Abstract
The absence of visual aids in telephone interviews has led investigators to seek methods for asking questions which are commonly accompanied by aids in personal interviews. This study experimentally compared two approaches to asking seven-point scale attitude questions in a national (N = 4, 300) telephone health survey. A random half-sample received the attitude questions as single-step numerical selection tasks. The questions were administered to the other half-sample in two stages, the first asking for a general verbal statement of attitude and the second asking for a more detailed specification. The two question forms produced comparable results in univariate distributions. Items administered with the one-step form showed slightly higher intercorrelations. This study represents one step in the process of empirically testing data collection procedures which have been deemed necessary in the rich folklore of survey research. Overall, the results show more comparability than might be anticipated, given the multiple differences between the forms.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 766-778 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Public Opinion Quarterly |
Volume | 48 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1984 |
Funding
Peter V. Miller is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University. This is a revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Statistical Association, August 1981. Data for the study were collected when the author was a Study Director at the Survey Research Center, University of Michigan. The author wishes to thank Robert Groves, Duane Alwin, Howard Schuman, and Charles Cannell for help and advice. The author alone is responsible for any errors. The project was funded by the National Center for Health Statistics (contract 233-78-2034). The contents of this paper do not necessarily represent the views of the National Center for Health Statistics.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication
- History
- Sociology and Political Science
- General Social Sciences
- History and Philosophy of Science