Ernest L. Cowles

Survey research is a powerful tool to help understand how and why individuals behave the way they do. Properly conducted, surveys can provide accurate insights into areas such as attitudes, opinions, motivations, and values, which serve as the drivers of individual behavior. This two-volume book is intended to introduce fundamentals of good survey research to students and practitioners of the survey process as well as end-users of survey information. This second volume focuses on carrying out a survey— including how to formulate survey questions, steps that researchers must use when conducting the survey, and impacts of rapidly changing technology on survey design and execution. The authors conclude with an important, but often neglected aspect of surveys—the presentation of results in different formats appropriate to different audiences.

Survey research is a powerful tool used in business, health care, government, and other fields that seek to understand how and why individuals behave the way they do. Properly conducted, surveys can provide accurate insights into areas such as attitudes, opinions, motivations, and values that serve as the drivers of individual behavior. This two-volume set is intended to introduce fundamentals of good survey research to students and practitioners of the survey process as well as end users of survey information. It describes key survey components needed to design, understand, and use surveys effectively and avoid the pitfalls stemming from bad survey construction and inappropriate methods. In this first volume, the authors concentrate on the fundamentals of survey development and design as well as provide a review of key components in survey.