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Bryman: Social Research Methods: 3e

Chapter 10

http://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/
Article 17 in “Previous Issues” was written by Stephen Farrall, Jon Bannister, Jason Ditton and Elizabeth Gilchrist. It argues that the use of closed questions in crime surveys has led to an over-estimation of the level of fear of crime in the UK. The authors suggest that using open questions or vignettes might produce quite different results, which has implications for the data’s validity and reliability.

http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/qualdeb.php
The Web Centre for Social Research Methods provides a useful resource in this link, which compares coding for quantitative and qualitative data.  Examples are shown, which help the learner see and understand the main points in a practical way.

http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~kate/qmcweb/qcont.htm
Here is a very useful and informative guide to every stage in the process of planning, writing, administering and analysing the results of a social survey. This is an online workbook, written by Alison Galloway and hosted by the Tardis Project at the University of Edinburgh. It covers such topics as open and closed questions, the order and layout of questions, troubleshooting problematic types of question, piloting the survey and asking about sensitive issues.

http://qb.soc.surrey.ac.uk/
This website is an invaluable resource for anyone who is planning to use a social survey in their research. Whether you will be designing your own questions or drawing on existing ones, it is definitely worth taking a look at the “tried and tested” questionnaires that have been archived here. You will see how the different types of question that were discussed in Chapter 10 can be applied to a wide range of topics in social research, including your own research interests.

http://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/
This article by Christine Barter and Emma Renold explores the use of vignettes in social research. Although the authors focus on the role of this technique in qualitative studies, their arguments also apply to the function of vignettes as questionnaire items. They suggest that vignettes help to clarify people’s opinions and judgements about moral dilemmas, put their actions in a social context, and encourage them to talk about personal or sensitive issues.