Understanding Survey Methodology

Philip Brenner is a sociologist at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he works in the fields of survey methodology, health research, social psychology, and the sociology of religion. Brenner is particularly interested in the measurement of normative or socially-desirable behaviors, like church attendance and physical activity and exercise. His research has focused on the reasons survey respondents overreport these behaviors; that is, why they claim that they exercise when they don't or why they report that they attend church or pray more often than they do.

• 1. Why Survey Methodology Needs Sociology and Why Sociology Needs Survey Methodology.- Part I : Sociological Theory and Survey Methodology.- 2 Towards Survey Response Rate Theories That No Longer Pass Each Other Like Strangers in the Night.- 3. Advancing Theories of Socially Desirable Responding: How Identity Processes Influence Answers to “Sensitive Questions”.- 4. Culture and Response Behavior: An Overview of Cultural Mechanisms Explaining Survey Error.- 5. Translating Lessons from Status Characteristics and Expectation States Theory to Survey Methods.- Part II; Applications.- 6. Stigma and the Meaning of Social Desirability: Concealed Islamophobia in the Netherlands.- 7. Is Not Knowing the Same as Being Incorrect? An Examination of ‘Don’t Know’ Responses to Questions about Immigrant Population Size.- 8. Power, Culture and Item Nonresponse in Social Surveys.- 9. The Measurement of Sexual Attraction and Gender Expression: Cognitive Interviews with Queer Women.- 10. How Do Interviewers and Respondents Navigate Sexual Identity Questions in a CATI Survey?.- 11. Male/Female Is Not Enough: Adding Measuresof Masculinity and Femininity to General Population Surveys.- 12. Correlates of Differences in Interactional Patterns among Black and White Respondents.- 13. Theories of Public Opinion Change Versus Stability and their Implications for Null Findings.- Conclusions and Future Directions for Understanding Survey Methodology.