PA 710, Spring 2001
Homework #4, Due March 26
Designing Survey Questions
- Develop
a hypothesis related to your own research topic that can be addressed with survey
questions (e.g., Older California voters are more
likely to vote for a Democrat than Republican in the March primary).
- Develop
3 survey questions (closed-ended, with response categories) designed to test that
hypothesis (e.g., What is your age? [20-30, 31-40…
]; Who are you more likely to vote for in the March primary, a Republican, Democrat, or
you don’t know yet?, [Republican, Democrat…]).
- Pre-test
your survey questions by administering it to three friends (who are not enrolled in PA 710
this semester).
- Write
a brief paragraph summarizing the results of your pre-test (e.g., address clarity,
comprehensibility, acceptability) and how you dealt with any problems raised (e.g.,
Respondents noted that there was no option for answering the age question if you were
under 20 years old; it was not clear which office the voting question referred to)
- If
warranted, re-write the survey questions based on the results of your pre-test (e.g., What is your age? [under 20; 21-30…];
Which presidential candidate are you more likely to vote for in the March primary, a
Republican or Democrat?…).
- Estimate
the sample size required for your survey to have a margin of error of no greater than ±
5%.