Patterns of Contact Attempts in Surveys

Abstract

Survey participation is a type of social interaction between an interviewer and a respondent; by hypothesis, the way in which the respondent is successfully contacted, and agrees to cooperate, is a process of involvement in a social activity. Therefore, it is appropriate to use sequence analysis to understand how participants enter the survey according to their social status, lifestyle, and attitude. The argument developed here suggests a sociological approach to survey participation. Unlike rational choice analyses or persuasion models, the sequential analysis explores the sociology of how two actors enter and negotiate a situation to which they assign a meaning based on social institution, social times, and social roles. This viewpoint has the potential to assist in the monitoring of survey contact procedures. It also provides insight into the founding principles of survey participation. The authors examined the samples by coefficients derived from the distance between sequences of contact attempts. In exploring the process of respondent selection, this chapter investigates ways of assessing the social construction of survey data.