Research Process

Define Problem, Research Objectives

What? Concepts Variables Measures

HOW? Overall Method

Survey Experiment Case Study Secondary Data

Who? Population Sampling

Data Gathering
Analysis Application

STEPS IN A SURVEY
1. Define study objectives

2. Identify information needs & study population(s) 3. Determine basic design/approach Exercise B1 assume - a self-administered survey - could be mailed or on-site survey
4.

Questionnaire design

5. Choose sample (frame, size, sampling design) 6. Estimate time, costs, manpower needs, etc.

Questionnaire Design
1. Preliminary Info Information needed Who are subjects Method of communication 2. Question Content 3. Question Wording 4. Response Format 5. Question Sequencing/Layout

What Information?
Demographic, Socioeconomic, Physical
e.g. income, age, weight, hometown,

Cognitive - Knowledge & beliefs

e.g. Aware of a park or program, believe in global warming

Affective - attitudes, feelings, preferences

Like or dislike park, satisfied, prefer this or that

Behaviors
Ski in last year, repeat visitor, stay overnight in area?

Question Content
1. Is this question necessary? useful? 2. Are several questions needed on this subject? Avoid double barreled questions. 3. Do respondents have information to answer the question? Use filter questions to screen. 4. Does question need to be more concrete, specific and related to subject's personal experience? Is a time referent provided? 5. Is question sufficiently general? Do you want recent behavior or "typical behavior"? 6. Do replies express general attitudes or specific ones? 7. Is content loaded or biased 8. Are subjects willing to answer? 9. Can responses be compared with existing information?

Wording
1. Will words be uniformly understood? Simple language. Avoid technical phrases, jargon and abbreviations. 2. Does question adequately express the alternatives? 3. Is the question misleading due to unstated assumption or unseen implications. 4. Is wording biased, emotional, or slanted? 5. Will wording be objectionable to respondents? 6. Should you use more or less personalized wording? 7. Ask in a more direct or more indirect way?

Form of Response
1. Open or closed-ended

2. If closed,
ordered or unordered; number of categories, type of cue, forced or unforced choice 3. Response categories mutually exclusive exhaustive.

Sequencing & layout

1. Will this question influence responses to others?
2. Is question led up to in a natural way?

3. Placement to create interest, improve response rate.

4. Branching, skipping, and transitions on questionnaires.

1. Simple fill in the blank. Obtaining a straightforward number or other easily understood response. How old are you? ___________ (years).

In what county is your permanent residence? _______________ ( county) How much money did you spend on this trip? $ ________________

2. Open ended: To avoid leading subject, to obtain wide range of responses in subjects own words, or when you dont know kinds of responses to expect.

What is your primary reason for visiting the park today? _______________________________________.

3. Partially closed ended. List major response categories while leaving room for others.

Which of the following community recreation facilities do you most frequently use? (check one).
neighborhood parks/playgrounds swimming pools community centers natural areas tennis courts other (please specify) ___________________

4. Checklists: Allow subjects to check multiple responses. Categories exhaustive & mutually exclusive
Which of the following winter recreation activities have you participated in during the past month? (check all that apply) Cross-country skiing Downhill skiing Snowmobiling Ice Skating Sledding or Tobogganing

5. Likert Scales: Versatile format for measuring attitudes.

Please check the box that best represents your level of agreement or disagreement with each of the following statements about downhill skiing:
Strongly Agree Downhill skiing is... exciting dangerous expensive Agree Strongly Neutral Disagree Disagree

Can replace agree with importance satisfaction, interest preference and other descriptors to fit the attitude you wish to measure.

6. Rank Ordering: To measure preferences or priorities. Limit to short lists.

Rank the following states in terms of your interest as possible travel destinations for a summer vacation trip. (Place a 1 beside the state you would most like to visit, place a 2 besides your
second choice, and a 3 beside your third choice.)

______ ______ ______

Michigan Wisconsin Minnesota

7. Filter Question. To screen for eligibility or knowledge prior to asking other questions. Did you stay overnight on your most recent trip?

NO

YES

If Yes, How many nights did you spend away from home? ________

To next question

8. Semantic Differential scale. Measure perception or image of something using a set of polar adjectives.

For each of the characteristics listed below, mark an X on the line where you feel downhill skiing falls with respect to that characteristic. exciting ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ dull expensive ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ inexpensive safe ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ dangerous

(Could repeat with cross country ski and snowmobiling and compare perceptions; or Coke and Pepsi.

Suggested Surveys
Visitors to a park or facility Resident population Group of managers or administrators Population of tourists Program participants other

Population - Who
MSU students Impression 5 Museum Visitors MRPA members, Recreation faculty in US International students at MSU Visitors to Mackinac Island Tae-Bo class, MSU football players, Food stamp recipients in Lansing area

Objectives
Describe the population
Demographics, knowledge, attitudes, behavior

Test for differences between subgroups

Are men different than women in sports participation? (gender related to partic.)

Test for relationships between variables

Does boat ownership vary with income?

Evaluate a program (specify criteria as part of objective)

How satisfied are customers? What do they like or dislike about program? Estimate benefits (costs, impacts) of a program