Der faktorielle Survey und die Messung von Normen

In a factorial survey respondents are asked to judge descriptions of situations which are complex sets of attributes. For example, it could be ascertained to what extent the dimensions ?ban on smoking“ and ?number of people who smoke“ are relevant for the validity of a non-smoking norm. For this purpose, attributes (i.e. values) of dimensions are combined so that descriptions of situations ensue. Each of the possible and meaningful situational descriptions is judged by respondents. In the smoking example, respondents could be asked to what extent a person is more or less allowed to smoke in a restaurant (this is the judgment) if smoking is prohibited and if nonetheless more than half of those present smoke. The first objective of this paper is to provide an outline of the factorial survey that has been hardly used in Germany but could be applied to contribute to the solution of many central problems of the social sciences. The second objective is to show to what extent the factorial survey is capable of measuring norms. The paper describes and discusses the steps of administering a factorial survey. It further presents two computer programs that make it easier to carry out factorial surveys.