A Reflection on Survey Research

Lately I've been learning a lot about survey research, not only in this course but also in Development and Evaluation of Health Promotion Programs. I hadn't realized how complicated and planned out surveys can be. In the past I have conducted surveys for school projects and I never thought about how the way a question is worded can provoke a certain response. In order to get sound results from research it's important to have a thought out, non-biased survey. It's also important for a researcher to chose the correct administration technique. This can be complicated depending on the certain focus group, geographic area, and age/gender specific participants. The fact that more women than men fill out surveys was surprising to me. With some thought it's not really unexpected. This fact can seriously shape a specific survey design depending on what researchers are looking for.
I think it's interesting how a certain model can work better for a specific situation. For instance if you are in hurry to get results a telephone survey may be your best bet. With a Likert Scale you give an individual the option to be undecided, in other even numbered scales essentially you force the subject to have an opinion one way or the other. From my own experience filling out surveys I never realized or thought about why sensitive questions are toward the end. It makes complete sense, you wouldn't want to offend a person in the beginning, before they've even begun.
The material we are covering in this class is going to be very helpful for the project I'm developing. Our focus is on evaluating a committee that is developing a taste testing program. We will be evaluating them after there first round of implementation so it's important that we get the right information to help them be more successful in the future.