in survey research?

Part two

  • Write five survey questions about housing insecurity (evictions, etc.; see MARS for examples) that commit the five common survey question mistakes.
  • Rewrite the above five survey questions according to the characteristics of high-quality survey questions.

Part three

  • How is the order of survey questions important? Provide an example of both a problematic order and an appropriate order of survey questions (a minimum of three questions).
  • According to the NPR interview, how did the national survey on conspiracy beliefs present questions on such beliefs?

Part four

  • What are ethical issues to consider in survey research?

Part five

  • Define the following: survey; primary data; secondary data; cross-sectional survey; longitudinal survey
  • What are the strengths of surveys?
  • What are the sources of errors in surveys (including sampling; refer to the previous section on sampling)?