Leverage-saliency theory provides a seminal basis for research on the differential effects of response-facilitating techniques in surveys. In this article, a quasi-experimental design is applied to analyze the effect of follow-up procedures, taking into account the sample persons' interest in the survey topic. The authors use multilevel logistic regression to map response on a mail questionnaire in the second step of a two-step data collection procedure. It is found that-after controlling for the effects of sociodemographic and performance-related covariates-the effect of follow-up procedures is larger for those less interested in the survey topic. As such, these findings are an empirical confirmation of the leverage-saliency theory. Some implications for survey research are discussed.
Research findings indicate that different types of social relations have an important influence on the performance of employees in organisations. This paper focuses on a comparison of different methods for acquiring information on advice, cooperation, friendship, adversarial and superficial networks in knowledge organisations. We investigate the applicability of three distinct measurement methods to acquire different kinds of complete network data by means of the recognition method. Data were collected in a small governmental organisation consisting of knowledge workers. First, employees were presented a short description of a specific situation in which social relations with their colleagues might play a significant role. They had to indicate if (or how often) this specific situation occurred with each of the colleagues. Second, respondents were asked to indicate whether a specific relational concept (in this case 'advice' or 'friendship') applied to each of their relations with their colleagues. Third, we provided respondents with four semantic differentials (e.g. distrust-trust) on which they needed to position their relation with the other employees. Whether these different measurement instruments capture distinct aspects of the relation between employees, or whether they measure the same underlying concepts, is one of the major concerns of this paper. The aim of this paper is twofold. First of all, we want to know to what extent these different measurement instruments overlap. Second, we would like to find out to what degree these different methods as a whole give us conceptually different and complementary information. To the extent that items are correlated within one method and between methods we need to investigate which of these different instruments is best suited for our content related purposes. The criteria used for selecting the most appropriate method are minimal item non-response – i.e. from the viewpoint of measuring complete networks – and maximum relational diversity with a minimum of questions.
In most methodology textbooks, it is argued that both content and criterion-related validity are very limited, if not impossible validation strategies for the social sciences. Construct validity, based on the ideas of Cronbach and Meehl, is proposed as an acceptable alternative. The first part of this article elaborates on the relation between causal models as a means of validation (the nomological network) and social theory. The second part of the article evaluates different aspects of the nomological network. In the third part, triangulation, as a way of validating survey-empirical research, is discussed. We argue towards the conclusion that construct validity remains limited as well. We contend that, to a large extent, the superiority of construct validity over other kinds of validation is overestimated. Validity. Construct Validity. Survey Methodology. Measurement Theory.
The first part of the article gives an overview of cognitive laboratory research methods. Four general types of methods are presented: expert evaluation, expanded interviews, targeted methods and group methods. In the second part some of the cognitive interviewing techniques (thinkalouds, direct probings, sorting tasks and paraphrasing) are used to test items related to the concept of social (des)integration. The techniques are sometimes high burden for the respondents. Especially the paraphrasing is too difficult for respondents with less communicative skills. There are also problems with the external validity and interviewer effects are possible. Although these problems, cognitive interviewing techniques are useful in determining problems with question wording and are an important part of a more general pretest strategy.
In this article we analyse the choice of theatre performances made by theatregoers through the application of network analysis. We use the institution in which the events are staged and the aesthetical expectations of the theatregoers as explanations for the choice patterns. By means of p* models, we are able to simultaneously analyse the patterns of choice, the loyalty to an institution and the co-attendance of events, and the diversity in audience composition. Based on an audience survey in three theatre institutions in the city of Ghent (Belgium), we show that theatregoers with unconventional expectations are more likely to attend plays of the less traditional institutions. Second, audiences are loyal to an institution irrespective of the existence of season tickets. People are more inclined to combine plays that are staged by the institutions with a similar programmation. Furthermore, we find that one institution has very similar audiences for different plays, whereas for others the composition of the audiences differs significantly with regard to aesthetic expectations between different plays.
In surveys, more particular, value studies, the question asking for religious belief is considered as a standard demographic term. These questions are usually dealt with in a standardised way without many methodological concern. In this study, the question asking for religious belief was three times altered. The data originate from three independent samples of Flemish 20-21-year olds (spring 1991, 1992, 1994). These three samples are, based on the comparability of several background variables, comparable. Results of the analysis show that the question for religious belief is very susceptible to change in response alternatives. For instance: the number of Catholics halved after adding the category ‘believing’ to the response alternatives, this while the wording of the category ‘catholic’ was invariant across the three samples. When adding ‘active’ to the category ‘free-thinker’ this category was reduced to one third of the original size, in the same time the category ‘non-believers’ doubled. These findings call for more methodological attention for this kind of questions. Some explanations are proposed and some propositions are made to do further research on this and related topics.
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