| Description |
xiii, 214 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Contents |
Introduction: Polls and surveys, methods and meanings -- Ordinary questions, survey questions, and policy questions -- The primordial distinction between open and closed attitude questions -- Interpretive survey research : why questions -- Artifacts are in the mind of the beholder -- The survey world and other worlds -- Hunting a social science snark -- Conclusion: A brief look back at meanings and methods, surveys and polls |
| Summary |
"Howard Schuman is one of the premier scholars of social surveys. His expertise concerns the way questions about attitudes and beliefs are worded and the effects questions have on the answers people give. However, Method and Meaning in Polls and Surveys is less about the substance of wording effects and more about approaches to interpreting the respondent's world, and how surveys can make that world understandable - though often in ways not anticipated by the researcher." "The book will be of interest to social scientists, to survey researchers in academia and polling, and to all those concerned with the profound influence of surveys in society."--BOOK JACKET |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-207) and index |
| Subject |
Social surveys.
|
|
Social sciences -- Research.
|
| LC no. |
2007043357 |
| ISBN |
9780674028272 (alk. paper) |
|
0674028279 (alk. paper) |
|
