Toward a social psychology of survey methodology: An application of the approach and directions for the future

Abstract

Survey methodology is a relatively new academic discipline focused on understanding sources of survey errors. As an interdisciplinary field, survey methodology borrows theoretical approaches from other disciplines and applies them to understand how survey respondents answer questions. One field in particular, cognitive psychology, has played a central role in the development of survey methodology. The cognitive approach has focused researchers' attentions on the sources of error at each stage of the cognitive process respondents use to answer a survey question: comprehension of the question, recollection of relevant information, estimation and judgment, and reporting an answer. Although this focus on the cognitive response process has been positive and fruitful, potentially strong social and interactional influences on the response process have been underinvestigated and undertheorized. Thus, this essay argues for a revitalized research program in the sociological social psychology of survey methodology, given its rich body of theory and research. The current strengths of social psychological and interactional approaches are highlighted, focusing primarily on recent work using identity theory to understand social desirability biases. Finally, potentially fruitful future directions for research are proposed, matching sociological social psychological theories to the survey errors upon which they may shed light.

Identifying Bias in Self-Reported Pro-Environmental Behavior

“…As a result, surveys can easily lead to overreporting behaviors or attitudes consistent with a normative identity. This is consistent with identity playing an important role in socially desirable responding ( Brenner, 2014( Brenner, , 2017Brenner and DeLamater, 2016 ).…”

“…On the other hand, the fact that a specific identity is measured in a survey provides the participants with some information regarding the identity that is expected of them and that is relevant to the research ( Brenner, 2014( Brenner, , 2017Brenner and DeLamater, 2016 ). If this identity is also endorsed by societal norms and thus associated with social desirability, some participants might still want to express this identity even if it is not accurate.…”

Survey Methods: How Planning Practitioners Use Them, and the Implications for Planning Education

“…By contrast, the developments in survey methodology, such as the total survey error approach, owe much of their existence to the field of social psychology, which as a discipline is less woven into the planning curriculum than statistics. The disciplinary remoteness of these developments, compounded by their relatively recent emergence-with survey methodology only established as a discipline in its own right since the late 1970s (Brenner 2017)-indicates that it may take more time for these developments to be on the radar of planning educators and graduates. As a result, cognitive biases may not yet be widely incorporated into planning education, resulting in planners adhering to somewhat outdated survey methodological practices.…”

“…The survey limitations examined in this article corresponded to those discussed in previously reviewed literature on survey methodology, which has recently emerged as an interdisciplinary academic discipline in its own right (Brenner 2017). Social psychology has contributed a great deal to survey methodology studies since the late 1970s in advocating the “total survey error approach” (Weisberg 2005), which shifts the field’s focus from principally mitigating sampling errors to incorporating measurement errors.…”

Measuring Support for Women’s Political Leadership

“…To explain the origin of these predispositions, Brenner (2017 , p. 7) suggests that observable characteristics are important in interactions where you have no experience of working together: “the dyad—interviewer and sample element—begins an interaction typically with very little information about the other. [They] quickly size up each other on the basis of physical appearance, vocal characteristics, and so on.” Such interactions trigger beliefs about what is desirable and are heterogonous across survey item types: “Respondents tend to report attitudes in line with their expectation of the interviewer’s opinion on the basis of these observable characteristics … [but] only those questions relevant to the observable physical characteristic are prone to interviewer effects” ( Brenner 2017 , p. 6). In addition, social desirability is likely to appear in discussions about controversial political questions, when respondents might “believe their true answer goes against perceived societal norms” ( Streb et al 2008 , p. 77).…”