Survey Research
Survey research is the method most frequently used by sociologists to study American society and other large societies. Surveys allow sociologists to move from a relatively small sample of individuals who are accessible as carriers of information about themselves and their society to the broad contours of a large population, such as its class structure and dominant values. Surveys conform to the major requirements of the scientific method by allowing a considerable (though by no means perfect) degree of objectivity in approach and allowing tests of the reliability and validity of the information obtained.
Like many other important inventions, a survey is composed of several more or less independent parts: sampling, questioning, and analysis of data. The successful combination of those elements early in the twentieth century gave birth to the method as it is known today. (Converse 1987 provides a history of the modern survey).
Sampling
The aspect of a survey that laypersons usually find the most mysterious is the assumption that a small sample of people (or other units, such as families or firms) can be used to generalize about the much larger population from which that sample is drawn. Thus, a sample of 1,500 adults might be drawn to represent the population of approximately 200 million Americans over age 18 in the year 2000.
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