A very common tool used in descriptive research is a survey. Throughout our lives, it’s certain that we have taken at least one survey for one purpose or another. Whether it was at school, over the phone, for an interview, or just for fun, it asked a series of questions. The answers to those questions were either analyzed and you received a score or were used by a researcher to help accept or reject a hypothesis. The purpose of a survey is to capture and analyze attitudes, opinions, or behaviors of people. This may seem simple, but there are numerous conditions that need to be meet before conducting a survey. First of all, the people chosen must be a representative sample of the population of people that is to be studied. For example, if a survey is asking questions intended for adults (over the age of 18) in the United States, it would be inaccurate to administer the survey to only females ages 18-20 in the state of Pennsylvania. All males, females over the age of 20, and adults in the other 49 states are not being equally represented and therefore the results can be skewed. Similar to that idea, there must be random sampling. Each member of a population needs to have the same chance of being selected to take the survey. It would not be a good idea to administer a survey over only land line telephones since many people in the United States no longer have them. People that use only cell phones would not have an equal chance of being selected.

In my lifetime, I have had to create and administer two different surveys in order to analyze feedback. In high school, as part of my senior project, I performed a science project presentation to promote an elementary school science fair. Later in the year, I also had to attend the student science fair, help set up stations, and walk around to ask the students questions about their own projects. In order to see how much the students enjoyed our presentations and how well the parents thought we set up the fair and interacted with the children, I created two different surveys. One survey was specifically targeted toward the students and asked questions such as what their favorite experiment was and how well did they understand the experiments (rating 1-5). All answer choices were printed on the survey so they didn’t have to write anything in, just circle their answer choice. I made sure the questions all had words in which the children could understand. Since I wanted to have a high sample size, I administered the survey to all children participating in the science fair. I then referenced the names on the surveys to the list of students to ensure everyone had participated. My results were definitely representative of the student population since all students participated.

I made a different survey for the parents that asked questions like how well we interacted with the students, if all of their technical needs were satisfied, and how likely they were to have their kids participate in future science fairs (all rating questions 1-5). At the bottom of the survey, I also asked open ended questions such as what they thought we could improve on for next year. One survey was given out to the parents of each child, but only one parent could complete the survey. This ensured that each child’s family was represented, and more importantly, represented equally. It wouldn’t have been fair if two parents of one child completed the survey and no parent of another child answered it. That could have affected the outcome of the results.

Overall, the surveys were administered to a representative sample of the population and random sampling occurred among the parents. It was made sure that all terms on the survey were either simple enough for the different age groups or fully explained. The wording of the questions was also checked to ensure they had only one meaning. Since all of the frequent problems with surveys were taken care of, it was safe to say that the results were accurate. In psychological research, a survey is a quick and easy way to gather attitudes, opinions, or behaviors as long as there is equal representation, random sampling, proper wording, and clear questions.