SOCI 251 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Hindsight Bias, Satisficing, Social Desirability Bias
Document Summary
No matter how carefully the sample is selected, a sample survey is only as good as the design of the questionnaire or interview schedule. Seemingly innocuous features of a survey instrument may serve as cues by which respondents interpret the meaning of questions. Interview context cognitive processing conversational analysis there are three theoretical perspectives for understanding the interview context: rational choice theory. Conversational analysis speakers should not say things that they believe to be false. Speakers should make comments that are relevant to the purposes of the conversation. Conversational analysis, suggests that respondents make sense out of structured interviews and self administered questionnaires by relying upon tacit assumptions underlying ordinary conversations. Speakers should make their contributions as informative as possible and not repeat themselves. Speakers should express themselves as clearly as possible. To identify likely problems when designing survey instruments, researchers need to understand the conversational, cognitive, and motivational processes that underlie question asking and answering. (312)
