Читать книгу Essentials of Sociology - George Ritzer - Страница 77

Survey research involves the collection of information from a population, or more usually a representative portion of a population, through the use of interviews and, most important, questionnaires. While some sociologists do their own surveys, most rely on data derived from surveys done by others, such as the U.S. government (the U.S. census, for example) and the National Opinion Research Center, which conducts various opinion polls.

Most survey research relies on questionnaires which are self-administered, written sets of questions. While the questions can be presented to respondents face-to-face, they are more often delivered to them by mail, asked over the telephone, or presented in a web-based format. Questionnaires are now increasingly being filled out on personal computers and over the phone (Snyder 2007).