Survey Research

Survey Research can be used as an independent guide or as a workbook to accompany Keith F Punch's best-selling Introduction to Social Research (SAGE, 1998). It represents a short, practical 'how-to' book on a central methodology technique aimed at the beginning researcher. The focus of Survey Research is on small-scale quantitative surveys studying the relationships between variables. After showing the central place of the quantitative survey in social science research methodology, it then takes a simple model of the survey, describes its elements and gives a set of steps and guidelines for implementing each element. Survey Research then shows how the simple model of the quantitative survey generalizes easily to more complex models. It includes a detailed example of both simple and complex models, which readers should find very helpful. It is directed primarily at beginning researchers - upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in any area of social science, who often have to do small-scale surveys in projects and dissertations. Beyond this, it will be of interest to anybody interested in learning about survey research. It is written in non-technical language, aiming to be as accessible as possible to a wide audience.