Data Construction in Social Surveys

Nicholas Bateson, at the time of original publication, believed that since a survey datum is an item of knowledge that results from verbal interchange between two people, a worthwhile theory of data construction would have to draw on such disciplines as cognitive psychology, linguistics and social psychology. His background included both pure and applied research. He came to survey research after ten years spent as a social psychologist at the Universities of North Carolina (as a research assistant), Oxford (as a research fellow) and London (as a lecturer). For the following ten years he worked in the coding department of the Social Surveys Division of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, London.

• Series Editor’s Preface by Martin Bulmer. Author’s Preface. Part One: The Quality of Survey Data 1. Introduction 2. Data Construction: Basic Concepts 3. Validation of Survey Data Part Two: Towards a Theory of Data Construction 4. Process Validation 5. Design of the Data Matrix 6. The Data-Construction Process I 7. The Data-Construction Process II 8. Afterword: The Approach to Measurement Error. References and Author Index. Subject Index.