Introduction
Survey research is one of the most commonly used research techniques in political science studies. The researcher, in a survey study, is supposed to select a sample of participants from a target population and provide them with questionnaires, designed with the relevant questions.
Apart from the questionnaires that are issued as written documents, researchers in survey studies can also administer the questions through other methods such as face-to-face interviews, online questionnaires, or telephone interviews.
Survey research is normally preferred in political science and other social sciences as it enables researchers to collect data from a large sample size.
This paper explains the major aspects of survey research as applied in the current study that seeks to establish the relationship between location and political affiliation. The main aspects discussed in this paper include the research questions, hypothesis, variables, and data collection methods.
Research Questions
Research questions are an important element in a survey study as they help the researchers to focus on a narrow topic area, which is easier to investigate.
Research questions are also used by researchers to organize other aspects of the survey research, including data collection and analysis, research design, discussion and interpretation of findings.
Consequently, research questions enable researchers to identify what they want to do about their topic of study.
There are several steps that researchers need to follow when conducting a survey research in order to develop conclusive research questions.
Firstly, researchers need to pick an interesting topic that they are personally interested in. This implies that the researchers should choose a topic that they are well conversant and comfortable with.
Secondly, the researchers should conduct some preliminary study about their topic to determine if it suits them. Lastly, the researchers should consider the target participants and audience of the study to ensure that the research questions suit the two groups.
In this particular research on “the effects of location on political affiliation”, the research question developed is: Does the location, whether rural, urban, or suburban, affect political affiliation?
This research question suits the research topic, which is about the effects of location on political affiliation, and the sample, which is composed of participants drawn from rural, urban and suburban regions in the country.
Research questions also enable the researchers to narrow down the study to a specific topic that is manageable.
Hypotheses
Hypotheses refer to specific testable predictions that are developed using the independent variables (IVs) and the dependent variables (DVs) in a survey research.
In order for researchers to develop proper hypotheses, it is recommended that they make exclusive literature reviews that can provide the relevant background information for writing testable theories, which take the topic of the study into consideration.
A properly designed hypothesis should contain the IVs and DVs that will be used for the research.
The hypothesis, just like the research questions, is an important element in a survey research as it offers guidance to the researchers. A hypothesis enables the researchers to outline the expected results in a study before conducting it.
A hypothesis also helps the researchers to collect the most appropriate data that is required for analysis. In addition, a hypothesis can be used by researchers to locate sources of the information required for a particular research problem.
In this particular survey study, there were four hypotheses that the researchers sought to test. These hypotheses included:
- The level of education influences the degree with which an individual participates in politics
- Religion affects an individual’s political affiliation
- Gender affects the way an individual involves himself/herself in politics
- Location greatly affects an individual’s political affiliation
Operational Definitions of Relevant Variables
The main variables in this study include independent and dependent variables, where the former refers to the experimental factor researchers manipulate so as to obtain the latter, which is measurable.
In most cases, there is only one independent variable in every research; many variables would make it difficult for the researchers to determine the effects of the numerous independent variables on the results. In the study described in this paper, the independent variable is location.
Location, in this study, is described as the exact area where each of the participants resides and how it affects his/her choice of a political party.
The second variable in this study is the dependent variable, which in the case of a survey research refers to a factor that is influenced by the changes in the independent variable. A dependent variable is the factor that researchers in a survey study are interested in measuring.
In the research survey described in this paper, the dependent variable is political affiliation.
Political affiliation, in the study, refers to the political parties in which residents of a particular region, including rural, urban, and suburban areas, choose to identify with, especially during election periods.
It is the political affiliation that the researchers are interested in measuring in this study.
Data Collection Procedures
The participants of the survey research were sampled using two different techniques: purposive and convenience sampling techniques. The sample in the first technique was chosen in accordance with the rationale of the research and the researchers’ understanding of the society.
Purposive sampling was mainly used to get participants from colleges, organizations, and other busy places. The other technique, the convenience sampling method, requires researchers to identify participants from the available subjects.
The sampling technique was used to get participants from streets and markets. The sampling method involved stopping potential participants and administering survey questions to them on a face-to-face basis.
The information used for the research was collected through two techniques of data collection: face-to-face and telephone interviews. The face-to-face interviews were used mainly for participants who were identified from the streets, markets, and shopping malls.
Face-to-face interviews are effective and they enable researchers to obtain the highest response rates in a study. As a result, the one on one interviews selected as they helped the researchers to obtain the best possible response rates and make clear any indistinct responses.
The researchers also relied on the data collection technique to help participants who did not understand some of the survey questions.
The second data collection technique, telephone surveys, was to gather information from participants who could not attend the face-to-face interviews. Telephone interviews involved administering the surveys questions to the participant through telephone conversations.
This interview technique was also preferred in the survey research as it saves time; it also enabled the researchers to gather information from the participants who were committed and could not leave their workplaces.
Although conducting telephone interviews to collect data is known to result in low response-rates, the researchers were able to obtain fairly good feedback from the participants who were questioned using the technique.