Study Guide

Descriptive Research

Chapter 7 in your text, posted materials, lecture notes and in-class assignments 

• What is descriptive research?  You should be able to discuss the two basic types of descriptive studies.
• What is the difference between and panel and a tracking study?
• You should be able to identify and describe advantages of longitudinal data.
• You should be able to identify and describe advantages and disadvantages to survey research.
• What is the difference between a structured and unstructured question?  A disguised and undisguised question?  You should be able to provide examples.
• You should be able to identify and discuss the various survey research methodologies.  You should also be able to discuss their advantages and disadvantages.
• Be able to describe the methods developed to overcome problems with finding telephone numbers in phone survey research.
• You should be able to identify and discuss any of the factors in selecting the appropriate survey method.
• You should be able to identify and discuss the various types of systematic (non-sampling) errors that can occur in survey research.
• If given a scenario, you should be able to choose the most appropriate survey research approach.