Suchergebnisse

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, surveys often could not be conducted in originally planned face-to-face mode, and switched to online modes or used different mixed-mode designs. A combination of CATI and CAPI was used for the Austrian ISSP survey on Environment 2020/2021 (N=1.261), which in the past had always been conducted face-to-face. Mixed-mode surveys facilitate field access in pandemic times and show potential to reduce non-response and coverage errors (desired selection effect). However, the combination of different modes comes along with a series of risks such as mode-effects causing bias due to measurement effects. From an analytical perspective, the challenge arising is to disentangle selection and measurement effects. Thus, we analyse differences in the factorial structure and response distributions of two social constructs using Bayesian multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and linear regression. These represent institutional trust and the willingness to sacrifice for environmental protection. The findings show support for scalar invariance and therefore the absence of CAPI vs. CATI mode-effects on the factorial structure for both constructs. However, despite adjusting for differences in sample composition we observe a higher average willingness within the CATI sample. Based on these results, we discuss implications for the interpretation of mode effects in mixed mode surveys.

Whether the quality of electoral survey methodology references in newpapers can be improved without governmental regulation is considered, looking at newspaper reports (n = 390) published between 1979 & 1997. It is demonstrated that after a small increase in methodological data included in these reports between 1979 & 1984, a certain stability was reached, but that the presentation of the methodology used was influenced by the identity of the pollster, the nationality of the sponsor, the interaction between experts & journalists, & the location of the survey. Comparisons are drawn between methodology articles that were government-regulated & those that were self-regulated, & it is contended that self-regulation worsens the quality of the methodological data presented, shifting it toward the interests of the publishers, pollsters, & journalists involved. 2 Tables, 2 Appendixes. Adapted from the source document.

An investigation of holistic phenomena (collective or social identities), informed by the social identity theory work of H. Tajfel & J. C. Turner, draws on 6 population surveys conducted 1988-1991 of Ss (N = 6,000) in the Belgian region of Walloon. Wallobarometer surveys are based on a specific operationalization of processual collective identity, ie, a complex concept measured at the individual level -- but part of the projects of social actors, & understood independent of outward appearances. A sociopolitically sensitive method for analyzing variation in groups & classes in one society, survey research can also be applied to macrosocial studies of historical issues. Further implications for survey research are explored, focusing on the greater realism provided by microsocial behavior theories. 5 Tables. Adapted from the source document.

This paper describes the methodology used during a socio-economic survey of households in Lubumbashi. Research was carried out in August 2002, financed by the Belgian University Commission for Development (CUD). The survey involved 13,000 families, which represents more than ten percent of all Lubumbashi families. The different steps of the survey are described: definition of objectives, choice of sampling group, drafting the questionnaire, training students, day-by-day organization of the survey, the encoding of the data, and finally, analysis and report writing. The paper also describes difficulties encountered during the research process, emerging largely from time constraints, insufficient knowledge of the foreign experts and poor skills of local researchers. Putting raw data and the final report on the Internet, can help correct such problems in the future. Adapted from the source document.

Georges Mink
Polish Sociology : history and trends
This historical survey of polish sociology from 1945 until today does more than brush up or summarize the main trends involded. Beyond his critical evaluation, the author offers an epistemological insight cen¬ tered on the paradoxe of sociology as a profession in a country where state doctrine dominates all forms of indépendant thought on society. Theory and methodology appear in this article as a result of the social and political conditions in which sociology is produced.

Concentrating on "the how of International Relations", this article deals in its first half with three major issues in scientific methodology : 1) importance of the scientific mode in acquiring and transmitting knowledge, and also rendering it more policy-relevant; 2) methods of forecasting international events and their evaluation; 3) different routes to theory-building : induction, deduction, analogy, gaming and computer simulation. The second half of the paper substantiates this methodological survey by presenting some findings from the Correlates of War Project that has been going on at the University of Michigan for two decades. The emphasis is on the rigorous identification of the phenomenon (War) and on the presentation of data on different factors at different levels of analysis correlated with its incidence.