Survey analysis is a necessary step in any research project. Survey analysis helps researchers to explore the data collected through surveys and perform statistical tests, including descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing and regression models to answer research questions. However, survey analysis can be a lengthy process that requires extensive knowledge of statistical methods and computing skills. Here are 7 steps that you should follow while doing survey analysis in PhD dissertation:
Step 1: Select A Research Topic
The first step in survey analysis is to select a research topic. Before you choose a topic, you should define your problem and explain why this problem is important. Then, you can state the purpose of your research and explain why it’s important for others to know about it. Finally, once you have decided on which topics are most interesting to you, explain why they’re relevant to society overall.
Step 2: Review Related Literature
This stage helps you to get an idea of what is already available on the topic, which will help you in framing your research question and designing your survey analysis in PhD dissertation.
It also helps you to check if there are any gaps in the literature, which can be addressed by your study. You should look for related studies that are similar to yours so as to help you develop an effective design for data collection and analysis. It is also important not only to look at studies related to yours but also those not related but may be useful in understanding how best to interpret the results of a survey or experiment conducted in a particular context (e.g., population demographics).
Step 3: Develop The Survey Instrument
The survey instrument is the tool to collect data. It is basically a set of questions asked in the form of a questionnaire. A good survey instrument should be simple, clear and concise. The language should be simple enough for respondents to understand easily. It should also be written in a way that does not make it hard for respondents to answer the question correctly or use their own words instead of technical terms (e.g., “Have you ever been diagnosed with depression?” instead of “Do you have any mental health problems?”). If some people do not have high-level English skills, consider preparing a local version (or translation) of your survey instrument so they can participate more easily in your PhD dissertation. If you are facing any difficulty in developing the right survey instrument, then get PhD dissertation help from experts.
Step 4: Pretesting Of Survey Instrument (Focus Group Interviews)
After the survey instrument has been developed, it is important to pretest the survey instrument on a small sample of the target population. Pretest involves testing a new tool or instrument with a small group of people from the same target population who are similar to those for whom it will be used (and thus able to provide feedback).
Focus group interviews are used to pretest a survey instrument. A focus group interview occurs in a group setting and involves asking questions about issues that pertain to your research problem. Focus groups allow you to observe how people think and communicate about particular topics and concepts, as well as collect qualitative data from participants’ responses and behaviors during discussion sessions.
Step 5: Pilot Testing With a Small Number Of Respondents
Pilot testing is a process that’s used to check the validity and reliability of your survey instrument. Pilot testing involves administering a small sample of your survey questions to a sample group, who will then answer them for you. This can be done by either asking people in person or by sending them an email with instructions on how to take part in the pilot test (if done via email, it’s important that any changes made during this process are clearly communicated).
Asking questions directly is preferable because it allows you to gain valuable feedback about things like wordings, organization and layout. However, if you don’t have access to potential respondents personally, then sending out an email with instructions on how to complete the pilot test might be necessary instead. The most important thing is not what form you choose but documenting any problems or issues that emerge during this step so they can be addressed before conducting further analysis later on in your research project.
Step 6: Field Survey With a Large Number Of Respondents
In this step, you need to conduct the survey with a large number of respondents. The survey should be conducted in a way that it is easy for people to answer, not biased and consistent with your research question.
The cost of conducting a field survey analysis in PhD dissertation depends on many factors like the size of your sample size, the mode of data collection and whether you are using any other tools such as video recording or photography.
Step 7: Data Analysis And Interpretation
At this stage of survey analysis in PhD dissertation, you can analyze the collected data. This process should be done by using appropriate statistical techniques. You may use descriptive statistics for analyzing the data and find out various characteristics of your sample population such as mean, median, mode etc., or use inferential statistics that involve making inferences about a population based on statistical evidence from samples drawn from it (e.g., hypothesis testing).
For example, t-test or ANOVA test to compare two groups at different times; regression analysis to explain the relationship between continuous variables such as time lag between exposure and effect; cluster analysis or factor analysis for grouping variables into similar categories (e.g., cognitive impairment with depression); principle component analysis for identifying core components in complex datasets; discriminant function analysis for classifying individuals into different classes based on observed variables (e.g., prediction of patient’s outcome after surgery).
After analyzing your collected data, interpret them in terms of statistical significance using p-value & confidence interval to determine the likelihood that your data is due to chance. If you have found a significant relationship between two variables, be sure to explain how it applies in real-world scenarios. For example, if you conducted a study on the effect of exercise on depression symptoms among elderly adults with dementia, you may want to discuss how this could affect their quality of life.
Conclusion
Doing survey analysis in PhD dissertation is not an easy task, but it is a very important one. It helps you to gain an insight into your subject area and also provides data to support your research question or hypothesis. You can use this information to conduct further research on the topic.
