Reference no: EM133809602
Assignment:
Survey Development Assignment
You are tasked with creating a short, self-administered survey.
Survey Goals: Imagine that you are tasked with creating a survey of California voters' attitudes and beliefs about California's drug and theft criminal justice policies. In particular, the results of your survey will be used to assess which voters are likely to support the upcoming 2024 California criminal justice-related ballot initiative, Proposition 36. The survey would be sent to registered voters in California via email and they would take it online.
In order to design a good survey on this topic, you will need to make your research on Prop 36 to fully understand what it is, what it would change about our current laws and policies, and what the underlying beliefs and values are behind the proposed policies. You shouldn't count on people recognizing Prop 36 by name or knowing anything about it. Therefore, you will need to be thoughtful about how you ask questions, what terms/phrasing you use, and clarifications/definitions you might need to offer for words or phrases that are not universally understood or could be interpreted differently by different people. Remember that a good research survey is neutral and unbiased, so the person taking the survey shouldn't know how you feel about the topic or get the impression you want them to answer one way or the other. Finally, your survey should be clear and understandable such that someone could take the survey entirely on their own (e.g. without your help to guide them through the questions). It should have 25 questions.
Your survey should include:
• An opening description of what the purpose of the survey is, why the respondent is being asked to take it, criteria for who should/shouldn't take the survey (e.g. in this case you are targeting registered voters) any benefit to the respondent for taking it, instructions they may need for how to take the survey, and an explanation as to the extent of confidentiality and anonymity that can be expected, etc.
• Clear instructions for each section of the survey about how the respondent should answer each set of questions (e.g. "select the answer choice that best represents how you feel" or "rank the following from 1 to 10 where 1 represents your smallest need and 10 represents your biggest need" etc.)
• Well-organized and clear section headings and clearly numbered questions to help guide the reader through the survey.
• Demographic questions (e.g. sex, age, race/ethnicity, level of education, religious affiliation and/or other background questions about your participants that you think are relevant to the purpose of your survey). Remember that we don't want to collect personal information about people that is not necessary for us to achieve our research goals. Be thoughtful about what demographic information is important to collect.
• Your survey should consist primarily of closed-ended questions but should include at least a few strategic, open-ended questions to help address your survey goals.
Other resources to use:
• Follow the guidelines laid out in Dillman's Principles for Writing Surveys.
• Refer to the "Sample Likert Scales" document for some great examples of different kinds of Likert scales.