The Psychology of Survey Response [Paperback]

Roger Tourangeau (Author), Lance J. Rips (Author), Kenneth Rasinski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0521576296 | ISBN-13: 978-0521576291 | Edition: 1

Drawing on classic and modern research from cognitive psychology, social psychology, and survey methodology, this book examines the psychological roots of survey data, how survey responses are formulated, and how seemingly unimportant features of the survey can affect the answers obtained. Topics include the comprehension of survey questions, the recall of relevant facts and beliefs, estimation and inferential processes people use to answer survey questions, the sources of the apparent instability of public opinion, the difficulties in getting responses into the required format, and distortions introduced into surveys by deliberate misreporting.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A superb job...Offers an excellent and unique account of cognitive and communicative influences in survey situations. The insights it provides make it an indispensable source for both researchers and practitioners." Contemporary Psychology

"For survey researchers, it provides a very scholarly and readable review of psychological theorizing and its implication for survey responding; for psychologists it offers a range of important phenomena that broaden the scope of psychological inquiry. . . . Readers are guaranteed to gain highly useful new insights from the author's masterful integration of research." International Journal of Public Opinion Research

"The Psychology of Survey Response provides a masterful review and integration of what we know about survey responding. Written by some of the leading researchers at the interface of psychology and survey methods, this book will be of great interest to survey researchers and psychologists alike." Norbert Schwarz, University of Michigan

"This is the best and most comprehensive book in the growing literature on the psychology of survey responding. It includes useful summaries of the behavioral science, often providing better exposition than the primary sources, and it draws clear, useful implications for practice. It is a landmark example of the application of scientific theory and laboratory findings to real life problems." Reid Hastie, University of Colorado at Boulder

Book Description

Drawing on classic and modern research from cognitive psychology, social psychology, and survey methodology, this book examines the psychological roots of survey data, and how survey responses are formulated and seemingly unimportant features of the survey can affect the answers obtained. Topics include the comprehension of survey questions, the recall of relevant facts and beliefs, estimation and inferential processes people use to answer survey questions, the sources of the apparent instability of public opinion, the difficulties in getting responses into the required format, and distortions introduced into surveys by deliberate misreporting.

Product Details

• Paperback: 415 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (March 13, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521576296
• ISBN-13: 978-0521576291
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #71,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear writing, logical structure - everything you need to know about respondent biases and how questions ought to be asked., January 23, 2006

By 

D. Stuart "Researcher at Kudos" (Auckland NZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Psychology of Survey Response (Paperback)

Tourangeau, Rips and Rasinki collaborated over four years to put this terrific volume together - and the hard work shows in its 342 pages of clearly written text and and close to 40 pages of references. Full marks all round!

The book covers psychological topics (such as how respondents recall facts - or don't, and how people make estimates,) as well as such technical topics that guide us in questionnaire design.

The three authors cover a huge range of human biases in the way respondents perceive and contextualise the questions we endeavour to write. At every step they provide us with clear and sometimes dramatic examples, for example where responses shift by more than 30 per cent simply through question order.

This is one of the few market research/survey design texts where the writing is cogent and clear: written in a style that I'd describe as colleague to colleague. Bravo! What a difference this makes.

I consequently rate this book right up there with the excellent Scott Plous book, Psychology of Judgment & Decision Making as one of the two most essential backgrounders for survey designers and questionnaire writers. We ignore respondent biases at our peril: this volume specifically shows us how to write more reliable, less ambiguous questions - and how to interpret the sometimes unexpected results we receive for our efforts.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Were They Thinking?, October 20, 2010

By 

John M. Ford "johnDC" (near DC, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Psychology of Survey Response (Paperback)

This book distills years of research into a theory of how people answer survey questions. Authored by three respected survey researchers, it is written for "...(1) social psychologists, political scientists, and others who study public opinion or who use data from public opinion surveys; (2) cognitive psychologists and other researchers who are interested in everyday memory and judgment processes; and (3) survey researchers, methodologists, and statisticians who are involved in designing and carrying out surveys."

The authors begin by reviewing previous theories of survey response and then introduce their own model. This model is organized around four mental processes that survey participants must perform: Comprehend the question, retrieve information from memory, make a judgment based on that information, and translate that judgment into a response. Much of the book is organized around this model.

Subsequent chapters address how participants understand--and misunderstand--survey questions, remember relevant information, and make judgments about it. We explore the effects of different question formats, alternative wording and variations in question order. Then the authors explore how survey participants decide to answer, including how they filter and edit their responses before committing to them. The book closes with a discussion of the implications of this model for future survey practice and research to improve that practice.

This book is indeed useful for practitioners and researchers. It is worth digesting in its entirety, but its organization supports selective grazing by practitioners who want to focus on improving a single aspect of their surveys. Since it is over ten years old, the book has drifted behind current thinking in some respects. Readers would be wise to supplement with articles from Public Opinion Quarterly and more recent methods books, such as Groves, Fowler, Couper and Lepkowski's Survey Methodology or Fowler's Survey Research Methods.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very thoughtfully written, May 8, 2002

By 

Wanhee Lee (Seoul, Korea) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Psychology of Survey Response (Paperback)

I've enjoyed this edition a lot. The authors incorporate the essential psychological elements with survey methodology nicely.
I'd highly recommend this book to people in the survey research field.