An Introduction to Survey Research

Introduction

The creation and selection of an instrument is one of the most important tasks a doctoral student will complete in the formulation of his/her dissertation or applied dissertation if he/she plans to use survey research. The results in a dissertation depend both on an adequate sample and a valid research instrument. Unfortunately, selecting and creating an instrument is perhaps one of the most confusing aspects of the dissertation. Although doctoral students may be aware of what survey instruments are and how they are used, what they often do not understand is how to find or create an instrument that actually answers the questions the student is seeking through the use of statistical methods.

Before getting into the topic at hand, I would like to relay a personal story which provides context as to why I wrote this chapter. Many doctoral advisors will caution students not to create their own dissertation instruments. My own advisor told me this, but there were no instruments available for what I wanted to measure. My topic was a new area of study. I disobeyed this advice, and was glad I did. Learning how to create an instrument and develop something that answered my research questions myself was the by far the most valuable part of my doctoral education. For me, it was like a light bulb came on and everything I had learned suddenly made sense. I have chaired over 80 doctoral dissertations in education and healthcare and the majority of my students successfully created their own valid instruments for their research. In addition to having students create survey instruments, almost all of my students also included open-ended questions so they would learn how to analyze qualitative data and understand concepts of qualitative validity such as saturation.

The choice is truly that of the student and advisor. However, if a student creates her own instrument in the dissertation process, it is the only time the student will have others helping her through the process step-by-step. This provides the doctoral student an important skill set if she wants to do research in the future or if she desires to go into academia.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an easy guide for doctoral students to evaluate or create their own survey instruments for mixed methods survey research. The objectives of this chapter are as follows: a) to review concepts of validity and reliability in survey research including both qualitative and quantitative methods, b) propose a process for existing instrument evaluation, and c) provide an easy-to-follow process for survey instrument creation including creating a conceptual framework using relevant literature.