Week 2: Representative Surveys
Overview
We start the topic of public opinion with representative surveys. As the name suggests, a representative survey is administered to a sample of respondents that resemble the demographic characteristics of the underlying population.
The punchline of this week is that conducting a true representative survey via random sampling is near impossible. Instead, most surveys use some form of quota or stratified sampling to ensure that the sample obtained resembles the population of interest.
The lab assignment for this week will be a guided introduction to R. By the end, we will compare different sampling techniques.
Reading
Schwarz, Norbert. 1999. “Self-reports: How the questions shape the answers.” American Psychologist 54 (2): 93-105
Stephenson, Laura B., Allison Harell, Daniel Rubenson, and Peter John Loewen. 2021. “Measuring Preferences and Behaviors in the 2019 Canadian Election Study.” Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue Canadienne de science politique
Slides
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Lab
Intro to R and sampling from populations
Friday, January 20, 5 PM