Effects of Question Order on Survey Responses

Two question orders were used in a Kentucky statewide randomsurvey. In nonoverlapping sections, four questions which askedthe respondents to express their general interests in politicsand religion and their general evaluations of the gravity ofthe economic and energy situations either preceded or followedseries of specific questions on the same issues. The respondentsexpressed significantly greater interest in politics and religionwhen these general questions followed the specific questions,but evaluations of the economic and energy crises were not significantlyaffected by question placement. Implications for the arrangementof questions within surveys are discussed.     

Context Effects on Survey Responses to Questions About Abortion

The proportion of favorable responses to a general questionabout abortion was significantly smaller in an NORC survey thanwere responses to the same item in an SRC survey. We hypothesizedthat questionnaire context was the main source of the difference–inone survey the general item followed a more specific questionabout abortion–and carried out two split-ballot questionorder experiments that provide strong support for the hypothesis.The context effect seems to arise from the generality of theabortion question; the specific question itself showed no changedue to context. Furthermore, there is some evidence that ambivalencetoward the issue of abortion is a factor in the sensitivityof the general question to context. The context effect in theseexperiments is also notable for producing contrast rather thanconsistency between responses to adjacent questions on the sameissue. Implications of the findings for the study of socialchange are emphasized.     

The Management of Confidentiality and Anonymity in Social Research

This article explores the ways in which social researchers manage issues of confidentiality and the contexts in which deliberate and accidental disclosures occur. The data are drawn from a qualitative study of social researchers’ practices in relation to informed consent. It comprised 31 individual interviews and six focus groups as well as invited email responses with researchers working with vulnerable groups or with an interest in research ethics. Researchers reported feeling compelled to break confidentiality when participants were perceived as being at risk of harm but not in cases of involvement in illegal activity. Situations in which accidental disclosures occurred were also identified. Researchers reported varying ways in which they protected the confidentiality of their participants in the dissemination of their research, including omitting data and changing key characteristics of participants. The implications of researchers’ practices on data integrity and relationships with participants are discussed.     

Attitudinal Conformity and Anonymity

Past research has shown that surveillance, unanimity of others,and ambiguous stimuli all contribute to conformity. This studysought to determine whether people will conform to a group theyidentify with even in the absence of all three contributingconditions. Using college students as subjects, the researcherposed as a pollster asking for responses to six statements onpublic issues. The falsified results of an earlier "nationalcollege sample" were used as the majority consensus stimulus.A written questionnaire was administered in private, and thenplaced in a locked ballot box. This study found no evidenceof conformity, suggesting that when people have definite attitudes,and when others are not unanimous in their opinions, the socialpressures produced by surveillance are necessary in order toproduce conformity     

Analyzing Media Effects on Advertising Responses

If the form of the transmission shapes the nature of response,media effects become quite interesting. On the basis of a studyinvolving print and broadcast media, this article analyzes manyaspects of communication response.     

青年志愿者社会动员方式的调查

以互联网为主要特征的全球信息化浪潮,正在引发当今世界的深刻变革,也改变着青少年的思想和行为方式。目前,青年志愿者行动主要使用组织动员的方式逐层发动．动员成本高、效果不理想。本研究通过对上海市闵行区青年志愿者活动的访谈和问卷调查．对在新的形势下在保持传统组织动员方式优势的同时,如何借助网络等新兴传媒平台进行青年志愿者的社会动员进行了探索,提出了相关的对策建议。     

In Search of House Effects: A Comparison of Responses to Various Questions byfferent Survey OrganizationsTOM

This paper examines the responses to various questions askedby different survey organizations. It considers the questionof whether different survey organizations produce similar measurementsof public opinion or whether house effects produce dissimilarmeasurements of the same population.     

Social Anxiety in Obese Youth in Treatment Setting

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of social anxiety in obese children treated in a weight management clinic. We hypothesized that social anxiety would positively correlate with obesity, and that “extremely obese” patients would have significantly higher rates of social anxiety when compared to “obese” patients. Information was collected at a multidisciplinary treatment clinic for obese youth during the first clinic visit. The social anxiety scale was administered (including parent-report and self-report scales for both elementary and adolescent versions) and demographic data was obtained. Social anxiety was found to be significantly positively correlated with BMI percentile. In addition, “extremely obese” patients had significantly higher social anxiety scores than “obese” youth at least for elementary-age youth. Trends in gender differences and racial differences in this obese pediatric clinical sample were consistent with results found in community samples. Social anxiety and obesity were found to be positively correlated in this pediatric clinic-based population. For elementary-age patients, “extremely obese” patients were at greater risk than “obese patients” for social anxiety and its various symptoms—fear of negative evaluation, social avoidance/distress in new situations, and social avoidance/distress in general. Results for adolescents were less clear. Clinical implications of these results were discussed. Limitations of this study, and directions for future research were also discussed.     

The Effect of Care Setting on Elder Abuse: Results from a Michigan Survey

This study compares abuse rates for elders age 60 and older in three care settings: nursing home, paid home care, and assisted living. The results are based on a 2005 random-digit dial survey of relatives of, or those responsible for, a person in long-term care. Nursing homes have the highest rates of all types of abuse, although paid home care has a relatively high rate of verbal abuse and assisted living has an unexpected high rate of neglect. Even when adjusting for health conditions, care setting is a significant factor in both caretaking and neglect abuses. Moving from paid home care to nursing homes is shown to more than triple the odds of neglect. Furthermore, when computing abuse rates by care setting for persons with specified health conditions, nursing homes no longer have the highest abuse rates.     

Advancing Social Capital Measurement: Using General Social Survey Cycles to Develop an Efficient Survey Instrument

The General Social Survey (GSS) has provided significant insight about the state of societies around the world through the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Although broadly applicable, in this study the context for developing a new social capital survey instrument covers the Canadian GSS since 1985. Questions in the GSS are often used by researchers who are interested in specific questions or themes for use in some form of re-sampling. Given significant social and relational themes, GSS cycles from 1985 to 2013 were reviewed using a social capital framework to produce a new Social Capital GSS survey instrument. A process of vetting and sorting questions led to development of a 41 question instrument that includes 16 demographic and context variables and 25 social network and trust variables. After testing and refinement, the instrument was used with a randomly sampled group across selected East Hamilton Census Tracts that are differentiated by median income and a standard deviation above and below respectively (n?=?97).     

天津市青年社会心态的调查与分析

为全面了解天津市城乡居民思想和精神状况,２０００年４月,中共天津市委宣传部与天津社会科学院联合开展了“社会舆情和思想动态万人问卷调查”,调查内容主要包括居民精神文化生活状况、日常生活心态、各种观念意识、对加强思想政治工作的意见和建议、对市委市政府一些主要工作的评价和期望等。青年是国家未来发展的希望,了解和把握当前青年社会心态,从而采取适当方式予以引导,具有重要的现实意义。为此,本文选取调查中的青年样本及问卷中部分调查内容,对青年人的精神状态、生活感受、社会工作关注点及道德意识、法律意识等方面进行…     

The Effects of Resources on Social Activity and Economic Performance in Social Economy Organizations

Social economy organizations (SEOs) represent the European Union's strong commitment to promoting the creation of welfare, employment, and social cohesion. This article examines the financial management model of these organizations by analyzing the impact of their available resources or capabilities on their economic performance and social activity and the possible mediating effect of their economic dimension as a strategic element in obtaining social achievements. In this study, we analyze 1,400 Spanish SEOs between 2009 and 2012 by using a structural equations model (SEM). Our results reveal that SEOs have their own financial management model that is characterized by the mediating role of economic performance and a high ability to adapt to changes in the environment.     

Social Survey Research1 in Japanese Sociology

Abstract: In this paper, we look at the history of social survey development in Japanese sociology. First, the history of social research in Japan before World War II is explored. Second, the introduction of survey research to Japan during the American occupation after World War II is examined, and third, the present state and roles of social survey research in Japanese sociology is discussed. Social research was introduced as an administrative tool for the government. Sociology and social research were developed under British empiricism and American pragmatism, but Japanese academia has been based on a metaphysical approach. Social research introduced as a practical tool long had difficulty in being accepted by Japanese academia. For this reason, most sociologists in universities did not use social survey research for practical purposes, but pursued qualitative methodologies for analyzing data to gain academic prestige even after Social Stratification and Mobility (SSM) and Sabro Yasuda's research projects spread social survey methods in the field of Japanese sociology. Such academics did not think that findings acquired through qualitative case studies had to be confirmed through quantitative data to serve a practical purpose, nor did they believe that quantitative data could be better understood when examined along side qualitative data. Social survey methods have been opposed by those who have favored case‐study analysis methods in Japanese sociology. Needless to say, this opposition is fruitless. I propose that professional sociologists in Japanese universities should use social survey research for practical problems more frequently. This is the best way to establish sociology and social research as a science in Japanese society.     

Analyzing the Impact of Bonding and Bridging Social Capital on Economic Well-Being: Results from Canada's General Social Survey

In this study we analyze nationally representative data from Canada's General Social Survey to investigate how various indicators of bonding and bridging social capital are associated with economic well-being and how the magnitude of their associations compare with each other. Our findings suggest that several dimensions of bonding social capital, including knowing neighbors well enough to ask favors of them and providing assistance to others, are positively associated with economic well-being. The study's indicators of bridging social capital were also linked to increases in the participants’ economic well-being. When comparing the associations of bonding and bridging social capital we ascertained that bridging social capital in the form of group membership, including Internet group membership and participation in groups, had a more robust association than any of the indicators of bonding social capital. We consider the implications of the study's findings in light of a technologically-advanced yet volatile economy.     

Anonymity, ordinal preference proximity and imposed social choices

Extending on an impossibility result by Baigent [1], it is shown that an anonymous social choice procedure which preserves preference proximity cannot satisfy the weakest possible form of non-imposition. Received: 20 September 1999/Accepted: 11 May 2001     

Responses to Homelessness in Australian Cities: Social Worker Perspectives

Abstract

Responses to homelessness in Australia are provided by a range of government and nongovernment services. The present study examined the experiences of social workers within these diverse services. The article discusses how social workers make meaning of their professional identity and responses to homelessness in contemporary practice and policy settings. The findings of a qualitative study of 39 social workers employed in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney are analysed from a social constructionist perspective. The practice dilemmas for social workers interviewed related to the dominating influence of the contemporary political and economic climate, the managerial requirement of organisations, and the personal and professional tensions these political and organisational contexts created.