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     One common type of research is survey research.  What is survey research?  Below is one definition of survey research:

Survey Research Definition:

Survey research is a type of research in which participants are asked to answer certain questions.

Survey Research Examples:

    There are many possible examples of survey research, and there are a number of ways of providing answers.  Below are some examples of survey research:

1.    Employees of a company receive a questionnaire in which they are asked to answer the following two questions concerning their jobs:

What are the positive aspects of your job?
What are the negative aspects of your job?


2.    A political survey is conducted to find out what issues are perceived to be most important to voters.   The participants are asked to indicate how important five issues are to them.  They rate the five issues on 7-point scales with endpoints labeled "not at all important" and "very important."

3.    Students at a university are asked to provide what they feel are the characteristics of being intelligent.  They are asked the following question:

In your opinion, what are the characteristics of being intelligent?
  

4.    A company conducts a survey to find out whether people would be interested in buying a new product and why.  Participants are asked how interested they would be in buying the product.  They make their judgments on a 10-point scale with the endpoints labeled "very unlikely" and "very likely."  They also given a list of 20 possible reasons for buying the product, and they are asked to indicate which of them would be the reasons why they would buy the product.