Measuring Public Opinions About Surveys

Respondent's opinions about survey research are regarded asan expression at the individual level of the general survey-takingclimate. Based on a review of the research about ‘surveyson surveys’ five relevant dimensions of the respondent'sopinion about surveys are distinguished: survey enjoyment, surveyvalue, survey cost, survey reliability, and survey privacy.Items related to these aspects are used to develop an ‘Opinionsabout Survey Scale’. The results of an analysis of thepredictive validity of the scale support the expectations basedon the theory of planned behavior. Opinions about surveys areassociated with the intention to participate in future surveysand with hesitation to fill out the questionnaire of a mailsurvey. Opinions are not related with participation in a follow-upmail survey. The results of the wave analysis of a mail surveyare a clear indication that nonrespondents have more negativeopinions about different aspects of surveys. This also meansthat the measurement of opinions is biased. However, becauseof this bias it is worthwhile and useful to measure these opinions.     

INTERACTION CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DIFFICULT-TO-INTERVIEW RESPONDENT

When a researcher decides to collect data by means of surveyinterviews, he or she makes the assumption that all the respondentshave sufficient cognitive and communicative skills to executethe respondent's role adequately. In this article we validatethe explanation that older and less educated respondents aredifficult to interview because they do not have sufficient communicativeskills. To determine the respondent's cognitive and communicativeskills we use behavioral coding of the respondent–interviewerinteraction. The analysis makes clear that most respondentshave enough skills to accomplish their role as respondents.However, there is a small group of respondents who have insufficientskills. As expected, these difficult-to-interview respondentsare older and less educated.